Day 95 - Local Colour

We spent most of today in the car driving from Bikaner to Jaisalmer. The drive was made a little slower because we took some detours through little villages, and being desert, occasionally sand had drifted across the road. Often, we had to stop completely for huge heards of goats being led across or along the road.

The scenery was quite spectacular in places - wide expanses of sand and scrub, puctuated only by ladies in bright saris or heards of goats. It seems that in spite of, or perhaps because of, the subdued pallete of the landscape, colour plays an even more important role in the dress of the local people. Women, even the poorest, dress in auspicious shades of bright pink and peacock blue (for good marriage), Saffron yellow (in honor of Shiva), or lucky red, or any combination thereof. Silver too, is abundant and cheap in this region, so all women wear many layers of jewelery that jingle when they walk. The desert is pocked with tiny lakes. There is more water than usual at this time of year - the monsoon just ended - but still, the women often walk several kilometres with jugs on their heads, or with tiny donkeys carrying large bags of water. It is a harsh landscape, and a difficult place to live. We are very insulated in our car and hotels, but it is easy to see the wear on even the youngest faces.

We arrived in Jaisalmer slightly before sunset, and paid a visit to the local Cenotaphs, or memorials built after the cremation of rulers. The cluster of buildings is perhaps my favourite site of Indian architecture we have seen so far, and the reddish-gold sandstone turned luminous as the sun slipped lower in the sky.

The area around the cenotaphs is full of children trying to sell all manner of odds and ends, or offering their services as "guides". Several offer, sometimes quite forcibly, "gifts", which then one will trade a few rupee for. A simple solution is to keep pockets full of sweets. It may not be terribly good for their health, but it makes the children happy. A gift can be turned down with a simple "no thank-you" and then "but I have a gift for you", and an offer of a sweet. The child is usually tickled, and will try to strike up a conversation, or call his friends over for their share of sweets. It's a quick route to popularity with a certain age group in the community!

After the cenotaphs, we went to a bluff overlooking the town to watch the sunset. Only a few other tourists were there, and a couple of children posing for pictures and doing magic tricks (in the hopes of rupee or sweets). A young musician also plied his trade, surprising us with a cellophane wrapped CD for sale. I associate street musicians offering up CD's as part of the New York subway system. I did not expect to find it on a bluff overlooking a medieval fort in India. Proof positive that the world is modernising and growing smaller by the day!