January 23, 2020 – A Passage Through India

The drive from Udaipur to Jaipur is supposed to take something like 7 hours. Sitting in the car, I’m suffering a bit of highway hypnosis and drifting in and out of consciousness, head bobbing and knocking the window, jerking me awake as I struggle against my seat belt. The mind wanders as we drive… maybe this is meditation for a 21st Century Road Warrior?

We stop at a roadside hotel and restaurant for a break. BudhiMan tells us the bathrooms are clean here; that India as a whole is like the quest for bathrooms – some are clean and some are not so clean. That’s not just india, I think.

While wandering the gift shop – after using the facilities you have to exit through the gift shop – savvy – I feel like I should maybe buy something. There’s just a vibe about it. I don’t realty want to and probably should have gone for a magnet instead but I was drawn to the books arrayed along the back wall. Although I love my Kindle, sometimes I miss books – the tactile sensation of holding one, of flipping the pages, of even having them on a shelf, a friend sitting there willing to talk to me any time and tell me a story or impart a fact or opinion. I narrow my options to these two:

I am awfully tempted by the first as I think it might be more useful… and I loved that it was right next to the Kama Sutra. But flipping the pages it all felt… and believe me I know how hypocritical this sounds given what I typed above and my writerly aspirations… it all felt like too many words on the page. It’s a kids book and I wanted it, I don’t know, eye candy colorful and super digestible. Like USA Today used to be before they made their Chicken McNugget-ian prose even less McDonald’s bite-size “healthy.” I wanted junk food and flash and honestly I was most interested in stories. So I go with the gods and goddesses shinier cover.

As we get back into the car to continue our journey north, I already regret buying it.

***

It’s been a weird trip. Fun, but weird. There’s been a lot of go-go-go as we pack in as much as possible in a short time frame. There have been more than a few moments where it’s been so overwhelming I’m not even sure I’m processing or taking in the moments, feeling them wash over me. I worry I am not appreciating all I should. India is vast and multifaceted… and each place we visit seems vast as well. There’s history and culture and customs galore to try and soak up, as if I were a bit of naan mopping up curry. Yeah, even I thought that simile was “meh.”

There is so much to see and so much to do… and we are only hitting a sliver of India. In this Golden Triangle tour though we hit the main first-timers highlights. I may have already written this – I’ve been so intermittent and inconsistent in my writing and even in my notetaking on the trip that I can’t really piece together what’s been posted and what’s been scribbled down in draft form – locals ask me if this is my first time in India and when I tell them yes they hopefully ask ‘not the last though?’ No, no… not the last time I don’t think.

I feel a little guilty typing this out as the Indian countryside whizzes past. The two lane highway occasionally converts into a four lane one way with two lanes coming at us – a six lane highway smushed into the confines of the 8, a road that stretches a good length of the nation. As a partial Los Angeleno, I appreciate the number system of their highways.

***

Buying that book was dumb. Sigh.

***

Tonight we are supposed to visit a dinner with music and dancing… and Budhi Man tells us I have to dance. I told him I don’t dance but ask if he does. “I am like Michael Jackson,” he says. I tell him I’m willing to get up and sway out of rhythm for a few moments as my cover charge to see that.

***

We arrived into Jaipur around 3:30pm. Katie was feeling a bit under the weather – she drank from a glass at the lunch that we suspect had been rinsed with local, unfiltered water and she’s worried she may have the Montezuma’s Revenge-ian “Delhi Belly” reaction. I hope she feels better soon – I had a bit of a queasiness the other day and stuck with “finger fries” so I know of what she speaks.

Not wanting to miss out though I opted for Budhi Man to drive me to a sunset vantage point. He recommended the Nahargarh Fort atop a mountain that overlooks Jaipur. It also features its own Great Wall of India (my term for it) that certainly warrants mention in the guide books. I paid the 200 rupee charge for foreigners (locals and students seem to pay 25 rupees), and wander to the top of the Palace at the center of the fort. Some spectacular views indeed.

I had hoped to get back in time to catch a movie at the internationally renowned Rajminder Theater. It’s one of the world’s greatest movie palaces where seeing a movie is as much about experiencing it with their enthusiastic crowds as it is about the film. My plan was to try and catch the latest Bollywood blockbuster there – Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior — but the showtimes just weren’t working out. It took us almost an hour to get back from the sunset point to the hotel and so I missed the 6:30 screening. The next one isn’t until 9:30. And while I really, really want to go, I’m about people’d out from the drive back… and the go-go-go lifestyle has left me feeling a bit exhausted.

I’m disappointed in myself and already regret not going as I type this atop the Palace Hotel at the rooftop restaurant. It’s only 7:20… I could make it to the 9:30 I suppose. But the movie is 2:15, meaning I’d get out at the earliest at 11:45 PM. Alloting for even smooth traffic I suspect I’m a 25 minute walk or 8 minute tuk tuk ride. I may after dinner just wander down to see the venue at least. Had the movie been at 8 or 8:30 I would be all over it.

Who am I kidding? I’m not going to walk down there. My foot is bothering me, I’m honked-out by cars, bikes, tuk tuks. The symphony of traffic is not exactly music to my ears. The best version of myself would rally and go to this thing. But I’m just not sure how often I go outside my comfort zone. I’m risk adverse and overly sensitive. They say you regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did and yet, all too often I play it safe, opt NOT when I should opt TO because I think it’s easier.

I’m trying to talk myself into going yet I suspect it’s setting myself up for disappointment.

***

I walked down.  I couldn’t justify killing an hour before the movie started and then staying out until midnight, but I did at least see the exterior of the place.  Not the last time I’m in India, I think to myself.  Not the last time I skip out on seeing a movie, either.