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.