To the Border

So today the three non Indians of the group got official permission to be able to travel with Kaveri to Pugal an area of the border of India and Pakistan. It was delayed for two days with confusion of dates of permission after meeting the people in the office we sorted it out and  finally we had permission to all go! It was an early start to the day and we got into our jeep cab at 830 to start the journey. So back into the dessert roads we went the sun blazing. On the way we saw an Indian truck which had  been filled with bricks and had lopsidedly fallen at the side of the road It was a pretty Bizarre chaotic image, These roads were so narrow that when you saw two big trucks going in opposite directions it was like a catch 22 no one was going to get very far, later on we saw two of these trucks try to get past each other for a good ten minutes or so. Once again we saw ourselves flying past the hot dry landscapes of the Thar Dessert listening to some  Rajasthani beats & Bollywood, some of the danciest music of India it becomes hard to keep your feet still and your arms folded. As we reached the border we had to stop at a police station for an Permission check. After meeting the policemen the three of us showed our permission documents and passports. The building was very minimalist stone building it had the aesthetic of a simple but effective building. They ordered a police officer to accompany us just to make sure us foreigners of the group were looked after.  He turned out to be a very nice guy and told us all about his home in the area which was situated near a bird sanctuary he also explained to us about some of the troubles during the 1970's. When during a war people had had to decide which side of the border they would settle on splitting some communities apart.  The villages we visited had been settled there for a long time, their family and extended family living within close proximity in these villages. Many woman and men of these villages who seek to further their education or Job prospects travel to Bikaner to have the opportunity to do this.

The first Village we went to was 8AD, Mohan Lal's house and met all the woman Kaveri had met previously. They were all excited to meet us and showed us proudly their embroidery designs. They showed us first the embroidery they were doing on a Kurta for Rangsutra. They traced some of the shaps on it with chalk before embroidering it. They showed us their own embroidery designs Kaveri had seen previously they were Bright and elaborate, bright colour combinations like you've never seen. These are the Dowry bags they said they tried to sell them as a piece as well but said they couldn't find someone to pay the price for them as an artpiece. For these villages it would be hard to get exposure to the right markets for these hard grafted hand embroidered bags. we all fell in love with them. We also saw all the pieces they had made for weddings and their beadwork used for fan designs. They then showed us how they do their mirror work. The girl who demonstrated for us did it so fast and automatically as if the first thing she had done when born was pick up a needle and embroider. It was just another motion to her. We showed the girls the Mehendi that was designed for us by the teacher in the schools and christina showed them her elephant she had drawn on her arm herself with Henna paste she had bought from the market. The girls all found the fact it was an elephant really funny they took christinas scaf and embroidered her, her own elephant of thread the girl them wrote her name under it in English for her, Radha. Christina graciously thanked them for her new animal friend and we all said our goodbyes and waved to the brightly coloured smileing woman who had welcomed us into their homes and art.our policeman patiently waited around for us.

The next village we visited 7AD with Kishan Ji, some of the people staying in this village oversees the embroidery woman are doing in the rest of the villages and other villages around. We saw the finished embroidered garments we had seen in the previous villages ready for us to take away to the Rangsutra base. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet the whole family as there was a big wedding procession in another village that everyone was attending. They had asked Kevari to bring them sweets from Bikaner ( one of the things Bikaner is known for) so she gave them a box full. Their house was beautifully organised and adorned with photographs posters and decorations. They told kevari they had decorated for the rest of our first visit and Kevaris return. They made us some smokey chai and we saw more embroidery they had been working on. Beading embroidery is an intricate craft they showed us a range of examples of their beading work. Including a fully beaded bag pouch. The woman joked around and decided to put their Kohl eyeliner on Katherines eyes. With the pointed wooden stick to apply they get right up close to the eyeball to get the full eyeliner effect this came as a shock to Katherine and an amusement to them at her surprise of the application of it. Their Kohl containers were beatifully decorated with bells or beading. One of the girls at this village used to work in the Rangsutra base at Bikaner, she stayed with her brother but when he left she had no longer somewhere to stay so returned home. Everyone wanted to be in some pictures so we took some group photos in the hot dessert sun and again waved goodbye to the people and took the embroidered garments. as they ran after the jeep waving to us and the girl shouted to Kaveri asking her if she thought one day she should return and work at the Rangsutra Base.



The next village we visited was 2AD. Here we all for the first time met a group of woman with a lot of gumption. they were embroidering the same garments we had seen previously in another colour option. they described their work with the crafts as " These are our fields". They were happy to have work which gave them enough money and they could independently work on Inside in the cool. They said they were glad not to have to work on crops where they would be in the hot sun all day doing labour intensive work  straining on them. Another batch of  chai went round and we sat with the woman sipping away at at it and kaveri chatting and translateing as they sat and embroidered. A close group of woman  who had a lot of friendship and banter between them. You could see the strong bonds between them and how strong and independent they all were in this work and it seemed life in general. The elder three of the group joked with us about who we thought was the oldest and youngest. We got it wrong but managed not to offend anyone. the woman asked us about our country and joked with Kevari about her long skirt that she wasn't wearing layers under it. They were very familiar with us and had a good laugh. We met one of the ladies daughters that knew a little English she said she was making her study further as she didn't want her just to get marriage we all showed her our approval of this notion. Not in the way that we were trying to undermine the other woman's views of the importance of marriage  It was interesting to meet woman putting an emphasis on education over marriage as not many woman in the crafts villages have had this way of thinking, From our backgrounds we have learnt the value of education in getting ahead in life so would want to communicate this to the woman but never to offend or question the value they have on marriage. We stayed a bit longer enjoying the atmosphere and company of the woman we had met. and then we had a few more group photos and saw their collection of goats. our last stop was meeting a woman near 2AD that worked in teaching girls in the village to stitch and sew. she had a lovely old singer model of sewing machine she was also relative to one of the woman who work in the Rangsutra office Kavitha. The mother of the young boy and girl that always chat to us in the office. After meeting her and her family hearing about her teachings it was now time for us to drop off our policeman have one last permission check and drive back to Bikaner. It had been a very hot day so we were all feeling very tired but lucky to have had the experience. For the three non Indians of us it was an amazing experience to be allowed to travel to this area and  may never return so an honor to get the chance to visit these villages and meet these woman. we started our long journey back to Bikaner.

   

it's school time !

School in Napaser

School in Lunkhransar

In the past few weeks we have visited two of rangsutra’s schools (in  napaser & lunkhransar ) and we spent time in understanding the women  , their culture and their learning capabilities .It was crucial  for us to create a bond with these women first and that is what we aimed at doing the first time round . After visiting the schools and understanding it’s curriculum and functioning   ,we narrowed down on some activities that we think would help the students understand and interpret colour  & colour variations. We also planned on introducing some team building activities to make them understand the importance of working in a group. We spent the whole of Monday planning and finalising the activities for the women and making arrangements for all our requirements for the next two days .

On Tuesday (25^th of april) we went to the school in napaser .  we had informed them in advance that we would be coming  and were hoping for a good response from the students but sadly not that many women showed up. We waited for a while as we were told that most of the girls & women were busy making papad’s and would be late. Meanwhile we handed over last time’s pictures to the teacher so that they could display it in their class .  we make sure that we send back pictures to all the people that we visit here in the villages . it makes them very happy .

With three women and four girls , we started our class. We showed them pictures that depicted different moods and we asked the women to tell us what they felt on seeing these pictures. This activity was done for them to understand the relation between colour and mood. It took us a while  for them to understand the whole concept as language was a huge barrier. Thank god for Anjuman ji’s presence … she was able to easily grasp what we were trying to teach them and she managed to explain it to them in Maarvadi (language spoken in rajasthan ) it was interesting to see how the women related to each colour. They would relate it to their festivals, weddings and practices that were specific to their culture . This was something that we anticipated but could have been better prepared for it .  By the end of the day , we had taught ( at least hope to have taught ) the women how to associate colour with moods and categorize colours into dark , bright , light  and warm and cool . still unsure of how much of it they understood , we left them with a small assignment and promised them that we would spend a night in their village if they completed the activity. It seemed to be the only agreement that would get them to do the assignment .

The next day we set out to go to lunkhransar . I guess we were a lot more excited about this school as the women here come to the school because they always want to learn something new and grasp concepts easily as well. Language doesn’t seem to be that much of a problem here because a lot more women understand hindi or broken hindi.  They were extremely excited to see what we had in store for them. After a quick mehendi   session , the women gathered around and we started with the class. Things seemed to be going at a good pace , and we were sure that they were able to understand what we were teaching them . within minutes they got the hang of it and  could easily  identify warm and cool colours and dark , light and bright colours.  One thing we found very interesting was when we showed the first school a picture that indicated freedom and happiness , they said that the girl in the picture feels this way because she just got married. The same picture when shown to the women in the second school said that the girl in the picture was happy and free because she was unmarried .hmmm strange .   Now to put our teaching to test we had a small activity organized for the women which turned out to be a huge success . This was a relief because now we know what to improvise on and how to change the curriculum to make it easier for the students to understand .  Next week we hope to take the inputs given it to the next level and teach them colour variations and importance of having more colour options .

Once upon a time on a camel in Jaisalmer

     We all decided to make the most of this Sunday off  and planned another mini adventure to see more of this enchanting state of India which none of us had experienced before this Internship with Rangsutra. We decided to go to Jaisalmer the romantic sand dune filled destination of Rajasthan. Jaisalmer is around five hours away from Bikaner by driven transportation so it was a lot closer than our last trip to Udaiper. So we decided to hire a driver for the day rather than leaving Saturday evening. Unfortunately Kaveri had been feeling ill so couldn't make it with us :( she was greatly missed!  The driver picked us up at 5  in the morning and we arrived in Jaisalmer at around ten after  a lot of napping and orange munching. The views of the dessert we saw showed us again scenery of vast dessert, spikey greenery, straw roofed houses and  the wildlife consisted of wandering cows (guys) the odd camel (unts) and some small antelope (haven't quite figured out this translation yet in Hindi).It still feels alien to imagine the heat and solitude experienced by some of the people that actually live in the midst of this environment outwith any village life, herding etc. To live in such proximity with the challenges of a dry landscape.   As the sun came up and reached its high point we could really feel the heat, This time of year Jaisalmer can generally be 50 degrees so it was pretty toasty even just getting there!

  With a sun splashed face and open eyes to a new experience we had our first stop!    

Jaisalmer Fort which is one of the biggest forts in the world also known as the Golden Temple. at one point in history the entire population of Jaisalmer lived inside this fort. The detail and imagery of the Jain temples and laxminath temple inside was mind blowing. Gods, stories and Indian motifs covered the walls all carved into the stone. with the scorching heat outside inside these temples it was a cool serene getaway . you were transported into a world where people had used the finest natural resources to build these temples and used manpower and perserverance to create something with such detail and beauty that it would honor their gods and stand in time .Every face every flower was a detailed 3D image on the stone.  the market within the temple was lovely, where we all bought interesting trousers and then we found a few rooftop cafes! one which we had breakfast on where we could see the view of the Thar desert at one side and the temples of Jaisalmer Fort and the other side. We sat there and had our breakfast in the morning sun whilst chatting to a a woman from Seattle we met who was travelling around after finishing a teaching placement in the south. Later on whilst we sat in another rooftop cafe where I (Sorcha) had the best mango juice i think i have ever tasted (sugar free :D) and Christina wrote postcards drawing her now famous to us elephants (Hati pictures) on them all. Katherine had her own musical adventure, she yelled up to us " Guys don't judge me but a mans selling a ukulele and i am going for it". When we next saw her she got herself a ' guitalele'  from a travelling man called wolfgang who had apparently bought so many musical instruments in India had lost space for this one. So she found something to play her music which she had been missing. We then walked down the fort to our next destination.

Jaisalmer Havellis are some of the most famous in Rajasthan, Historically private mansions of rich Merchants. Carved in sandstone and filled with characteristic wall paintings inside. There was intrinsic detail surrounding the outside of these havellis. The one we visited was originally used for traders to deal in Opium so was filled with lots of cupbards with unobvious openings and little hideaways. The building indoors was also filled with bats! when you looked up at the ceilings of some of the darker rooms it was like seeing a blanket of them across the ceiling. They had taken over this empty historic building as their own. Again we were astonished by the absolute detail given to these buildings and the amazing view of the city on the top. It was clear in Jaisalmer anyone who wanted to be seen as someone surrounded themselves by hard craftsmanship and art which created their homes.

Sand Dunes, These sand dunes are immense the biggest in Rajasthan the location has become a big tourist destination. On arrival the car became swamped with camel-wallahs shouting prices at us and trying to win our custom. Pushy selling has become  a big thing to obtain the passing tourists who are probably more likely to go for an arranged tour. We all got on a separate camel for a ride we were only charged 50 rupees which we thought was a great price until we then rode about half a Kilometer into the sand dunes and then stopped ! Once we were told the new price 'options' we choose an hour slightly less for 200 rupees. Being stuck on a camel isn't the best position to be in when trying to barter! 

   The ride on the camel was great, when they trot you have to hold on pretty tight , its amazing to be so high up on such an amazing animal seeing the surreal landscape of  the sand dunes. We learnt our camels names one of which being called  Micheal Jackson of the dessert..still not really sure why he wasn't so musical apart from a few grunts. Their feet are amazing! they are such strong fascinating animals they can take on any condition and guide people through the harshest landscapes.We stopped and walked up the sand dunes all you could feel was the heat on your feet and the slight breeze with mountains of sand ahead of you  and the patterns on the sand dunes which are created by the wind. We walked around and ran down the sand dunes. In landscapes this Immense they always leave you with a feeling of calm and awe of the intensity nature. We hopped back on our camels and rode back.

We ended the day sitting on one of the sand dunes (when we had managed to run away from camel wallahs) and waited for the sunset. Unfortunately it was cloudy so we didn't get to see the famous Jaisalmer sunset. We sat there enjoyed the coolness of the evening and the landscape behind us and tried to remember somewhere over the rainbow as Kat strummed her new guitarlele.. ( it wasn't as  cheesy as it sounds..honestly!) we realized we couldn't remember any full lyrics to any songs and all the tourists and camels  seemed to be heading back and we were getting increasingly covered in sand. So we went back to the driver and headed back to Bikaner. We were glad to have  had the chance to see Jaisalmer its amazing landscapes and its architecture draped in history.We brought back Kevari lots of photos and stories. 

                                Cloudy Sunset :)

"This is the Best Bus"

Today we started our day with a visit to Anjumange's home where we were introduced firstly to her father. He sat in a  purple walled room, spotted with gold paint dodds, on a suitably matching bed; A wise- faced old man, with string vest, retro glasses and beads around his neck. He insisted on wearing a clean shirt for us to photograph him, but he had so much character just sitting there. Anjumange's mother was similarly character-ful; her face was intricately fascinating and her eyes seemed to have known the whole world, her hair white with a red/ orange tone towards the ends. She sat and observed us quietly whilst the rest of the family conversed with us.

We met bright- eyed sisters, brothers, sons and daughters, grandsons and grandaughters and all the inlaws too who had no hesitation in showing us around their homes as well. We all mutually felt at this point that this is what lacks in some modern day family lives, especially in Britain; that sense of social community, of everybody living together, accepting and loving eachother and sharing their space. It hit us also that the pride they show in every part of their home is immeasurable as they appreciate everything theyve come to gain and nothing is forgotten. Bus alas it was time to leave and catch the next bus to...

However much we have experienced somehow drawing attention to ourselves (unwillingly ofcourse), you can still never get used to the feeling of being literally circled by 15 or so men at a bus stop staring intently at you without pause. Its somewhat a threatening feeling yet we felt slightly humoured by it because we were accompanied by Anjumange, she seemed calm about the situation and it gave us a feeling of safety.

All of a sudden the bus arrived and a hoard of pushing and shoving began as people shuffled their way up onto the bus; we were dubious of whether to proceed or not as it seemed there would be nowhere to sit now that people filled the aisles and so, the bus drove away... It stopped momentarily a few metres down the road and Anjumange urged us to board, we shoved our way onto the steps only to find that there was indeed no where to sit. The conductor pushed us each through a small hole to the driver's compartment where he forced men to stand up so that we could sit down, shouting "tourists, tourists".

The drivers compartment was hot with large windows that allowed the unbearing sun to beat in on us. It was filled with garlands of bright flowers and his horn was somewhat musical, the whole experience was slightly surreal in honesty.

We once again managed to superhumanly force our way through the tiny hole in the bus to get out on time for the right stop, the bus driver edging to pull away and it was then a short walk to Anjumange's second house. Here we met her husband and her two grandsons. Her husband explained to us, in not so many words, that he has two daughters and one son, all of whom are married and that the two boys we met are infact their son's sons. It seems with Anjumange that the language barrier is not a problem at all because with our thora Hindi and her thora English, we manage just fine.

The house where we were shown the tassle making was a very short walk up some rubbled bricks, past a deep well with the purest tirquoise water in it, we could see right to the bottom. We turned the corner to a small animal hut with a calf, kid and puppy basking in the shade and are greeted at a door by a woman who looks remarkably like Prakash from the Ransgutra office. She had the same bright eyes, lovely smile and freckled cheeks and is infact Prakash's sister. She took us into a small room with wonderful aqua shade walls, pink curtains and a shell mirror. The room was adorned with photos of realtives with flower garlands around their necks. We felt so welcomed and relaxed here, we all agreed that the decor is brilliant with its bright colours and that we would love to live here.

One by one and two by two the doorway and corridor filled with curious- eyed girls and women who watched as we shared welcome glasses of cold thumb's up, bananas, grapes and sweets. Here again language barrier was not a problem as we communicated through family photographs and Anjumange's blunt English words. Once the textiles began however, there was no need for any words as the skill spoke for itself. The women showed us Bhandej wrapping, fluffy tassles, plaited tassles, fluffy pom poms and beaded pom poms, blanket stitch etc which they did with such precison and practise, but also such ease and joy.

An hour or so after we began seeing the crafts, two beautiful babies arrived in the doorway. They had huge blue/ green eyes and blonde-ish hair which is a quality none of us have seen in the Rajhastani people yet. They were accompanied by Grandma who had a huge smile and brightly coloured kurta. She never ceased smiling, as did all of the girls and women we met and we silently understood that they were such a strong, happy unit, where each person has their place but is an individual personality.

Anjumange and Prakesh's sister, freshly changed into a pale green, yellow and golden sari, accompanied us for a small tour of the Palace. It was grand on first view and each room was decorated with colonial- English flare. There was a huge lake to which all of us feel drawn as it sparkles with sun stars and cools the 50 degree air slightly. It's vast gardens were immensely green, set off against the warm rust hues of building itself. There were all colours of parrots, more wild peacocks than one can imagine in one place and huge trunked trees that are older than the mind can concieve. It was explained to us that there is a safari to see the wild animals of the area since the hotel gardens were once used as hunting grounds whilst the Palace was occupied by the British. From afar we saw deer and boars grazing across the river. Yet through all this amazing history, there was still a slightly mournful air to the place as it was practically empty and lacked the spirit and colour of the village from which we had just come, it appeared almost staged through its beauty.

Our ride home, or so we think, is an amazingly retro white 1950's cuban car, that takes us 5 minutes down the road to the bus stop and charges us Rupees 200. And so we board the green tin can and ride on back home to Bikaner...

Beautiful Bikaner

We can't really believe that its now been 2 weeks (as of yesterday) that we've lived here with the Jha family, it has passed very quickly. So quickly infact that we have missed seeing all of the wonderful sights of Bikaner...

Our task yesterday afternoon therefore, was to explore the heritage buildings of Bikaner and see some of the older architecture that has literally been around for centuries and has seen the evolution of a whole city. We visited the Junagrh Fort and toured the old town looking for some Havelis which we were dissapointed to discover, as wonderful as they were on the outside, that we couldnt actually enter.

Animals had a particular presence in Junagrh, there were elephants and peacocks everywhere.

As we walked through narrow corridors, light that streamed through cutwork windows cast beautiful shapes on our faces 

bunny chair

Its easy to miss the tiniest details that are hidden in absolutely everything, they secretly observe most spectators from afar who are obvlivious to their existance

Hidden inside the dusty golden and rust coloured walls is a suprising amount of greenery; occasional lawns, beautiful shrubs and trees

Namaste Ganesha

The ancient paint work was particularly fascinating and there were still remnants of gold paint and a slightly haunting feeling of the spirits depicted within them

What was most lovely about our experience was the contrast from room to room, some surfaces ornate with guilding, some mirrored, some stone carved and some polished marble but all uniquely emotive

We ended the evening in a jolly manner of evening delirium (as it seems the heat is starting to eat away at our evening sanity and each night we are reduced to giggling buffoons) by buying cartons of cream and feeding our adoptive puppies (photos to come soon) which we have named pupinna and pupela. They are deeply skinny and spend most of the day sleeping but have curious eyes that we just cant stay away from, they enjoy tickling so we do this often whilst trying to avoid ticks. We are also starting to make it common practise to feed the cows our fruit and vegetable scraps as there is something enchanting about their soggy noses and massive grey tongues. For some reason the animal spirit seems to lift our already high moods.