The Rajasthani Guard

While we've been busy furniture shopping, I decided I needed a "John" item as well. The result? The four foot Rajasthani guard pictured below. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure he's from Rajasthan. However, since I'm fairly ignorant and have always enjoyed my time in Rajasthan, I'm making the blanket assumption that he's Rajasthani.

Regardless of where he's from, the real issue, according to the wife, is that this proud statue has no name. I've heard suggestions, ranging from "Rajji" which has no meaning and makes him sound like a cartoon character to "Rana Sahib" which is a princely title from his supposed region. You can probably tell which one I like better.

That being said, if you have a suggestion for a name, leave a comment. Your reward? Potentially helping educate me, potentially helping make me laugh.

It's in your hands.

Probably the Most Romantic Weekend Trip

We're headed to Udaipur this weekend, which is a mid-sized Indian city located in southwestern Rajasthan, about a ninety minute flight from Delhi. If the overgeneralized picture in your head of India includes deserts, camels, vibant-colored turbans, maharajas, and their palaces, then you're pretty much thinking of the state of Rajasthan. It might seem strange to head toward the desert at this time of the year. In fact, upon telling people at work where we're going, the unanimous reaction has included some flavor of, "It's in Rajasthan. You know it's going to be hot there, right?" What they don't seem to believe when I tell them is - it's actually hotter in Delhi than the desert (or at least the part of the desert where Udaipur is located). Of course, I'm probably wrong and will suffer through the excruciating heat; but worst case, we'll explore in the morning and spend the hot afternoons by the pool.

Udaipur is set on Lake Pichola and might be most noteworthy to Americans as one of the filming locations for the movie "Octopussy". In real life, it's most famous landmark is the Taj Lake Palace hotel. It's a white marble palace that appears to float on the lake. One website, http://www.nivalink.com/tajlakepalace/index.html, describes it as "probably the most romantic hotel in the world". I'm not sure what they're basing that on, but I like the semi-authoritative nature of the statement. Regardless, we're not staying there. But we are planning to have dinner there which I can only predict I will be describing as "probably the most romantic dinner we've ever had" when we return on Monday.