Enroute

Strangely enough, we saw a TON of army movement today.

4 large convoys with tank carrying trucks - they were empty. We also saw 2 practice ranges for the military with tanks practicing whatever it is that tanks practice.

Tanks

You can just about make out some tanks behind the pole.

Can you?

Goodbye jaisalmer

Hello Jodhpur.

Off to Jodhpur which is the last stop before I head to delhi where vacation part II begins!

Cool villager shoes

Water storage

Since this is the desert, the water storage is underground for each house instead of in a big tank over head.

This is intelligent. Most houses in cities have this on the roof - which is stupid because in peak summers you end up getting hot water only.

The panchaayat

In discussions with my uncle about insurance for crops and other credit/loan facilities.

Off to a village

After the fossil park, now off to a small village in the real interiors of rajasthan.

It's surprising how good the roads are here. It seems the state government and the prime minister's grameen sadak yojna are bearing some fruits.

The villagers cannot really afford vehicles ( I saw 1 bike and 2 tractor total) but when they do, they have a road BETTER than most in Mumbai to take them to the big cities.

At the village we(means my relative who's a banker) talked to them about agri loans and credit stuff.

We got to see a whole panchaayat happening. Very cool. The villagers seemed to know their stuff and had lots of questions.

In the end an understanding was reached and things will improve for them. Awesome.

More village

A local house.
It's made from cow dung.
Very properly done.

Solidified lava at fossil park

This was at SOME point molten lava.

This is what preserved the trees.
I picked up some to keep at home :)

Cool!

Fossil park

This was a bit cool.

Very close to Jaisalmer and en-route to jodhpur is this wood fossil park where you can see fossilized trees from 180 million years ago - the lower jurassic era.

Wouldve been cooler to see some dinos too though :)

However, I think the presentation was drab with very little info about the place available.

I wouldve preferred big boards showing what we should be looking at and maybe an artist's impression of what this place might've looked like 180mn yrs ago.

Gramophone

Music from the 1800s?

I've seen many of these. What I'd like to see though is the place where they actually recorded this into the LPs!

Sofa set

This is made entirely of silver.

Sewing machine from the 1800s

An old sewing machine.

I don't see how this is fundamentally different from what we have even today.

The glass room

In the haveli. Very cool.

Replica

This is a replica of the havelis and was made in 1993.

It's no match for the intricate work they did in 1800s.

Meeting room

This was the formal meeting room for Patwa.

Note the old radio.

The big object in the centre is a device used to distribute opium to the meeting attendees.

Now THIS kind of stuff is needed for the incessant prezos in today's meetings :)

Patwa haveli - Ancient Lego

Visiting the Patwa haveli in Jaisalmer. It's an awesome structure with mind bogglingly intricate work.

Infact, the designs of the carvings on the exterior can and are used on jewellery! The intricacy of the work is difficult to produce even on jewellery despite gold's amazing moulding capability. This was made possible because the haveli is constructed from sandstone.

The other mind blowing bit about this structure is that it has no usage of limestone or cement. The entire thing is built by interlocking of different parts. This means that you can simply dismantle the structure and rebuild it elsewher - yeah, like Lego

It took 60 years to build (1800-1860) and was commissioned by Ghuman mal Bafna - a jain trader. A total of 5 floors were built - 1 for each of his sons. The total cost was about 10 lakh rupees in 1800s money - which is a LOT. The architecture is a mix of Hindu and Muslim styles with the curved windows representing the latter and the flat plain windows the former.

He got the name Patwa because he had significant exposure in trading gold, silver, pearl and opium as well as running this silkroute successfuly.

Recently, it was bought by some members of that 'kothari' clan(for lack of a better word)  for am ere 80,000 rupees rupees who gifted it to the ASI - this was to prevent it from being auctioned into private hands.

It is now under their maintenance - and they have done a pretty reasonable job.

It thus also known as the Kothari ki Patwa Haveli.

Auto drums!

Stopping at the famous temple en-route to the border - Tanot temple.

It has AUTOMATIC drumming machine that is switched on to call people for the arti.

The temple is famous because the goddess ensured that all the pakistani shelling in this area was useless because the missiles/bombs/shells just wouldn't explode - there were 450 of them.

They have even put the recovered shells on display!!

Divine intervention indeed :)

Car freaks!

These guys were very fascinated by our car and kept asking questions about it.

Cars spend universal love and friendliness.

I knew it! Take note ye lousy world leaders.

Also, awesome turban color!

The border milestone.

Literally, the road ends here.

The border!

See the fencing?

That's the indo-pak border.

Interestingly enough, the fencing and lighting is only on india's side. Nothing on the Pakistan side.

Makes sense though, since no one from here is trying to cross the border into that country :)

Border checkpost

15 kms before the border

Secularism

At the Tanot devi temple 20 kms from indo-pak border.

Temple and a muslim mazaar in the same complex.

I don't know any other country where religions can co-exist in this way - while always seemingly being at war :)

Now THIS is the real desert.

Sure, at Sam dunes we saw the sunset and saw some dunes but NOTHING compares to the vastness of the desert that lies before me as I drive from Jaisalmer to the Indo-pak border - about 140 kilometres away.

While this photo is kinda useless (crappy BB cam) the sand dunes are the size of proper mountains. If you really want to know how tiny mankind is in nature's scheme of things, you don't have to go into space, just spend 5 minutes in the vast nothingness that is this desert.

Asia's tallest TV tower

Standalone.

Rajasthan seems to have a lot of 'asia's largest'

1. The largest man made lake
2. The largest library
3. And now the tallest stand alone TV tower
4. I think also Thar may be asia's largest desert but I'm not sure.

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Jaisalgarh hotel

Nice pretyy little hotel just on the outskirts of Jaisalmer.

Now off to indo-pak border which is about 125 kms from here.

Sunset at Sam dunes

The amount of people is staggering.

I thought desert would be a lot quieter than this.

Haldi vegetable

Wow.

I didn't know there were vegetables made from haldi - entirely!

Deshnook - Mice everywhere!

Situated about 40 minutes from Bikaner, this is a temple built for goddess Karnimata who was 1 of the 7 sisters that have temples dedicated to them.

The temple is famous for being a place that's crawling with mice - called kaaba.

The Rajasthani word for 'little boy/son is Kabba and kaaba is derived from that - the mice are considered as sons of the goddess.

Considering how dirty they are, it was surprisingly clean and absolutely un-smelly.

The 600 year old temple has never had a single case of plague in its history. Even when there have been plague cases nearby.
It is said that the mice of the temple never ever step out of the temple - which seemed true since before entering we couldn't see even one!

It is further said that the mice from outside the temple don't enter the temple either - something a LOT harder to verify - but probably giving a good explanation for their ability to escape the plagues - insulation/isolation.

The temple has a long 'parikrama' that spans 36 kilometers and apparently has to be finished in one night - this year 80k people finished it.

Interestingly enough, the lady forbid people to worship her through her entire life (150 years estimated) but ofcourse once she was dead, people went ahead and did it anyway.

Karnimata was not really interested in the social life but her parents were after her life to get married. So, she did what any normal goddess-in-the making would do - she married the king.

However, she probably didn't like the honeymoon destination or maybe the king sucked at seduction but the wedding wasn't consummated because she wasn't interested. So she got her sister married to the king as well so that THEY could have a normal married life - I think some minus points for lack of foresight of getting the sister married in the first place - especially since she was a goddess in the making.

Anyway, so coming back to the temple, there are literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of mice roaming the place - so much so that first time visitors are advised to put their feet on the white tiles because its easier to spot mice on it - and avoid stepping on them.

Apparently its lucky to see a white mouse. I saw one - twice!
Don't care whether its true or not but its a good feeling :))

Bikaner

Christmas at select citywalk

More amazement at just how seriously we celebrate this festival.

For shops, ofcourse this is another reason to offer more discounts and increase footfalls.

For me, its a 10 day vacation! Woohoo!!

Also, why is this purple?

Christmas decorations

At dilli-o-dilli at IHC.

I find it increasingly surprising just how many places are getting these christmas decorations and just how many of us look forward to christmas breaks.

It speaks volumes for our collective secularism. Well done!

Man ka radio

At the hall. Attempting to watch Man ka radio. We are the only 7 ppl in the hall.

I plead temporary insanity.

Taj Mahal Photos

Photos from my recent trip to the Taj

Enjoy!

These are sweets!

This is a 'seasonal mithai' which is made only during winters since its made of butter - which melts in summers rather quickly :)

It was too sweet and I couldn't get over the watermelon look - which is one of the few fruits I hate!

I don't know what this is called though. Do you?

Lifesaver

At 2am, and with temperatures that felt below freezing, we took shelter under this gas heater.

There were 3/4 of these surrounding the area where the feras were taking place.

We also had our suits on as well as a razai to curl into.

It was all I could do to not fall asleep!

It was fun though!

My bro gets married!

It always amazes me when 2 people tie the knot and decide to spend the rest of their lives together - through sickness and health, sorrow and happiness, triumphs and tribulations.

Even though I have known the bride for about 3 days, I can say that my bro is one heck of a lucky guy. She is super cool - and that is a word I don't generaly compliment ppl with very often.

Btw, this raised platform was an excellent idea so everyone could stand around and have their fill of the 'doolah dulhan'

Have a great life you two!

Pottery

At fatehpur sikri.

Better pics from my recent agra trip will follow shortly!

Wall fixture

Cool wall fixture at lazeez on malcha marg.

I'd like to put this on my cieling so that it looks like stars twinkling at night!

The Wedding spread

It's amazing just how many gifts get spread out at weddings.

I've been asked to sit in a room full of wrapped up presents while the ladies do their dance etc. in another part of the house.

Weddings are awesome!

Foggy morning

Slight fog and lots of cold as I begin packing to leave for agra.

Oh and, finally IT gave me my BB back so atleast the camera works :)

Phone slippers

I have never seen a 'cuter' phone accessory than this slipper attachment.

Cinderall phone jokes flood my mind.

Awesome tag line

Reads: "Joins everything except broken hearts! :)"

Genuine Imitation Life

Recently, one of my relatives walked into a room where us 3 brothers were sitting together, each busy on his own laptop or mobile device.

Jokingly, he referred this belafonte song - Genuine Imitation Life and it has been stuck in my mind ever since:

--
Chameleon changing colors-
while a crocodile cries
People rubbing elbows,
but never touching eyes.
Taking off their masks,
revealing still another guise
Genuine imitation life

People buying happiness and manufactured fun
Everybody doing what everybody's done
People count on people who can only count to one
Genuine imitation life

All the pretty clouds are a lovely shade of black
You find the right direction, someone tears up all the track
People worship crosses, fingers crossed behind their back
Genuine imitation life

Old friends get together but it's solitaire they play
Everybody's rainbow done in different shades of gray
It's a lovely place to visit but I wouldn't want to stay
In a genuine imitation life
Genuine imitation life
---

I am back!

It's been a while since I've posted here.

One of the main reasons was working around the various corp BB restrictions - my primary mode of blogging is banging my thoughts out on my BB.

Hopefully, I can be more frequent now!

The shopper monks

Having given up the world"s pleasures was a given as a monk.
However it seems the lure of designer shoes seems too much for these folks.

I don't blame them, considering how much they walk!

However, I do hear that since the monks get a lot of money as donations, they are literally rolling in money.

The problem with delhi traffic

Can you spot it?

Junk jewellery

I knew women loved shopping for junk jewellery but I never realised just HOW much till I spent 3 hours playing shopping assistant at Janpath.

Security warning of the day!

flyover

First a flyover was made. Then another was attached to it YEARS later.

Finally, a metro link is being built going over both flyovers.

Why the hll can't they put such engineering skills to use in bombay!

Amer Fort

Fabulous sound and light show. Must watch.
Costs 200 rupees, lasts an hour and will give you a great history lesson.

Funnily enough, they talk about the exact same stuff they created controversies over when Jodha Akbar released.

Makes me think it was all a publicity stunt :)

Ah... The torment

Priyanka endorses Nokia. I don't know why they dont have more ads of her.
Apart from this, I do believe that Nokia has BRILLIANT advertising.

Check this post for more. http://meandmycam.blogspot.com/2007/04/music-gets-you-talking.html