Nameless Village – a Visit

24. February 2019

 

 

The village already has a name, of course – but I can’t remember it and can’t find it on the map. The story of the visit goes like this:

 

Even if the villages in South Rajasthan, for example, seem very similar at first, the walks are always a little different. I really like to just stop somewhere, set off and see what turns up. This was something rather unusual for our guide. In the afternoon in Kumbalgarh, we still had some time and headed for a village. He said that I was now his guide and that he wanted to learn from me. Our fellow traveller didn’t want to join us, so there were only two of us. For me, it was the best village walk on the trip with the best encounters with people. So we got out of the car and started walking. The first thing I noticed was a pretty painted pink house, which I wanted to photograph.

 

 

We were immediately surrounded by various people, mainly children and some women. They could see all the Kumbalgarh visitors, but hardly anyone stopped at their village. A visit like this is often a little break from everyday life for the villagers and is seen by some as very welcome. First there were some photos:

 

 

 

 

I had a look at all the details. The children loved it and immediately started to want to show us everything. One of them was sent off by the guide to buy sweets for a few rupees. These were shared very fairly. There were real horses to see (which are used for weddings, among other things)

 

 

and horse head decoration above the entrance.

 

 

A female dog had had puppies, but had fallen victim to a wild animal. Now the children were delighted with the cute little dogs, which they also considered worth showing and enthusiastically presented to us.

 

 

Here, too, the villagers live mainly from agriculture and livestock farming. In the late afternoon, a lot of the harvest was carried home. The man below is throwing stones after cattle that wanted to nibble on the plants and are not in the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The village has no running water, but hand pumps (and wells, of course).

 

 

There was a long wall by a house that was a good place to sit. It seemed like a good place for the villagers to meet for a chat. On this day, quite a few of them gathered and we talked a lot. The guide was allowed to translate, but also contributed well to the conversation himself. Indians love the amusing banter – and so do I. Just sitting together and telling each other stories and finding a reason to laugh. We did that extensively here. Pantomime can also contribute a lot to the entertainment. We lingered for a while and had fun together. The group was mixed-gender – that’s not common in every village, but it is with them. And they seemed to be a little proud of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also some special jewellery details to admire.

 

 

 

What I liked so much here were:

• the guide, a Brahmin, felt comfortable with the people after some initial hesitation and
  the people with him (it is often not so easy with the caste differences, it needs a lot of openness from both sides)
• The atmosphere seemed really relaxed and cheerful to me, there was a kind of flow to the whole encounter
• Having a good atmosphere is often worth more to me than receiving information
• that the guide said it was actually like when he was younger. This benevolent curiosity about what life can offer you.