The View From Our Window

Udaipur.  The Queenstown of India.  Well, if Queenstown had open sewers, rotting piles of rubbish everywhere, cows wandering around the streets and a permanent haze of dust and pollution in the air.  But the haze does give the surrounding hills an ethereal quality, and the interconnected lakes are beautiful in the morning light.  The traffic also seems calmer here, the continuous horn blasts less demanding; they appear to be saying "Here I am!" rather than "Get out of my f#&*ing way!".

Shirls has gone to the shops and I am left alone in the hotel room looking out onto the buffalo grazing on the flood plains surrounding Fateh Sagar, one of the main lakes.  It is the dry season.  There has not been a good monsoon for several years.  The lakes are very low - but at least there are lakes.  In most of the cities in Rajasthan, water only comes out of the tap for an hour or so in the morning and evening.  Power cuts are frequent (in fact there is one right now, but thanks to our laptop and wireless modem I am able to 'blog on' in the un-airconditioned heat).  Despite this, life goes on as normal for the average Indian.  Shopkeepers haul out their portable generators and business continues.