Higher Than a Kite!

The Kite Aloft

Cliff Playing Out the String

Jain Students

Gypsy Children Happy as can be!

Village Main Street

Grocery Store

This was our last full day at Devi Gahr. It has been a wonderful experience. After breakfast we took a tour of the Palace. It has been restored from a wreck of a place. When you look at the photos taken before the restoration, you can’t believe that anyone had the foresight and guts to start this task.

More than any other property we have stayed at in India, this is a combination of modern stylish renovation without in the least destroying the feeling of it being in a building that is hundreds of years old. It is fabulous place to stay. There is a no gift shop, the village isn’t the slightest bit commercial, there are no crafts or tee shirts being hawked. This is just the amazing juxtaposition of a high-end, isolated palace in the desert, situated next to a dirt poor wonderful village. There is no Disneyland feeling, these people are simply living their lives. Their ancestors were born and died here, their children will also. It is untouched by time.

After the tour of our palace, we read by the pool, had a bowl of soup for lunch and then of course, went for a massage.

We then went for an hour and half walk around through the village. Akhtar knows everyone. Actually everyone in the village knows everyone. We went to the gypsy area of the village, and went up on to the flat roof top of a house (actually it is probably only 2 or 3 rooms). On the roof, Akhtar had arranged for me to fly a kite. I have seen literally dozens of Bollywood movies with kids flying kites off of the flat roofs of their tiny houses. We have seen with our own eyes, kites flying in many Indian towns. As a boy I think I might have had a kite, but I am sure I never got it to fly. I have vague memories of running through a field trying to get the damn thing to fly, but I doubt if it ever did. I couldn’t comprehend how they could loft a kite from a roof top.

They easily did, and started to let the string play out. Actually it wasn’t string, this is such a poor village, they use thread to tether their kites. Soon the kite was aloft, and they handed the string to me. I learned how to play the string as the kite flew to an amazing height. We went thru two bobbins of thread, a kilometer each the kite was almost a mile away from us.

We were surrounded by maybe 30 very young gypsy children. They all were smiling and laughing and pointing at the kite. Akhtar, went and bought some bags of candy, which he gave to us to give one to each child. We were soon surrounded by children with outstretched hands looking for candy. We tried to give only one candy per child. Simultaneously, I was thinking of gypsies and diversions, and checking on my wallet. But all was well, this was just a happy bunch of kids. Before we left the roof top, Akhtar told me to release the kite string and let it fly away, to bring us all peace and happiness. I released the string, the gypsy children all clapped and cheered and the kite flew away from the village across the Rajasthan mountains and deserts.

Even Cathy took her turn flying our kite.

We left the rooftop and continued through the village. Akhtar pointed out where the untouchables live, and how he as a youngster didn’t talk to them. He then explained how he decided when he was older that he would ignore the caste system and talk to them. We saw the Jain students studying with masks covering their mouth, so that wouldn’t inadvertently breath in a kill a living insect.

We had a long discussion of how best to help the village. With all of the advantages that Cathy and I have, it is amazing to be able to step out of our palace and literally 50 yards away step back in time 100 years.

I can’t begin to imagine what the villagers feel or think when they see us.

Tomorrow we leave our Palace to fly to Mumbai. We are leaving a village that never awoke to the 20^th century, and heading for a city that never sleeps.