Young children, not to mention some adults, have a clever little coin scam, which is quite harmless but a inventive twist on straightforward begging and far more discreet. In fact, so subtle is it that it’s not immediately apparent what is going down. Young child approach us in the street with a polite request for any foreign coins (knowing one suspects that these are valueless to the tourist as they can’t be changed on return home) on the pretext that they collect them. Quite separately, maybe on a different day or in a different place, we are approached by a child with a £1 coin; would we be prepared to change it to rupees for him as the bank won’t deal in coins? We get a £1 and he gets 80 rupees – and has made a tidy little sum in Indian terms. Quite neat and probably more lucrative than outright begging.
Today we walk back to the local market to find a spice box and some spices. A round, metal spice box holds a number of small dishes in which are kept the seven primary spices used in all Indian cooking: salt, coriander, garam masala, anis, cumin seed, turmeric and chilli. A must have, since we have taken our cookery course and another bargain at £2.50! In fact if we only had more space in our luggage we could equip a kitchen India-style for around £20 at most. We are not quite so savvy in our negotiations for the spices and probably made the very helpful and charming stallholder’s day when we trundle away with a bagful of over-priced purchases.
We stroll through the market which is a mix of handcarts-cum-stalls, open-fronted shops and produce displayed on the ground. As well as the vegetable and spice stalls there are carts selling blocks, of what turns out to be sugar, attracting enormous numbers of bees. In one busy corner of the market, we are stopped by a group of children eager to have their photos taken and we fall easily into the trap as one after another, singly and in groups we take pictures of them in various combinations with their young mothers. I’m even handed a small baby for a photo and when I come to hand it back the mother seems disturbingly keen for me to keep it. There is lots of giggling and laughter as everyone cranes to see themselves on the screen, even Grandma sitting on the floor with their meagre array of vegetables gets to take a look. Before we know it we are agreeing to send prints to these little urchins and I am taken to another stall where there is someone who can write out the address for me.
In the afternoon we visit the 18th century Bagore-ki-Haveli which stands on Gangori Ghat overlooking Pichola Lake and is only a short walk from our guest house. It was built by Amir Chand Badwa the chief minister of the Mewar Royal court. In 1878 it became the home of the Maharana Shakti Singh of Bagore and was home of the royal family up to the 1930s. It was later left empty for 50 years until it was handed over to the West Zone Cultural Centre in 1986. The WZCC have since renovated the haveli in its original architectural style and it now houses a museum. Beautifully restored, it reputedly has 138 rooms of which only a handful which surrounding a central courtyard are open to the public. As we walk through the outer courtyard a very old man, sitting cross-legged and dressed in white and a brightly coloured turban strikes up an evocative tune on his Ravanhasta – a ubiquitous stringed instrument which is made of from a coconut shell and bamboo and is played with a horsehair bow. If anything embodies Rajasthan then this man is it.
Musician
Surprisingly the Haveli is deserted and we have the place to ourselves. This is a wonderfully serene setting in which a several rooms have been furnished to recreate what they may have been like when inhabited, whilst others display photographs of iconic places across India, cultural items including a large range of turbans of different styles (who would have thought there could be so many ways to tie them!) and a rather incongruous basement art gallery displaying modern and traditional art.
It is also provides a fabulous outdoor venue for an excellent evening cultural performance of traditional Rajasthani dance and puppetry. Local dancers wearing gloriously colourful traditional costume perform a series of dances. The performance included the popular Ghoomar dance in which the dancers’ graceful twirling is enhanced by the swirl of their vibrant ghagra skirts; the Terah Talli which consists of two women sitting on the floor with thirteen cymbals tied to various parts of their body which they strike with ones held in their hands; and the stunning finale, the Bhavai dance in which nine large brass pitchers of decreasing size are balanced on the dancer’s head whilst she performs a series of increasingly difficult dance moves including walking on nails and broken glass!
Traditional dance
Dance with symbols