Worlds Apart

What is it about Old City that I enjoyed? It was a world away from the world I was familiar with, and I miss it.

Old City is the area that Marwar, the original city of Jodhpur, originally occupied before the population grew and the city expanded outward. Five gates guard the city: Jalori, Sojati, Nagori, Sivanchi, and Mertia. My mission for the summer was to enter the city from all five gates. I only got to enter it through Jalori and Sojati gate, but I became very familiar with that area.

Ghantaghar, near Sojati gate.

The outer parts of Old City bustle with activity; street food vendors, handicraft sellers, and market stalls owners all vie for one’s attention. I love looking at markets, particularly when there is food involved. I would speak with the shopkeepers about the food they laid out, find out what the different spices, rice and beans were for, and occasionally try a piece of whatever they offered me.

Selling different types of rice.

Inside, away from the busy market, the streets narrow. Cows amble along the alleys, pooping wherever they please, stopping whenever they want. Ancient designs adorn windows and doors, and inhabitants of these houses peep out from windows carved out of stone. Early in the morning, rickshaws full of tiny schoolchildren hurtle past hole-in-the-wall shops selling kacchoris, chai and milk, their horns blaring.

STD is an acronym that has something to do with a telephone, not the disease!

The streets were dirty, the architecture old, the people different. And this starkly different culture absorbed me. In this world, so different and yet familiar, I found myself re-examining beliefs and behaviour. I felt myself wandering and lost, yet enjoying myself. Maybe eventually I would have found a place in this world, a point midway between my heritage and my immediate surroundings. But when the nine weeks were up, I felt like I had plucked myself out of this place and flung myself back into a world of clean lines, efficiency and convenience.

I was glad I did that; it was a relief at that time to be back in the US, to gain some perspective and stability. Yet now my mind keeps wandering back to India and filling itself with nostalgia. As much as I’m thankful for the stability I feel here, there are many things about the US that I feel uncomfortable about because I think they can be reduced and simplified. Right now, given what I’m feeling, if I were given a choice I would consider living in a simpler place. Yet I know living in a less wealthy country would be much harder than my nostalgic mind currently paints it to be.

China is a tantalising prospect, but not in the near future. Back in the US, responsibilities reassert themselves and I can’t just live in the present as I did in India. Still, this idea that I could do anything and go anywhere in the future is liberating and exciting to me.