„No, no. It was only a small wedding. 10 guests for each family.“ The young man next to me is slim, he smiles while telling about the wedding ceremony of his younger brother for which he just returns home from Jodhpur. It is one of the shorter train rides for me, a bit longer than four hours it will take me to get from Jodhpur to Ajmer.
I am proud of myself not only finding the train station but also the right track totally on my own. Slowly I get a bit adapted to this crazy atmosphere in India – especially at train stations. The wagons are as full as the streets. I have to admit that I was overwhelmed when I first stepped out of the airport upon arrival in Mumbai two days ago. The different smells, the cars, the rickshaws, the motorcycles with three to four people on one seat – no-one wearing a helmet. I was happy once I arrived in Jodhpur at 7.30 in the morning after a crazy ride from Mumbai. But let’s time-travel to my first day in the country with the highest population in the world.
After asking a lot of Indians – no one is able to communicate with me in more elaborate ways than with hand and feed what is definitely my fault since I do not know more in Hindi than Hello and Thank you – I start to panic that I will miss my train despite arriving at the train station five hours in advance. Trying to stay optimistic, I start to enjoy this incredible amount of new impressions. Waiting at the office of the police station after they volunteered to bring me to the right track at the right time, I witness two men being dragged into the station. They start to cry while being interrogated. No-one than the one officer bringing them in seems interested. All the others are sitting at the table enjoying a late lunch. Having a white girl waiting on the small bench next to them as well as two supposedly thieves sitting on the floor of the office does not seem to be something that happens for the first time.
During the train ride I meet a lot of people. Their eyes tell me that they would love to know more, but the language barrier limits our discussions to „Namaste“ and encouragingly exchanged smiles. After several stops one man actually starts talking to me. His English is at a level to exchange fluently and I start telling what I will repeat several times during the next days: I am on a university interterm-class about Bollywood, spending two weeks in Mumbai. Since I am curious to get to know more parts of the country I organised a low-budget solo-trip through Rajasthan six days prior to the start of the course. Jodhpur-Ajmer-Pushkar-Jaipur with less than $50. At that moment I still do not know what awaits me. The man is nice, tells proudly that his company has connections to Germany and that some of his colleagues have already worked in Frankfurt.
After at least some hours of sleep and a small scavenger hunt to my backpacking hostel bed, I witness how the town gets awake while getting myself oriented. It is easy to find the clocktower and walk on to see the main sights of Jodhpur: Toorji Ka Jhalra Bavdi, Jaswant Thada, Mehrangarh Fort with the surrounding Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park. I enjoy walking from one spot to another – whether it’s a planned adventure or just a curious discovery at those cute little alleys that weave between the blue-painted houses.
The afternoon leaves me enough time to walk from the Mehrangarh Fort all the way to the Umaid-Bhavan-Palast at the other side of the city crossing the Central Park halftime on my way. The history and architecture of the palace which has been transformed into a hotel with a small but worthwhile museum, is incredible. From the rulers who once lived here and played polo in the building’s surrounding to the furniture. Fun fact about the latter: the originally designed furniture sank on the journey from Europe, hence they requested the Polish artist Stefan Norblin who already painted the incredibly sophisticated motives at the walls, to design a second set of furniture.
Back to my wedding conversion. The man has to get out an hour before I arrive, but we still have time to watch a YouTube sketch about the Indian colonization and I listen to him talking about Indians past and fight for independence. I love these discussions getting authentic insights into the Indian society. I will have many more contacts with locals – some of them more pleasant than others – in the days to come. What awaits me next is an incredible time in Ajmer and Pushkar!
lilithpower 