I arrived in Upaidur in the early hours and it was still dark. My first impression in the dark and half-light as I drove from the airport in a considerately driven taxi, was that it felt like parts of Saudi Arabia. The style of buildings some of them quite make-shift and looking derelict, and the lots of rebuilding, and the roads and how they were being used, the hills, the industry.
I am staying at the Jagat Niwas Palace hotel on the edge of Lake Picholla, without doubt it is the most beautiful part of Udaipur. But I was so tiered after 22 hours without sleep, that after I checked in I slept for nearly 5 hours. I woke to a warm, sunny early afternoon and venturing outside my room, which opens onto a terrace, I was able to appreciate the beautiful surroundings I am in. My hotel, was originally a mansion built in the early 1600’s and its a wonderfully proportioned building formed around an open courtyard on 4 levels including a roof terrace. All the rooms open onto the courtyard and terraces and dotted around the walls are cosy nooks where you can sit and drink tea. The palace overlooks Lake Picholla around which are many other palaces, parks, hotels and other buildings. Across the lake in the distance are the hills of Rajasthan beyond which the country becomes arid and desert like. Udaipur is the historic capital of the kingdom of Mewar in the former Rajputana Agency. It was founded in 1553 by Maharana Udai Singh of the Sisodia clan of Rajput and remained as the capital city till 1818 when it became a British princely state. The city is a chaotic maze of little twisting streets full of tut-tuts, motorbikes and cars jostling with pedestrians and freely wandering cows. Down by the water’s edge people wash themselves or their clothes. This is India as I imagined it with the ancient and modern co-existing side by side. I know I’m in a place with a long history and rich cultural past and a busy present. It was frustrating not to have a guide to interpret what I was seeing: on a boat trip round the lake I could see that there were many buildings of significance but I don’t know what they were. Fortunately, I was able to use google maps to at least identify the points if interest I was looking at. As I wandered the streets I found the people to be friendly and as a foreign visitor I felt safe and welcome and I was treated with respect whenever I had a conversation. This was my introduction to the context in which my fieldwork is located.
I am staying at the Jagat Niwas Palace hotel on the edge of Lake Picholla, without doubt it is the most beautiful part of Udaipur. But I was so tiered after 22 hours without sleep, that after I checked in I slept for nearly 5 hours. I woke to a warm, sunny early afternoon and venturing outside my room, which opens onto a terrace, I was able to appreciate the beautiful surroundings I am in. My hotel, was originally a mansion built in the early 1600’s and its a wonderfully proportioned building formed around an open courtyard on 4 levels including a roof terrace. All the rooms open onto the courtyard and terraces and dotted around the walls are cosy nooks where you can sit and drink tea. The palace overlooks Lake Picholla around which are many other palaces, parks, hotels and other buildings. Across the lake in the distance are the hills of Rajasthan beyond which the country becomes arid and desert like. Udaipur is the historic capital of the kingdom of Mewar in the former Rajputana Agency. It was founded in 1553 by Maharana Udai Singh of the Sisodia clan of Rajput and remained as the capital city till 1818 when it became a British princely state. The city is a chaotic maze of little twisting streets full of tut-tuts, motorbikes and cars jostling with pedestrians and freely wandering cows. Down by the water’s edge people wash themselves or their clothes. This is India as I imagined it with the ancient and modern co-existing side by side. I know I’m in a place with a long history and rich cultural past and a busy present. It was frustrating not to have a guide to interpret what I was seeing: on a boat trip round the lake I could see that there were many buildings of significance but I don’t know what they were. Fortunately, I was able to use google maps to at least identify the points if interest I was looking at. As I wandered the streets I found the people to be friendly and as a foreign visitor I felt safe and welcome and I was treated with respect whenever I had a conversation. This was my introduction to the context in which my fieldwork is located.
On my second day as a visitor to Udaipur I’d planned to visit a number of places of interest and my first on my list was Jagdish Hindu temple built over 400 years ago. I had not seen such a structure and detailed carvings before – what craftsmanship. As I entered the temple I was greeted by someone who very soon became my self-appointed guide. But I was soon grateful as he explained the history and meaning of what I was experiencing. He told me he was an artist- rather he led a group of artists: and his house next to the temple. Towards the end of the guided tour he led me down a passage into a room containing many miniature paintings of traditional scenes. It was immediately apparent that this was a sales pitch. I liked the artwork but I had no intention to buy at the seriously inflated prices – several hundred pounds for one featuring a court scene that I liked. I had seen similar paintings or prints in shops for a fraction of the price. I listened respectfully but after about 20mins I had to break off what had been an amicable conversation. On reflection I can see that my self-appointed guide had worked hard to develop a personal relationship in the hope that I would trust him or perhaps feel obliged to purchase his artwork.
I found this experience interesting in the light of the book I had just finished reading –‘Start Something that Matters’ by Blake Mycoskie founder of TOMS – ‘Tomorrow’s Shoes’. Blake had been inspired, during a visit to Argentina, to create a business with a social heart through two different experiences. The first involved buying and wearing the traditional shoes called the ‘alpargata’ – his first idea was that the show might have market potential in the USA. The second experience was witnessing first hand children walking the streets with no shoes. He connected his business idea with the idea that at the core of his business model he would place the idea of gifting. For every pair of shoes that were sold his business would donate a pair of shoes to a child without shoes. The idea of ‘1 for 1’ was born as a way a business could make a positive and direct impact on the world.
I bought this book at the airport and thought it would be a good idea to read it as part of my prep for my visit to Swaraj. I love the core idea in the book that the world would be a better place if business that sought to make a profit, ‘give’ as well as ‘take’ from the world. I thought about my own small enterprises and viewed them from the gifting perspective. They are underpinned by the idea that we, (me and the volunteers I work with) are working on behalf of educators all over the world and the fruits of our research (our writings / magazines) are gifted to the community of interest we support through Creative Commons licences. The 1for1 model doesn’t work for us because we don’t actually sell anything, we give our own time to develop the perspectives that we then share freely. Blake’s story challenges me to ask, ‘is that enough?’. Can we go further to provide gifts for people who have far fewer educational opportunities than I have had. Perhaps my visit to Swaraj will help me explore this question.
I bought this book at the airport and thought it would be a good idea to read it as part of my prep for my visit to Swaraj. I love the core idea in the book that the world would be a better place if business that sought to make a profit, ‘give’ as well as ‘take’ from the world. I thought about my own small enterprises and viewed them from the gifting perspective. They are underpinned by the idea that we, (me and the volunteers I work with) are working on behalf of educators all over the world and the fruits of our research (our writings / magazines) are gifted to the community of interest we support through Creative Commons licences. The 1for1 model doesn’t work for us because we don’t actually sell anything, we give our own time to develop the perspectives that we then share freely. Blake’s story challenges me to ask, ‘is that enough?’. Can we go further to provide gifts for people who have far fewer educational opportunities than I have had. Perhaps my visit to Swaraj will help me explore this question.
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