Taking a second look... in Jodhpur

Two days ago we arrived in Rajasthan’s second largest city, Jodhpur, a five and a half hour journey on the train from Jaipur. At first, it just seemed like another generic Indian city - overbearing monuments, this time the massive Mehrangarh Fort, looking down at the usual chaos of cows and cars and anything else that moves in the crowded centre. However, the next day we started to get a feel for the “blue city” and realised that Jodphur is almost the heroic underdog in a state full of preferred tourist destinations such as Jaisalmer, Pushkar and Udaipur. I don’t know if we would feel the same had we stayed here longer, but Jodphur came across as Jaipur’s friendlier, more down-to-earth cousin.

The locals in the bazaars near our hostel in Umed Chowk genuinely wanted to know where we were from, and not just so that they could try and sell us something in our own language, as is unfortunately too often the case in India where even your average bicycle rickshaw driver can converse in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese… (the list goes on). The auto rickshaws (tuk tuks) didn’t try and run us over as they usually do which, by the way, we’re convinced is a ploy to take us to the hospital on a tourist fare. Rather, we were greeted with a natural human curiosity; people looked twice at both me and Isma because of our strange clothes - the same way we stare at the local men's fluorescent pink turbans and the women’s multi-coloured saris and think… wow.

We’re travelling now to Udaipur, 255km south of Jodhpur and our surroundings are slowly changing, almost as if the car window were a kaleidoscope being turned with every gear change. Jodhpur’s arrogant monkeys swaggering around the roofs of blue houses owned by rowdy grocers, who in turn shout at greedy cows for getting too close to their vegetables, carefully displayed in the bazaars consisting of small lanes where traffic jams begin after sunset because of parades of wedding guests, dancing ahead of a majestic groom on a sparkling, athletic white horse are now replaced by Indian lilac or "Nim" trees, and almost eerie looking vegetation reminding us of Jodhpur’s proximity to the desert.

India’s largest fort, the immense Mehrangarh, fades into the distance.

It’s hard to believe that just yesterday we learnt how this huge, 5km spread of burnished red sandstone was able to defeat armies from Jaipur and Bikaner when they tried to conquer the city back in the 1800s... I always did prefer it when the underdog won.

Guess what I found out in Jodhpur?

1. There are around 32 different castes or “tribes” in Rajasthan. The colour of a man’s turban can tell you which caste he is from.

2. Jodhpur’s official languages are Hindi and the local dialect: Marwari which comes from Jodhpur’s former name, Marwar.

3. Jodhpur’s former name: Marwar, means Valley or Region of the Dead. Apparently this name was given to the town because a lot of it is in the Thar Desert... and there I was thinking it was because crossing the road requires crossing your fingers and praying you’ll get to the other side - alive.