Rajasthan... de Jaisalmer à Jodphur

Fin mars, on s'est rendus au Rajasthan où on a passé 10 jours formidables, entre la ville de Jaisalmer et Jodphur, en passant par un campement dans le désert qui aurait fait pâlir d'envie un Maharajah.

La fête de Holi incite à asperger son prochain de poudres et liquides colorées. On n'y a pas échappé....

Prètres Jaïns de Jaisalmer regardant passer le touriste....

Comme s'ils s'aimaient... avec la forteresse toujours habitée de Jaisalmer en toile de fond.

Des kilomètres de ruelle praticables uniquement en moto ou à pied, pour humains et vaches.

La forteresse de Jodphur domine la ville bleue. Les maisons des Brahmin sont paintes du couleur du ciel....qui ne doit rien à Photoshop !

Les enfants du village courent presque aussi vite que notre Jeep....Adieu les gars!

The coolest time of the year

Gardeners Corner:
Since we got back from the Christmas holidays in France, the plants in the garden have been flowering beautifully, in honour of the "cool" weather (22/30°C).
Pity we don't have the Bougainvilleas that some of our neighbours do though. They're amazing.

Diwali fireworks rant

Soapbox hour:

 Given the packaging in which Indian fireworks are boxed, it was hardly surprising to see children as young as 5 or 6 playing with firecrackers and worse alone in the streets around our house at Diwali time.

From the look of these packets, seems it's probably OK to give sparklers to babies - and we suspect that the Barbie doll is going to come to a sticky, blackened end somewhere along the line.

Awww sweet or what! Definitely appealing to the under fives, this box....
At least “The number of children employed in these factories has come down drastically. Today, the number would be around 3,000 children, mostly in the 14-17 year age bracket.” A state government survey had put the number at more than 30,000 in the mid-1990s" http://www.tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne220912Burden.asp

Well self-righteous rant over, but some problems seem easier to fix than others....
 

Madras Crocodiles

Ca fait un moment qu'on passe notre chemain sur l'East Coast Road sans s'arrêter au "Madras Crocodile Bank" ("banque" de crocodiles). Voilà la visite est faite, pourtant nous ne sommes pas sûrs de vouloir faire un retrait de sitôt à cette banque tout à fait particulière...

Ces deux images sont des Mugger Crocodiles qu'on trouve encore à peu près partout en Inde. Sympathiques, ils ont l'aire de couler de jours paisibles. Ceci dit, on n'a pas assisté à l'heure du repas.

Celui à nez fin est un Ghairal, une espèce ménacée de disparition. Il peut rester sous l'eau jusqu'à deux heures sans sortir pour respirer, avec un rythme cardiaque de 2 à 3 battements par minute. Les Ghairal ont le nez trop fin pour attraper de grandes proies. Ouf !

Deepavali in company of the Irulai villagers

Diwali, festival of lights

 

The children have 5 days holiday from the American School this weekend for Diwali, an India-wide hindu and sikh festival wherein rows of lamps (Dipawali in sanskrit) are lit to welcome the goddess Lakshmi into homes, while firecrackers are lit to drive off evil spirits. Gifts are given. According to the legend, Lakshmi rose from the churning of a sea of milk to become the goddess of prosperity.

We think of it as a combination of Christmas and Guy Fawkes' night....

 

Yesterday we were very lucky to participate in the distribution of football shirts, school bags and 10th standard school books to some children of the Irulai people near to Mamallapuram with John Degler of SAVE International http://www.save-intl.org/

The gift-giving was good fun and the games the children played together were even better! Great fun was had by all, and it was definitely a Diwali to remember for our children. We are sure that the Irulai children will be very proud to display their new bags in school.

 

So thanks John for letting us tag along !

 

 

Ayudha Pooja

                                     
Ce 24 octobre, Ayudha Pooja, une cérémonie en honneur des outils de travail - en l'occurence, Ilaya le chauffeur de Hugues a tenu à fairehonneur à sa voiture.
Donc un petit autel a été dressé devant titine, qui a aussi été ornie de feuilles de bananier, de guirlandes de fleurs, et de peinture sur le pare brise et les fenêtres.

Ensuite on a enflammé et puis cassé une noix de coco et un genre de citrouille farcie de peinture rouge.

On a eu de la chance que la sacrifice des animaux soit maintenant interdite en Inde. Evidemment la peinture rouge symbolise le sang d'une chèvre ou d'un coq qu'on a pu, pour le coup, épargner!

Tout le monde a eu droit à une bindi bicolore: une pâte jaune puis une poudre rouge collée dessus, en bas du front.
Merci Ilaya et sa soeur....
 

Madras Vitamins

Fruit and Vegetable shopping:

We have been trying out different varieties of local produce, here is a list of the hits and disappointments.....

Hits: (all at prices between 20 and 60 rupees a kilo - that's 10 to 30 pence a pound....

Watermelon: small, tasty, almost seedless and almost free !!
Bananas: ah yes, but which of the 8 or more varieties do you mean....? All tiny, all delicious
Cucumbers: as long as you buy the smaller "herbal" variety, the larger sized ones have hard seeds.
Limes: small and delicious.Perfect for mojitos. Full of seeds though, and takes ages to squeeze enough juice to be useful for anything else.
Avocados (called Butter Fruit here): huge, mostly tasty. Go from green to over-ripe in the flashiest of flashes.
Okra (lady's finger) yum yum....
Green Beans: whenever they have the smaller ones in, the larger ones get stringy
Sweetcorn: delicious!!
Red, Yellow and Green peppers: very tasty.
Green coconuts: drink the water and revive instantly.

Misses: (same prices though)

Tomatoes: look good but no taste or acidity....and not RED enough !! Still no alternative, so we buy them anyhow.

Musk melon: looks like a melon, smells like a melon, tastes like a melon rind....

Courgettes: ghastly expensive (90 rupees a kilo) and such a minority market that they are geriatric by the time they get to the stall.

 

More exotic fare:

Bottle gourd, Snake gourd, Mangustan.... watch this space!