Silly Cow, Restaurants are for Humans

We named him Chutney.

We are now in Udaipur, coming yesterday from a small town called Mount Abu. Originally, we had planned on leaving Jaipur and going Jaisalmer and Jodhpur before Udaipur. But we changed those plans because going to three cities in a row starting with the letter J is bad luck. Instead, we flew to Ahmedabad (where my family is), stayed there one night, said hi to my kin, and then hauled ourselves to Mount Abu, a little mountain town full of rich vacationing Indians. There, we (three intelligent and cautious Americans) followed a stranger into his home in the dead of night just to get some cheap Indian handicrafts. As we sat in their living room, he and his wife pulled out gobs and oodles of beautiful hand-painted postcards and silk. As we looked at them, one of those rotating fans was becoming a nuisance as it blew away the stacks of stuff we were looking at. Then I saw that the fan brand was 'Ravi' so I forgave it immediately for all of its tomfoolery.

So in India, astrological signs carry great significance. In the US, there's obviously a large amount of ridicule directed towards it, but here, people take it seriously in greater numbers.  In Jaipur, we went to Jantar Mantar, an old space in the middle of the bustling city full of astronomical instruments used to measure the position of celestial objects and to determine the earth's orientation. This means that many of these large chunks of concrete and metal are positioned in precise ways to align with the equator or run perpendicular to it (this allows you to tell the time based on the position of the sun, if its light is sharp enough that day).  The resulting effect is that you can kind of feel just how much of an angle you have from the equator. The only structures that weren't in line with the equator were the ones made to locate the position of a specific astrological constellation (there's one for Leo, one for Sagittarius, etc). Some of these structures probably required deep dedication and intelligence. Much of this dedication seems to spur from a long history of respect and awe for astrology.

Jantar Mantar

You can find Leo with this thing

Who doesn't love angles!

The Amber Fort in Jaipur was also remarkable. With tons of interconnecting rooms and hallways and stairways, it's a dream for hide-and-seek or tag or Goldeneye. We didn't play, not because we're too old but because there are only three of us. You know how it is with tag.