Jaipur Festival

jaipur festival
Originally uploaded by lamoney.

I've posted up some photos from the Jaipur festival and our workshop.

The workshop went really well...the kids there were all from the Rajasthan School of Art. Although they were all between 18-21, they are so much more polite and innocent-seeming then western kids of the same age, that in some ways you had a hard time believing they were older than 13.

The difference wasn't as big in Delhi, where they had a stronger understanding of 'cool' and hence were a little more cynical and stand-offish...but still a nice group.

The festival in Jaipur was good fun. Alan, who is from Britain but lives in Belgium, and Etienne, our comic book artist, performed several times there (see the photos). Played a mix of different styles of blues. Susmit Bose, a local folk musician who works a lot with my NGO, also played. It was good to see a bit of live music, and the venue, an old palace converted into a hotel, was fantastic.

The only bad experience I had in Jaipur was losing my camera, which happened on Friday during the workshop. We had a lot of people come in for a closing ceremony and sometime during it someone nicked my camera off my desk.

I had to stay an extra day in Jaipur and spent about 5 hours trying to get the police to do a report, which I needed for my insurance. At first they suggested it was some sort of insurance fraud job, then eventually I had to accompany them as they did an 'investigation'. The officer I was with interviewed a few people from the school and even drew a map of the 'crime scene'. It would have been funnier if I hadn't been so annoyed at losing my camera and then having to waste so much time trying to get a report done.

Anyway I am back in Delhi now. This Thursday is a holiday here, Republic Day (26th of January - same as Australia Day). I'll be going to see a big parade they do through India gate which should be fun. The traffic around India gate has been backed up for weeks as all the different groups parading have been in training. It should be fun - I think (although I'm not sure) that its a mix of standard military parade gear (tanks, soldiers, maybe even some nuclear missiles if I'm lucky) and 'celebration of India' groups - camels, elephants, musicians, etc. I'll try to get one of my housemates to take plenty of photos.

Happy Australia Day to everyone back home.