pimped out auto-rickshaws

one of my favorite activities in india is riding in a pimped out auto, with blasting bollywood or bangra music. i don't know why i love it so much- maybe because it's distinctly an indian phenomenon, in the open air, accompanied by all the street chaos, and bumpy roads. but i often wish that these rides would never end. some auto-rickshaw drivers really pimp up their rides with bright red pleather seating, small disco balls, and pictures of hindi stars ashwarya rai (former ms. india), abhishek bacchan (her husband and son of THE indian actor amitabh), john abraham (former model who makes the girls and boys swoon- he also played the savior in water), shah rukh khan (known here as king khan because he presently dominates bollywood and the commercial scene), sanjay dutt (presently on temporary bail, with a 6 year sentence for running arms with the same people who blew up the indian railway a few years back), and salman khan (presently in the courts, with a possible jail sentence, for killing a rare animal.) i believe that soon enough western audiences will know all of these actors (many of them pretty crap actors tho). while in jaipur visiting kasey, an auto diver blasted possibly the poorest sample of "music" ever created. we thought the words were "you gotta survive, you gotta milk the bull dry." these words are repreated about 300 times and overlaid with the worst form of pumping monotonous techno heard by humans or animals. the words perplexed us, though we sang along for some time, finally realizing that the words are actually "you gotta survive, you gotta hit the bullseye." i'm still preplexed.

i am now in the state of rajasthan, in the city of jodhpur- on the eastern fringe of the thar desert. I will be moving further into the desert tomorrow, closer to the pakistani border where the environment supposedly gets even more deserty, and hopefully more desserty too (ha!). jodhpur is called the blue city because of the blue buildings, set against the backdrop of an old rajput fort (huge huge huge!). supposedly the blue keeps the buildings cooler and is thought to also keep the bugs at bay (not true if my bites are any sign). i get a very good vibe from this city. i arrived yesterday, late afternoon, en route from jaipur (the pink city). i am staying at a really chilled out guest house, with lots of hang out space and a great rooftop view of teh fort and city. the old streets around the guest house are filled with poop, burning garbage, people, and cows. upon my arrival a man with two thumbs on one hand (a regular sized thumb and a smaller thumb attached to it) knocked on my door and asked whether i wanted chai or coffee. nice amenity for a Rs. 300 ($6) a night abode. he also said he was the person who had talked to me on the phone the ngiht before, and was surprised that i was not indian. he said my accent was indian on the phone and i spoke hindi. this was very flattering but a gross exaggeration, as i probably used three hindi words during our conversation. i really only know a few words and sentences in hindi but apparently that's all one needs to impress.

i later went out to the main bazaar to walk around. i bought raisins and nuts from some women on the side of the street. as i crouched down, a crowd of about 10 men stood around in a semi circle. i thought this was odd. were they all buying nuts? in fact they were not. they just wanted to watch me buy nuts.

jodhpur is the spice city. it's known for its spices- and as a result the britishers came to the city to export spices. last night i walked into a spice shop and the proprietor showed me all his spice combinations. when i identified one of the masalas as that which is used in masala chai and another which was used for aloo gobi (potato and caulifower- my favorite dish) he told me to come into his shop today, with a paper and pen, so he could relay his knoweldge of the spices to me. knowledge about which spices are good for which diseases, etc. i told him that i really didn't want to buy spices, expcept perhaps for masala chai, and he said to come anyway and he would make me some tea. something i have found in india is that, while of course shop keepers want to sell, they also want to pass on their knowledge. i don't know if this quality is distinctly indian, but it's happened quite frequently, and it's a prety cool phenomenon.