Feb 11 Still in Jodhbur

Today was a day of R&R.
I had a nice cup of my coffee and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the roof top.
The rest of the morning I walked the old town. If it weren't for the taxis and cars you could be back in the middle ages. There are still public pumps where water is distributed. Freshly milked milk is sold out of big canisters, by the ladle. No homo milk here.
There are Internet cafes, but also places where you can rent a manual typewriter by the hour. A lot of tailor shops, still using manually powered Singer machines. No electricity.
I think today was the first day I didn't visit a temple. Hindu and Jain temples are quite different from our churches. Aside from one huge temple in Delhi none of the temples have large interior spaces. They are all divided into small rooms, like chapels, each dedicated to its own deity. And there are a multitude of those; elephant gods, monkey gods, and so on. In front of every temple are stalls where you can purchase flower garlands, and other offerings. These are offered at the individual altars. Sometimes a priest will conduct a service for a group of people, lots of chanting, bell ringing and incense.
In every place I have visited there are dozens of temples and shrines, some just a niche at the side of a building, others much larger.
There doesn't seem to have been the same sense of competition as European cathedrals, where they were definitely status symbols; you know "our cathedral is bigger than yours"
Indians do have festivals several times a year where large groups gather, but the rest of the time visiting temples and shrines seems to be a personal act.
They do have some weird ones. I mentioned the "rat" temple before. Near Jodhpur is another odd one. A few years ago a local smashed his motorcycle into a tree, and died. They took what was left of the bike to the police station. It disappeared from the station, and was found at the crash site the next day. They took it back to the police station, but, lo and behold, it once again went back to the tree. So they created a shrine, with the motorcycle at it's own altar and has become a place where travelers make offerings for safe travel.
To me it would make more sense using something that wasn't in a fatal accident.
We tend to make fun of stories like that, but Christians aren't any different. There is the story of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, who, more than a thousand years after he died, rode a horse out of heaven and helped the Christian army defeat the Moors. In just about every church in Spain is a painting of St. James the Moor slayer.
Let's talk about toilets. I was warned to expect the worst, but it not bad at all. It is true that every toilet, sit-down or hole-in-the-floor, has a tap and a bucket. If you want to clean yourself the Indian way you use your left hand, and rinse yourself clean. That's why it is a no-no to eat with your left hand. Having said that every hotel I have been in has provided toilet paper as an option. My left hand is still unused for that purpose.
I did have a pleasant experience today. I discovered a cafe that served a great cappuccino. It really was a good one.
Life is full of surprises.
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