travels of chelsea.: INDIA - DAY 7: bhadrajun.

In the morning, it was time to say goodbye to Kishangarh before a long drive to the village of Bhadrajun. On the way, we stopped at "Sesame Street", a street lined with vendors selling sesame sweets. The sweets were paper-thin discs of sesame seed yumminess, mixed with things like pistachios and cardamom. Also, they had these biscuit-like treats that tasted just like the inside of a Butterfinger. They came wrapped in colorfully patterned paper and were SUPER CHEAP, so of course we all had to buy a bunch to share in the States. Being sugar-deprived for those two weeks must have made me slightly desperate, because when I got back in the U.S., the sesame treats didn't taste nearly as good as they did that day.

street scene on the way to bhadrajun [joel kraut]

all of the trucks encourage honking; indian drivers use their horn as a serious driving tool [joel kraut]

huge & flashy jain temple statue of hanuman

the lucky sesame sweets shop chosen by us

the beautiful carrying boxes & wrapped sesame treats [jennifer turner]

singhji ordering [jennifer turner]

We continued on into the desert mountains until we reached our destination, the Bhadrajun Fort. Here, we were guests of the Raja [Lord] of the village. As we walked through the fort walls, we were greeted by Sudarshna [the Raja's niece] and all of the Raja's assistant boys. The boys were so adorable, all wearing these burgundy-colored berets. Apparently, the boys and their mothers had been taken in and employed by the palace because they needed to escape alcoholic husbands/fathers or the husbands/fathers couldn't provide for their families. The boys are provided housing, food and an education and the mothers are given jobs at the fort. Just one example of the Raja and Bhadrajun's kindness and generosity. Kundan, the Raja's right-hand-man, was super sexy. Like a hot Cuban drug lord. Joe traded his fedora for Kundan's beret and it somehow upped Kundan's hotness a lot. Anyway, I'm not quite sure what his actual title or role was, I just know that throughout our trip, Kundan was always there, making sure we were all being taken care of and things were running smoothly; he was a man of many talents, whether it was serving us tea, driving our truck into the desert, playing the drums at the aarthi ceremony, joining in our game of sitolia or hitting on the women. Too bad he has a wife. Although he did sneak a yellow flower to me, hidden behind one of those big paper hearts, on Valentine's Day. Such charm! But enough about my Indian crush.

After being bindi-ed and lei-ed, we got our room keys and got to explore each other's rooms and the rest of the fort. As rustic yet utilitarian as the fort appeared, it was set in a picturesque valley in the dusty red desert mountains and it had some astounding rooftop views of the village below. Much of the fort was covered in ivy and flowers and the rooms were amazing. I LOVED me and Blair's room. It was very colorful, with lots of beautiful red [my favorite color!] fabrics and a spacious bathroom. I really like the Indian style of leaving the walls white but painting the window frames and doors in a nice, bright shade. I am making this happen in my bedroom when I redecorate this summer. Also, the view outside of our shuttered windows was perfect. We didn't notice until the day we were leaving, but our room even had its own private rooftop balcony. I opened the shutters to what I thought was a large window, and it ended up being a door to the balcony. We missed out on that. But we did have an iguana come try to live in our room with us. It freaked us out for a little bit, with visions of it falling off the ceiling and onto our sleeping bodies later that night. So Landin caught it and returned it safely outside.

village life in bhadrajun [joel kraut]

hipster indian girl in bhadrajun [blair stirek]

my first glimpse upon walking inside the fort

my second glimpse; the raja's helpers [blair stirek]

and my third glimpse; sudarshna welcoming us

close up; isn't she so pretty [jennifer turner]

joe gave the guys photos from the last vegnews tour

waiting for our room assignments [blair stirek]

me & blair's room

LOVED these shuttered windows, curtains & the view!

view of the fort from our bedroom staircase

view of the boys from the courtyard window

view of my room from the other rooftop

the braytons won the "upgraded room" raffle & got to stay in this amazing stained glass room [jennifer turner]

colorful bhadrajun fort doors [rik ahlberg]

view of the village of bhadrajun from a fort rooftop

After exploring the fort, we went down into the courtyard for a candle-lit feast with the Raja & Sudarshna. She ended up sitting at the end of the table between Landin and I. The three of us COULD NOT stop laughing. For no reason, really, except for, as Landin put it, we could tell that while she humored her family by doing traditional things and entertaining tourists, she really found it all rather silly. She told Landin he was excellent at reading people. Which he is. We kept teasing her about her arranged marriage and she told us she had never had an experience with tourists like this and that she would remember us on her wedding day. She was the perfect cliche of a blossoming Indian woman torn between modernity and tradition. In this case, she has dreams to complete her degree in English literature and philosophy at the university and eventually become a fashion designer [we had to pry that out of her and she blushed when she finally admitted her dream] but her family wants her to go through with her arranged marriage in the next couple of months. She has already met the boy she is supposed to marry and she thinks he is nice but maybe too serious and attractive for her. Whatever...she is so beautiful I can't imagine that is true. I really hope to get in touch with her and become pen pals and see how everything turns out for her. Maybe I can write her biography for her. Haha! On a more serious note, the Raja and his family were in mourning, as the Raja's father, the former Raja, had passed away only a month earlier. So, traditionally, the family will be in mourning for one whole year after the death, and they were not allowed to accompany us on all of our activites like they normally would have. It was very sad, especially since Singhji, Zac, Colleen and Joe had all known the former Raja. And apparently the current Raja and his father had a pretty complicated relationship.

our candle/moon lit feast [jennifer turner]

the raja with joe & colleen [jennifer turner]

After dinner, we were invited to a bridal procession for a local village wedding. These processions take place the night before a wedding and the bride is led through the village on a horse with much music, dancing and fireworks accompanying her. It is meant as a way for her to say goodbye to her village and vice versa, as she will be moving to live with her husband's family. She looked very neutral/slightly miserable the whole time, but this was expected as she was dealing with a wide range of emotions with leaving her village and starting a new life. When we first got to the procession, we were led inside a tent outside of the family home. It was strung with lights and full of brightly colored saris and rainbow wedding turbans. I got to sit next to Kundan, who took me under his wing and explained things to me. We were bindi-ed, lei-ed and given a coconut. Kundan kept having the wedding photographer take photos of us together; people said it looked like we were having an arranged marriage. I totally would have been game. Haha! Anyway, as I said earlier, there was lots of great folk music and singing. When the bride was led out of the tent and out into the village, we followed her for a ways before they turned her around and brought her back. There was a crazy man running around shooting off sketch-looking fireworks just a few feet away from us. Back in the tent, there was a woman in a beautiful royal blue sari dancing. Everyone was "swirling" her with money and giving it to her as a gift. The "swirling" is a form of blessing; it shows that you are giving the gift in the name of that person. So everyone was swirling the bride and dancer. Finally, the bride was let down from the horse and led into the house along with the whole extended family and friends. We were filed through to pay our respects to the bride, which was nice. It was the least we could do for crashing her bridal procession and pulling some of the attention away from her on her day. After this dreamy experience, we left to go back to the fort for bed.

short clip of us being seated at the bridal procession; audio sounds like a super 8 movie