Palace Pictures...

Oh, I finally got a chance to upload a couple photos from Karauli. I wasn't able to get one of the market, because pulling out a camera here is like asking to be mobbed by small children. I just wasn't up for it. But here are the digs where I stayed... The picture on top is the building in which I stayed and the one beneath it is the residence of the Maharaja and Maharani.

Back to the Daily Grind

Ian and I had a nice mini-vacation in Delhi to celebrate our anniversary. We didn't do anything specialy really, but it was just nice to be together. We were going to see a movie, but after perusing the selection we decided that it wasn't worth our time (Hindi movies are about 3 hours long!) or our money. So instead we spent the day browsing in shops, and we finished the day with a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.

Ian is staying in Delhi until next week, but I decided to come back a little bit early. The park is opening on the 1st of July (yea!!!) and I wanted to be ready for that. So I have spent the last few days visiting with people and catching up. And once the park opens, I really am going to start my interviews (come hell or high water).

So after all the excitement of Karauli and the celebration of Ian's birthday and our anniversary, life is finally settling back down to normal. I must say I am ready for my 10 cups of chai, sharing lunch with my RWs, and finally making progress on my research!

Ian's Birthday

Today is Ian's 30th birthday (and he will probably get very angry that I am posting it so widely). We spent the day pretty uneventfully here in Bharatpur. In Indian culture, it is the resposibility of the person whose birthday it is to give sweets and, if there is any sort of party, to pick up the tab. We decided against the party because we had a feeling that it might drain our bank account but Ian did distribute sweets to people we know that he met this morning in town. He also decided that he wanted to cook himself dinner instead of going out to eat. It is a good thing that he likes to cook because he would starve if I was in charge of the kitchen. All of my RWs think it is funny that he is at home making dinner while I am hanging out with them in the bazaar. It is completely opposite from anything that they have ever known. :)

The day after tomorrow we are going to Delhi to celebrate our anniversary. Ian also has some other work to do, so I am going stay for four or five days and head back to Bharatpur. It seems as though the Gurjar agitation is officially over so there should be no more problems travel-wise.

Hope all is going well in the States. I have heard that there has been some more wacky weather in the Northeast. Watch out for the hail! The monsoon has started here about two weeks early but so far the rains seem to be good. Knock on wood because my RWs need a good rainy season if they are going to make a living this winter. Take care and I will post more soon...

Back in Bharatpur

I have escaped from Karauli and arrived back in Bharatpur this morning around 9 am. Actually, it was one of the most sedate, uneventful car rides I've ever had in India. You would never have known that anything was amiss except for the road was pretty empty. That is why we made excellent time...3 hours. Unbelievable! I am very glad to be back in Bharatpur safe and sound. Ian and I went out to lunch, and I think this afternoon we are going to relax at our house or maybe go into to town to catch up with people. It'll depend on how tired I am. I got so used to sitting around in AC that I am a little worn out with the walking.

From here, I don't know what our plan is. We were originally planning to go to some place in the hills for our anniversary and for Ian's birthday which we scraped. Then we thought maybe we would go to Delhi, but we will have to see how things go in the next couple of days. In any case, we'll be together! :)

The Agitation Continues

Greetings from Karauli! It is now day 16 of the agitation and I am still tucked away at Bhanwar Vilas (a.k.a. the palace). The leader of the agitation is just demanding really silly things now so I don't know how long they will keep it up. Hopefully, I will be home by next week.

In the last couple of days, I have decided that I should just prepare for winter. First, I finished the quilt top that I started in January. I am planning on finishing the quilt itself when I get back to Bharatpur. I will probably buy some cotton fabric and see if the guy who makes bed covers by the one temple in town will give me some cotton fill. I'm not going to quilt it but tie it, at least until I get back to the states. Then I have been working to finish up the socks that I started last fall. I didn't get much done on them when we were with the students and I have been working on them a little bit since we have been back to Bharapur. But with 12-14 hours on my hands, I think I'll have them finished by tomorrow. So even though it is 100+ degrees now, I am ready for 30 degree weather. :) I just don't know what I will do once I am done with the socks. I might have to go out to the bazaar and see what other kind of crafty project I can hunt up.

After finishing up with email, I think I am going to go look in some of the shops near by and then head back for dinner. Hopefully the cable will be back on this evening so I can get my fill of Hindi soap operas! Another exciting night in Karauli! ;)

P.S. This computer doesn't have a USB port so pictures and what not will have to wait for me to get back to Bharatpur. Sorry...

Anthroplologist, Interrupted

(No anthropologists have been harmed in the making of this blog)

I should have known that the trip to Karauli was ill-fated when my RW friend backed out at the last minute, citing family obligations. But normally not a person to be disuaded by bad omens, I insisted on still going. So I waited until Ian returned from Delhi and we set out in the morning on May 19th for Karauli, on a Rajasthan Roadways bus of course. Well, the bus broke down about an hour outside of Bharatpur. We waited on the bus while the driver tried his best to get her going again. Then another bus, headed in the direction of Karauli stopped and we, the white people, got first dibs on "seats" (for awhile I was sitting on the shifter cover, next to the driver). We finally got to Karauli in the early afternoon, and arrived at the heritage hotel, at which I thought I had made reservations. The woman who greeted us looked confused, if not inconvienced, at the sight of us. After a bit of discussion, she agreed that we could stay a few nights though the hotel was techinically closed. It turns out that this heritage hotel is acutally run by the erstwhile royal family of the State of Karauli (which like Bharatpur was ruled separately until India got its independence from Britain) and the woman that we first spoke to was their daughter. They are much more laid back than I would have expected a royal family to be and once they found out that we were students, and not just random tourists, they were really nice. After learning that the palace is the only place in Karauli that accepts foreign guests (due to something called the C-form), the Maharaja agreed to let me stay for a week. This was on the 20th of May. On the 21st, Ian left to return to Bharatpur. The plan was that I would stay for a week to 10 days and find out more about the Panchna dam and the villages that it serves; the Maharaja had given me a contact at the irrigation department. Everything seemed to be going my way. And then...

The Gurjars, an agricultural community who has been asking for a special legal status, decided to protest. The word they use in India is agitation...I don't know if that means those protesting are supposed to be agitated or those affected by the protests but let me tell you, I am agitated. When they protested last spring they burnt buses and police stations,so the government decided to halt all bus service in the eastern part of the state. During this protest, the Gurjars have decided to tear up rail road tracks, so they have rerouted train services. Therefore,I haven't been able to go to any of the villages that I wanted to go to and the guy from the irrigation department said that is wasn't a good idea to go to the dam. So basically, I have been stuck in Karauli for a week now. Well, eight days to be exact.

The first couple days was great. I have AC and a western style toilet. They listen to me when I say I don't want roti and serve me rice instead. I was able to get some reading and writing done that I had not been able to do in Bharatpur. I was working on my quilt top. I felt relaxed and productive. Then the fourth and fifth days hit...The Maharaja asked them to move a TV into my room. That helped, but as we all know from the United States, there is never really anything on TV. So I have been flipping between the random American movies they show on Star Movies (has anyone seen the Ringer?), Hindi soap operas, and criket. By all means, cricket is my favorite. Today I finally asked about the Internet, and the Maharaja's hotel manager had to scour the town to find someone who had an interent connection (though I must say I am pretty impressed with it).

There isn't much to see in Karauli. It makes Bharatpur look like a major metropolis. Ian and I toured its old palace (the one which the Maharaja lived in before the new palace was built in the 1930s) and went to the main Krishna temple. Its main industry is red sandstone. They also make and sell lac bangles and rolling pins. I have now bought both. I am going to give the bangles to some of my informants wives and daughters. The rolling pins...I'm going to keep one and probably gift the other to Auntie.

One of the good things about being here is that we were able to meet another PhD student from England who is doing her research at the Kaila Devi tiger sanctuary. There are actually 40 villages that lie within the sanctuary, and she is looking at the villagers perceptions of the park,tigers, etc. Since it is the old hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Karauli, the current Maharaja has taken an interest in her project. It was good to commiserate (sp?) with someone else who is doing research.

Oi vey...What an adventure!! Hopefully, next time I'll write it will be from Bharatpur, though the Maharaja said that it will probably be a few more days. Don't worry about the protests...I am safe and I won't go on the roads until I know that everything has died down.

Leaving on a Rajasthan Roadways Bus

The past week has been truly strange, in that sad, melancholy, things-are-going-to-change sort of way. On May 1st, Keoladeo National Park closed for two months. It is the first time since it became a national park that it has closed. Some people are saying it has closed so they can do maintainence, others to save money. In any case, my RWs and the guides have needed to find something else to do for the time that it is closed. Though some RWs always find other work in the summer due to the lower number of tourists, usually there are about 30 who work at the park all year long. I could tell people where upset by it all; in the days leading up to the closure, people were quieter and more distracted than usual. Most of the Sikh guys are now plying their rickshaw in the city so I run into them, but it isn't the same as when we are together at the park. For me, the sadness of the park closure is heightened by the fact that I am leaving for two months. Tomorrow I am leaving for my other field site, Karauli. It is about three hours away by bus, though I have heard that the road is pretty bad. I am guessing that in the US it is a trip that would probably take about an hour. Two months isn't that long, but I am really sad that I have to leave Bharatpur and the people here. I didn't think I was going to get so attached. If this is what I feel like when I am going away for a short time, how am I going to feel when I leave at the end of the year????

Okay, enough of my feeling sorry for myself. I have to run and pack, go to the market, and try to meet some people before I go. I will probably be off of the internet for a few weeks but I will try to get something up.