The Kites of Jaipur fly high over “Real India”

The sight over Jaipur at dusk, at this time of year, is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It made a much bigger impression on me than the Taj Mahal, or even Angkor Wat. Jaipur is situated in a valley. Mogul forts and temples sit high upon mountainous thrones, surrounding the houses on all sides. Up one side of the valley a winding stone path leads to a fort and from here you can see out over the entire city. I couldn’t get a photograph to accurately capture this scene (very inadequate picture below) and I doubt that my description will do it any justice either, but I will try…

The buildings below are all different colours, dark reds, blues, yellows, but all the same dusty cubes with strings of colourful washing floating on top of them. Children are also out on every rooftop, and in the pink and white sky there are thousands upon thousands of coloured kites. At first the sounds of shouting children ("Hello! Hello!"), the eerie call to pray and noisy traffic drift lazily upwards with the kites. As does the smells of Indian cooking. Then, as we climb higher and the sun drifts lower, the kites become hundreds of black silhouettes beneath us.

There is a kite flying festival on January 14th and everybody is out practising. It’s exactly as is depicted in "The Kite Runner", if you have read the book or seen the film. The kite strings are covered with glass dust, and have huge spindles. The kites fight in the sky and cut each other’s strings. The children on the ground chase the falling kites for prizes or money. The festival is regional, to happen right across Rajastan. There are 300 kite-making families in Jaipur City alone.

However, it can cause chaos. Four children were killed on the railway lines while chasing kites the other day. Hundreds of kites are tangled in the trees and power lines as people practice for the 14th and boys run around in amongst the traffic, constantly looking up and not where they are going. There were some security guidelines for children in the newspaper, (do not chase kites in rush hour and do not fly kites from roof terraces, etc) but you just have to look outside to see that no one is taking any notice of these. Still, on the 14th they add music and traditional food to the kite flying and the picture of everybody out practising is an incredible one.

Jaipur is a lot less manic than Delhi and Agra. A Tuk Tuk driver said, "People in Delhi and Agra, they don’t know how to do business. People in Jaipur, they know better. They make friends with you first. Then they take your money." I suppose this is very true. Everyone from the Tuk Tuk drivers to the shopkeepers are less aggressive here. I read if you can survive Delhi and Agra, you can survive pretty much anywhere in India. The people are friendly, and some do end up taking your money, but I’m adapting to this. I will always pay "skin tax" here, and more often than not it’s just a case of knowing when your being ripped off and how far you’re willing to allow it to go.

I have even adapted to having my photograph taken. (Although there was one incident in the Janter Manter where people saw someone taking my photo and about ten people rushed out of no where with their mobile phones… I was mortified! After I wished I’d taken a photo of what was happening because I doubt anything like that will ever happen to me again.) I’m slightly disturbed at how many random people in India will have a photo of me but I am getting used to it. It’s hard to adapt to some things, like the street children (there were a lot of acrobatic children "performing" (begging) at the traffic lights on the way into Jaipur) but this is a big part of India. The rich are super rich and the poor are devastatingly poor.

There is also lots of wild live stock in Jaipur, from pigs and piglets, to goats, cows, dogs and monkeys, all of which happily make their way up the hill sides too. A little boy of about five years old saw my interest in the piglets and tried to sell me one for a few rupees! (I very much doubt they belonged to him but this was super cute.) There are also some stunning tombs, temples and very grand palaces in the city, each made by a Mogul Prince desperately trying to out-do the last. Jaipur is a network of amazing bazaars too and a lot of craftsmanship goes on here. Things like marble, silks and embroidery are shipped all over India and trade is big business. I also visited Pushkar (pictured below), for a day, the second most holy place in all of India, and made an offering on the river for my family, for good luck and health and for a sweet husband…apparently these things always come true!

A couple of local musicians, Goran, 25 and Ravi, 22 invited us to listen to them play music. They also invited us into a "gypsy and slum community" (their words) and, in a small room, some of the residents (pictured below) played music while everyone gathered around. Traditional Indian music, dancing, singing and puppets took place in this tiny room and it was a very memorable moment. Places like this are very close to my heart after teaching in Cambodia. This community was on the edge of a huge wasteland where thousands of people lived. Traditional puppets are the people’s trade and many make and sell to the nearby shops. Goran, twenty five, was volunteering by driving some of the children to school in his Tuk Tuk. He met us a few times and took me around Jaipur. He’s a very nice guy (pictured below).

And tomorrow I will fly to Mumbai to meet Kate and Ryan. Then we take a train to the Ellora caves and a night train back. Afterwards we are flying to Cochin to travel in South India… so next time I write it will be with tales of the South and different stories of different places! I will also post some of the beautiful India photographs I have taken so far. This is the immediate plan but there is a lot of room for things to go wrong… I might get caught up in Mumbai... I keep getting told I should go seek my fame and fortune there as a Bollywood actress …I can’t imagine anything less likely, but then lots of "unlikely" things have been happening lately, so you never know…

Jaipur Rooftops

Me and Govan

Pushkar

Musicians in the community

View of Jaipur