rajasthan

Blue City Fort

The Mehrangarh Fort, one of the lagest forts in India, sits over 120meters above the city, surrounded by huge thick walls. Inside are a number of palaces and courtyards, the foundations of which date back to 1459, although most of what we see today dates from the period of Jaswant Singh – 1638 to 1678. Entry to the fort is through a series of seven gates, again built and installed over different periods. These have been offset so as to avoid being charged at by armoured elephants.

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Sambhali Trust – An Interview With Govind Rathore – Pt 2

[S02E19] This is the second part of our podcast interview with Govind Rathore who set up and runs the Sambhali Trust, a non-profit, grass-roots charitable organisation based in Jodhpur, the Blue City of Rajasthan. In this episode we continue to chat with Govind on the rooftop of his homestay, Durag Niwas, and we take in two of the empowerment centres that help women who come from troubled backgrounds.

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Sambhali Trust – An Interview With Govind Rathore – Pt 1

[S02E18] A couple of kilometres outside the centre of Jodhpur, Govind Rathore and his family run the Durag Niwas homestay, but that’s not their main interest. In 2007 Govind set up the Sambhali Trust, an NGO that helps women from the lowest castes in India escape their lives of hardship and empowers them with the skills necessary to operate their own businesses. Many of these women only speak a local dialect and don’t understand Hindi, so they learn to read, write and speak Hindi and English. They are also taught sewing and farming skills. The work Govind and the Trust is doing is so important, having helped over 600 women in its five year existance, that we are dedicating two podcast episodes to our time with the Sambhali Trust.

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Jantar Mantar

[S02E14] If ever the sculptor Anish Kapoor received inspiration it must surely be from this ancient astronomy site, now a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. We admire the contours and angles of these intriguing objects before wandering round the impressive Amber Fort.

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Backstreets Of Jaipur

[S02E12] Over the next few weeks we do the Golden Triangle, a hectic and touristic rite of passage. To ease ourselves into this trip we start with a gentle wander round the cool backstreets of Jaipur, the Pink City.

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They Say Don’t Drink The Water

Liz and I have always said “if it’s good enough for the locals, it’s good enough for us”. Once s/y ‘Full Flight’ and ourselves filled the boat’s water tanks up from a lorry off a dusty dock in Massawa, Eritrea. Whilst the other boat owners looked on in horror, the locals just said “well we drink it”. Of course traipsing the dark back streets of Jaipur in Rajasthan is thirsty work, so these communal drinking taps are a god-send.

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#SquareSunday – Bright Future

Here in India it is Sunday, which means I can post this up now for the #SquareSunday project! This nostalgic shot was taken in Jodhpur, just round the corner from my previous GooglePlus submission, hence the similar blue walls. I particularly like the juxtaposition of the Bright Future poster and this ageing gent. And what exactly is Red Tooth Powder?

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Unique Udaipur

This is our final entry of our Rajathan trip, written by Octopussy…I mean Liz. Why Octopussy? Because we’re in Romantic Udaipur, where the rather kitch 1983 Bond movie was filmed. However, as Liz writes: “shunning the ‘antiques’, carpets, and tailoring being thrust at us we ended up by the water, watching the sun go down over Udaipur from the best viewpoint in town, in the company of professional photographers and the homeless.”

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Sambhali Trust: Charity begins in a Rajput Home

“We teach them about their appearance, good dress sense. Most don’t know where Jodhpur is, or even that they live in Rajasthan. Their lives are simply this: get up, brew tea for Dad, do the dishes, clean the house, cook lunch, sleep, clean the household, make dinner, go to bed. Every single day of their lives. They have no weekends, no holidays. They are married at 15, and then have the exact same life with a husband who probably rapes and certainly beats them.” This is the account of one man’s mission to ’empower’ disadvantaged women from Rajasthan, in a superb write-up by Liz that is packed with first-hand accounts, facts, sad stories and, ultimately, the positive action of the Sambhali Trust.

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Bad Boy Indian

As our blog moves into the Blue City of Jodhpur, we thought we’d post up our Pic Of The Day: a little bad boy, his home-girl and his wheels, taken in one of the back-streets of this amazing city. Kids, eh? Same the world over. [Click to see the full image]

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Jodhpur Crowded And Dirty?

Our copy of the Lonely Planet describes Jodhpur as “crowded and dirty”. What utter tosh. Being in India ‘crowded’ is a given but The Blue City is by far the cleanest place we have visited so far (and certainly cleaner than London right now). Its smart clock tower in the centre gives it a friendly market-town ambiance and the streets between our niwas (home-stay) and the centre were wide, airy and populated by some rather grand houses. The wonderful tight back-streets are in stark contrast, but all daubed in a bright blue paint and bustling with locals at work and play. We have three (yes, three!) slide shows to illustrate the grandeur of The Blue City to take your mind off the horror of the London riots.

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Jantar Mantar and the Pink City Beggars

We’d only been in Jaipur a day and a night and already we’d witnessed some police brutality, so we thought we’d balance it with a bit of civilised culture. Cue one UNESCO World Heritage site and a huge palace-cum-fort. After visiting these incredible places, however, we thought we’d get back to reality with some interaction with beggars, street-dwellers and kids rummaging through piles of rubbish. Just to remind ourselves of this diverse city we’re in before leaving for the Taj.

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