Navratri Festivities in Gujarat

Last week I had one of my most exhilarating experiences ever. I went to Ahmedabad in Gujarat for Navratri, a festival celebrating that the goddess Durga fought a demon for 9 days and in the end succeeded because of her feminine strengths, I think. There's a wiki page here, but the most important thing is the Garba. The Garba ground is a massive circle where people dance the traditional steps back-and-forth-round-and-clap-back-and-forth-clap-step-back-step-forth.

My couchsurfing hosts told me that many of the women save up to this festival all year, spend months sewing their costumes, often with different outfits for each day. But not only the women dress up, the men are dressed in equal grandeur and have trained just as much. The most children in Gujarat are born 9 months after Navratri. The splendid dress and mesmerizing dancing creates an atmosphere out of the ordinary in an otherwise alcohol-free state.

So many of the women's outfits were breathtaking. And when you realise that all the colours are embroidered you feel like stopping them all from dancing so wildly and taking them all to a museum, but of course that would be a horrible idea. I was so inspired and in love with it all. We weren't allowed to bring in cameras, but fortunately nobody minded having their picture taken when I asked.

The girl in the first picture was an amazing 10-yearold girl who practically kidnapped me away from the people I went with. She showed me the steps and her friends laughed with me so hard at my clumsiness. I think several hours went by in an instant until her elder sisters joined. At one point we found a group of more than 20 men doing what can best be described as sit-up-dancing. They were sitting in a circle on the floor shaking their hands over their heads as they moved their upper bodies back and forth. We joined them and got a great work-out.

The event was live-streamed every day. If you want to see me catching a breath, I'm standing behind some dancing Europeans around 1h 34m into the clip above. In retrospect these videos are actually quite trippy, and I suggest you put them on to celebrate an epic Halloween party. Around 30min into the clip below we start chanting and praying. It was quite a magical moment as all the lights went off and we were left with the candles that we held in our hands.

After the days in Ahmedabad Indian Rails decided to mess a little with my tickets, and instead of going further into the countryside I went to Baroda. I spent my time there with a great couchsurfer who literally lives and works at night and sleeps in the day. He works with internet marketing, but is considering to become a tourist guide in the daytime. With his friends we went for Navratri celebration at the Fine Arts campus, Jalebis (traditional sweets eaten on the last day of Navratri), then a rooftop party. When all that was over he showed me Old Baroda and the vegetable market as the hustle and bustle of the city started just before sunrise.

The Fine Art students had taken clues from recent trends into their dresses that were more simplistic and there were no microphones. Just drums and the shrieks of their joy.

Sweet Jalebis are being cooked in pure ghee (clarified butter)

The vegetable market as it opens up to the vegetable wallahs who will sell these further in local markets.

Let's head to Jaipur

Last weekend I decided it was time Sam and I finally paid a visit to Jaipur. Dubbed the Pink City because the central market used to be painted all pink with paint made from roses. This was a romantic gesture that a Mughal king had done to impress his English wife*. It is much more importantly the centre of handblock printing, but I'm saving that story for later. Here is a collection of some of my pictures from our crazy animal-filled visit to Jaipur.

Space Communication store in the central market. Now the pink is more of an orange shade because the government realised too late that the pink colours was an attraction.

Hello little pidgeon. Saw this through the window as we were walking up the vantage point tower Siralaat.

Sundial with the precision of 2 seconds.

Which zodiac is this? From the Jantar Mantar astrological observatorium.

The Anokhi Museum of handblok printing

  

A wedding horse

The view from Amber Fort to Nahagarh Fort

Inside Amber Fort

Workshop of gold dust printing

Handblock printing factory

The first day we just managed to have a look around the places our excessively charming driver wanted to take us. The second he showed us some factories for whom he used to work as a salesman. He also introduced me to a guru who predicted that I would have troubles with my stomach within two days - thankfully that never happened. So hopefully I will also avoid arthritis and keep my hearing! We ended our last day at the Indian Coffee House. A place where a meal will cost you less than you could ever imagine and where the waiters starch their headdresses in a manner so that they have 20 centimetres of fabric standing straight on the top of their heads.

*Caution: this info is provided by a cheeky untrustworthy tuktuk driver and should have been checked.

Chandigarh Rock Garden

It's been some time now, but I'm eager to share with you my pictures from the Rock Garden in Chandigarh. The Rock Garden is a fantastic labyrinth of structures and statues build from debris. The artist Nek Chand was secretly building thousands of statues while Chandigarh was being totally restructured under the guidance of Le Corbusier. He spent 18 years building the garden until it was discovered by the authorities and faced the danger of being demolished. However, public opinion was on his side and the park was officially inaugurated in 1975. I was baffled by the vast size and his imagination of how the walls, bridges and waterfalls could be built from the scrap material. We spent several hours walking around in the sweltering heat, but the interesting structures kept us intrigued. I am definitely a much better friend of my camera today because I found so many interesting motives and angles. I've tried to make a collection of the best here:

 

 

Afterwards we found a really nice cafe called something-Girl. They had a fantastic carrot-apple-ginger juice, but the craziest thing ever was that they had a photo from Nyhavnen, Copenhagen. You are never too far away from home - even when you spend all day in an Alice-in-Wonderland-rabbit-hole-park.

The Perks of being a Wallflower

While in Chandigarh last week my friend Vikram decided to use the opportunity to rummage around his cousin's closet and her massive collection of accessories. He had been dying to style me in what sounded to me as hooker heels and bum-showing skirts, but he ended up using a lot of my own clothes in the end. The pictures are finally edited, and all my awkward poses deleted. Vikram has even written a spot-on description of me. It's all on his blog Sartorial Diary.

Agra Wonders

I have just been through a Very Peculiar Week. On Friday we set off to Agra where Taj Mahal the 8th Wonder of the World (according to my coursemates). We took a train and I entertained myself taking pictures out of the window by a few stations.

Cows are everywhere of course...

When we arrived we had dinner on one of the famous roof-top restaurants of Taj Ganj the cheap backpacker area.

A blurry view of the street just before the rain caused another power-cut.

Sweet Hani our waiter who joined our conversation with Ralph another traveller. Don't worry by the way - I didn't let him touch me that intimatedly...

It's 5.30 am - and we're ready for Taj Mahal! I'm sure it's only because Ralph made us promise we'd manage to be ready at this early hour that we actually managed. There was really something beautiful in the air that time of day.

As a symbol of love the myth goes that when you go as a single, you will some day return with the love of your life.

We met a young boy, around 12 years is my guess, dressed in long ironed trousers, probably the best his money can afford, a polo t-shirt and well-combed hair. He initially introduced a few good angles from this platform, but suddenly we found ourselves in the most peculiar places looking for symbols on the ground to stand on for the very best pictures. Just in time to seek shield from the rain we said goodbye to our brisk little photographer.

From inside the mausoleum, looking through the intricate marble works.

After breakfast we planned to go to 'Baby Taj' - Itimad-ud-Daulah which is across a massive bridge. Our rickshaw cyclist was an old strained man with a beautiful smile. It's difficult to just sit there accepting that someone else, so much weaker than oneself is trying to transport you on a bike. Fortunately our man below was quick to suggest we jumped out whenever we were going to go uphill. He also let us walk ahead when the bridge traffic completely shut off. It was actually super interesting suddenly walking on the ground in the midst of heavy traffic, queuing like everyone else to get ahead. I also had much better time to look around.

Baby Taj is beautiful. It's in a way more comprehensible.

After a few hours trying to get back over that bridge, we finally reached the Agra Fort. A beautiful massive construction which encapsulates several temples or mosques (depending on when they were added and by which emperor) all part of the palace within. It's such a fantastic view from the balconies across the Yamuna River over to Taj Mahal. 

We finished off the Saturday with a little bite and mango lassi on our hotel rooftop. That was the end to our lovely times in Agra. At 2am I woke up from sweating and all night I kept feeling bad until around 8-10 am (I have no idea) when Samantha had the hotel arrange for a motorcycle to transport me to the hospital.

4 days passed slowly in this room. I had contracted an e coli infection and with bad dehydration I needed IV and all sorts of tests done.

Driving on the new expressway back to Delhi yesterday. The landscape is incredible.