24 March 08: Meet and Greet

Didn't get out of the religion thing entirely. I had to wake up early and watch Naani pray and play with her half-a-dozen Krishna dolls (bathe-dress-feed while singing to them). She asked me to help her by handing her flowers from the garden and various of the small bartans filled with prasad , like sooji halwa. All this before even breakfast! They should just make Barbie-Radha and Ken-Krishna dolls and then market them to all the grandmothers so they can “bond” with their grandaughters. Here in Rajasthan they'll sell like bhel-puri sells on Chowpatty beach.

Only after the big family breakfast could I get out of the compound and go around picking up the tour group members at the Railway station and bus station. Luckily, Montu, my cousin, dropped me off in his jeep on his way to his “business”.

As I had expected, I had trouble with the names. Since I'd had no contact with customers at my job, I hadn't gone through the mandatory “Accent Standardization” and “Introduction to Spoken American-English” that our Tech support people have to go through. The first fellow I met was Brian, and that was simple enough. The second, who had managed to get to the hotel on his own, was taking a chhutti before going back to the US, after his stint with an NGO in Ahmedabad teaching “Indians about energy efficiency”. Vinod had told me not to get into discussions with them, so I let it pass. As Vinod had emphasized before I came here, “They are here for a holiday, they aren't paying tuition fees for an education!”. I didn't have a list of names on me, so at first I thought Mr. Efficiency's name was “Air Wing”, until he wrote it down and showed me “Erwin” and he was drawing out the “E” because of his German ancestry and I said, “Arrey, like in Erwin Schrödinger!”. I think he was about to smile when I botched it up with “Can I call you “Arvind” instead?”. He just got this pursed lip look, said “No! You may not.” and turned away. Brian --who was overhearing this-- sniggered. Arrey, if Sidhesh and Nandita at Tech Support can become “Sid” and “Nancy” ... ?

Vinod's chap here, Salim had picked up the people on his list, and he told me that the whole group was there. So before the dinner meeting at their hotel, I went looking for the ones he'd picked up. I found them all in the bar. I introduced myself and they told me their names. I didn't get all the names, so I pulled out the printed attendance sheet I had armed myself with and asked the group for “Amy”, saying it as I saw it: “A” as in “bat”, “am e”. No one owned up to the name until I started calling out the last names, like a roll-call. Then she responded, “It's Eymee”. The rest at least were simple: Michelle, Ellen, Dev, Jaan etc.

One person has already dropped out. This morning I went to pick up 4 people who were all arriving by the same bus from Delhi, but there were only three women waiting there for me. After sorting out the names I asked Susan where her husband was, and she said, “ Oh you mean my X2B, he had to stay back because of business, to take special care of some West coast client who is visiting, like I care.” One of the others shrugged and said, “Well, look around, girl, you can enjoy yourself with some tall, dark, handsome royalty here in Rajasthan.”. I didn't quite get all that, so I said, “OK, but you can't get any money back now.”, just so it was all clear, since this was Vinod's company and I really didn't know what his refund policy was. Her response was funny, “No skin off my bone, its his money and he has plenty of it.”. BTW it should be “no skin off my nose”, but as I said, I 'd missed the American-English usage class.

The other two at the bus station looked alike, both taller than me and a bit older too, shortish hair cut funny and upwards in the back and they both had matching nose-rings on opposite sides. The one without the spots on her face (Leftie) is quite cute. I asked if they were sisters and they looked at each other and laughed. I said, “I mean you have different last names.”, OK it doesn't make any sense but I was just trying to make conversation. They just glanced at each other and laughed again and Rightie said no, they weren't sisters.

For a second there, just a flash, because of that secretive colluding laughter, I was afraid one of them was going to pull my nose, like my older cousins Priya and Mukta used to do. You know, they still do it, even though they are both married. I think it will only stop when I get married. I guess there are worse reasons to get married, and my parents keep suggesting them.

23 March 08: Don't mansion it!

Naani was so happy to see me, I'm glad I came. Of course the second thing she said was, “Naresh beta, Why don't you see some nice girls while you are here? The neighbours' niece, you know, what was that friend's name whose mother used to feed you – hanh Ranjan, what?, I knew all about it, but now don't worry, eat all you want – achha you all used to play with her all summer long, she has also gone to college and not married yet, but very nice girl. Your parents aren't here but doesn't matter you can go with your Mama. ... Just to see, say hello-bye-bye.” I think that last was in response to my face. “Achha beta, you can just go see Ranjan, his marriage has happened – very nice girl also from a good family, he's straightened out now.”. (Hey Vinod, how do you translate sudhar gayo ? “Got repaired”?) I don't know, old childhood friends, especially domesticated ones, it could be good, I suppose.

Anyway, the mansion is not bad! My cousins have modernized things there now. They even have a separate “bidet”! My 4 yr-old nephew took me to see it on a special tour. When I asked him what a “bidey” was, he looked around furtively and said it was a water fountain! I hope the poor kid doesn't come down with something, but he must have gained immunity already. Maybe some of his enthusiasm as a tour guide will rub off on me.

I can stay in one of the finished sidehouses, they are still having work done in the main house. My cousins are good company to hang with, and to help me out they've shown me the bus stop, the train station and given me an idea of the rates that rickshaws etc. charge. I won't get the use of a car, hard times have hit us all. Anyway all for the best, unlike in Pune, traffic in Jaipur is totally chaotic and tempers seem to flare very readily. Much to my disappointment though, nothing much seems to come of all the exchanged gaalis and threats I've witnessed so far.

7 Mar 08: Naani's mansion

Ahh, yes, my Naani's “mansion”. It is a big compound, a main house for herself and my oldest uncle and then various satellite houses for various generations of second sons. There is a half finished, half fallen-apart wall that starts off from the main wall, runs towards the center of the grounds and then peters out halfway, steadily losing height brick by brick until the last one is buried in the packed earth somewhere near the geometric center of the compound - the whole thing like some “concept architecture” my design friends would be proud of. The wall is a result of some fraternal feud over inheritance that ended only with the death of my younger grand uncle due to “natural causes”. I suppose lifelong rancour over birth-order is a natural cause of death. The main house is large, with many rooms, but as I remember it, all stuffed with musty furniture and once expensive things in various stages of decay and protection. My dream is to find an emerald wrapped in newspaper rolling around in the bottom drawer of one of those roll-top desks. My eldest uncle lives there, living off his volunteer work on various committees, I mean other than his inheritance I don't see what else is bringing in cash.

I used to hate going there as a kid, we young kids had to shit out in dirt at the end of the garden. Someone had once stolen bricks from Chhote Mama's wall and placed them in parallel pairs, providing us at least with an elevated place for our feet as we squatted. Winters were horrible, the skin on your hands cracked and bleeding from the aridity and cold, having to drop your woolen pants and long woolen underwear bundled under your knees as you squatted, trying not to pee on your pants or shoes, puzzled by the rising steam. But at least the cold served a purpose; summers, the moment the sun hit that part of the compound the stench would be unbearable until Bhighu came around in the afternoon with his goatskin waterbag. The rest of the day I would really enjoy, but that morning part I detested winter or summer. For a few years we didn't go to Jaipur for the holidays, then when we did go back, I was old enough to be “promoted” and allowed to use the bathroom in the main house. Soon after that they finally built more toilets in the main house as well as in the surrounding houses. Except for the magnificence of the fruit trees and flower plants that grow in that area now, you would never suspect what it used to be.

So yeah, my Naani's mansion.

At least the crazy grand-aunt -- the one who would force me to pray thrice daily and who would extol the virtues of “simple food” (and very little of it) – is dead! Whenever I visited as a child I would be fed by Ranjan's mother next door, but can you imagine forever being hungry in your own house?

7 Mar 08: Off to Jaipur

So I am off to Jaipur in a couple of weeks! Vinod had called a week ago to suggest I go to Rajasthan as a liaison with his tour group. After all these months of slogging to get that last project up and running and (mostly) debugged I jumped at his offer as a welcome break and an opportunity to get out of Pune. I am not sure I wanted to continue with the old company and hope to use the time to do some thinking about what to do next. Vinod has got an experienced fellow out there who has worked for him for years and everything is setup, the accommodations, meals, transportation, itinerary, tours, cultural events, guides, every detail. I am sure even the specific camel for the rides --Dhanno, of course-- has been assigned. I am supposed to be there to receive them when they come in, make sure everything is to their liking, serve as translator, check that all the arrangements that have been made are actually taking place, anticipate problems, put out fires and mainly “to talk to them in English and make them feel comfortable”. Also my role is to let Vinod know what is going on (via this blog) and know when to yell for help.

I asked him why he himself wasn't going, as he normally would. Ujjwala's due date is in the middle of the trip and she threatened some unspecified but dire consequences if Vinod was missing for the delivery of their second child as well. So he has to stick around and at “such short notice yaar” he couldn't schedule any of his other guides to go. He has assured me that he will be available by SMS and will frequently check this blog we've set-up to see how things are going. He's not going to pay me, but my expenses will be taken care of, and as he put it, “You can stay in your Naani's mansion and have real servants looking after your every need, instead of having to stay in some anonymous hotel where you have to pay them to pretend to be your servants.”. So I said, “Fine.”, I hadn't seen Naani nor my cousins in a while.