Days (31-38) My first time in Rajasthan (Udaipur,Devgarh and Chittorgarh)

Namaste Everyone!

We have just arrived back from Udaipur and Devgarh via Nazamuddin Railway Station. I hope all is well with you all and that this week has been a prosperous one for you.

Alright, let’s talk about the Railway Station.

So it’s a busy station as usually but train wise, I enjoyed the ride towards Udaipur but not from it. The sleeper cabin’s consist of 2 long seats. They are sort of like the one’s you would see in a restaurant or bar where if you and 10 friends wanted to sit in the V.I.P, section, you would sit there. They are two beds and the backing of the seats fold up into two more beds for the middle with the top bunks already set at the top. The metal hooks on the top bunk latch on to the bottom of the middle bed so that the bed can stay up and you can secure as you rest.

The blue “sleepers” were nice and we were able to chat amongst ourselves while eating a slice of birthday cake. However, on the ride back I battled a few roaches that were fighting for a spot on my bed. I understand the first train probably had bugs but at least it wasn’t as evident. If you couldn’t tell yet, I dislike bugs! If I see them from afar it’s fine but when they invade my space, no bueno or achha nahi hai? Either way it’s not good.

Rating wise, I’d give the first train to Udaipur (which had blue sleepers) a 4 out of 5 experience. It wasn’t 5 star but I had a good night’s rest, the sheets that you spread on to your bed were clean for the most part, I didn’t see any buggies and I actually anticipated the ride back.

The second train however, receives a 1 out of 5 stars.  The sleepers were in decent shape in that they weren’t falling off but other than that, their bug problem was too much to deal with.

So moving on to…. Udaipur….

I personally had an amazing time in Udaipur! The memories were so nice and we really saw peoples personalities shine when we had our dance party night. I’ll try to go in order of events but I do apologize if I seem choppy.

We stayed at Hotel Sarovar and it was so pretty. The room flowers that were painted on the walls must have been hand painted and we had a gorgeous view of the lake. 

It wasn’t the cleanest of lakes, so I do not encourage trying to swim in it but when the sunlight hit the water, the tiny ripples glistened and it was beautiful.

They made way better omelets than the one’s we had in Aligarh and they had both butter and jam (if you’re into that sort of thing for your toast.

Shopping

This excursion compared to Aligarh was more relaxed. Yes we had a lot of events to attend, but we had time to venture off into the town/city, do some shopping or sight seeing. 

My friend bargaining for her anklets

We moved away from the touristy areas near our hotel and went a bit deep into the city and bargained our way to buying things. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the names of all the shops I liked because they didn’t give out cards but I was able to get a few things.

So here are the things I purchased in Udaipur:

- (2) pairs of shoes,  -----------------------------600 rupees (300 each)*

- (1) tailored kurta (shirt)---------------------- 300 rupees

- (2) pairs of earrings-------------------------- 200 rupees (100 each)*

- (1)  (real) leather covered notebook -------250 rupees

      with name engraved into the cover* (they usually charge per letter but I got it done for free :)

-  (2) bags/purses--------------------------200 rupees  (100 rupees each)*

       - (2) pairs of silk interchangeable pants  300 rupees (150 rupees each)*

      - (3) Vintage Postcards with drawings on them (150 rupees)*

Price tag you may ask?

**Drum Roll please**

_______________________________________Total: 1,900 rupees=USD = about $ 38

Say What?!?!?!?! I know I am very content with my purchases.

Please note that the items marked with the (*) were slightly haggled. For example, I saw that one earring was 200 ruppees and the other was 60 so I asked the lady if she could sell me both for 200 ruppees. (100 rupees each). I probably could have gotten lower but I think I made my first guilt purchase.

Anyways, money well spent.  Don’t forget to email me questions, comments, feedback, etc.  macau23c@mtholyoke.edu

A special shout out goes to this talented shopkeeper
who drew all these paintings.

One thing is for sure, you will meet a lot of different shopkeeper personalities. True hustlers indeed! 

Common things a seller will ask or say:

q      You are from…?

q      America?…O…You are from California? Florida?

**(Although It depends on who it is, After they say two or three wrong answers you might just be in the mood to drop that convo)

q      America…? Obama! Obama! Good man! –**(My personal favorite)

q      You are my first customer of the day! **(Even though you could be their 5^th)

q      I make special deal for you!

**( Even though they see you’re a foreigner and decrease their price from being 4 times the actual price to triple or double the actual price)

As you can see, it is a pretty entertaining experience. A part from that, I remained conscious of the people in my surroundings and not the directions or locations of shops.

I was say in Udaipur it’s double the attention I recieved in Delhi because its smaller. I heard a lot of O…Kaali, Kaali (Black…Black) But I also heard a lot of  Baal… Baal (hair) with a mixture of laughter. I was pretty conscious of it but of course ignored it. I wasn’t going to let ignorance destroy my bargaining game. :P

I applauded one man however, for asking about my hair. I was sitting in a shoe shop and admiring the pairs of shoes, and he asked me “ Is that your original hair?” I said “yes…no…well you mix it with extensions and then you twist it..”.  I was not about to spend the next 20 minutes explaining the process to this guy but I appreciated him asking. He even asked permission to touch it.  He was still puzzled at how it could be actual hair and had said “ It looks like string”…or something like “ I thought it was string”. Which actually showed me that Indian’s are probably not used to seeing twists or that many curls that aren’t like the waves in their hair. As I said, I was pleased that he actually bothered to ask me.

When we came back from one of our excursion events, I finally got to ride an elephant. At first, I was scared but then the slowly but steady pace of the elephant calmed me and I really enjoyed it. I will post the pictures up soon so don’t worry. 

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Dance Party Night!!!

Another part of our Udaipur trip was eating delicious food while watching traditional Rajasthani dances. I took pictures and videos. It was so impressive and interesting to see the females dancing with fire pots on their heads, a  male dancing with 12 or so pots on his head (no fire though) and there bicycle spinning wheel things. Great entertainment!

He danced with 12 pots on his head
in addition to dancing on glass!

After this watching them dance, we joined them and danced the night away! We also got to see our professors’ dance. What a sight!

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Health

Well to be brief about it, we went to a tribal village in Udaipur and saw an Angnwadi (An-gun- vadi) center but since this center was operated by an NGO which paid the woman a salary and not a government positioned worker, she was called a Balsakhi (Baal-suk-ee). The children their was cute as always and actually cried more from seeing us foreign weirdo’s but it was all good.

Although the program is unsustainable, the I was pleased to see the joint NGO to community respect and effort. Unlike the Angwadi/ASHA [ah-sha] government program, she [Balsakhi] is paid 1400 rupees a month (about 25-30 rupees a month) rather than monetary incentives due to meeting quotas. And if the Balsakhi isn’t fulfilling her duties, the community/village counsel is allowed to deduct from her wages. This empowers the community to ensure effective service from the Balsakhi.

My blog post isn’t about gathering donations to send to this NGO but I do hope we can figure out a solution to making this a sustainable system. Another detail I forgot to mention is that the location of this village was pretty far and we had to walk to get from house to house in the sun which felt like about 80+ degrees. So you can imagine one Balsakhi worker or ASHA trying to serve a village of 400+ people and walking around to distribute vaccinations, referrals, and check ups for newborns. It was a pretty intense experience. Although we were in a bus, we took about 4 hours to get to the village from our hotel area. In the village areas, if you calculate traffic, the conditions of the roads, and if you need to stop to use the bathroom, then you 35-50 or mile ride in 1 or hours turns into a 3 or 4 hours ride.

Our professors told us that the location of this village was a non desired posting and that when an ASHA or health worker was sent there (due to not performing her duties previously) she would
consider working in this village as punishment. This was pretty sad to say the least and I can imagine the villages esteem when it comes to this issue. It’s as if no one cares about getting proper health care facilities into these villages. Especially since they do not have proper infrastructure and they are tribal populations.

Another thing I’d like to share is that I was happy to hear that woman are “more empowered” in the villages and can leave their husbands if they so choose to.  And although we like to hear the term empowerment, we should also asks ourselves, how far does this empowerment go? Is it just that but can she leave her husband and also live and maintain effectively sustainable life and livelihood while providing for her family? Does she get socially stigmatized on the low?

The last thing we saw was the Mobile Health Unit and it was a room with 3 tables. 1 Table had suitcases of medicines open and the second had a guy who looked like a doctor their talking with different villagers as they came to get their blood pressure taken. We were told that the Mobile Health Unit serves 2 km’s worth of villages every 3 months and posts itself in a centralized location. I personally believe that for a location in which it is considered punishment to be posted here, I am happy that the Mobile Health Unit can help in the way that it can. But with hat being said, there needs to be a way to make their visits more frequent and accessible.

Also,  I think their should be a way to start a ambulance transport service from remote villages like these so that people have a means of transport to get to the hospital when the Mobile Health Unit isn’t around. This would also mean that the government of India needs to improve the  roads leading to these villages.

On a lighter note, the Balsakhi who has been performing the duties of an ASHA, told us that mortality in their villages, is very small. In the last year or two, only 1 baby died.

In Devgarh, we stayed with an organization named Priyas and we met Bhopa’s  [Bo-pa)and one Bhopi {Bo-pEE] which are sort of like village shaman’s who chase away bad spirits from people but do not treat the village people medically. They are highly respected people in their villages and they have come a long way in helping determine the cause of a person’s illness, and whether or not they should refer someone to a health care facility.

One of the Bhopa’s who suffered from malnutrition when he was young, was taken to a Bhopa. The Bhopa then heated two metal rods and stuck them in the guy’s back. When I  heard this, I was speechless and had to pause take a step back and remember the setting I was in and make note that reasons behind their understandings of how to try to cure/fix a person.

Bhopa’s can become Bhopa’s at a young age such as 18 and are very spiritual people. From what I understood, there are spiritual signs that can be seen in them and they are considered Bhopa’s. Even though they couldn’t share with us their secrets of healings, they mentioned that the power they receive from their gods (local deities) cannot be explained and does not distinguish between male and female. So, they deal with both genders.

Lastly, we went to an event organized by Priyas in which we heard from different speakers in Hindi explain the importance of women empowerment, working together,  staying in touch with technology to maintain kinship relationships while teaching their children the importance of education and marrying at a later age [contrary to the early marriage age of 13-17.

Most of the speakers were passionate and many of the women walked from far away villages and had sat at the function from morning until the function was over about 3 or 4 pm.

It was wonderful.  I also enjoyed the fact that we [our program group being mostly women were able to share in their experience/function with them. Although there was the language barrier, their was a mutual understanding of we are sisters, we care, and it is importance for us to work together in order to improve quality of life for our families.

And guess what…? I have pictures! Here is a picture of a goat we saw in the village who liked to eat roti’s, my first ever elephant ride experience, our visit to the Chittogarh Fort and the Devgarh Fort.

I just want to briefly say that their were so many monkey’s at the Chittorgarh Fort and I have the strongest feeling that some of the stray dogs their had been attacked by monkey’s before and suffered sever damages. I’m talking about no fur left on them and bleeding from the head. I have never been so uncomfortable at a sight seeing place but at the same time I made little eye contact and respected the monkey’s space.  We all made it out in one peace.

~~~~~~~~^^^^^ Devgarh Fort^^^^^~~~~~~~

Chittorgarh Fort

A little piglet

Two monkey's playing around

I know I had said I’d be brief but I tried my best to sum up an amazing week in a few paragraphs. I’ll keep you posted on more of my adventures. 


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***CGinSL***