Organized Chaos

Having made our way to the far western edges of Rajasthan - and India - we left Jaisalmer to head for the final J on our tour, Jaipur, some 500km the opposite direction on the far eastern edge of the state. The journey itself had the makings of a potentially nightmarish adventure as we opted to do it via a thirteen-hour overnight train ride. Having been a bit shocked by the condition of the trains we saw at the train station in Mumbai, we were prepared for a night of much less than desirable conditions devoid of sleep or comfort.

But, despite bathrooms that left a lot to be desired, our berth in the 2nd class sleeper car managed to provide a mostly comfortable and pretty tolerable environment where we were able to relax and even manage a few hours sleep during the long journey.




I initially found Jaipur, Rajasthan's capital city, to be deceivingly quiet, organized and fairly modern. The streets near our hotel were wide, well built, with traffic running in a near organized fashion, even managing to obey the numerous traffic signals with regularity. There were nice sidewalks, big parks and even a stretch of high-quality stores offering the latest western and India trends in fashion.

From Jaipur '07

Then we entered the walls of the old quarter, which was the original settlement of the capital city. It’s actually a well laid out old city with an organized grid of wide streets, market areas grouped by type of goods being offered (i.e. all spice merchants are in one place), and a perimeter wall with fixed entrances keeping traffic - then mostly of the foot and horse variety - flowing in orderly fashion. But, presently it provided the now-familiar scenes of organized chaos with jam packed markets, overcrowded sidewalks and streets that were a sea of rolling steel and exhaust.




At this point, however, I was starting to notice that the phrase ’organized chaos’ was starting to be a more fitting description that I first understood. Despite the abundant inefficiencies which even many Indians will acknowledge, the normal goings on of daily life operate in a semi-organized way that works for those who use it on a daily basis.

But, for most foreigners, it just makes our head spin because we not immersed in it on a regularly, where the intricacies that make it work become apparent and necessary to keep things moving. Although a couple hundred honking horns later, it seemed to return quickly to the migraine-inducing, sheer chaos that I’d begun to know and loathe so well.



From inside the walls of the old quarter, it was easy to see where Jaipur receives it’s ‘pink city’ nickname as the walls of every building, perimeter wall and entry gate are covered in a reddish-pink hue, actually a little more red than pink.

Evidently the walls are made of the same golden sandstone as found in Jaisalmer, but for the impending visit of Britain’s Prince Albert in the late 1800s, the citizenry painted them in their now familiar pink hue which is a color associated with traditional Indian hospitality. It takes the notion of rolling out the red carpet a bit literally.







Our tour of India’s trio of color-themed cities now complete, we prepared to move on again via car to our next stop, Agra, which would be my last in India. Jen & John will continue for another month or so exploring other parts of India. As we pulled out of Jaipur, I realized that our whirlwind tour did little to settle the ongoing debate in my head as to whether I was really enjoying India or not.

More often than not, I still struggled to see the beauty and charms of India without that image being colored by the garbage, inefficiencies, inequalities, and, more than anything, poverty that abounded at every stop. I tried in the last week to see the proverbial forest in spite of the trees, but a tree of negativity would inevitably pop up to remind me of the many issues that abound in India which continued to perplex me and color my view of the country.

I was beginning to come to one conclusion, however, which is that this portion of my trip was no vacation. Unlike most of the other stops on my global tour which combined relaxation with sight-seeing and a bit of cultural immersion, India demanded my full attention providing little time for rest or relaxation.

Far from a place to head for a leisurely holiday trip, India instead seemed to require that I pay attention and absorb everything first hand for the duration of my visit. But, because India intrudes so heavily on my personal space, it made sorting through all the various images, conversations and experiences extremely difficult in my effort to form a singular opinion.

In fact, I was beginning to be convinced that a singular opinion of India may not be possible. There are so many contradictions in India that once you form one opinion, something new comes along to punch a hole in it. However, I was now certain that, whether I love it or loathe it in the end, my stay in India would definitely be among the most memorable on my entire trip. It would also be one of the toughest to forget no matter how often I felt the urge to do just that.




JAIPUR PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):

Jaipur '07