One thing I heard a lot about was how Bundi is such a charming little town with nice people. So naturally after Jaipur’s hassle I decided that Bundi would be a good place to go. The 5 hour bus ride was ok. The town is not really that far from Jaipur but people seem to be completely accepting that a 2.5 hour trip is done in 5 or 6 hours. On the way I saw a dead camel and a half decomposed carcass of another mule with a dog ravaging it. The roads are total shit, I really don’t know how people manage with such a tiny road infrastructure. And the trains aren’t any better since they haven’t been updated or added to since the British, who built them, left. People are so pacified and clueless it has become my biggest annoyance in this country. How can the world’s “biggest democracy” consist of millions upon millions who don’t even have an opinion or interest in politics or in making their very lives, including better roads and trains.
Anyway, I finally arrive at Bundi. From the road it looked like a nice little place, I can actually see the entire thing nestled against the rock with a fort on top. The people are nicer, its all relative isn’t it? They seemed a little more relaxed, gentler. They still want you to be their customer but they are not as aggressive as in other places and many people genuinely just want to greet “namaste.” But, and this is a big but, the damn place looks like every other place I’ve been. It is amazing to me how homogeneous a vast and diverse country like India, at least what I have seen in the north, has become all the same.
I had decided to stay at a nice place, Bundi Haveli Hotel. It is off season and no one was at the hotel. They were doing maintenance and the restaurant was closed. The British woman who owns the place was nice and seemed to have a thing for Islamic artifacts as the hotel is full them. This was the closest thing I’ve seen to Morocco’s Riads, but still not nearly as good. She charged a bit too much for a non-AC room which didn’t really have an operable window either. It was a very hot night. In a tiny place like this town there aren’t random restaurants to get dinner and everything catering to tourists seemed to be closed. And some people seemed to take advantage of this situation and prepare food for the few tourists that have made it. One hotel was serving food and it seemed to be the only place in town doing so. Like most guesthouses/hotels, it was run by a family who seem to occupy many of the rooms. The food was terrible. This was perhaps the closest I had gotten to home cooking but it was simply terrible. Not spicy, under salted. It bored my pallet. As usual one of the guys asked me if I was Indian because I look it. He elaborated further and said that I look like Brahmin caste. I know nothing about the Indian caste system but once I was put into a box and categorized I immediately wanted to know where I fall in the spectrum of castes. I was relieved to know that Brahmins are at the top and are typically scholars, people that didn’t work with their hands. I thought to myself “maybe there is something to this caste system.” It was like someone asking me what my astrological sign was and somehow that gave them an idea of what kind of person I am. Sometimes it is right and most times it isn’t but most people around the world are entertained by following their signs and some take it very seriously. I know it isn’t the same thing but the idea that a person is preordained because of factors outside of him or herself that ultimately determine where they fall in society and even what kind of work they will perform sounds really familiar. But it is much more serious in Indian society. The caste system has much more serious implications. In the news this week there was a story about a double murder in Delhi. A girl and her boyfriend wanted to marry despite both of their family’s refusal. The main point of contention is that there were not of compatible castes and when they seemed to go ahead with their plans each family took matters in its own hands and killed their ousted family member. The boys family killed him and the girl’s family killed her. In a way it is silly that they went that far breaking with strong held traditions thinking that their love was worth it. On the other hand it is pretty terrible that families are willing to kill their own children because of some ancient belief that one is born with an id card that spells out their destiny in society and completely taking one’s own will out of the equation. The caste system goes beyond class, simply because one is a Brahmin doesn’t automatically mean that they are rich but it means that they shall not perform certain tasks and that are seen to be too “low” for them. I can’t explain it further but finding myself boxed into a category that I never thought of before opened a lot of questions about the very system of categorization. Relieved that “no, I’m not Brahmin, I’m not even Indian, really!” I felt lucky that I could get away with doing something that my caste isn’t allowed to do. I luckily am not part of this system.
But we all live with systems of categorizations. As absurd as the caste system sounds to us we have our own equally ridiculous systems and hierarchies. People always, consciously or not, think of themselves in relation to others around them. It is simply human nature. I am white therefore I am better. I am Christian therefore I am better. I am rich therefore I am better. I have children therefore I am better. I am highly educated therefore I am better. I am black therefore I am better. I’ve been married for 20 years therefore I am better. I own a house therefore I am better. I make six figures therefore I am better. Everyone comes up with their own system of categories to make sense of their world. These systems are completely random sometimes and deeply personal all the time. We don’t share these with others. We don’t walk down the street announcing that we are better than this person or that person because of whatever bogus reason we came up with to make our lives worthwhile. They are equally delusional as something as ancient as the caste system. The big difference is obviously the fact that these systems that we come up with are not socially accepted, they are not part of social life, they don’t really determine what we do and who we are. BUT we still need them, we rely on them to feel secure and be confident about whatever it is we are doing.
I had walked around the streets a bit when I first arrived and took some pictures of wall paintings. I walked around the dark streets in the evening. I was ready to go.
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