The Blue City

Last night I took a midnight overnight train from Jaipur to Jodhpur, which is about a six-hour train ride west towards Pakistan. The train was an hour late arriving (very common here) so it actually left at 1am. I was glad I had reserved the sleeper compartment with air conditioning, which made it comfortable enough to get some sleep.

Trains are very popular modes of transportation in India and the general admission tickets with no reserved seats are popular because it’s so cheap – maybe a dollar or two for a similar trip. I watched another train leave at midnight and the general admission cars were packed 4 people to a seat, people sitting on the floors, people standing in the aisles around the people sitting on the floors, the luggage compartment was packed full with people on all three shelf levels and of course there was the usual large number of folks hanging onto the exterior railings as the train started off.

My first stop Jodhpur was Meherangarh Fort, an immense fort that looks like as if it is growing right out of the high ridge it sits on. It is still run by the maharaja of Jodhpur.
http://www.reisebilder.ch/indien/jodhpurfort_e.htm

The view from the fort overlooks the city, which is largely made of cube shaped buildings painted blue. There are historical/cultural reasons for the blue color but it is apparently also thought to repel insects.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpur

Yesterday in Jaipur I visited three forts that are also built on ridges just outside the city (Amer Fort, Nahargarh Fort and Jaigarth Fort). But in the center of town I met a young entrepreneur and shopkeeper named Babbal. He is in his lower 30’s and part of the emerging middle-class in India, as he recently established a contract to provide bed sheeting for 37 stores of a New York retailer. Of course a large number of middle-class Indians are those from the fast-growing knowledge economy with a focus on a strong educational background.

The heat has been fairly intense and close to 100 degrees these past few days. The city of Jaipur actually only turns the water supply on for residents and businesses for a two-hour period in the morning and for one and half hours in the evening. I don’t think this is related to the heat this year, but is general practice. I also noticed several power outages during the daytime hours. Businesses and people with computers typically have backup batteries that kick in because this can happen frequently.