Category: Rajasthan

Ranakpur- Narlai village

Women shelling fresh chickpeas

We stayed outside Jodhpur in a village called Narlai and one of the staff from the hotel took us on a village walk showing us around the village and taking us into some family homes.

This village has a population of about 3000 but had over 300 temples! The first we saw was tiny and built into the rock. You had to climb over 100 steps to reach it.

Steps up to the temple in the rock
Bell outside the tiny temple

Then we saw another large temple built onto the side of the rock

and then we saw their newest temple built from white marble which was pretty spectacular

Evidently quite a number of families now live in the city and have more money, just returning for holy days. The whole village paid for the new temple which took five years to build.

We also visited three families going into their homes.

Grandfather with his pipe

Cooking over wood fires is the norm.

Baby covered up in a cradle
Mother and grandmother

The women in this area commonly completely cover their heads with their dupattas.

 

Older men in the village
Bullock cart
Rawla Narlai where we stayed

Jodhpur- Chandaleo Garh

Staff at Chandaleo

at Jodhpur we stayed slightly outside the town at Chandaleo Garh which Mary had told me about. The estate has been in the family of Pranduman Singh for generations and in 1997 he turned it into a hotel. But it’s rather different to other places and was our favourite accommodation of the whole trip. It’s very simple, peaceful and beautiful.

Main building

In addition he has established a craft centre where women from the village can develop new skills and earn an income.

Little bags we purchased

The evening meal was held on the rooftop and we were lucky enough to see the blood blue moon which was an amazing sight

Mr Singh took us out in his jeep to visit the weaver and on the way we saw camels and a blue antelope.

Blue antelope

 

Phone charger

Travelled to the village of Narlai outside Ranakpur only to discover that I’d left my phone charger and adapter behind. Potential disaster! But no, this is India where the mobile phone is queen. Wandered down the road to find three tiny mobile phone stalls. Initially they didn’t have a iPhone lead, but then it turned out that the salesman just happened to be there on his motorbike bringing supplies. iPhone lead? No problem.

Jodhpur fort – Mehrangarh

Joshpur fort is one of the largest forts in India and is an imposing edifice and the wall surrounding it is 10k long

It has a very interesting museum containing a variety of artefacts including howdahs (seats for people being carried by elephants), carpets embroidered with gold and silk thread, and paintings containing large amounts of tiny minature detail.

Embroidery using silver and gold thread


Jodhpur Tie and Dye workshop

Whilst in Jodhpur we went to a Tie and Dye workshop at ‘Isha Silk’ run by Ishwar Dewani on the rooftop of his house. Neither of us knew what to expect and our only experience was back in the 60s.

So this is pretty different to those T-shirts back in the day. Ishwar first described the process he uses for his professional dying and then took us through a simplified version.

We were each give a square of silk folded over 4 times and tacked along 3 sides. We put blobs of dye in a number of places making sure it went all the way through.

Then we wound thread several times creating small knots in the centre of each blob. The material under the thread will retain the dye colour.

Professional versions done earlier

The material was then placed in a bleach solution so that it went completely white, rinsed, and then placed in a dye. It was rinsed again, dried in the sun, and then we removed the knots. Hey presto!

Weaver near Jodhpur

The owner of Chandeleo Garh took us out in his jeep to visit two weavers in nearby Akthali village who weave dhurries (rugs) using camel wool. The journey itself was wonderful seeing gazelle and antelope and then the visit was fascinating.

The weavers whom we’d seen in other villages used treadle looms, but Bhiyaram and Heera jointly used a hand loom which they had made from tree trunks. Their work was very interesting and we ended up asking them to make us a rug for our home in London, using the same design and colours as the one in progress but a different size. Money was exchanged and the rug will be ready in three days – very exciting!!

Jaisalmer yoga

We discovered there was a local yoga class held just near our hotel in the stadium at 7am so we decided to go.

We found our way there but couldn’t find any yoga. We’d been told it was behind the pavilion on a green sheet. Valerie asked some men passing by and they were going too. What a friendly group of people.

It turned out that on that day the yoga was being held on the raised platform in the middle of the stadium! They were all very welcoming and one of the men took to translating into English as we went along. There were about 15 people, many of our sort of age. Pretty different to yoga in England where the main emphasis is often on the physical. The first part was like any set of warm up exercises and then the majority of the exercises were different pranayamas which we did for far longer. Kapalbhathi was practised for at least 5 minutes – 300 breathes (1 per second), and alternate nostril breathing similar. We also did Bhramari pranayama (humming bee) and the Lion – which everyone enjoyed and the ladies found us very funny. Then we finished with laughing yoga which I’d never done before and which was absolutely brilliant. It was also a very chatty group, rather like one we went to in Spain

We enjoyed the class so much that we decided to go again the next day and leave for Jodhpur slightly later.

So the next day we were there again, and it was on the platform again, but this time all the men were dressed in white track suits with orange turbans, and there were twice as many people. Then later, a group of young men who were running round the stadium training for the army also joined the class so there were about 50 or more on the green mat on the stage.

Then another yogi came up to the front and we did more and more laughing yoga. Everyone was laughing laughing and waving their hands in the air.

I’m going to find laughing yoga in London it’s fantastic.

Jaisalmer Prabhu handicraft

Wandering through the streets inside the fort we were stopped by Bobby, who had a handicraft shop where she sells products produced by rural women, and who turned out to be an ardent feminist. She was very vociferous about wanting to empower women and for women not to have to be confined to their traditional roles. We asked her what her husband thought about this and she said he was unhappy about it to start with but now was ok. She has two daughters and is bringing them up to be like her, but had received a lot of criticism from her family. She’s studying for a BA at the university.