Jaipur

     The Pink City of Jaipur was set out in a grid like shape in the seventeent century to make it the first planned connurbation in India. The city itself which is made of a strange powdery sandstone, and the enormous Amber Palace nearby, manage to mix a Persian Islamic style with that that of organic Hinduism - this was due to the intricate relationships forged out of peace and war between the Rajputs (the Rajasthani Hindu kings in this province) and the Mughal Empire (the vast Islamic state which covered much of Northern India).

      One example of this cross pollination of cultures is that the Rajputs would enforce purdah - the Islamic practice of maintaining entire hareems of women in almost total seclusion from the rest of the city. No man, unless very carefully vetted or a eunuch, was allowed to see the women let alone interact with them. This was achieved through the construction of huge intricately carved building faces, latticed and without glass, through which the concubines could sit behind and be able to see the cityscape outside without anyone outside being able to see in.. The largest and most beautiful of these is the Hawa Mahal (the Palace of Winds).

     The people in Rajastan are interesting to look at. There is a tendency to be taller and leaner, with the cheek bones more defined, and a keeness for enormous curled moustaches. The men have a habit of wearing jewllery - including pairs of evenings - and there is a massive predisposition to wear bright colours (Rajasthan means 'land of colours'). Turbans are in bright mixes of different shades while the saris glint and shift in the sunlight, from reds and golds to greens.