Jaipur Day 1

"Where are you from?", a teenage boy asks Tom as we wait outside Jaipur airport for our pre-arranged ride to our hotel. The young boys crowd around us immediately upon our appearance, they are taken by the sight of Tom. They seem enchanted by this tall American man who seems a cross between President George Bush and the actor Kevin Kline. Tom is quite bemused. "You seem to be like some sort of Messiah to the Indian people", I tell Tom. "If this car doesn't get here soon, you'll be hoisted on their shoulders and carried through town as the latest deity" I add.

The ride to the hotel on the dusty road brings us past camel riders, cattle, motorcylces, tuk tuks. I am stunned to view the level of poverty of the homeless families here who literally live their lives in plain view on the sidewalk. There is a child defecating on the sidewalk as her parents sit close by, a man sleeps awkwardly with no bedding whatsoever hemmed in the space between the sidewalk and the road. I have seen poverty many times before but never this abject. To my amusement I occasionally see men urinating against the walls publicly, this behavior is not confined to the homeless, it appears that this is socially acceptable.

Arriving at the hotel, we are pleasantly surprised by the stateliness of the old but refitted building. Though modest in size it is

quite befitting of its name - Umaid Mahal Heritage Castle. The imposing front door is about 20 feet tall with ornate artwork on the walls. I point to the hotel and say to my friend, "Tom, THIS is a hotel". We put our bags away and meet my parents in the breakfast hall downstairs. Introductions are made, I am glad that my parents who live in Malaysia since my father's retirement have the opportunity to meet Tom who lives in California; and it tickles me that we are doing so in Jaipur, India. We decide to book a driver arranged by the hotel for a full day tour beginning with the City Palace followed by Amber Palace fort.

The corridor of the Umaid Mahal Heritage Hotel in Jaipur

The tour at the City Palace takes about 2 and a half hours. It is actually a palace complex comprising of theChandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal palaces and other buildings. There is an impressive textile museum containing many painstakingly fabricated and painted fabrics of incredibly delicateness. Some of the work required such an intense scrutiny that children were groomed on a special vegetable diet and put to the task until their eyes lost their nearsightedness over time. Most of the displays are garments of the royalty, some of them are outstandingly huge. The guide tells us they belonged to a Maharaja that was 7ft tall and over 4 ft wide; his name was Sawai Raja Madho Singh II and the cloth used for one particular garment was over 190 metres in length. Size doesn't matter when you're of blue blood, this king had 108 wives anyways. In a display I see a two piece garment called a jama and then beside it a drawstring pants called a pa-jama. Hmm... interesting to learn that the term pajama originates from India. Also originating from this region is the paisley design which was originally simply a imprint of the side of a closed fist. The other two museums are an arms and an arts museum, the arts museum has many historical paintings of incredibly fine artwork requiring a specialized brush designed so that only a single hair delivers the paint with each stroke. Some of the paintings, though not particularly large, take years to complete.

We consent to be ushered by our good guide to another separate building in which artists demonstrate this art and sell their paintings. We gather on the floor around an artist, he has a modest bowl with a variety of colored naturally occurring objects such as stones, tree resin, coal etc. He picks each one up, wets it then scratches a white slate with it. Each object leaves a distinct colored impression. Soon there is a rainbow of dazzling hues, from this he dabs his fine paintbrush and begins painting. He draws an elephant because it is the animal that represents this Rajasthan city of Jaipur, the horse represents Jodhpur and the camel represents Jaisalmer. He looks at me and asks my name. "Aaron, I wish you always happy days in your life.", he says as he writes these words on his simple drawing then hands it to me. My head tells me that this is a tactic to soften me to buy his paintings, but I allow it anyways knowing that this would be the ideal souvenior to add to my collection of worldly artifacts. But perhaps more so I am touched by his statement, I sure can use all the help I can get with regard to my happiness. Lately each moment of happiness seems so fragile and fleeting, the voice of criticism and judgment shuts the door on each ray of joy in a split second. I choose a painting of a camel on an old rice parchment, I don't even bother to bargain the price.