Shekawati

After a great night’s sleep in my luxurious palace bedroom with beds so high, a footstool is provided, and bathroom as big as my living room, I was ready to face a day of research in the Shekawati area of northern Rajasthan.
My driver, Bhajirath (Bhaji for short) was proving to be a great companion – thoughtful, funny, informative.  Also a great one for the selfie – a form of photography I normally spurn, but when in India…..

Bhaji & I chumming it up for a selfie

We left the palace after breakfast to explore the area famous for the abandoned havelis (mansions) built by rich merchants when the Silk Road passed through Rajasthan. The traders competed with each other to build grander and more elaborate havelis, temples and stepwells, only to abandon them, and the camel trains, when shipping out of Kolkata became a faster option to get their goods to the world.
The havelis are famous for the painted murals inside and out. Many are in disrepair, some are renovated and turned into hotels or restaurants, others lie in pieces waiting to be sold off for someone to reconstruct or create their own haveli.

Painted haveli

Miniature portraits in the doorway of a haveli

Faded glory

Haveli graveyard

Spare parts

Shelves full of antique artefacts

I was also on the lookout for old beads and jewellery & my search took me to a trader in the bazaar – now a deserted place with a few guys and dogs passing the time in the shade of ancient trees.  I was the only foreigner there. Kishore had taken over some subterranean tunnels with steep stone steps leading down to his collections of antiques collected from the abandoned havelis. Originally the food cellars of a haveli, these tunnels have no electricity, so browsing is done by torchlight.
One 300 year old dhola (I think this was the name) – bucket, begged me to take it home with me, and my resolve neither to add weight to my luggage nor lighten my bank account dissolved  as I admired the work of the tradesman who hammered out this metal, riveted it together, fashioned into the elegant bulbous shape & finished it off with a wrought handle with swivel. It was originally used to fetch water from a well. Now it will find a new home in Australia.