Moment:
July 11th at 9:44 AM IST
“Usually when someone’s coming to your house, you clean up a little or maybe put out some flowers, but the king just painted his entire city pink.”
The last city on our Golden Triangle tour was Jaipur, also known as the “Pink City” for its terracotta pink buildings, but they weren’t always that color. Jaipur was largely comprised of white or yellow buildings until 1876, when the king of Jaipur at that time, Sawai Ram Singh II, ordered all buildings in the city to be painted the same shade of pink in anticipation of a visit from the Prince of Wales. Pink symbolizes hospitality, so the king wanted to both impress his foreign counterpart by the beauty of his realm as well as make him welcome in Jaipur. The next year, he took it a step further and passed a law made it illegal for buildings to be any color other than pink, which remains in effect to this day.
We went a few kilometers out of the city to explore the Amer (Amber) Fort, which sits on top of a hill, so we switched our mode of transport from car to elephant! We were informed that the elephants were well-cared for and limited by the local government to only four rides a day, so I felt alright getting a ride from this majestic beast. The Indian elephant is the national elephant of India, and they are absolutely amazing creatures (even though one of them sneezed on me and it was super gross).
Before the capital of Rajasthan was Jaipur, it was Amer, and this palace was the home of many kings of Rajasthan since its constructing in 967 AD. We bounded up the road leading to the palace, rocking back and forth while our driver sang Hindi songs to his elephant, only pausing every so often to ask us questions or greet a fellow driver. We went inside the fort and were greeted by hundreds of birds just circling overhead in a flock.
The fort is made up of a bunch of different palaces that are connected by numerous staircases and convoluted corridors that are very difficult to navigate, so that no one could figure out where the king was at any given time. Our tour guide gave us some time to just explore, but warned us to keep track of the staircases and turns that we took so we could find our way back. This was a lot easier said than done, and we joked that if Harry Potter were set in India, this palace would be Hogwarts, complete with the moving staircases.
We eventually made it out of the fort and headed over to a traditional Jaipur block printing shop, where they use dyes from different vegetables derived themselves to print designs on fabric by hand, as they have been for centuries. For example, they get red from kamala leaves, gray from onions, and brown from coconuts, which they use to print designs on everything from tablecloths and bags to cashmere scarves and pajamas. This was another one of those shops where you can feel the love and passion these artists have for their work simply by looking at their wares.
The shop owner showed us how they print something as simple as a rectangular border to something as intricate as a multi-colored elephant. After applying the dyes in the desired pattern, they then seal in the color by either sun-drying or using a chemical sealant, but he said they “prefer to use the sun-drying method because the sun is free.” I made a short video showing the whole process, and the music in the background is from Jodha Akbar, a movie that was filmed in Jaipur.
We then went back to the hotel and packed for our flight to our new home for the fall semester. We were each allotted 15 kgs (33 pounds) of check-in luggage, but our program directors graciously purchased 15 extra kgs for each of us, so we had 120 kgs across the four of us. We couldn’t weigh any of our bags beforehand, but when we got to the counter, we learned that we had 119.2 kgs of luggage. Talk about a close call! But with all of the shopping we did, I’m surprised we didn’t go over the limit. So with that small victory to set the tone for the rest of our stay, we went through security and boarded our plane. Next stop: Hyderabad!
