Jaipur, India

We have arrived in India! Although I was not enthusiastic about leaving Thailand so soon, when I walked on the Air India plane and saw flight attendents in Saris, Bindis, and Henna on their hands, I knew all was right (respectively: a traditional Indian dress, the forehead dot, and semi-permenant natural ink used to design hands and forearms.) My first interaction with an Indian was a wonderful man sitting next to us on the airplane who immediately began conversation. Gone are the days of no English speakers and only hand gestures to communicate (from the non Hindi speaker's view, this makes at the very least one benefit from Colonial rule!)

First notes on India: while leafing through the in-flight magazine, I took note of advertisements. On beach advertisements the main focus was the beach (rather than oiled down airbrushed bikini wearers) and even in the advertisements with people, they were clearly selling the relevant product rather than sex. I also have noticed this on billboards since I've been here. This after having no mirror for weeks at a time in Thailand: hurrah, SE Asia and what you do for self-respect and self-esteem! I will take into account however: my standards for "not scandalous" are far different than those here, so I could be overlooking subtleties.
It is notably interesting how quickly my sensitivities have changed: while in the airport we saw many tourists that were dressed, may I say, in a way less culturally sensitive, and while it would have been nothing out of the ordinary at home, it certainly made you blink and step back here.
And India is significantly more fully clothed even than Thailand. No matter the heat, rickshaw drivers, outdoor laborers, and the entire male population is wearing slacks or jeans and a long-sleeve button-up shirt. Women are wearing saris and scarves, covered from head to toe (with exception of mid-drift, but they have to let heat out somewhere) or other equally as efficiently covering clothes. None of them noticeably sweat, either. I want their secret!

Flight meal: The Question was, “vegetarian or non-vegetarian” rather than “beef or chicken? …oh, I’m sorry; you had to pre-request vegetarian specially.” Woohoo for meatless feasts! So far, after five days in India, I have not had to skirt around meat once; all of our group meals have been vegetarian (and salivatingly delicious) and meat is even a challenge to find. In a country of 82% Hindu (no beef), 12% Muslim (no pork), and a sizeable Jain population (nothing that has had any adverse effects on living organisms at all—within reason) it is no wonder.

We are staying with host families for this week. Our host family speaks wonderful English and the two children, 14 and 16, attend a private all English speaking school. An example of a typical day here:

7:00-8:00 Yoga Class (instructed by yoga teacher who gave lessons to Bill Clinton on one of his India visits.

8:00-9:30 Breakfast

10:00-11:30 Lecture on “A Brief History of India” or “India People’s Theater” or “Indian politics” or “Hinduism—Textual and popular traditions.” All have been great!

12:00-13:00 group lunch, each day at a REALLY nice Indian restaurant. Today was the only day without a “family style” course prepared for us; the plan was to take us to McDonald’s until several of us voiced that it would mean personal ethical breaches, so we went to another nearby vegetarian restaurant. (Different than in the US, McDonald’s has a more upper-mid class demographic and is even somewhat of a chic, status symbol. The menu is of course very different with beef replaced by veggie burgers and no beef flavor added to fries among other changes, but most of us rather take their word for McDonald’s cultural place in India and forego a meal there.)

12:30-16:00 Group Excursion: Sight-seeing Tour, visit to orphanage, Block Printing Studio, Hand-made Paper Factory, and visit to Kalakar Basti, a folk artist colony.

19:30-onwards Dinner with host families or dinner at Chokhi Dhani, a rural faux-village resort near Jaipur where we ate traditional Rajastani dinner (Rajastan is this region of India) and experienced many cultural surprises around the village, including Indian massages, henna tattoos, elephant and camel rides, traditional dances, etc.

Left-hand taboo: I’m still working on it. Even after I’ve gotten fairly good at remembering to eat with my right (I’m a lefty) it is still difficult to break my Italian habit of bread, or in this case rote, in one hand and fork in the other. Is it better to soil bread with left hand (really only there for secondary purposes,) or the fork which has the more important job? After my initial fear of soiling my Indian reputation with this, Rekha Gi and Rishi Gi informed me that now-a-days, nobody really cares and it is quite arbitrary. Then during my first meal with my family, I saw that my sister used her left hand exclusively. So much for going out of my way to be culturally sensitive. Stormy seas attraversed, nonetheless, I will continue with right. Because it is a little like eating with a foot, it takes me more time and thus enables (or forces) me to enjoy my food on a higher level.

Traffic is a delicately organized chaos with right-of-way going to largest vehicle (with exception of crossing cows): more notes on that later.

My host mother fasts every Monday, Thursday, and Friday, all for different Gods. Her husband owns a furniture shop. Their marriage was arranged with them only meeting once before the wedding day (but of course had at that meeting there been any serious objections by either it would not have been continued.) More comments on this later; I hopefully will be able to learn more personal opinions on this during my time here (because for as many reasons as a Western mind would object, I can see much sense in this cultural difference.)


Kalakar Basti is the name of a small slum community settled circa 1984 in a section of Jaipur by nomadic Indians. Traveling artists form part of a deep tradition in India, but today's organization of society makes a nomadic lifestyle near impossible. Thus, these nomadic Indians organized themselves into a community, performing traditional song and dance for tourists, in big hotels and at festivals, or wherever they can to make a living. We went to visit them in their community rather than them come to us, as is customary for them, so that we could see their way of life.








Kalakar Basti