Day 8 (17/02/12) - Jaipur

Bollywood, Shopping, and a upper class home

We went to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, and we saw part of a Bollywood Movie in the historic old theater in Jaipur, Raj Mandir.  I'm told it was more violent than most Bollywood movies and it didn't have a lot of the dance scenes.  But, since my Hindi is highly limited (I only know how to say "Let's Go") I found it hard to follow.  We stayed only until intermission (Bollywood movies are notoriously long) and it was a meaningful as if I had stayed the entire time.  The movie was most interesting as a collection of cinematic cliches.  The experience was like being in the old Paramount Theater in Oakland (sorry--I am an Oakland boy).

We then spent some time shopping the shops in central Jaipur.  Everything imangiabeable was for sale ... often at 4-5 different stores, and you would be invited to shop -- often quite forcefully (but never physcially).  When you were in front of a shop, the shopkeeper would be on the sidewalk and be placing many items that he was offering at a stated price.  By some unspoken rule, no one approached shoppers in front of someone else's shop.  And you are always expected to bargain (starting somewhere below one-half the price the person quoted you and engage in acting including indifference, asking about other items, and slowly walking away.  I'm told that the shop proprieters expect you to bargain and actually are upset if you don't.  I don't know if this is just to make you feel better or what.  Nearly all the shops, which are about 6 feet wide, are without front doors or with front doors open and the entire inside visible and part of the outdoors.  A few places have doors which are closed and through which you enter the shop in the American style.  A few of these shops, and a few of the others, have signs indicating that they don't bargain or they have a fixed price.   I've been told not to believe that sign -- all bargain except at the state handicraft stores.  And it is fun so long as you don't have to do it all the time.

(The following day, at the Amber Fort, I had bought something from one vender who first quoted me "ten dollars" (not in Rupees, always a bad sign).  I responded with 200 rupees.  He replied with 1200 rupees which I reminded him (since he "forgot, I'm sure) was more than ten dollars.  Then I started to walk away.  We eventually agreed on 300 rupees.  And, after coming down from the fort, I ran into him again and he tried to sell me some more, again starting at 1200 rupees.  I told him once that I wasn't interested in any more and then continued to walk to the jeep while steadfastly ignoring him.  By the time I got to the jeep he was down to 200 rupees ... but I really wasn't interested -- in this case ignoring him wasn't a poly.

We then had dinner at the home of one of the major advisors to the last Maharajah of Jaipur (and if you want a lot of background and I'm told a pretty good read, you should read, "A Princess Remembers."  The house is in old Jaipur, right near the market.  It is definitely upper class and is a good example of the indooor/outdoor style of northern Indian homes.  As you move from room to room you are sometimes indoors and sometimes outdoors.  And the main door to the house, in the Hindu tradition, is not closed but opens to a hall through which you then turn bck and forth to get to the actual house.  Dinner was had in an open room just off the indoor courtyard.  And we got a tour of the house (including one of the bedrooms in which there was a trophy case with two stuffed tiger heads that the grandfather had shot -- clearly a comfortable setting in which to fall asleep.  

Dinner was nice and the host and hostesses were very pleasant.  The daughter-in-law (she married into the family -- in an arranged marriage) talked with some ofus about the difficulties living in your mother-in-law's house.  She is not allowed to go see her parents (in Jaipur) with the mother-in-law's permission and permission is not always granted.  A very different culture.