Going to Udaipur, Rajasthan (Thursday, July 7)

On Thursday I left for Udaipur in Rajasthan by taking a flight to Ahmedabad and took a 6 hour bus ride from there to Udaipur. The flight was less than an hour with a half hour delay but the bus journey was again quite an experience. When I arrived in Ahmedabad, the heat was stifling and I found out from a local later on that the temperature hit 45 C.

Although the bus journey was very uncomfortable, I met a number of wonderful locals who were also going to Rajasthan for weddings. There was a wonderful girl probably about 11 or 12 years old traveling with her mother. Her name was Sweta and her mother’s name was Lalita. What was so cute about her was that she kept addressing me as “brother,” because she forgot my name. Both mother and daughter put me under their protection from being ripped off when buying things. They were in shocked when I told them I had purchased a milk coconut for 30 rupees when it should have been for 10 rupees. However, I reassured the mother that in America, a milk coconut would easily cost me 120 rupees...she was stunned.

I forgot to take a picture of Sweta and her mom.

 One of the distant relatives to the bride was actually quite an unpleasant person to be around. He thinks that I was a weirdo to have such a keen interest in peasants as he call the ppl that I took pictures on the bus. However, his dislike for me was probably mitigated by the fact that I come from a rich country. I did my best to avoid him as best I could.

 I didn’t get to Udaipur until a quarter after 10, and Vaibhav and his cousins came to pick me up at the bus stand. Since all had eaten earlier, I had a light dinner. There I got to meet some of his extended cousins...and there are many as I found out later. Then they drove me to their family’s house...but a mansion is more of an appropriate word. It’s quite ridiculous how big the mansion is. The family bought the land about 15 years ago and it took them two years to build their mansion with the contribution of all 3 sons.

One of the son of the 3 sons. He's a great dude...is in the 11th grade and lives in the other house.

This is the middle son I think...father of the bride.

To the very right is the grandmother...she's the matriarch of the family.

To the left is one of the sons of the 3 sons...and that is his little girl. His wife was in the other room. She is very pretty, she finished law school and is a house-wife. Most if not all women in Jain families do not work...they live at home and have domestic responsibilities.

Indian family is mainly a joined family...i.e. sons and daughters live with their father until the daughter’s marriage of course. However, if the son gets married he would take his bride home to his parents house and there they would live together. They would have children there as well and so that means you have three generations living under the same roof. So the mansion has two houses: the main one and the other for the grandparents. The bride who was getting married I believe is the daughter of the middle son. The eldest son lives in Assam, northeastern part of India right on the border of Burma...and the youngest son has a mansion of his own about 500 yards away from the main one. So as you can see I was pretty overwhelmed by the size of the house but also by how many ppl there were. Altogether there are three sons and two daughters all of whom are married and have at least 2 children. Vaibhav, my house-mate, is the son of one of the daughters who has another son as well. 

I got there at about 11 pm and was instantly introduced by all the ppl who were there. I was also taught to bend down and touch the elder’s feet and then touch your forehead and chest while they confer you their blessings. This etiquette wasn’t new to me since I have seen it all before in movies but ppl are so used to it that they do it so quickly while I was definitely quite slow.

Learning how to pay respect to your elders by touching the feet and using that same hands to touch your forehead and chest. While the elder will touch your head and give you their blessings.

All the rooms in the house were all used up for about 60-70 ppl who were part of the bride’s retinue. These included women who are married from old to young and are helping groom the bride in all kinds of ceremonies. Vaibhav, myself, and his numerous cousins shared the living room and I didn’t fall asleep until one in the morning and had to wake up at 5 to help them greet guests and help them with their luggages when they come from the train station on Friday morning.