While I was wandering around Jodhpur I came across an old door that looked interesting. I pulled out my camera to take a photo, and ended up talking to some of the guys out in front of their house. They invited me to see their beautiful home for lunch, and we spent the next couple of hours talking.
It turns out their extended family- siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles- all live in the same dwelling. They asked me how big my family is, and I told them that I had nearly 30 cousins and nearly 30 uncles and aunts. That number didn't suprise them, but I think they were more suprised that I lived alone. "Very lonely," one said. But a lot more quiet, hah! He also said that he admired my ambition for quitting my government job because he wouldn't have, hahaha...
One of them was to be married soon, and even invited me to his wedding. Unfortunately I couldn't go. Later that day while wondering around the back alleys of Jodhpur, I actually came across him again as he was leaving work. He drove me around as we looked for my guesthouse. Definitely a nice change of pace from all the unctuous rickshaw drivers and merchants trying to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists.
25 January 2006
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