We spent the night at Fort Sawarda, a small fort surrounded by a village of about 5,000 people. It is still the residence of the nobles of the Khangarot clan - an offshoot of the Jaipur royal family.
We were drummed into the Fort, so having been so honoured we decided to dress for dinner.
Before dinner we did the now usual "village walk" which started with a visit to a home were dinner was starting to be prepared; ground millet baked on a hot plate and then chared by the direct flame. The young boy of the house (centre, top of photo) proudly read his alphabet with English words, to us. Again we were of great interest to the locals. A couple of us even were invited to hold a baby. We were all impressed with how friendly the people were towards us.
As evening was falling there was a stream of workers returning from the field; walking, riding on tractors, or herding goats or cattle. All were happy!
The walk lead us out of the town past the piles of drying dung (fuel to burn), past the cremation slabs, to examine an old and now disused step well. We then stopped at a senic spot overlooking what becomes a large lake during the monsoon. Our hosts had brought plastic stackable chairs to site and started a fire and served us real chai as the sun set.
In the fading twilight I took a photo of this tranquil scene; the boat that is essential in the monsoon and children playing under the large banyan tree.
While the lake is largely dry it is a fertile area for the growing of crops.
We then had another 'Mirhandra jeep' ride back to the Fort.
“ Kim bought a handful of dung-cakes to build a fire. All about, coming and going round the little flames....."Excerpt From: Kipling, Rudyard. “Kim.” iBooks.
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