Happy Holi from Jodhpur! We have returned from our colorful dust filled adventures, and I am sitting on a towel as I wait for Leanne to finish showering, after which I shall attempt to remove dust, and make myself look less like I'm wearing blackface. As I suggested in my title, I strongly suspect that this stuff doesn't come off. (Post-Script: after one round of showering and scrubbing, my face is now bright red, a la a certain Washington sports team. From one racist caricature to another!)
Back to last week...
Agra is disgusting and dust-filled, but the Taj Mahal is about as breathtaking as it's cracked up to be. Also our first interaction with cows, oxen and goats in the street. Joanna saw a driver swerve to avoid an ox, and drive into a pedestrian instead. We tried to assess what in Aladdin is based off of the Arabian Peninsula, and what is based off of Agra. Monkeys that steal things from open air markets? Definitely Agra. Colorful birds? Agra. Giant tigers? Not in Agra. Likely Arabia. We also saw the Agra Fort and the Tomb of I'timad Ud-Dulah ("the Baby Taj"). The Baby Taj was much less touristy than the other two, so I enjoyed that more.
From Agra we drove to Jaipur, where we stayed at a lovely AirBnB. The guy that owns the apartment runs a culinary school, and he made us breakfast each day. Unfortunately, of the three mornings that we were there, one was Ta'anit Esther, and we did an early-morning bike tour for another one, so I only got to eat one of the breakfasts, but it was delicious.
Jaipur is known as the "Pink City" because the Raj had it painted pink in the 1850s in honor of a visit from the Prince of Wales. On our bike tour, we saw the Wind Palace named as such due to its 938 windows. It was constructed to allow the Maharaja's harem to look onto the street without being seen. Highlights from the bike tour included:
By the time we got to Jaipur, I was dealing with some indigestion/acid reflux issues, which can be alleviated by eating dairy. Enter my new obsession with lassis. We went to Lassiwala, a lassi stand that has been open since 1944. We also got really cheap Ayurvedic massages, and Joanna and I introduced Leanne to Bend it Like Beckham, a longtime favorite of mine. Joanna and I also went to the Jaipur fort (I know, a lot of forts), which involved a bit of a hike. This was another enormous fort--rooms upon rooms upon rooms. At the bottom of the fort there was a small contemporary art museum, which included a giant (iron?) stiletto made out of human faces, called "Rift"which highlights the wealth gap in India, and that wealthy consumers do not appreciate the work and craftsmanship that goes into creating consumer goods.
On Thursday we headed to Pushkar. Pushkar was not on our original itinerary--our sole reason for going was that it boasted the only Chabad in Rajasthan, and I wanted to hear Parashat Zachor and Megillah. Upon our arrival, we learned that Pushkar is actually Nachlaot. Restaurants with Hebrew menus, signs exclusively advertising in Hebrew, falafel, malawach pizza and hamentaschen for sale, etc. More Hebrew being spoken than English and Hindi combined. Leanne and I went to yoga on Friday morning, and when I asked to pre-pay for shabbat, the yogi instantly said "ah, Jewish," and then proceeds to tell a story about a Buddhist friend of his who refused to touch money, and made his wife handle all of his financial transactions. This compared to the Delhi, where the concept of pre-paying for yoga could not have been more foreign at the studio. Random Indian store owners wished us Shabbat Shalom. The population of Pushkar is 14,000 people, and at any given point there are 2,000 Israelis there.
Apparently, Israelis chose Pushkar due to its hippiness, but it has gotten so touristy that it's hard to unearth the original hippy quality. Pushkar is built around a lake which has 52 ghats, or bathing entrances. It also hosts one of the only Brahma temples in the world. There are a number of scams that are run around the lake, one of which we found ourselves caught up in--priests corralling you, forcing you to perform rituals, and then making you give them money. Blech.
After some difficulties getting into the Chabad on Thursday night (see my Facebook post for more details), shabbat was quite eventful. We sat with two anglo Olim at dinner, and Leanne and I got into the Purim spirit by hiding our anti-Occupation activist identities. While the Chabad was, in fact, a Meshichist "mushroom," that only manifested itself by the recitation of "Yechi" three times after every Aleinu, the insistance that the 5th mem-mitzvah of Purim is "Mashiach" and a few carefully placed yellow flags. Tolerable! One surprising Chabad fact--there was no meat for dinner. While beef is prohibited throughout India, I was expecting chicken, but no dice. There was kishka on shabbat afternoon.
Shabbat morning, Leanne and I got up at 5:30 AM to go on a sunrise hike to a local temple. There were stairs the whole way, but each stair was about half the height of Leanne's body, so a tad more strenuous than a standard Segulah walk. At the summit, there were monkeys playing and gorgeous views of Pushkar, so it was all worth it. Following our hike, we headed to yoga, which helped stretch our sore muscles, and then I went to shul. Despite our morning exertions, I still made it in time for pesukei dizimra. Motzei Shabbat, the three of us went out to one of the Israeli places for Malawach pizza, and then I went to megillah reading. Really cool thing about being the only shul in a poorly-regulated city: fireworks for each recitation of Haman!
After megillah reading on Sunday afternoon (called for noon, started at 12:45...ah Chabad time!), we got on a bus to Ajmer, where we transferred to a bus for Jodhpur. We arrived in Jodhpur Erev Holi, and ate dinner underneath the Jodhpur Fort, which is enormous, and looks like it was carved into the side of the mountain. At night it's all lit up. After dinner, we went exploring. Traditionally, on erev Holi giant bonfires are lit, surrounded by the colored powder before its thrown. People sing and dance around the bonfires. Of course, as the resident white folks, Indians asked to take pictures with us at each bonfire that we visited. We also got a little Holi powder thrown on us--nothing compared to the bombardment that we faced today.
Monday morning, Leanne wasn't feeling well, so Joanna and I headed out for Holi round one. While at first, people are hesitant, and asked if it was ok to dump colors on us, but as we got more and more dust-covered, people stopped asking. What I learned: the colors themselves are quite pretty, but once someone dumps water on you, all the colors run together, and now I look like I'm wearing blackface. Oy. Later, we grabbed Leanne for round two, and then Leanne and I went to a neighbor's rooftop for their Holi party, which involved music, more colored powder, throwing water on each other, and some food.
I'm very curious about how religious minorities in India handle Holi. Do Muslim parents allow their children to "play Holi" with their Hindu friends? Do Sikh kids have the Holi equivalent of Christmas envy? As Holi does usually involve some alcohol consumption, is there ever inter-community violence? We did see some kids waving what I later learned were flags for a right-wing party, so maybe there's inter-community tension?
Other thoughts--most of the people "playing Holi" were little kids, and boys and men ages 10-40. There were some women, particularly women dancing in groups, but it seems that either the women and girls are avoiding getting covered in dust, or they are celebrating on rooftops and courtyards (the private Holi party that we attended had some women and girls as well).
*Quote is a play on Masechet Shabbat 21b, which states that in matters of holiness, we add and don't remove. So, to, in Holi, colored dust gets added...but not removed.
Back to last week...
Agra is disgusting and dust-filled, but the Taj Mahal is about as breathtaking as it's cracked up to be. Also our first interaction with cows, oxen and goats in the street. Joanna saw a driver swerve to avoid an ox, and drive into a pedestrian instead. We tried to assess what in Aladdin is based off of the Arabian Peninsula, and what is based off of Agra. Monkeys that steal things from open air markets? Definitely Agra. Colorful birds? Agra. Giant tigers? Not in Agra. Likely Arabia. We also saw the Agra Fort and the Tomb of I'timad Ud-Dulah ("the Baby Taj"). The Baby Taj was much less touristy than the other two, so I enjoyed that more.
From Agra we drove to Jaipur, where we stayed at a lovely AirBnB. The guy that owns the apartment runs a culinary school, and he made us breakfast each day. Unfortunately, of the three mornings that we were there, one was Ta'anit Esther, and we did an early-morning bike tour for another one, so I only got to eat one of the breakfasts, but it was delicious.
Jaipur is known as the "Pink City" because the Raj had it painted pink in the 1850s in honor of a visit from the Prince of Wales. On our bike tour, we saw the Wind Palace named as such due to its 938 windows. It was constructed to allow the Maharaja's harem to look onto the street without being seen. Highlights from the bike tour included:
- the flower market, where white, yellow, orange and red marigolds are sold in bulk to people making leis for temples
- the vegetable market, where women carrying many kilos of fresh vegetables on their heads will shove you out of their way if you cross their path,
- the marble cutters,
- biking through the crazy streets of Holi, around oxen, cows, goats, dogs, rickshaws and motorcycles.
By the time we got to Jaipur, I was dealing with some indigestion/acid reflux issues, which can be alleviated by eating dairy. Enter my new obsession with lassis. We went to Lassiwala, a lassi stand that has been open since 1944. We also got really cheap Ayurvedic massages, and Joanna and I introduced Leanne to Bend it Like Beckham, a longtime favorite of mine. Joanna and I also went to the Jaipur fort (I know, a lot of forts), which involved a bit of a hike. This was another enormous fort--rooms upon rooms upon rooms. At the bottom of the fort there was a small contemporary art museum, which included a giant (iron?) stiletto made out of human faces, called "Rift"which highlights the wealth gap in India, and that wealthy consumers do not appreciate the work and craftsmanship that goes into creating consumer goods.
On Thursday we headed to Pushkar. Pushkar was not on our original itinerary--our sole reason for going was that it boasted the only Chabad in Rajasthan, and I wanted to hear Parashat Zachor and Megillah. Upon our arrival, we learned that Pushkar is actually Nachlaot. Restaurants with Hebrew menus, signs exclusively advertising in Hebrew, falafel, malawach pizza and hamentaschen for sale, etc. More Hebrew being spoken than English and Hindi combined. Leanne and I went to yoga on Friday morning, and when I asked to pre-pay for shabbat, the yogi instantly said "ah, Jewish," and then proceeds to tell a story about a Buddhist friend of his who refused to touch money, and made his wife handle all of his financial transactions. This compared to the Delhi, where the concept of pre-paying for yoga could not have been more foreign at the studio. Random Indian store owners wished us Shabbat Shalom. The population of Pushkar is 14,000 people, and at any given point there are 2,000 Israelis there.
Apparently, Israelis chose Pushkar due to its hippiness, but it has gotten so touristy that it's hard to unearth the original hippy quality. Pushkar is built around a lake which has 52 ghats, or bathing entrances. It also hosts one of the only Brahma temples in the world. There are a number of scams that are run around the lake, one of which we found ourselves caught up in--priests corralling you, forcing you to perform rituals, and then making you give them money. Blech.
After some difficulties getting into the Chabad on Thursday night (see my Facebook post for more details), shabbat was quite eventful. We sat with two anglo Olim at dinner, and Leanne and I got into the Purim spirit by hiding our anti-Occupation activist identities. While the Chabad was, in fact, a Meshichist "mushroom," that only manifested itself by the recitation of "Yechi" three times after every Aleinu, the insistance that the 5th mem-mitzvah of Purim is "Mashiach" and a few carefully placed yellow flags. Tolerable! One surprising Chabad fact--there was no meat for dinner. While beef is prohibited throughout India, I was expecting chicken, but no dice. There was kishka on shabbat afternoon.
Shabbat morning, Leanne and I got up at 5:30 AM to go on a sunrise hike to a local temple. There were stairs the whole way, but each stair was about half the height of Leanne's body, so a tad more strenuous than a standard Segulah walk. At the summit, there were monkeys playing and gorgeous views of Pushkar, so it was all worth it. Following our hike, we headed to yoga, which helped stretch our sore muscles, and then I went to shul. Despite our morning exertions, I still made it in time for pesukei dizimra. Motzei Shabbat, the three of us went out to one of the Israeli places for Malawach pizza, and then I went to megillah reading. Really cool thing about being the only shul in a poorly-regulated city: fireworks for each recitation of Haman!
After megillah reading on Sunday afternoon (called for noon, started at 12:45...ah Chabad time!), we got on a bus to Ajmer, where we transferred to a bus for Jodhpur. We arrived in Jodhpur Erev Holi, and ate dinner underneath the Jodhpur Fort, which is enormous, and looks like it was carved into the side of the mountain. At night it's all lit up. After dinner, we went exploring. Traditionally, on erev Holi giant bonfires are lit, surrounded by the colored powder before its thrown. People sing and dance around the bonfires. Of course, as the resident white folks, Indians asked to take pictures with us at each bonfire that we visited. We also got a little Holi powder thrown on us--nothing compared to the bombardment that we faced today.
Monday morning, Leanne wasn't feeling well, so Joanna and I headed out for Holi round one. While at first, people are hesitant, and asked if it was ok to dump colors on us, but as we got more and more dust-covered, people stopped asking. What I learned: the colors themselves are quite pretty, but once someone dumps water on you, all the colors run together, and now I look like I'm wearing blackface. Oy. Later, we grabbed Leanne for round two, and then Leanne and I went to a neighbor's rooftop for their Holi party, which involved music, more colored powder, throwing water on each other, and some food.
I'm very curious about how religious minorities in India handle Holi. Do Muslim parents allow their children to "play Holi" with their Hindu friends? Do Sikh kids have the Holi equivalent of Christmas envy? As Holi does usually involve some alcohol consumption, is there ever inter-community violence? We did see some kids waving what I later learned were flags for a right-wing party, so maybe there's inter-community tension?
Other thoughts--most of the people "playing Holi" were little kids, and boys and men ages 10-40. There were some women, particularly women dancing in groups, but it seems that either the women and girls are avoiding getting covered in dust, or they are celebrating on rooftops and courtyards (the private Holi party that we attended had some women and girls as well).
*Quote is a play on Masechet Shabbat 21b, which states that in matters of holiness, we add and don't remove. So, to, in Holi, colored dust gets added...but not removed.
enjoying reading the stories behind your pictures. also impressed that you went hiking and still made it to shul for psukei :)
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