Homeward bound
I am finally at home for a three week vacation. I think Jaipur is at its best in the winter season. The sights and sounds that winter brings along with it make up for the bitter chill in the air at this time. I would vouch for the Rajsathani locals as being probably the simplest and easiest to get along with people in India. Add to this the colour and gaiety that they normally infuse into their living, and you can be assured that their company is enjoyable and fun loving at almost all times.
The exception to ‘all’ being if you have them for company on a train journey. Having studied in a college in South India, I have made numerous trips from either Bangalore or Chennai to Jaipur, and I have almost always been blessed with a decent sized Marwari (one class of ethnic locals from Rajasthan) family as co-journeymen. The typical family would consist of one huge (horizontally challenged) male, an equally bloated brother, a slim wife and two noisy young kids. If you are really down on your luck, the kids’ grandparents would have also decided to make the trip.
There is the rather curious affair of how the Marwaris age – as he steps into old age, the Marwari male to some degree loses his mass, and the wife does her very best to restore family neutrality by gaining some. In case of confusion in identifying who is who, the lady (mother-in-law) can always be identified by the huge key bunch that jingles merrily at her waist, having been stuffed with much effort between her sari and the emerging flab.
The only point of attention and interest for the journeying Marwari family is in their food. Four courses at least must travel down the esophagus, without which peace and sleep they will get not. Sweets and savouries form the bulk of this diet, supplemented with frequent indulgence in fruit. The fruit is generally fed in equal measure to both the family members and the train compartment floor! The other activities that the Marwaris devote time to en route are playing cards, and starting impromptu and incongruous Antakshri sessions, where half the people sound like croaking frogs.
I was prepared for a similar experience when traveling to Jaipur this time around, but am glad to say that the corpulent Marwari populace seems to have stayed at home. The journey on the whole was peaceful (spent most of my time reading Treasure Island), and was punctuated with a few amusing incidents which I shall next narrate.
The principal cause of the amusement was a young boy who kept pestering (though in a friendly, innocent way) his elder sister. For example once the sister expressed her desire to get some sleep, and wanted to bring down the middle berth. But her brother would have none of it, and insisted that she trek up to the top berth, knowing only to well that she was too scared to do so. And thus proceeded a hilarious session where he demonstrated three different techniques in which she could climb up. She reluctantly tried each one of them, but could not proceed beyond the first step at any attempt. What was even more amusing was the assistance offered by one of their friends – a curly haired young girl whom everyone referred to as ‘Bag wali Aunty’. She spent most of her two days on the train tightly clutching her shiny new handbag, which we would learn later, contained a comb and a wad of paper soap strips. Every now and then she would seat herself comfortably in a corner, pull out the strips, and would anxiously count them to make sure none were missing.
Also comical were the ways in which the young boy ‘cheated’ at cards. Whenever he sensed that he was going to be on the receiving end of a game, he would suddenly fall over and drop all his cards in the common heap, pretending it was an accident. Looking into neighbor’s cards was no crime for him, and playing was exciting until he began to lose a few hands.
One of my fellow commuters turned out to be the vocalist for a fledgling Bangalore rock band. He had brought his guitar along with him and would occasionally fish it out and strum a few chords while singing popular numbers. He was quite talented with the guitar and possessed a good voice as well. I got talking with him and in due course he handed me the lyrics of his latest song that he was working on. It spoke of dreams that the singer was having, and which he wanted to turn into reality. He sang to me this partially completed song, and I would say for an own composition it had a great sound to it. Then came the question from him that I was dreading - “Can you guess what this song is about?”
I was sure that most likely one of us would end up looking like a fool. Knowing that I was treading on slippery ground, I tried to give an erudite reply – “I think its about an ambition you have, a someone that you would like to be, and your quest in turning this aspiration into reality.” He looked disappointed with my reply. “It’s about my girl friend,” he said. “I haven’t seen her in six months, and am going to Jaipur to meet her.” I gave an understanding nod, and silently turned back to the charms of Treasure Island.
The journey ended without fuss, and I thanks to my slow reading speed have still not finished my book. I hope my luck with Marwari travel mates holds on the return leg too. I really don’t miss the feeling of squished fruit under my feet!
Hello,
I really enjoy your pictures and the sleek descriptions that come along.Looking forward to pics from jaipur,
hope you have a plesant stay back home,
mandeep
Posted by
Anonymous |
December 22, 2005 6:16 AM
Hi Sidd,
I really enjoyed reading this :-) Enjoy your holidays at home. Hope to see some Jaipur photos from you soon..
Take care,
Kanchana
Posted by
Anonymous |
December 22, 2005 9:18 PM
[Kanchana] - Will be posting some jaipur centric stuff soon too. Have a nice trip to Bombay.
[Mandeep] - Thank you for visiting :).
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