We are gradually coming to appreciate that in India things never quite happen the way they should. For one thing the trains rarely seem to run on time (or not at least in our limited experience). The electricity is bit of a hit and miss affair and anyone who can afford it has a back-up generator to provide minimum power for lighting and fans when the supply fails, which it seems to do fairly often. This week there is no power in Jodhpur from 9am until midday and the Singhvi’s Haveli doesn’t have a generator, so we have been showering in the dark and sweltering without a fan. The drain in the bathroom is blocked and the shower water has formed a large puddle across most of the bathroom floor. We complained when we first arrived but it is only when we complain again today that anything is done about it. The ATMs are temperamental; sometimes paying out and sometimes not, sometimes they give 10,000 rupees and sometimes only 5,000 and we can’t work out whether the problem lies with our bank or the machines.
In India too, the centuries seem to collide; the present day with the almost medieval and anything in between. Mobile phones, broadband internet and wifi go hand –in-hand with antiquated drainage, standpipes and handcarts. Domesticated animals are a commonplace sight in the streets, not only cows scavenging cardboard and paper, but pigs too snuffle amongst the rubbish whilst dogs, a cats, donkeys and camels, horses and even the odd elephant, all take their place alongside the ‘Japanese horse’ better known as the moped, the rickshaw and the occasional car.
I read an interesting story in yesterday’s India Times which encapsulates the essence of India. Three days ago there was extensive flooding in Delhi as a result of the monsoon rains which brought parts of the city to a standstill for several hours and left people stranded in the streets. This is despite millions of rupees having recently been spent on dredging the drainage system of mud and rubbish. Why? Because the silt and debris that had cost so much to remove had been deposited alongside the drains so that as soon the rains came it was washed straight back from whence it came!
The Jaswant Thada is spectacular not only for its translucent white marble that glows orange and yellow when a beam of sunlight catches it or the fabulously carved decoration, or the array of delicate hatted towers that adorn the roof, but also for the incredible 360 degree views of Jodhpur city, the fort and the arid Rajasthani countryside beyond. This cenotaph to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II was built in 1899 on a peaceful rocky plateau just outside the city and is set in a small garden. There is an old man playing a stringed instrument with a bow that we have seen several times before while a young boy does a whirling dervish kind of dance for a few rupees.