another great day in the amazing and laid back udaipur. more roaming and more shopping (for me) allowed us to see the friendly nature of people in this part of rajasthan - perhpas because the tourist season is slowly seeping through the craps of what is otherwise the dysfunctional months, or maybe the pretty lakeside lightens spirits, but shopkeepers and hotel owners though keen, did not suck the daylight out of passersby. for example, in one jewellery shop we were offered tea (but not in the cheeky manner of say, agra) and consequently ended up chatting to the seller and the shopkeeper for over an hour about life and customs in ours and their respective countries. the jeweller, about 30, told us about his arranged marriage and how he was lucky for, in the 6 custom months of "dating" between the engagement and the wedding, he and his wife actually did begin to like each other. although the concept is totally alien to me (how can you forcefully fall in love with someone?), the way yoghi described his arranged marriage led me to think that perhaps, though love as i know it can rarely be 'arranged' , if you're lucky, affection from sheer habituation to another person's company can be cultivated.
yoghi seemed happy with his life, his 'buuufiful' wife and his 18 month son. however, much of this happiness also seemed to stem from his pride in having followed tradition and pleased his family.
the shopkeeper on the other hand, an older man of about 50, was very proud of his love marriage. refusing to abide by custom he chose his own wife- however- he did make sure that his father would approve of her.
on another note, we also visited udaipur's famous shree jagdish temple which has a shrine to a black vishnu. there were also four corner shrines to shiva, durga, surya and ganesh. it was a pretty cool temple which we'd highly underestimated (possibly because of the many steps which led to its entrance!) it was cool to see that food donations were handed out to the needy three times a day. again like the others in varanasi, this temple was full of hustle bustle on all sides. people praying and meditating or just relaxing under the warm evening sunrays, others hanging out in groups munching seeds, some giving donations of flower garlands to the gods. a boy playing a large drum - somewhat carelessly. a group of women were huddled cross leggedly singing songs of praise inside the temple itself. beggars waiting around to spring on the unaware tourists. a woman watering a basil plant (a sacred plant we discovered!) - basically, everyone had their place. we were even approached by a short little man, those types whose age is unguessable, he could be 30 or 50 we'll never know, who gave us a guided tour (probably expecting money). he pointed our some interesting features of the temple; amongst which, a set of mirrors placed opposite the main temple next to one of the smaller shrines - to allow people to pray to two gods at once! there was also a gargoyle type thing which was part elephant, tiger, crocodile and peacock!
dinner that night was really fun. we took a tuc tuc to the opposite side of the lake to what was a beautiful restuarant on the romanticly lit lake shore. we had a great view on the lake palace and the city palace and had a pretty nice meal to go with it! the most stunning part of the view was its simplicity and the total absence of modern construction, neon lights and advertisments.
an interesting aspect of late night udaipur which we discovered that night, was its vast canine population and their odd habit of barking and howling (like wolves) every single night from 12 to 12.15.
