Touristing

Visited the Meherangh Fort over the weekend. This was the residence of Jodhpur’s royal family up till the 20th century.

All photographs of people were taken because they asked me to take a photograph with/of them. I was surprised that so many Jodhpuris visited the Fort, and that they all wanted to take a picture with me. I guess it’s unusual to encounter someone who looks different in Jodhpur, and a photograph of this foreigner is worth more than a photograph of the Fort, which they can see every day.

 So I was happily minding my own business, looking out at Old City, when this man asked me to take a picture of him and his son. Mind you, I didn’t even have my camera out; he just assumed I had it on me because I looked foreign. I did have it on me, and took a picture for them. They were very pleased with the result.

After seeing me take a picture with the man and his son, this group of friends then approached me to take their picture. I agreed, and so began a slew of pictures involving us and my exotic-looking white friend, Ariel.

One of the guards at the Fort wanted a picture with me! Isn’t it usually the other way around? What a topsy-turvy world. I’m the tourist, and every day I’m learning something new about this culture, this people, this place. At the same time, the people are observing me just as intently, and from me they glean information about where I come from (or where they presume I come from). They view me with the same sort of fascination that I view them. At least there’s a mutual exchange!

Anyways, the guards all agreed that I looked like someone from Manipuri, in Northeast India. I get that a lot; Manipuri is near Nepal (or China, or Tibet) so you get people with Chinese features there.

It got rather annoying and creepy to be asked, “Photo? Photo?” by numerous people at a time, most of whom were young men. I practised my Hindi: “Nehi chaiye [I don’t want]” and made it a rule to only take photos with women, children, and families. I just didn’t feel comfortable taking photos with strange guys my age, especially since most of them had camera phones and would be able to take the picture with the phones. Also, if I’d agreed to all the photo requests, I’d probably have spent another hour at the Fort.

Yeah, I don’t get it either, but those sort of things make me smile. And mangled English is not the sole purview of developing countries; it’s everywhere!

The Fort’s windows and entrances are carved out elaborately, and I played around with ways they framed my shots.

My next project is to figure out how to keep the subject of the photo in focus and blur the surroundings. I think that will make my pictures more interesting. Luckily there are a number of photographers in our group so I can ask them for tips!