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I spent yesterday evening with the hotel management students I first met on the hilltop fort above Dudh Talai on the 27th November. Their ringleader Sanjay must be added forthwith to my museum of oddities. He is the kind of person that can never let anything go. Everything has to be commented on and analysed. I misunderstood where we had arranged to meet, and when I called later to find out what was going on he seemed surprised that I wanted to meet at all – “You don’t come to meet us at the arranged place and now you need to see us?” – and reminded me later that it had been entirely my fault. A far cry from a previous (unrecorded) occasion when he had praised me so highly for waiting in such a visible and obvious place – “Look at this man’s thinking,” he announced to his friends and the world at large. “Look at his stance there in the middle of the circle where we could find him so easily. Aap bahut minded hain [you’re very clever]!”
When we later arrived at his student digs he cautioned me strongly to “curb my excitement” as the neighbours were apt to complain about the slightest of noises. He sent off some friends to purchase refreshments (egg curry and whisky, it turned out) and showed me some of his coursework. Every time I let my eyes wander for a second he would say a little reprovingly “But I don’t think you’re interested in seeing my work” to which I could only reply that of course I was interested! We argued quite heatedly about something later – I don’t remember what – and I was almost tempted to leave, except that they lived far away from the town centre in an area called Hiran Magri Sector 4 and there were few rickshaws around. None of his friends were allowed much of a look in, and I wondered how they could all be so passive and patient and even subservient to Sanjay when as a person he seems so ripe for ridicule. But I cannot ever know what he is like with no foreigner to impress and perhaps he is very different. He may well possess qualities that I have signally failed to detect.
In contrast, I have just come back from Bablu’s very jolly 21st birthday party on the roof of a family member’s house in the heart of the old town. Before the party started I met him at his uncles’ hotel to watch part of a mock-Hindu wedding for a Korean couple and their Korean friends. This is becoming popular among young Koreans who want to spice up their love life with a touch of exotic Occidentalism, although I found the experience bland rather than magical. I suppose the couples in question have “proper” Korean weddings back at home. The party itself was much more interesting, with Bollywood music and dancing on the tiny terrace, surreptitious whisky drinking when Bablu’s girlfriend wasn’t looking and endless, endless photographs. The birthday cake was a kitsch green and red creation covered in rose petals – something for a ten year old girl back at home, I remarked, not a twenty-one year old man!
Next Post - Tuesday 19th December 2006: Delwara and Udaipur (will be posted Monday 19th December 2011)
Strange to think we were on a train to Jodhpur as you wrote this. Interesting juxtaposition of foods - egg curry, whisky, and green and red birthday cake!
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