The Final Day

Laxmi 

Flower Arrangement on our Hotel Floor 

Restaurant at City Palace

Today was the fifth and last day of the Jaipur Literary Festival. Once again it has been a great experience for us. We were introduced to books, authors and ideas we would never experience in America. We were lucky that the weather was so cooperative. It was warmer than previous years and we experienced no rain.

Over 300,000 people attended the festival over the 5 days. It is the largest literary festival in the world. At any given time there are 5 different venues presenting panels, we had to be judicious as we selected the sessions we wanted to attend. All are recorded and available free on-line, so we can always stream what we missed.

The first panel I attended was entitled “Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms”. Within the Muslim world of the Mid-East there have been various sects and religions that have survived for millennia. Some of these religions are obscure and have very hidden practices like the Yard's of Iraq, others like the Druze of Lebanon are more widely known. Because of the upheavals and chaos of the Arab world these ancient religions are in danger of extinction. The peoples have been displaced away from their religious sites, ISIS has destroyed many relics, and entire ways of life have been disrupted. Many of these religions are doomed as the cohesiveness brought on by their remote locations are destroyed by the necessity of fleeing for their lives. The lecture by Gerald Russell from his book “Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms” opened my eyes to these strange religions and their plights. The only one that is still semi-flourishing is the Coptic Christians of Egypt.

The next session was entitled “On Empire”. It featured Shashi Tharoor. Shashi is an intellectual, an author of many books, an extremely handsome man, a member of the Indian Parliament, and a possible murder of his deceased wife. The British Raj brought much to India: The English Language, an English style parliament, cricket, railways, etc. It also subjugated the people, caused the death of up to 30 million people, sent back to England enormous wealth and denied to the Indians the very rights that they proclaimed as the reason they came to India. Indians have a very ambivalent feeling about the Raj. The session tried to sort out some these complex issues.

The next session was with Vali Nasr, entitled after his book The Shia Revolution. If only George Bush had heard this lecture before the war in Iraq. He covered so much ground I could write several pages about the ramifications of the Shia Revolution. Suffice to say, the split between Suni and Shia goes back to the years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed. Both Suni and Shia view the Koran as their holy book, yet on almost every interpretation they disagree. The split is gigantic, much bigger than Catholic vs. Protestant in the west. It involves political control. The Suni’s have been the traditional leaders of nations, the Shia are often thought of as lower class. The bottom line is that the old order has crumbled and no one knows what will happen next. The only optimistic thing in the Middle East is Nuclear Deal with Iran, which holds the possibility of Shia Iran becoming a stabilizing force in the Middle East.

The next panel was entitled From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo. It was extremely unflattering in its description of these American Prisons. When you hear them discussed in a foreign country, you realize the great damage these two prisions have done to America’s reputation. The hostility of the audience towards America was palatable. Obviously other countries have their own prisons, many of which I am sure are far worse, but these two have become a rallying point against the United States. Abu Ghraib is no longer under our control but Guantanamo is. Of the 800 men that have been sent to Guantanamo, only 20 were even chargeable. The two American authors on the panel gave chilling recitations of these two institutions and how the have corrupted  the American Judicial and Prison systems.

The final session was jammed packed. It featured Laxmi Narayan Tripathi. Laxmi is a very politically active Hijra. The Hijra in India are roughly comparable to what we would call Transgender in the United States. They are a combination of hermaphrodites, eunuchs and transgender men. Laxmi is outspoken, extremely intelligent, politically savy and a natural communicator. She LOVES the limelight. The large audience adored her.

The final event of the Jaipur Literary Festival is always an Oxford Style debate. The proposition was: Should India have Unlimited Free Speech. 4 people spoke for the proposition, 4 against. This was the most crowded event of the 5 days. There were thousands of people jammed into the venue to listen to the debate. For Cathy and me the answer is obvious. Unlimited Free Speech, that is what we enjoy in America. Although India’s Constitution guarantees free speech it is limited. The people that thought there should be limits on free speech all talked of the responsibility of the speaker not to offend the sensibilities of others. In America we don’t put that responsibility on the speaker, if the listener is offended, so be it. They can respond in turn. In India people not only can be offended but they can also bring the weight of the state against the speaker. This leads to censor boards that vet movies, books etc. There was much cheering and hand clapping as various speakers made their debate points. It was almost like a sporting event with the audience cheering on the speakers making their points. I can’t conceive of an event like this in America.

Everyone is appalled about the fact Donald Trump could possibly be elected president of the United States. His campaign besmirches the country in foreign eyes.

We returned to our hotel for cocktails. John and Shumon joined us for a ride into downtown Jaipur to the City Palace for a dinner at a new restaurant. The modern architecture combined with the old palace made for a beautiful restaurant.

A Time of Madness

Peacock at the Rambagh 

Nice Tiger

Bottoms Up!

We attended some great sessions today many of the dealing with the madness of the world. The day started with a brilliant panel of experts discussing "The Great Partition". This refers to the partition in 1947 of the Sub-Continent when India and Pakistan gained their independence from Great Britain (later East Pakistan split from Pakistan creating Bangladesh). The results of the partition were disastrous: millions of people uprooted from their homes, massive killings and atrocities on all side, the creation of two states that subsequently fought 3 wars. It is an ugly story that continues today. The questions are foundational to the angst both people feel.

We have read many books - histories, fictional accounts and biographies about this traumatic time. There exists in the mind of all who reflect on it a continual consideration of alternative theories: could somehow partition been avoided by employing a loose federation? Could the partition been accomplished with less loss of life? What caused the madness and the killings? Which leaders were responsible and why did they allow the bloodshed to continue? The guilt of England in not protecting people during the massive migrations. None of these issues and many more have been put to bed, it is such a complex story. 

There is tremendous amount of academic scholarship underway to try and understand the multitude of reasons this unfolded the way it did. The issue of minority rights of Muslims living within Hindu India, the issue of Hindus within Muslim Pakistan was vexing and has never been adequately solved. The disposition of Sikh dominated Punjab, the problems on the east with Bengal all were discussed. The violence against women perpetrated during the madness.  The panel brilliantly discussed these issues. We loved it. One interesting note was the desire to eventually have a museum directly on the border to commemorate the agony of the partition. Boy will that be a contentious undertaking if it is to say anything meaningful.

The next session was on the new book: Silk Roads a New History of the World, by the historian Peter Frankopan. I have read this book and thought it was fantastic. Peter has turned our usual European Centric view of history on its head, focusing on the trade routes of the Silk Roads between China and Europe as the critical story of the last 2000 years. Europe was a sideshow, having few resources and constantly having violent wars. These wars allowed it to eventually create superior weaponry that eventually gave it its power.

The history of the West’s intervention in the mid-east, trying to dominate both the routes and the natural resources has been uniformly disastrous. The Silk Roads have constantly been shifted as transportation and the desire for goods changed. The railroads, the Suez Canal all changed the Silk Roads, yet the commerce continues. With China building new ports and islands, the Silk Roads story is not complete. It was a dynamic presentation.

The next presentation we attended was based on the book: The Young Lawrence. This is a new book about Lawrence of Arabia from his troubled youth to just before the start of the First World War. Call it Lawrence Almost in Arabia. I have read several biographies of Lawrence and enjoyed this perspective on his life. Among other things, Lawrence has had more biographies written about him then any other person of the 20^th century except Churchill. He is endlessly interesting. Scholar, Archeologist, Mid-east expert, champion of the Arab cause for independence, solider, troubled soul and the First Media Superstar in the World. Lowell Thomas made a movie of his exploits after the war that was seen by millions, making him this celebrity par excellence. He was short unlike Peter O’Toole. He did die in a motorcycle at the age of 46. If you want to read a really excellent biography I would recommend: Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson.

The next session was on the Arab Spring. The panel objected to the name because many of the countries in revolt against authoritarian rulers aren’t even Arab. Nonetheless the name has stuck. The big questions are: was it a good thing or bad thing, how will it all shake out, what was the cause, are the people of the region better or worse off? Heavy questions with no clear-cut answers. The experts on the panel think the Gulf States especially Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc. are dominos ready to fall.

The panelists all think America is behind everything bad, with one exception. There has been universal praise for the nuclear arms deal with Iran. We have heard it many different contexts from many different panelists. Everyone thinks Iran now has a opportunity to play a major and more constructive role in the Mid-East.

One strange outcome of the Arab spring, is the plight of the Palestinians has been pushed to the background. The governments are more obsessed with keeping their own power with a dual fear of their own populations revolt and the threat of ISIS, they don't have time for the Palestinian question. Much of the Arab Press is owned by the formerly rich Gulf states and has turned their direction towards ISIS, because of the threat it poses. 

The role of religion and rise religious fundamentalists is of great concern. One great quote I liked was: "In the interval between the death of the old order and the birth of the new order it is a time of madness". There was a passionate discussion of the role of women in Muslim society. The biggest applause of the session was when someone called Donald Trump a Fucking Fascist. He is not popular in this neck of the woods. The decline of oil prices will do much to topple these governments as the oil rich Gulf States face their own turmoil and won't be able to support the poorer states in the region. It is going to get ugly! The struggle for freedom and self-expression is a long one. We won't know how this plays our for decades.

The last panel was on the Kama Sutra. I was typical of the several thousand people listening to a lecture on his new book: The Book of Love by James McConnachie. It is history of the rediscovery of Kama Sutra. When asked by the author for a show of hands how many have heard of the book, all hands were raised. When he asked how many had read the book, almost none were raised (including mine). The author dispensed with several misapprehensions about the Kama Sutra. There are no pictures in it. It is not a sacred text. Most surprisingly, although written in the 3^rd century, it was basically lost until the early 19^th century when one of the few remaining copies was rediscovered by British and Indian Scholars. The book is the telling of that tale.

After this last session we returned to our hotel, John and Shumon came over and joined us for drinks and dinner.

Inequality to the Amber Fort

Amber fort reflected in the lake 

Full moon over the Fort

Performance in the Fort

The first panel today featured Thomas Piketty the author of Capital. This book has sparked a worldwide debate about Inequality and Growth. He is an absolutely brilliant and self-assured French economist. It was a pleasure to listen to him, riff on all sorts of issues. His research is entirely data driven as he applies historical trends to what is happening today. He castigated the Indian Government for not being transparent about taxation and income. There is a lot of “Black Money” in India, that is money that is not reported to the government. Without appropriate taxes, investments in education, welfare and infrastructure can not be made. These investments lead to insure the growth of the economy. Raising inequality often leads to violence and must be addressed. I never thought I would be motivated to read a book about economics, but after the lecture I think I will obtain it. One interesting thing that Thomas brought out is that Capital is a world wide publishing phenomenon. It has sold 2.2 million copies. But the significant fact is that only 25% of the books are in English. The rest are in other languages. This indicates the issues of inequality are world-wide. It was a great lecture.

We then attended a panel entitled “Why Ancients Matter”. The panelist who all studied ancient cultures believe that it is important to understand where we came from as a civilization and to realize that we are not the pinnacle of human development. I found this panel too abstract for me to truly enjoy.

Ronnie Screwvala, is an Indian businessman who owns media companies. He has a new book out on how to become a success at business. Why do I feel those that buy the book won’t become the next Steve Jobs? At any rate, he is a dynamic speaker and obviously has thought of how to succeed in the business world. I am just not sure that you can learn it from a book.

The next session, was one of the very best I have experienced at the Literary Festival. It was a talk by Atul Gawande entitled: Being Mortal. Atul Gawande is a surgeon and a writer for The New Yorker. I remember when I saw an excerpt in The New Yorker and said to my self: That is one I won’t read. Then the book came out to much acclaim. I said to myself that is a book I won’t buy. Well here I was sitting with Cathy on the lawn in the first row in front of the stage as he spoke. Bottom line: We are all going to die, because of the advancement of medicine in the last 100 years, an increasing percentage of us will become aged and feeble. How are we going to live those years with diminished capacity for our own care? If we are terminally ill, how long, and what kind of life sustaining treatments do we desire? All of these questions and many more were discussed in the lecture and in the book. Atul used many examples from both his family and his medical practice to illuminate the issues. This is a difficult subject to contemplate and discuss and he had a very large audience rapt attention as he spoke of these issues. I guess I will have to read the book.

The next session was on Coming Out. It featured 3 gay writers discussing the process of coming out. The authors were Armistead Maupin who wrote the San Francisco based Tales of the City, Colm Toibin writer of the book Brooklyn which the Academy Award nominated movie is based upon an Indian writer and gay activist R. Raj Rao. Two of the authors live in western countries where homosexuality is accepted, one in India - where it is very difficult to come out. Because of the legislation 377 which makes gay sex illegal in India, and even creates problems for movie makers and authors to get works published, the Indian writer thinks people have to think long and hard before they come out. It was interesting, but understandable position. It will take time for gay rights to happen in India.

We sat through portions of two other lectures then called it a day. It was the best day yet. The festival expects over 300,000 visitors over the 5 days. This being Saturday it was chocked full of students who had the weekend off from school.

Vijay then drove the three of us (John joined us) up to the magnificent Amber Fort, which is perched on a mountain overlooking the city. It beautifully illuminated and is the epitome of what you would consider a Rajasthan fort. We went to attend a reading of several short plays followed by Sufi music. The Chief Minister was in attendance and security was extremely tight with armed guards with machine guns patrolling everywhere. The performance was held outside with in the fort, there was a full moon gazing down. It was a very special (and cold) evening we enjoyed the music wrapped in our shawls.

Here is brief video of the Sufi Music click to play.

We returned to Rambagh Palace after 11pm for a very late dinner (it lasted till way after midnight) and then to bed.

Tomorrow is another day at the JLF.

From Jerusalem to Calcutta

David Grossman (on left)

The Jaipur Literary Festival doesn’t lend itself to pictures. It is panelist of speakers.

The first session was on Foreign Correspondents and the risks and importance of what they do. I have always heard of David Grossman, the Israeli writer but never heard him speak. He is a combination of a writer and foreign correspondent. But unlike most foreign correspondents, he doesn’t have to travel anywhere, for he writes about the Israel and Palestinians. He lives among them. He is considered Israel’s preeminent writer and a potential Nobel Prize Winner. Another of the other members of the panel was Don McCullin, he an 80 year old photo journalist who has covered wars all over the world. He expressed with great emotion how taking pictures of the victims of war has scared him forever.

They discussed the ethical problems they face: for example in places of danger the western foreign correspondent  might have bullet proof vests, while their local helpers don’t have them. War correspondents used to worry about being collateral damage in the events they cover their have always been deaths, now they are the targets. Over 1000 journalists have died in the last few years. They are critical to explaining to us, what is happening unfiltered through government propaganda.

The Next panel was on what is called in India “The Emergency”. This refers to a 21-month period in 1975–77 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi unilaterally had a state of emergency declared across the country. She effectively became a dictator. The discussion was wide-ranging from the reasons she felt she had to do this, to the ultimate capitulation of the Judiciary and other government institutions to this act. It is considered by most to be the darkest spot on the Democratic history of Modern India. The question we are left with is could it happen again? The formulation was, the people want something, the Government declares there are subversives who are stopping the peoples will. In the name of the people desires the government declares it must suspend liberty to achieve the peoples wishes. The panel was divided when asked, could it happen again.

The next session, was wonderful. It was called the Peace to End all Peace. I loved it. I have read several of the books the panelist had written. It is all about the peace settlement of the First World War. I won’t go into the details, but the mess in Iraq, Syria, Israel and much of the Middle East is directly attributable to the artificial countries created by the borders set in place in the Middle East. It should have been a European only war, but the Ottoman Empire based in Istanbul was on its final legs. The Ottomans have traditionally feared the Russians. They wanted to join one of the European sides so that they would have an alley to resist Russian Expansion. They could have chose either side each wanted them as an Alley. Unfortunately for the world they chose to join the Germany. Thus it was inevitable when the the West won that the territories it controlled would be spoils of war. Who would control what was the subject of the Peace Settlement talks in Paris. The problem was compounded by the desire of the western governments to feel it was there right to control the nations that were created out of the old Ottoman Empire. The Arab states would never in the long run allow this. We are paying the price and the bill has not been settled.

We sat through a wonderful dialogue with David Grossman. He expressed the process of creating fiction, the richness of writing in Hebrew, the difficulty of translation, among other things. His is presence that has to be experienced. He clearly thinks deeply about what he is writing, its implications and nuances. He is deeply committed to Israel, while simultaneously understanding the terror rained down on the Palestinians via the occupation. He is both a realist of the existential threat to Israel by its enemies and the just cause they have. He is trying to explain a dilemma and calling for peace.

The Pedantic Award of the day (actually I would give it for the 2 days we have attended) goes to the discussion we suffered through about Honor Codes (think Honor Killing among other things). Two philosophers tried to out philosophize each other as they spoke of probably important issues. They were so nauseating pretentious that one couldn’t get past our loathing of their self-aggrandising rhetoric to hear what they were actually talking about. We didn’t like this discussion at all!

The last panel was much excellent. It was about Calcutta from a writer’s perspective. Two authors read passages from their books and discussed the Calcutta they were portraying. One of the author’s subject was a Male Prostitute in Calcutta, the other was about a child growing up in Calcutta with an actress mother. They were both compelling as they explained the genesis of their writings.

After the last panel, Cathy and I returned to the Rambagh Palace for drinks and Vegetarian  dinner. Shumon and John left to go shopping and then out for dinner.

Jaipur Literary Festival Day 1

Entrance to the JLF

Bant Singh (in wheelchair) 

John and Cathy

Dinner at the Rambagh Palace

After breakfast we headed to day 1 of the Jaipur Literary Festival. It started slowly for us, and the sessions got better and better. The Keynote address was by Margaret Attwood. She didn’t excite me. I thought her speech was rather pedestrian. Enough said.

The next session was an improvement. It was entitled The Pakistan Paradox. India and Pakistan have fought 3 wars. Each country has a foreign policy that is obsessed by fear of the other country. Underneath it all, they are basically similar South East Asians. The paradoxes that were presented were strained in my opinion. The most interesting insight, and I don’t know if it is correct or not was: Pakistan from its inception was inspired by the dream that it would be the center of the Muslim world: The New Medina. Like the Ottoman Empire before, a non-Arab Pakistan would replace Saudi Arabia and the Arab hold over the Muslim mindset. The panelist all agreed that Pakistan has to reform its Madrassas (religious schools), Public Schools and textbooks. The power of the army of democratic institutions had to be curbed.

The next session was extremely powerful. It was entitled: The Ballad of Bant Singh. Bant Singh is from the Punjab and is a dalit who was a farmer and singer. Dalit means oppressed and it is the name in India for people of untouchable caste. This very low caste is highly discriminated against. In his village it is common for landowning owning upper caste boys to rape dalit girls with impunity. After his minor daughter was raped by some powerful men in 2000, he dared take them to court, an unusual occurrence when a Dalit is raped by a non-Dalit, braving threats of violence and attempted bribes. The trial culminated in life sentences for three of the culprits in 2004, the first time that a Dalit from the region who had complained against upper-caste violence had managed to secure a conviction.

On the evening of 7 January 2006 Bant Singh was returning home through some wheat fields. He had just been campaigning for a national agricultural labor rally to be held in Andhra Pradesh in January. He was suddenly waylaid by a gang of seven men. One of them brandished a revolver to prevent any resistance while the other six set upon him with iron rods and axes beating him to pulp.

He was left for dead, however, Bant Singh was alive, though barely.

He was first taken to civil hospital in Mansa but was not given proper treatment there. Then he was taken to the PGI at Chandigarh, where both lower arms and one leg had to be amputated since gangrene had set in by then, and his kidneys had collapsed due to blood loss.

Bant wheelchair was lifted to the interview stage and in a big booming voice he sang out a song of resistance. The interview was mostly in hindi, and we couldn’t understand it, but translation was not necessary. This man’s courage is amazing. He is a labor organizer and activist. His life is an inspiration. It was a powerful experience.

Karen Johar was the subject of the next panel we wanted to attended, it was to be held in the great lawn the largest venue at Diggi Palace. We arrived early and listened to the Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith being interviewed by William Dalrymple. Smith is a writer of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series among other books. He is a fabulous storyteller and the audience was in stitches as he spoke. We ran into John our friend from San Francisco who we will be seeing in Jaipur.

The next session was an interview with Karen Johar. Karen is a director of popular Bollywood movies. Most of them are successful schlock. India has a very repressive anti-gay law 377, leftover from the English Raj. It also has very complicated censorship laws. Freedom of speech is not a guaranteed right in India. Karen has made several movies with gay themes. For a long time the rumors of his sexuality have been the gossip of Bollywood. There were thousands of people in the audience. It was jammed. It was like a rock concert. The interviewer explained how Karen’s new biography: An Unsuitable Boy, was a no-holds bar look at his life. Further she said he would answer any question. The entire audience was primed to hear the question: Are you gay? It was never directly asked, I assume because of politeness of the interviewer. However she asked question after question that let Karen use double entendres, winks and nods to say obviously I am gay. The audience loved it. In the final Q&A a women castigated him for using openly gays characters in movies but with stereotype that weren’t positive. Karen explained that the struggle in India for gay rights will be long an difficult, but that by being one of the first directors to have openly gay characters he has opened the door to even the possibility of discussing gay subjects in public.

The last session of the day was the very best. It was entitled Farewell Kabul. Christina Lamb is a bestselling author and one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents. Since starting out in Peshawar where her dispatches with the Afghan mujaheddin fighting the Russians saw her named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards in 1988, she has won Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times as well as the Prix Bayeux, Europe’s most prestigious award for war correspondents and was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2013. Since the 1980’s she has covered Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. She is brilliant and insightful. She explained how the ever-shifting grounds for the West’s involvement and justification for the Afghanistan War has lead to a hopeless situation. She feels that countries pursue their own long interests and have made temporary alliances with the West to achieve short-term goals but none the less they have longer strategic goals they really want to achieve. Her new book: Farewell Kabul, is one I will definitely read. I also want to re-watch this interview when it is placed on-line, as are all of the sessions at the Jaipur Literary Festival.

The three of us departed the venue and met Vijay our driver who dropped Cathy and I off at the Rambagh Palace and took John to his hotel. Our friend Shumon flew in from Bangladesh to join us for the festival. Cathy and I cleaned up and went to the bar for well deserved drinks, John and Shumon later joined us for dinner at the Rambagh. The food was excellent and Shumon got to interrogate the chef to discover the recipe for a delicious spinach and corn dish we had ordered. Can’t wait for him to make it for us in Los Angeles. It was a great first day at the Lit Festival.

All that glitters IS Gold

Rambagh Palace

Polo Bar

Our Bathtub with dome and chandelier 

All Gold Plates

Gobi (Cauliflower) Eggplant and Rice

Dining Room

What a dinner!

We were packed and ready to leave for Jaipur. We were supposed to be picked up at the Taj Hotel at 9am for our ride to the airport. Traffic can be impossible in Bombay by 9:10 our driver had not shown up. We decided to take a taxi to the airport. The doorman of the Taj hailed a cab for us. About half way to the airport the taxi driver’s phone rang. It was the Taj calling, our driver had finally shown up and they wanted to make sure we had tickets. We were amazed - how did the Taj know we were in that cab, and how did they know how to contact the taxi? We asked the taxi driver and he explained the Taj knows and approves and watches every taxi that picks up a Taj Customer. It was amazing. It was like being in a surveillance state when it was working for you not against you. They told the driver to wait and make sure we got into the correct terminal. Amazing service!

Once we had cleared security we headed for our gate. We waited patiently for our flight reading the morning papers. All of sudden I realized somehow, I had misplaced my boarding pass. I ran back to security and they were no help, but finally they said they would re-issue a ticket for me at the gate. I ran back to the gate and went up to the police at the gate. I look down on their desk and saw my missing ticket. I was very relieved, I have no idea how they wound up with it. I retrieved it and tried to tip the cops. They visibly refused any money. It was clear that they were not corrupt and didn’t want to be associated with being tipped for doing their duty.

When we arrived at Jaipur all I can say is that it was chaos waiting for our bags. This was the old India (in a new airport). Teaming crowds, narrow spaces, no information. Cathy kept saying if her brother Michael arrived in India, he would get off the plane, experience the chaos and immediately turn around and take the next plane out of India.

We eventually retrieved our luggage and found Vijay our driver for the remainder of the trip. It was great to be re-united with him, we are very close to Vijay and his family. The traffic at the airport was amazing. There were machine gun toting guards and vehicles with mounted machine guns. There have been serious terrorists incidents in India recently, and there have been threats against the literary festival.

Vijay drove us to the Rambagh Palace where we are staying. This was the Palace of the last Maharaja of Jaipur and is quite new by India standards. Our room is extraordinary.

Here is video of our suite.

We will be quite happy here.

We then drove over to the Diggi Palace where the festival will be held. It was like the proverbial Indian Wedding all coming together at the last minute. There were workers everywhere. Tents were being erected, signs posted, fresh paint applied. We went to the book store which was in the process of being stocked. They allowed us to wonder about. It was good, for it gave us a chance to discover books that we will buy there. We will only buy books that can't be found in America. We don't want to lug around extra books.

We returned to the Rambagh and had drinks in the Polo Bar. We ate an amazingly good dinner in their opulent dining room. All of our tableware was made of gold! Plates, serving pieces etc. This was dinner with bling! The Maharaja certainly knew how to live large.

Tomorrow the festival begins under intense security.

I Could Live Here

Mirrors aligned to reflect light 

Star Wars like Characters

Inside the David Sassoon Synagogue

Armed Guards at Synagogue

Flowing Textile

Painted and embroidered picture 

Distorted Textile

Drinks at the Taj Pool

Kashmera

Lobster with Pomegranates 

This was our last full day in Mumbai. It turned out to be a great one. At the end of the day Cathy kept saying: “I could live here”. Morning started with setting up Cathy’s iPhone with an Indian SIM card. We both are connected now!

The area around the Taj as it is being gentrified and has turned into an arts district. One side is totally Muslim, the streets everywhere are filled with smells of exotic foods being cooked. I kept mentioning to Cathy - I wish the camera could capture smells. We would never try the street foods for fear of Delhi Belly but boy the temptations are there!

Maps are sort of useless here, they give you general directions but because the streets aren’t well marked, directions are usually something like: past the fountain opposite the statue of Gandhi. I was going to try Google maps on my iPhone but never got around to it. People who saw us looking at a map were uniformly nice in trying to assist us.

We visited many art galleries. Most of them are in large very old buildings. You walk up old decrepit stairs and then enter large white spaces. Some of the art was especially interesting. One exhibit was made up of dozens of small mirrors arranged to reflect a horizon effect on a wall.

Our favorite was an artist who created flowing textile like pieces some that actually flowed from a wall the floor below. Another technique was to take pictures then paint the pictures and finally embroider them with black thread wherever the painting was black. It was amazing to see.

One of the directions to an art gallery was past Rhythm Planet (the record store that is closing) and opposite the Synagogue. We didn’t know there was a Synagogue in the neighborhood. The Synagogue was obvious to spot, for it was painted blue and surrounded on two sides by Mumbai Police protecting it. They are always there. When the terrorists attached the Taj Hotel, they also attacked and killed at Chabad House. The Mumbai police now protect Jewish institutions. David Sassoon built the David Sassoon Synagogue over 150 years ago. It shows its age but is still used daily. David Sassoon led the Iraqi Jewish community and the Synagogue is considered a home for the descendents of the Iraqi Jews who still live in Mumbai. We bought a history of the Synagogue and happily made a donation.

We broke up our art walk by returning to the Taj, I had a very good massage (first of the trip) and Cathy getting her hair done.

Later we had drinks by the pool, no fear of ice, thank god, at the Taj, so I had a Gin and Tonic. Perfect after a hot day. Later Kashmera our Bollywood actress friend, dropped by the hotel. It was great to see her. It is amazing to be with her as people recognize her and do double takes.

We later ate once again at the hotel’s excellent Indian Restaurant: Masala Kraft. We had a delicious Lobster.

We followed dinner with Cognac and chocolates in the Club Room where we talked again with our new found Swedish Friends. We exchanged contact info with them and then retired. Happy to report we slept through the night (with the aid of a sleeping pill). Jet Lag has been defeated. In the morning we check out and head to Jaipur.