March 15, 2014, the Great Indian Desert

I really enjoyed our camel safari and the night in the desert. I was scared to death when my camel Babalou,  got to his feet or dropped to his knees, front knees first, but I told myself I would probably survive and I probably would never be on the back of a camel in the desert again so best to relax and enjoy it.

My camel driver's cell phone kept him busy and when he crushed some white powder and put it between his lower lip and his gums, I was a bit worried. After meeting the psycho monkey, I didn't want a psycho camel driver.

And you will recall from an earlier post that the only word I know in Hindi is Jeldie, meaning hurry up.  when I was a kid, my Dad used this word every morning to get me up.  Definitely when riding on a camel it would be good to know slow down, NOT hurry up!

This morning was sunny. Sometimes it doesn't rain for seven years!

I went out to sketch the camels and the sand and all of these beautiful women kept walking by on their way to fetch water. A huge job!

I did a sketch of them and I can just imagine a large loose watercolour of women with pots for the open house this oct.

March 13, India

Saw these baby camels today on the long drive from Bikaner to Jaisemar.

This camel made me think of a Steven Rhude painting.

Off tomorrow on a camel safari in the Great Indian Desert. No doubt more camel pictures in the next posting!

March 12, Bikaner, India

Spent this morning at the Junagarh Fort.

Incredible wall and ceiling painting. I felt so sorry for those artists.

I am just so cynical about absolute power.  I have seen it at the Vatican City, but in India, it seems so much worse because of the poverty of the everyday people who have to work to support this excessive life style. And of course the wives are never seen again once they are married.

After the fort, we toured the cultural musem. I am intrigued to relearn to play Parcheesi. turns out it is Indian's national board game, under a whole bunch of names. Wehave seen groups of men playing it everywhere in India. ( we have never seen any women with time to play board games)

We shared a beer and had spring rolls for lunch at a Loney Planet recommendation and then we went home for a snooze. I am still fighting a chest infection and so this was a great idea.

We set out again at 3:30 to walk the old part of the city. I loved every minute of this!  No tourists, just real Indian people going about their daily lives.  The old  streets inside the wall might have been car and truck free, but they were packed with motorcycles and pedestrians and camels, donkeys and the ever present cattle, just standing or laying in the road, watching everyone trying not to hit them.  Although we were warned about all the crime, pickpockets and scams, I just smiled at everyone and said hello. For the most part, the responses were heart warming.

A huge huge sack of potatoe chips!

March 10, 2014, Pushkar, India

Well today was a great day and a challenging day. Jim and I have pretty much been together for the past eight weeks, and we're still having fun together and we haven't had any arguments!  He must be saint.  Anyways, today Jim took the day to read and wander around Pushkar and I got our driver to take me to a village, Gisanfula, where there were no tourists and no one who spoke any English.

The driver was didn't think it was safe and gave me all kinds of warnings. I am old I told him. Just let me out and pick me up in seven hours. When he asked me if I wanted him to wait, I did agree that that would be best, just in case there were problems. I got the driver to ask a man if I could sketch him! The man agreed to be drawn and I was on my own for the rest of the day.

  

 

After painting a bunch of men and giving them each their sketches, I set off through the village.

I met these three girls, and with sign language one of them wanted me to come to her home.

Off I went. It was a privilege to meet her mother  and her son and her sisters and brothers and to see inside a tiny one room house. No furniture of any kind and the kitchen is outside. There was bedding on a shelf.

 They insisted I eat cookies and I sketched everyone and gave them each the sketch of themselves.

 About this time things went down hill. It started pouring rain and there was thunder and lighting and the old mother threw her sketch on the floor because she thought it was so awful and then one of the three initial girls did the same thing. Luckily everyone else was happy.

Someone put a baby click that was wandering around the house  down my blouse.  I put on my plastic poncho and smiled goodbye, I took my leave.

At this point some, boys insisted that I come into their yard. There were pots on a shelf in the wall, and I started a quarter sheet painting. As I was doing this a photogenic old man plunked down in front of me and so I started a quarter sheet painting of him.

 By this time, I was surrounded by a big bunch of kids and a couple of adults. Everyone wanted something from my bag and my pockets. After I lost my water bottle and my cough drops, I decided to stop painting and after smiling goodbye, I took my leave.

At this point, I was beckoned into a yard by an old woman with a great face. She sat me down and then pointed to my camera. I obliged and took her photo.  Then she insisted on money.  I deleted the photo, and showed her no photo/no money. I managed to smile while leaving.

Then thunder and lightning started again and it began to pour. I was actually releaved to cut two hours off my painting day. I found the driver and car near the road and set off for home.   On the way home, the driver tried scam me out of money. We had asked him to get us four beers because he said you couldn't buy beer in Pushkar. He got a box of twelve and said that they were 1000 rupees each. When I said that 1000 rupees was rediculous. He said okay 500 rupees each. I told him we bought beer yesterday in a restaurant yesterday in Pushkar for 200 rupees. Okay he said, you give me what you think it's worth. I gave him 2000 rupees and he said that two beer were paid for.  After ten minutes of silence by me in the back seat of the car, he said okay, he was only kidding, please forget everything!  Will we happily survive another two weeks with this driver?  His driving is good, which is a huge relief but the scams are constant.  

The scams and the garbage are a part of India as well as the colour, beauty, history and

vibrant  life!  I still love India.

March 9, 2014, Pushkar, India

This morning we left Jaipur and arrived in Pushkar at noon. I have been fighting off a chest infection and after my pneumonia last year in South America, I wanted the afternoon and tomorrow to paint or sleep, whatever I felt like. Once again our driver insisted  on something. He told us that in order to walk safely around this holy Hindu city we must have a blessing by a Hindu priest. We figured that it couldn't hurt. When I asked how long it would take, and how much it would cost, Kahn said two or three hours and although there was no fee, we would be expected to tip.  Okay we thought,  let's get this over with and tomorrow I can paint.  So Kahn called up his company's  guide (for yet another kickback to Kahn we presume) and the guide walked us around and we saw the only temple in the world to Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. Turns out Brahma made his first wife angry when she found out about his second marriage and as punishment she made it so that there would only be this one  to Brahma. There are 335,000 different Hindu gods. Pushkar has over a thousand temples and a population of about 20,000. (it is also over run with hawkers and hippy tourists)

After the temple visit, we were delivered to a "priest" (a young man in western clothing) on the lake of Pushkar. Then we had a nice five minute ceremony wishing for only positive thoughts and health and happiness for ourselves, our families and for me our friends. I found it a little disconcerting but on the whole it was quite lovely.  But then the priest started his pressure for money and it was brutal. He told us that 1500 rupees would support the priests and temples and other vague good causes for one day and it was expected that each of us donate at least three days worth. Then he tried to force us to say how many days each of us would donate for.  Lucky for me, Jim took the initiative and refused to committ to such a donation. The " priest" was adamant that we had to tell him in order to finish the ceremony. Eventually, we were taken by the priest to the official with a cash box. Jim and I decided to donate 500 rupees and then the initial guide of course had to be paid his tip.  After just promising to let go of negative thoughts, this episode ruined that.  Many Indians come to this lake to bath and be purified. While we were arguing with the priest a group of women undressed to bath naked. Jim was amazed that he missed that!

Anyways, we loved all of the south of India although there were none of the big historic sites.  So far Ragistan has been a challenge, and mostly because our driver keeps on insisting on things (like stopping at "special" shops)  that we really don't want to do.  So for tomorrow, I took the initiative. I asked a chap at our hotel desk if there were any real villages with no tourists within an easy drive. Of course he knew of lots. Then I told our driver that I wanted to go  to one of these villages tomorrow so that I can paint and that he should come inside and find out how to get to these villages. We will see how this works out. Stayed tuned.

And for those of you, who read my earlier word picture about driving in India, these are a couple of things we saw today.