Thursday 30 May 2013
COLOUR CODED
"Rajasthan brings to life all my childhood imaginings about India and its exotic culture" a German friend, once remarked...."there are camels, desert landscapes, brilliant colours, men in turbans, royal palaces and great forts". The main cities also seem to be colour coded. Jaipur is known as the pink city - many of its ancient buildings are built of the local terra-cotta sandstone. The desert city of Jaiselmer, on the camel route between India and Pakistan is the golden city - the local stone used in all the old buildings is the colour of warm honey and Jodhpur is known as the blue city.
Each of these three cities has its own distinctive atmosphere. Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan with a busy modern airport and splendid architecture is perhaps the most accessible. Apart from tourism it's famous for its traditional block printing and Jaipur Blue Pottery, but it also has the gorgeous shop Anokhe and wonderful old city where you can buy fabulous jewelry and gem stones by the kilo ! Jaiselmer is a small, desert town with a laid back atmosphere, tourism and the annual camel fair, being its main claim to fame, apart from the surprising number of wind farms which encircle it.
But Jodhpur is the most strangely haunting. It is dominated by the 15th century Mehrangarh Fort, which stands high up on a cliff overlooking the town, 400 feet below, ever watchful, its immensely tall ramparts, at least 100 feet high, are dark and brooding. It's no wonder that some of the movie 'The Dark Knight Rising' was filmed there. The handprints of the Maharaja's wives who committed sati in the early 19th century, by consigning themselves to the funeral pyre, when the Maharaja died, are left on one of the 7 entrance archways to the fort, as a poignant reminder of their sacrifice, as they left Mehrangarh on their final journey.
However, the ramparts of the fort also give an eagle eye view of the Old Blue City of Jodhpur, far below. There are several theories about why the houses were painted blue - perhaps to keep the interiors cool in the summer heat - sometimes reaching 50 C ? Only the houses of the Upper Caste, Brahmin were given this privilege, blue being associated with royalty and perhaps they were the only class wealthy enough to be able to afford this expensive decorative effect ?
Each of these three cities has its own distinctive atmosphere. Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan with a busy modern airport and splendid architecture is perhaps the most accessible. Apart from tourism it's famous for its traditional block printing and Jaipur Blue Pottery, but it also has the gorgeous shop Anokhe and wonderful old city where you can buy fabulous jewelry and gem stones by the kilo ! Jaiselmer is a small, desert town with a laid back atmosphere, tourism and the annual camel fair, being its main claim to fame, apart from the surprising number of wind farms which encircle it.
But Jodhpur is the most strangely haunting. It is dominated by the 15th century Mehrangarh Fort, which stands high up on a cliff overlooking the town, 400 feet below, ever watchful, its immensely tall ramparts, at least 100 feet high, are dark and brooding. It's no wonder that some of the movie 'The Dark Knight Rising' was filmed there. The handprints of the Maharaja's wives who committed sati in the early 19th century, by consigning themselves to the funeral pyre, when the Maharaja died, are left on one of the 7 entrance archways to the fort, as a poignant reminder of their sacrifice, as they left Mehrangarh on their final journey.
However, the ramparts of the fort also give an eagle eye view of the Old Blue City of Jodhpur, far below. There are several theories about why the houses were painted blue - perhaps to keep the interiors cool in the summer heat - sometimes reaching 50 C ? Only the houses of the Upper Caste, Brahmin were given this privilege, blue being associated with royalty and perhaps they were the only class wealthy enough to be able to afford this expensive decorative effect ?
Sunday 26 May 2013
KOCHI
Flying over Kerala gives you an immediate inkling of how different this part of South India is to the rest of the sub-continent. Palm trees create a lush green canopy, broken every now and then by the spires of churches and old colonial mansions. Waterways criss-cross through the vegetation, meandering in unhurried fashion. The casual atmosphere continues in the airport, where you walk off the plane, across the tarmac, to collect your luggage. The trip into the centre of town takes you past water buffalo wading through the wetlands, or slumped down in their water-world, dreamily chewing the cud.
The host of my bed and breakfast in Kochi was an antique dealer who also ran a restaurant in the town serving mainly French cuisine. As a side line he let two bedrooms in his home to tourists, on a B and B basis. The colonial style house was large. Pressing the doorbell, the daughter of the family came to let me in and a little later her mother showed me to my room. It was spacious and high ceilinged, with a four poster bed and large overhead fan - one wall was painted turquoise. "We have power cuts every day", ......she explained, as she showed me where the candles and matches were. But it was the adjoining room which surprised me most of all... It was for my personal use as a lounge. Entering through the double doors and facing me as I entered, was an altar with a very large crucifix hanging above it and on the floor next to it, arranged in a semi-circle, stood a group of almost life-size statues of the Holy Family - Mary, Joseph and Jesus, carrying a lamb ! My host later explained that the antiques were old religious icons and were all for sale !
The communal lounge, within the main house, was also filled with religious artifacts and at certain times of day, we were not welcome in this area, as our hostess was saying her prayers. Coming from Gujarat, which is predominantly Hindu, the devout Catholicism came as a surprise.
My host explained to me that the Christian community in Kerala is very old indeed - going back as far as 52 AD, when St Thomas the Apostle (one of Christ's twelve) arrived in India and began his mission. "We are Syrian Catholics", he explained....."but my wife's cousin is Jacobite" ! This was said in a somewhat hushed tone. I later found out that when the Portuguese came to this part of India in the 15th c, they insisted that the local Catholics adopt the Latin liturgy. This caused a split in the community, the Syrians adopting the reforms and the Jocobites choosing to decline and go it alone.
Christians are the third largest religious community in India, after Hindu and Muslim.
Religious icons in the sitting room of the B & B in Kochi
The host of my bed and breakfast in Kochi was an antique dealer who also ran a restaurant in the town serving mainly French cuisine. As a side line he let two bedrooms in his home to tourists, on a B and B basis. The colonial style house was large. Pressing the doorbell, the daughter of the family came to let me in and a little later her mother showed me to my room. It was spacious and high ceilinged, with a four poster bed and large overhead fan - one wall was painted turquoise. "We have power cuts every day", ......she explained, as she showed me where the candles and matches were. But it was the adjoining room which surprised me most of all... It was for my personal use as a lounge. Entering through the double doors and facing me as I entered, was an altar with a very large crucifix hanging above it and on the floor next to it, arranged in a semi-circle, stood a group of almost life-size statues of the Holy Family - Mary, Joseph and Jesus, carrying a lamb ! My host later explained that the antiques were old religious icons and were all for sale !
The communal lounge, within the main house, was also filled with religious artifacts and at certain times of day, we were not welcome in this area, as our hostess was saying her prayers. Coming from Gujarat, which is predominantly Hindu, the devout Catholicism came as a surprise.
My host explained to me that the Christian community in Kerala is very old indeed - going back as far as 52 AD, when St Thomas the Apostle (one of Christ's twelve) arrived in India and began his mission. "We are Syrian Catholics", he explained....."but my wife's cousin is Jacobite" ! This was said in a somewhat hushed tone. I later found out that when the Portuguese came to this part of India in the 15th c, they insisted that the local Catholics adopt the Latin liturgy. This caused a split in the community, the Syrians adopting the reforms and the Jocobites choosing to decline and go it alone.
Christians are the third largest religious community in India, after Hindu and Muslim.
Religious icons in the sitting room of the B & B in Kochi
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