Dinner on a rooftop with a view of the palaces and temples

puppet show

Jack with a Nazi motorcycle, now on exhibit

outside a hotel (the sprayed on logos, not)...

Outside Araungabad - A seriously fortified Daulatabad

Daulatabad was one of, or maybe the greatest, of Deccan forts. It was fortified with triple walls (nerdy friends: think of Minis Tirith in LOTR), moats, both dry and wet, cannon batteries, impregnable gates, and walkways and stairs that are nearly impossible to walk now on foot, let alone while riding a horse or an elephant. Daultabad also sat on a high hill that gave the defenders plenty of advance warning. Probably the best part of the visit to the fort was a) no western tourists; and b) all the young Indian student-tourists (mostly fron the universitiewanted to talk, and even trade email addresses.

Click all the images to enlarge.

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A dusty, bone-rattling Auto-rickshaw ride to the village of Sisarma

click images to enlarge

Today we took a bone rattling, dusty ride out to a village, Sisarma, in the more or less desert outside Udaipur. From the looks of it, it won't be a remote little village much longer. As we approached the village, there were signs of construction everywhere. A large group of people were building a bridge over a very wide looking arroyo. Apparently, the village often cut off in monsoon season.

We visited a beautiful, rustic, old temple, where we were invited in after we left our shoes outside. The interior (where I did not take pictures) was painted in a rainbow of subtle pastel colors that almost looked like they may have been mixed in with the plaster, al fresco style.

All the children, and people we met when we got out and walked through the village out toward the bridge were extremely friendly. Keelin and I spent ten or fifteen minutes chatting with a very nice government worker--the guy who reads the electric meters in town.

All four of us piled back in the auto-rickshaw for a ride back to town, the other way, which was much smoother, but also brought us through the outskirts of what looks to be rapidly developing Udaipur, pushing its boundaries outward.

The village temple

The village water pump

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Random shots from Udaipur

Some king-sized, industrial woks - click all images to enlarge

a harrowing looking construction site (again on
the twine-tied bamboo pole scaffolding)

the power grid

on the corner

We didn't shoot many photos today in our wanderings, but here are a few. We did take one batch we haven't uploaded yet tonight. We didn't really do anything notable today, except enjoy living here.

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Interesting signs along the street in Udaipur, Rajasthan

note: click all images to enlarge

an art store, of sorts

Teeth, eyes...whatever

click to enlarge (and remember the swastika was a Hindi

sign before Hitler appropriated it for his nefarious purposes)

a sign says post no bills, and yet there is cow manure

up and down this most odd pasture-street

Not a weird sign, but I like the idea of a Hari Krishna art school

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Rajasthani dance performance in Udaipur

The Bahratiyal Lok Kala Museum holds a Rajasthani folk dance performance with music in a stone courtyard every night at dusk. We attended one last night, and it was a gas--not too long, with interesting music and some gone dancing.

The music was was rooted with a hand-pumped harmonium (like the one I saw Allen Ginsberg play in my class in Bellingham in 1977), a tabla, other drums whose names I don't know, and a variety of cymbals and shakers.

Some of the more "Out" parts of the performance included live coals transferred from a brazier to a bowl with a guy's front teeth, a woman walking on broken glass as she balanced 9 heavy clay pots on her head and danced, and a particularly demented puppet/marionette performance where the puppet took off its head and then juggled it, rolled on it, spun it with his feet, and reattached it. Here are some photos from the show. We'll try to upload a video too--but that is always shaky due to the power spikes and brown-outs.

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Hare Krishna!

[Udaipur, Rajasthan, Wednesday 3/24/2010]




I`ve been hearing the Krishna Mantra all day long (it must be a festival day). I`ve always loved the mantra since I first heard it way back when:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
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Jack Brummet and the Rajasthani Danny DeVito

Jack in a craft shop with the self-proclaimed

"Rajasthani Danny DeVito" - click to enlarge

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