Sunday, February 18, 2018

Jodphur...Part 2

Rajasthan is full of palaces, forts and other grand buildings which we have really enjoyed seeing, but it has another side which is the day to day lives of the ordinary people. Since we had an opportunity to walk and tuk tuk through parts of Jodphur, go to the markets and villages I thought I would share some of these images...

Other views of the Blue City...

Many shades of blue...






Lots of houses had goats as pets...


Looking for a treat...


Beautiful doors...

One morning we took a tuk tuk to the top of the hill and walked down through the neighbourhoods to the old part of the city...


All over India we see that there are lots of activities on the rooftops in the sun... this couple were drying saris...




Lots of food drying in the sun as well...

The Center of the Old City is Sardar Market that has a beautiful clock tower as its’ landmark...

Interestingly the Clock Tower was built by the grandfather of our host here in Jodphur. He told us his grandfather, the Maharajah had the clock built in England and it was one of a kind.

The colours of the market...




The Fort overlooks the old city...


The traffic and chaos is everywhere...




When it gets to you, stop on the sidewalk and have a “ bear “


We also passed a very old stepwell in the middle of the city, yes the water is green!


Toorji Ka Jhalra (Toorji’s Step Well) was built in Jodhpur the 1740s by a Queen, Maharaja Abhay Singh’s Consort, continuing an age old tradition that Royal women would build public water works.
It has been recently cleaned up and maintained by volunteers, locals actually use it for swimming. It is  over 200 feet deep and quite a beautiful structure...

People also sit here to enjoy the shade...


Another day we took a Jeep ride out to some of the villages...


Our driver Raj and his brother with Don...

Some of the sights along the way...


Holy men...

A shepherd with her goats...


We gave a lift to these two beauties on their way to work digging out a lake. The government provides 100 days of paid work to one woman per household to engage in community support projects.


The area was very poor looking...


We stopped into a Muslim household where the traditional trade is pottery particularly the making of water jugs...


The children were getting ready for school...


And the father gave us a demonstration...


While Grandmother watched over it all...


The Boshnoi people are very strict religious people who perform many ceremonies using local herbs and spices including opium oil...


Trying on the turban...


Then there was a visit to a very clean compound of carpet makers...




Lots to buy...


And finally a story that shows us how small our world can be....our daughter Dawn came to India many years ago to volunteer with an opthamalagist who ran a charity hospital. In our first home stay we were telling this to our host when he wanted to know the name of this doctor which we didn’t know. 

The next morning at breakfast he showed us a picture of Dawn taken by this doctor as Dr. Desai was a school boy friend of his from years ago.He had texted him to ask if he could remember a Dawn Armstrong volunteering with him and he said I remember her well and sent us the picture! 

So when we were in Jodphur he sent a car to pick us up and bring us to his hospital for a tour. He and his brother work seven days a week at this charity hospital founded by his father. They are both opthamalagists as was their father who recently passed away.


 
Dr. Desai

The original hospital building is quite old, for some reason my camera was in the wrong setting so pictures aren’t great...

His brother conducting eye exams...

The ward...


Old equipment...


However the good news is that he is in the middle of building a new wing with updated fixtures and equipment...


Here he is demonstrating a machine that works something like a dryer which patients coming from the old building will step though to blow off all the dust before entering the new wing and then to the operating rooms....


He was such a humble man and doing such great work with only help from donors as he asks the patients for little or no money to provide the services such as cataract surgery. We were so thrilled to have met him. 

We really enjoyed our stop here, did lots but still had time to relax in our beautiful home stay. Now on to our last stop in Rajasthan which will be Jaisalmer.


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