Hello!
I arrived in Jodhpur yesterday afternoon after what seemed like the longest busride of my life. I called the day before and reserved a single room with a shared bathroom. I decided to share a bathroom because I spent way, way, way too much money in Udaipur and I wanted to cut back on my expenses. But the shared bathroom at this guesthouse was worse than the first floor bathroom at my younger brother's frat house, so I opted to upgrade and have my own toilet and shower.
Now, Jodhpur's main attraction is the Mehrangarh Fort. I went this morning, climbing up the back way through the blue neighborhoods because I'm that sort of traveler, or something. I opted for the audio guide because, apparently, I'm that sort of traveler, too. I have to say wearing the stupid headphones was worth it. The entire fort was impressive due to steps taken by the current Maharaja to care for and restore it.
Aside from the fort, Jodhpur is a dump. The roads are in bad shape even for India standards, and there is garbage, piss and crap (human and cow) everywhere. It's the type of place where one has to be very, very careful about the water. I bought two bottles of water, drank them both, got the stomach rumblies, and then realized it was "treated" tap water. Luckily I have a brick ishthouse immune system and so far, I'm doing okay. But just breathing the Jodhpur air makes me fear catching Typhoid fever.
So that's all. I'm doing well. And aside from a young man telling me he "wants to f*ck" me, not just once, but three times while riding past me on his motorbike, I'm in good spirits. My experience with men in India has now moved past the simple disgust at the burping, farting, hawking and spitting, pissing and shitting everywhere. And I still have two weeks in this country...
Gotta run!
MCC
P.S. Click here for pics from Udaipur!
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Hahaha. One thing you have to remember is, you ARE the very embodiment of the ultimate heretofore-unfathomable-nay-inconceivable sexual fantasy of many of these men. They have been conditioned to think fairer / white skin = more desirable their whole lives (often leading to internalized racism), but many have never laid eyes upon a real, true blu er, true WHITE person before outside of cinematic or media impressions here or there. And then along YOU whisk into their semi-urban lives, not just white but young and free and female, radiating beauty and smelling wonderful. Not that ANY OF THAT makes it "excusable" behavior or right!! But just reminding you that encountering someone like you wasn't even supposed to happen to many of these men, in their minds - beholding a genuine, attractive young white woman in the flesh is the stuff of unrealized FANTASY. So perhaps the boldest of the stupidest will seize upon that fact and act with their most unbridled testosterone-influenced thinking. I'm sure you remember what testosterone does..it's the hormone that makes certain humans very, very dumb
ReplyDeleteAdd in the other explosive ingredient in this powder keg, the fact that many Indian men are under the (oh how mistaken) impression than "Western" women are "more forward," or more liable to be "impressed" by licentiousness - hey compared to the inhibited Indian women who don't even know as much as what an orgasm means - and you get a recipe for social disaster, really. Much of the Middle East is the same way, with Islam's gender role dichotomies being as destructive as Hinduism's
ReplyDeleteI guess all I'm trying to say is: you are kind of UNREAL to a lot of people there, especially the horny young men. I wish that weren't the case, but you're like a Goddess or Celestial Being from Another Land (the Land of the Most Unlikely and Ultimate Sexual Fantasy)...so if these rogues don't treat you with the respect of another human being, just remember that they're not even seeing you as such! You are INSTANTLY objectified, sad to say. Stay safe, and continue to shrug off their bad behavior! I am so proud of your nonchalant boldness Mary! PS - ID LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR ALL OTHER INDIAN MEN ON THE PLANET, but I have all the same issues that you do with my own (should-be-thoroughly-Americanized-by-now-after-39-years-here, right?) spitting-coughing-burping-yelling, etc Indian father, so I fear my apology won't do any good. It will lack conviction, but I still offer it to you!
ReplyDeleteV you're incredible and oh so realistic. Mary, like you said in your earliest posts, you're a gigantor to these people being so tall.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Mexico for my junior year of high school, I had the same preverts greeting me daily on my path as I walked to school. Mind you, I typically walked in a group so I was safe. Even moved further away from school and it seemed like the same a*&h+%*s foung my new route.
As the saying also went in Mexico, if you didn't get verbal affirmations from the preverts within a block of leaving the house, its time to go back home and check your face/appearance to make sure nothing is wrong.....so hang in there. Unfortunately you understand its the culture, its the frustrated men who have seen too many movies.
Glad to hear you're okay, be safe, very careful and enjoy exploring.
If you're ironclad stomach doesn't hold up, go to the nearest "chemist" or "pharmicist" and tell them your symptoms, the medication there is specific for the bugs in that environment and quite capable of resolving issues quickly. Anything here in the states wouldn't hold a candle to fighting the "bug."