Jodhpur is a हप्पेनिंग place

Elizabeth Hurley got married here last year on an auspicious day (see my first post.) What this BBC article doesn't say is that many local Indians were really pissed about the wedding, as they felt it made a mockery out of their traditions. Ajit Bhawan is where I got my sunburn. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6433311.stm

And Jimmy Choo based its new collection on the handicrafts and colors here. I'm not quite sure how a sand-covered city in India inspired $500 shoes, but OK.

Other things that are happening:

Last weekend a rickshaw had a wreck with a taxi outside the train station. A yelling match ensued between the two parties after personal information was exchaned. The rickshaw driver, angry that the taxi driver and passengers had called him an awful driver, got a bunch of his buddies together and hunted down the men who had been in the taxi. And stabbed two of them to death. And while this was an isolated incident, the rickshaw driver and other murderers happened to be Muslim, while those killed were Rajput (the high, ruling caste here.) So, like many events of this sort, the killing has turned into a religious battle of sorts. Not to mention that this is an election year and tension is already high.

A tribal group called the Gujjars are protesting and staging riots in an effort to gain ST (scheduled tribe) status. This is a designation that would give this nomadic, agriculturalist society government reservations...and more help from the government in general. It's like India's affirmative action. The Gujjars have blocked the railroads on the Rajasthan border with Uttar Pradesh, which caused trains to be canceled and lots of travel disruption between here and Delhi. Here's the latest...http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Gujjar-agitation-over--to-get-5---quota/324505/