Tuesday 8:45 a.m., March 17th, 2009
Back in Jaipur Rajasthan
(still no photos uploading...)
Groggily awakening from the warehouse-cruising stupor of recent days, and recovering from last night’s hair-raising ride down what passes for the Jodhpur-Jaipur highway.
I’ve generally appreciated my driver Ram’s acumen behind the wheel, and yesterday’s 5:30 p.m. departure started well—making good time, safely. But come darkness, I have to say I had my first ever sense in India that I’d rather be behind the wheel myself—which is a sort of deathwish. But Ram had this habit of gunning the accelerator and then slamming down on the brakes just milliseconds before whatever speed bump or cow or vehicle was coming our way—a couple of times it through me off the back seat; I had to remain sort of tensed and at the ready to stiff-arm the seat in front of me to avoid losing my teeth on any given sudden jerk. Man, after a few hours, I wanted out.
But on to better things.
These next couple days Jaipur is hosting a Dhrupad Festival of classical Indian music; Shyamdas and Tulsi arrived last night, Vasant is here with his pakhawaj teacher Sri Mohan Sharma ji. It should be a fun break from the buying action.
I have much work left to do in Jaipur, but I’m hoping I can both get it done and relax with friends here for a few days…
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Showing posts with label Jodhpur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jodhpur. Show all posts
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Meherangarh Fort
March 16th, 2009
Jodhpur Rajasthan
(late-posted, and with no photos, due to India interwebs issues: haven't been able to upload pics for almost a week, from multiple venues, sigh.)
I’m not the biggest old fort guy, I guess, but Jodhpur’s Meherangarah Fort had some fairly spectacular elements to it. Some photos [not] here. Oddly enough, I was even offered a dollop of opium by one of the Marwari guards—go figure!
Wish I had more time to explore, but 1.5 hours later, I was heading back for the final day of furniture work. Next time…
Jodhpur Rajasthan
(late-posted, and with no photos, due to India interwebs issues: haven't been able to upload pics for almost a week, from multiple venues, sigh.)
I’m not the biggest old fort guy, I guess, but Jodhpur’s Meherangarah Fort had some fairly spectacular elements to it. Some photos [not] here. Oddly enough, I was even offered a dollop of opium by one of the Marwari guards—go figure!
Wish I had more time to explore, but 1.5 hours later, I was heading back for the final day of furniture work. Next time…
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Going All In
Sunday night 8 p.m., March 15th, 2009
OK, I’m about to leap off a precipice I’ve been previously intending to avoid.
Isn’t it funny, that moment where we just change our intention? We used to want that, but now we realize or simply decide ‘you know, I want this other outcome instead.’
I had come here thinking my buying was to be very limited and circumspect, mostly here to stoke working relationships and try to reconnect a bit with the deeper Indian bhava, or elevated devotional mood.
Meanwhile, I’m about to leap. I’ve found so much amazing old furniture and gonzo architectural elements these last days, and at such good prices, that I’ve now passed the shipping cost threshold—now, it’s cheaper for me to partially fill my own small container rather than ship LCL, where I fill only a part of a container that’s shared with a whole bunch of other random folks’ stuff too.
You can fit about 26-28 cbm (cubic meters) in a 20-foot container; the way the expenses work out anything over 10 cbm or so and you’re saving money versus an LCL deal. So, having hit probably 12-14 cbm, I reckon hey, I’m already saving money using my own box. In fact, anything else I throw in the box is, in one sense of mathematics, shipping for free (aside from customs duties etc.). In that sense, shouldn’t one be thinking to stuff that puppy with as much cbm as one can possible get away with? Like, even jamming another 15 cbm would be the ticket, right? Why, with that kind of space, one could buy another whole heap of pillars, doors, carved stone or wooden window sets or big furniture or who knows what all—and the relative cost for shipping would creep closer, on average, to less and less.
This is dangerous thinking.
First of all, I’m allergic to racking up credit card bills I’m not sure when (or how) I’ll pay off. Second, I’m already pushing my comfort threshold—and we’re talking suddenly about throwing another 10 or 20 grand at this situation, potentially. Seems imprudent, at best. In the face of this worst-in-a-lifetime economy? Unwise, even. Besides, where am I going to put all this cargo? My barn? Yeah, right.
And yet. Extenuating circumstances:
a) The USD is kicking tail on the rupee, more so than I’ve ever personally experienced. My dollar goes 10-20% farther this year than the last couple years. Seriously good for buying.
b) The suddenly quiet international shipping realm has, due to the worldwide economic slowdown, lowered shipping expenses somewhat.
c) The poor lost, empty ½ of the container. Empty! Seems rash, impudent even, to leave it so. I can hear the cries even now: “Cost efficiency! Boldness! Investment in history! Huzzah!” etc.
d) My barn! Surely we could make a little room…
Maybe I’m just flushed with enthusiasm, entheos, the sacred fervor that leads men to make wholly unwise decisions based on an ineffable and certainly unprovable underlying sense of how the universe is both structured and unfolding in this particular moment. Could be the fumes of India are getting to me, roiling my brainwaves. Could just be sh*t for brains.
But I’m seriously thinking of taking all the good work of the last 3-4 days and doubling down: buying as much in the next 6 hour day as I’ve bought the entire trip to date. Worst case, I trade a credit card balance for a barnful of vintage Rajasthani windows, arches, columns and architectural components. That’s a sucker’s bet if I ever saw one.
OK, I’m about to leap off a precipice I’ve been previously intending to avoid.
Isn’t it funny, that moment where we just change our intention? We used to want that, but now we realize or simply decide ‘you know, I want this other outcome instead.’
I had come here thinking my buying was to be very limited and circumspect, mostly here to stoke working relationships and try to reconnect a bit with the deeper Indian bhava, or elevated devotional mood.
Meanwhile, I’m about to leap. I’ve found so much amazing old furniture and gonzo architectural elements these last days, and at such good prices, that I’ve now passed the shipping cost threshold—now, it’s cheaper for me to partially fill my own small container rather than ship LCL, where I fill only a part of a container that’s shared with a whole bunch of other random folks’ stuff too.
You can fit about 26-28 cbm (cubic meters) in a 20-foot container; the way the expenses work out anything over 10 cbm or so and you’re saving money versus an LCL deal. So, having hit probably 12-14 cbm, I reckon hey, I’m already saving money using my own box. In fact, anything else I throw in the box is, in one sense of mathematics, shipping for free (aside from customs duties etc.). In that sense, shouldn’t one be thinking to stuff that puppy with as much cbm as one can possible get away with? Like, even jamming another 15 cbm would be the ticket, right? Why, with that kind of space, one could buy another whole heap of pillars, doors, carved stone or wooden window sets or big furniture or who knows what all—and the relative cost for shipping would creep closer, on average, to less and less.
This is dangerous thinking.
First of all, I’m allergic to racking up credit card bills I’m not sure when (or how) I’ll pay off. Second, I’m already pushing my comfort threshold—and we’re talking suddenly about throwing another 10 or 20 grand at this situation, potentially. Seems imprudent, at best. In the face of this worst-in-a-lifetime economy? Unwise, even. Besides, where am I going to put all this cargo? My barn? Yeah, right.
And yet. Extenuating circumstances:
a) The USD is kicking tail on the rupee, more so than I’ve ever personally experienced. My dollar goes 10-20% farther this year than the last couple years. Seriously good for buying.
b) The suddenly quiet international shipping realm has, due to the worldwide economic slowdown, lowered shipping expenses somewhat.
c) The poor lost, empty ½ of the container. Empty! Seems rash, impudent even, to leave it so. I can hear the cries even now: “Cost efficiency! Boldness! Investment in history! Huzzah!” etc.
d) My barn! Surely we could make a little room…
Maybe I’m just flushed with enthusiasm, entheos, the sacred fervor that leads men to make wholly unwise decisions based on an ineffable and certainly unprovable underlying sense of how the universe is both structured and unfolding in this particular moment. Could be the fumes of India are getting to me, roiling my brainwaves. Could just be sh*t for brains.
But I’m seriously thinking of taking all the good work of the last 3-4 days and doubling down: buying as much in the next 6 hour day as I’ve bought the entire trip to date. Worst case, I trade a credit card balance for a barnful of vintage Rajasthani windows, arches, columns and architectural components. That’s a sucker’s bet if I ever saw one.
Beware the Ides of March, dude
Sardar Market, Jodhpur
March 15th, 2009
"It takes less than death to kill a man."
That's my random quote of the day. Seems halfway appropriate for the Ides of March…
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Photos of The Haul
Sat 14th 11:11 p.m.
This stuff has a way of looking even better in another month or two when it's cleaned up and somehow shows up in New England...
This stuff has a way of looking even better in another month or two when it's cleaned up and somehow shows up in New England...
Working It
Saturday night 10 p.m., March 14, 2009
A focused day of exploring a second network of furniture , smalls and architectural pieces, then regrouping to sift through and refine yesterday’s sprawling collection of almost 100 pieces: benches, cabinets, temples, funky little vintage wooden Japanese noisemakers (?), Ganga-Yamuna ritual water pots, small stone archways and insets, ceramic candle holders, a killer collection of vintage sandalwood combs (wider and thinner spaced teeth on either side)…
Tomorrow is my day to finish up all my work here in Jodhpur, before hopping a ride either back to Jaipur or onwards to Nathdwara. Rest I hope is coming soon, as I barely slept a handful of fitfull hours sleep last night; I was tuckered by noon.
Theme of the photo day: architectural elements. I bought the piece that you see here with Gopal ji (in center) and 2 others standing in it.
A focused day of exploring a second network of furniture , smalls and architectural pieces, then regrouping to sift through and refine yesterday’s sprawling collection of almost 100 pieces: benches, cabinets, temples, funky little vintage wooden Japanese noisemakers (?), Ganga-Yamuna ritual water pots, small stone archways and insets, ceramic candle holders, a killer collection of vintage sandalwood combs (wider and thinner spaced teeth on either side)…
Tomorrow is my day to finish up all my work here in Jodhpur, before hopping a ride either back to Jaipur or onwards to Nathdwara. Rest I hope is coming soon, as I barely slept a handful of fitfull hours sleep last night; I was tuckered by noon.
Theme of the photo day: architectural elements. I bought the piece that you see here with Gopal ji (in center) and 2 others standing in it.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wow
10:10 p.m. Friday the 13th, 2009
Color me wowed. Spent the better part of a 10-hour day marauding through aisle after aisle of new, reproduction and antique furniture and odds and ends with my new best friend Gopal ji, rocking through several warehouses just jammed to the pigeon-dwelling rafters with large and small old cabinets, temples, architectural pillars and panels, old Bollywood posters, gazillions of framed devotional lithographs (be still, my beating heart!), old cigarette tins and various Raj-pop bric-a-brac—total overstim. Outrageous!
I do it all again tomorrow, with another family. Now all I have to do is create some additional buying budget so I can stuff more of a container than I otherwise would be dreaming of…
Need one o' these?
Part of the repair department
Bollywood!
No Wonder
Friday the 13th of March, 2009
Jodhpur, Rajasthan
No freaking wonder I got respiratory/chest problems upon arrival in Delhi: this little TV news screen capture says it all. The air pollution index (however they measure that) is off the charts in Delhi! Blasting past “unhealthy,” cruising easily beyond “alert” and well into “warning” en route to “emergency” levels—yikes!
I’m still getting over the head gunk from early in the trip; soon I’ll be one of those travelers you see wearing a big fat cloth mask all the time to keep at least the big chunks out of my lungs as I do my time on the streets…
A few more Jodhpur photos
Friday the 13th, 2009
Here’s some more images from yesterday’s sunset ramble through the 500-year old city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Here’s some more images from yesterday’s sunset ramble through the 500-year old city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
We're on the Road to Jodhpur--I'll Take That Ride
Sunset view from Jodhpur's Meherangarh fort
Ram Ram!
Thursday evening, 9:11 p.m. March 12, 2009
Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Woke early enough to catch the 8 a.m darshan at Govind Devji with Rajuji, then caught my ride across the sweltering Rajasthani desert country to Jodhpur, a roughly 6 hour drive that we undertook during the heat of the day. The “A/C car” was blowing something more like regular air than conditioned, but it was enough to make it survivable. I can barley contemplate what summer is like around these parts: it’s pretty much “spring” here now, bearing more than a passing resemblance to August in New England. This kind of weather puts me close to my crankiness threshold, for sure—but at least it’s not humid. In fact, it’s a wonder that they can grow as much green plant material in this dry environment as they do.
Jodhpur seems to have some pretty nice elements in place: the old city is full of amazing and decomposing architectural nuggets stacked along windy lanes tiny enough to permit no cars, and in my evening stroll after dropping off my stuff at the guest house, I encountered no end of smiling children wanting to have their pictures taken, tribal family life taking place among the various families living nose-to-nose on the steep hillside in the long sunset shadow of the Meherangarh fort—an impressive array of stone battlements built upon rock indeed. Not sure why, but the theme of blue-wash over the stone homes is hard to miss and easy to enjoy, especially in the dusky afterglow.
Any day’s a good day when being escorted by a driver named Ram, and I’ll be happy to have Ram’s help in the next couple days, as I mix the pleasure of exploring new territory with the business of hunting down folks who’ve been described to me as some of this town’s best antique furniture purveyors, in a town famous for old furniture and architectural elements. We’ll see what I find…
Dusk glows on the western face of the Meherangarh fort
The safety of the spare tire, or, life is cheap on the roads of India!
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