Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The little mechanics and a temple

It's scorching hot out today, over 110 degrees so I ended up staying in my room most of the day. It also gave me time to figure out what to do and where to go next week. Too many choices, to many decisions, I'm really having a difficult time deciding. One thing that sucks is that as a solo traveler I don't really feel comfortable traveling on the train or bus so by air it is. Unfortunately that limits me to the big cities that have airports, I hate big cities. To get to the smaller places where I really want to be requires hiring a car and driver, beyond my budget. So part of my trip isn't going as planned and it makes planning a tad difficult. That's the adventure of it all I guess.

Vishnu and Krishna


So to clear my head I managed to brave the afternoon heat and headed out for a walk. This part of Jodhpur is not where tourists go so everywhere I walk people stare at me. Today sitting under a huge tree were two young boys, they smiled and waved with excitement, I smiled back. I went to where I had chai a few days ago, the place was closed, I guess it's too hot to drink tea.

I turned around after only half an hour and began to retrace my steps. When the two boys under the tree saw me coming their bright smiles beamed and hands waved again. I stopped this time to say hi, learning that the two were brothers, Vishnu and his younger brother Krishna. Beside them laid an assortment of tools. I took a few photos and the boys were delighted to see their photos, as I was getting ready to leave an old man came running towards me yelling words I could not understand. Come to find out he was yelling at me to stop, he wanted to see the photos of his sons. He looked, studied the photos, stood erect and nodded his head, approving of the photos. I learned that this shady spot under the tree has been his spot since he was a young boy, he's a mechanic for the three wheeled auto rickshaws. His young sons are now in the business and will probably remain here under this tree until their sons take over. All three were very proud to be business owners, I shook hands and proceeded on my way back to the hotel.

Then I hired an auto rickshaw for a short while and went to visit a Hindu temple that was over 1000 years old. No one there knows for sure how old it is. Outside of the temple I met a boy and a girl, the boy spoke great English and was full of questions, the girl was very shy but allowed me to take her photo. The temple sits in the center  of another building which now serves as a government school. The teachers were all sitting under a tree talking and the once hard at studying students were now paying attention to me. A few photos later and  the boys were all around me. I made an escape as they would not bother me when I was in the temple. After taking my shoes off I approached the temple and rang the bell so that the Hindu gods would know I was here. Inside the paintings on the wall looked as if they were done at the beginning of time. Out of respect I did not take any photos inside the temple. In Hindu fashion I exited the temple stepping backwards and as I did going in I touched each step with my right hand and then to my chest. And finally I rang the bell again to let the Hindu gods know that I was leaving.

Hindu temple of unknown age in Jodhpur


Then the boys started in on me again. One boy came to me and said he came from a poor family and asked for money, I told him I had none but he knew better. After persisting for a while I pointed at him and called him "bodmosh" which in Hindi means sticker, troublemaker, something along that line. That did the trick too, his eyes went wide open and he ran back to his friends, I could hear him telling the other boys what I had called him and everyone was laughing, no more pestering for money. All in all a nice outing.














2 comments:

  1. The email address I had didn't go through. We totally recommend coming to Udaipur. 10 degrees cooler. really great architecture and very clean. a more relaxed vibe. we're staying a jaiwana haveli. 40.00 a night and in a good location. We liked Jaipur but this is an interesting change of pace.

    Hopefully you have a chance to visit both.

    it was very nice meeting you. we look forward to following your travels on the blog!

    josh

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Josh! Glad you recommend Udaipur, just now booked my ticket to go on Monday. I'm tentatively booked at Hotel Krishna, got great reviews but will also check out Jaiwana. I plan on staying a week but we'll see. I've decided five days is too long Jodhpur, but it was good to have some down time. I'm adding Jaipur on my list to.

    Enjoy the rest of your travels through India and a safe journey back to Ohio. I've been using the auto rickshaw driver here, what a great find!. If you have a chance you can try emailing me at 'bruadair33', then the rest of that will be at gmail dot com. Would like to get any other recommendations you have for drivers and/or tour guides from Udaipur and Jaipur, or where ever else.

    Good meeting you two, save travels.

    ReplyDelete