I am staying in a blue house in the blue city- Jodhpur, probably the most typical city of Rajasthan. With some luck I found this guesthouse run by a real local, and more so, the whole family lives on the ground floor and first floor. 2nd and 3rd floor are converted to guestrooms. The roof top has an amazing view of the Fort and all the blue houses in the city.
Walking through the narrow city streets, I get lost almost every 5 minutes: market places, street scenes, spice shops, jewlery dealers, old buildings and colorful turbans...all suggest that i am in Aladdin.
We feel the desert heat, definitely a big change from Mount Abu. I also got to know a new creature called Desert Cooler. It is essentially a local cheap version of air conditioning, it functions as a big fan and cold water going through a big metal box behind the fan. It makes huge noises, but some how it does cool the rooms. With all the noise and size of the big metal box, it is hard to imagine that it would actually consume less electricity than a real airconditioning. Since his is what local people prefers, I trust that they make good choices.
Sometimes I wonder if the population of cows in a city of Jodhpur actually exceeds the population of human beings. They are everywhere, they eat a lot, they don't do anything, they shit everywhere. and more importantly they are HOLY. Indians believe all spirits of god reside in the body of cow, and so: if you pray to the cow, you pray to all gods. To bring convenience to the spiritual life of the people, the indians have done a great job!
This is a city where 60% habitants are Hindis and 30% Muslins. At dawn, we hear the chantting from Hindu temples and Muslin Mosques compete against each other. As Hindis are mostly vegetarians and certainly don't eat cows, I can not help wonder what happens when the cows actually die. Do muslims just eat them? And if they do, what would the Hindis feel? and if not, what are they going to do with that big chunk of meat?
