| Submitted by: Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper United States |
| Submission Date: 07 February 2005 |
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Oh, the government
does. To them they are still legal tender. But most Indians consider the
bill to be useless and to have lost its value. It probably started as an
urban legend that such bills were useless, but the belief persists and is
nearly universally accepted. It is just one more gotcha to watch for in
India. Now, there are plenty of natural gotchas to life in India. This
one is artificially created, helps nobody, and hurts everybody, but Indians
use it against each other and tourists. Funny country, India.
The first museum we entered was a fairly boring textile museum
(however, we find almost any textile museum fairly boring). And what
textile museum is complete without musical instruments colored with crushed
precious stones? Why did they do that? Well, the guide said you get the
richest color from precious stones. Mark says, I don't know that I believe
that. I guess that while he believes that the richest material to paint
musical instruments in may be expensive, I don't think that the most
expensive materials are necessarily the best.
Also in the museum was clothing of the giant Maharaja Madho Singh I.
He is claimed to have been seven feet tall, weigh five hundred pounds (225
kilograms), and have a chest four feet (a meter and a half) across. The
sleeves of his jacket were twice as long as Mark could wear and Mark is Tall
(five feet, six inches (170 centimeters)). Why do we think that someone is
pulling our legs?
On display are bright quilts dyed with vegetable color and embroidered
in gold. There is an exhibition of the makeup that the queens used. One
festival dress had eight kilograms of gold. That is 257 troy ounces of
gold. Obviously in the war to look better than other raja's wives, this
qualifies as glitzkrieg.
We went on to an arms museum that is small compared to such things in
Europe but was still diverting. They have a big sign that says Welcome
spelled out in muskets and knives, and another saying Goodbye. Some of
the other things to see were a knife with an ivory handle carved in the
shape of a monkey. It reminded Mark a little of Japanese netsuke, though
not so ornate. There were several of those odd Indian daggers with an H-
shaped handle. You had the cross-piece perpendicular to the direction of
the thrust. It also had a rather vicious-looking claw that you would wear
something like brass knuckles. It took a while to move from case to case
since the taller Indians in our group would surround the cases and lean over
them so the shorter people and the children could not see what was being
discussed. Then the shorter people would get a chance when the tall people
moved on. We tried to be more polite and leave room for children, but it
only meant that adults taller than us pushed in. The rule of India is that
if you are decent, you lose. (We should say that there were a few foreign
tourists on the tour, but most of the people were Indians who had come to
Jaipur by train in the morning just for this tour and who were going to
return home in the evening.) They also had the giant raja's sword. It
weighs 5.5 kilograms, or slightly over twelve pounds.
We also saw a raja's horse that was all decked out in fancy decoration
with pounds of gold. The guide called this a very lucky horse to wear so
much gold, but that was the guide's point of view. We doubt anyone asked
the horse.
We also saw the world's largest silver objects, two water jars weighing
345 kilograms (760 pounds) and holding 7200 liters (1800 gallons) each, used
to carry Ganges water for Madho Singh II when he attended Edward's
coronation in 1902. (We later saw the world's largest cannon on wheels.
Jaipur is into having the largest of a bunch of things.) The guide said
that we carry around one-liter containers of water but these were 7200
liters. Evelyn said that was true, but Madho Singh II didn't have to carry
them himself.
There was a satellite dish on the roof. We think it was a modern
addition.
In the great audience hall we saw other artifacts of the good old days.
There was the Raja's howdah--that is a big wooden box used for riding an
elephant. We also saw a palki--that is a big wooden box used for riding
four servants.
We saw early photography in India and some nice paintings. The
paintings had the rich lasting colors because the materials used for color
were crushed jewels. Or so they said, but we doubt it. First of all, the
colors were sort of pastel. But we can believe the colors will last. And
they probably do not use the best jewels. It is like you do not turn your
most beautiful olives into salad olives.
The current raja, we were told, was a career military man, serving for
the non-princely sum of Rs1 per month. He served in three wars but quit
over politics when he could not agree with Indira Gandhi's policies.
There was an exhibit devoted to this current raja. We continued with a
look at a collection old books, scrolls, some with miniature writing done by
hand. There was a collection of portraits of rajas including Mr. Seven-
foot-tall-ji.
Another case was devoted to the astronomy and astrology library of Jai
Singh.
We had picked out another American couple to talk to, Gail and Mervyn
from Novato, California, who were spending three months traveling around.
After the City Palace we stopped for cold drinks. Merv bought peanut
brittle from a passing vendor. He got a sheet about four inches by six
inches for Rs10 and he said it was worth every penny. Evelyn stood watching
the vendor and saw a local but a sheet for Rs5. She told Mark, who went
over and offered Rs5 for a block. The vendor accepted without batting an
eye. Mark figured, why tell Merv? Curiously, the brittle part they did
very well, but the peanuts had a burnt flavor.
On the ride to the fort we saw more of the camel carts and now we
started to see elephants also. Mark hopes the elephants are treated better
here than in Thailand. But that's another story. We also saw the Jalmahal,
the Water Palace, a palace built in the middle of a lake. Right now
nobody lives there since three different groups claim to own it and there is
litigation going on. The palace is actually a big duck blind (according to
the Insight guide).
About eleven kilometers out of the city is the Amber Fort. We then
drove out to Amber and the Amber Fort. The name is not derived from the
color of the fort, though it is yellow rather than the usual red sandstone.
This is a hill fort like out of the old movies. You know, the ones with
Victor McLaglen and Cary Grant. The fort and palace was built in 1592 by
Raja Man Singh, commander of Akbar's army. He built this fort to command
the whole valley. Of course, at the bottom were craft shops. They took us
to a craft and textile shop (of course!). The Indians did a lot of
shopping, but it gave Mark a chance to ask questions of the guide. The
tight headgear with the big knot the size of a walnut or a plum indeed
signifies a Sikh. Apparently when he becomes a father he gets a full
turban.
When we were done at the store the guide took a bunch of us up the
almost three hundred steps (huff! puff!) in the hot sun to the fort.
Normally there are jeeps (or elephants) to take you up, but that was closed
off for some festival (Dussehra maybe?). (The elephants were still bringing
tourists up the road to the base of the steps though.) All along the way
hucksters were selling books, religious articles, and plastic toys. At the
top of the stairs is another bazaar with all sorts of stalls selling
souvenirs, food, and who knows what. A few more steps up takes you to the
fort itself. We were joined by the rest of our group (getting them out of
the store was a problem) and began our tour, guzzling water constantly. The
fort has been white-washed yellow and of course has not been restored, but
you can still see what it must have been at one time. There are still some
nice frescoes and carved pieces of wall sculpture of elephants. We saw the
twelve apartments of Man Singh's twelve wives, all identical, with a center
section where they could get together, gossip, and play bridge. Also they
could make cute little sandwiches for their bridge parties. (Okay, maybe we
are extrapolating from our own acquaintances!) The most famous feature of
this fort is the Shish Mahal (Mirror Palace) with thousands of tiny mirrors
inlaid in the walls. Within is the Chamber of Mirrors which was the
Maharaja's bedroom and whose ceiling is similarly inlaid. When it is dark a
moving candle appears in the ceiling as stars traversing the sky. Also
there are beautiful views of the valley below.
When we were done at the fort the guide told us to follow him to see
one thousand years of culture. Somehow he had separated out just the
Europeans and Americans. The scene was out a balcony that viewed a bunch of
old buildings and towers. The balcony was just at one end of this rug
factory. Oh, boy! Then they started to show us how an Indian rug was made.
And this room to the side actually had samples of what a complete rug looked
like. And guess what? They were actually for sale. As we ran screaming
from the building it occurred to us that we did not know how to get back to
the bus. We figured we'd just go to where we'd left the bus.
On the way down the stairs--a lot easier to go down than up in the hot
sun--we bought out requisite tchatchka souvenir. We got two little cheap-
framed Hindu religious pictures: one of Hanuman and one of Ganesha. Each
cost Rs5 (bargained down from Rs10). They were cheap, small, characteristic
of India, and something a local would buy for himself. And when you see
them, you think, India. We don't know if we'd ever better fulfilled the
rules of our tchatchka shelf.
We were thirsty when we hit the bottom of the stairs. We tried to buy
a bottle of Bisleri mineral water and the hawker tried to sell us a refilled
bottle. Sure, get sick. I will have made money off it--that is the
attitude. If you just want to buy a bottle of mineral water, you have to
check:
1. That the price is not inflated. You may have to haggle.
2. That the seal has not been broken and in fact the bottle refilled with
water that will make you sick.
3. That they have given you the right brand instead of some mineral water
that is really tap water.
4. That the person has made the right change. About 30% of the time they
will accidentally give you too little change. However, 0% of the time
do they give you too much change.
5. That none of the change has torn bills.
It is different when foreign tourists come to the United States. We
have never heard that Americans put tourists through so much pain for so
little as to buy something to drink. Occasionally we shoot one, but then it
is over quickly. Here the constant effort to survive extends to the
tourist.
Well, from there we went back to where we left the bus. It wasn't
there. We were going to wait there, reasoning that our guide had to pass
here and in any case would look here for missing persons, but two other tour
members came along and said the bus was down the road a ways. And so it
was.
Lunch was at a restaurant at the top of the hill in Nahagarh Fort
(Tiger Fort) and was something of a mess in itself. We won't go into it,
but it took a long time to get served and ended up taking something like
ninety minutes. Mark ordered a vegetarian thali and Evelyn ordered cheese
pakoras, but we had to rush to finish them to avoid holding up the group.
The sodas were good--they were so cold they were partially frozen. We
didn't actually see much of the fort, just what was between the gate and the
restaurant (about a ten-minute walk). We've heard there are full-day tours
to this fort; we wonder what they cover. |
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