Chanderi 16.2.10-17.2.10
Nikki

Another train took us away from Agra, it was an early start once again. As we boarded, the carriage was in darkness as on the journey from Jodhpur and we fumbled around until we found our berths. Dinesh, the tour leader had bought breakfast enroute so we feasted on bread, jam and peanut butter (courtesy of two Canadian members of the group) with biscuits, apples and bananas, complemented, of course, by tea from the train chai wallah.
It was an entertaining journey with Ian trying out his gymnastic rings skills on the berths' safety chains and Jocelyne and Joanne making me green with envy by showing me all the tricks their Kindles could do. Then Dinesh pulled out paper and pens and insisted that we learn to write our names in Hindi. We were made to practise over and over again until it met with his approval. The previously silent Indian man in the corner suddenly became our best friend as he gave advice and laughed at our attempts. Next we were taught to say 'My name is ...' in Hindi and to ask what other people's names were. We tried this out on various passengers who passed us by with varying degrees of success. As we neared our stop the purpose of the lesson became clear; we were to meet our local leader at the station and introduce ourselves.

When we pulled into Lalitpur, there was an enormous crowd waiting to board to train. As we got off hordes of people frantically pushed and shoved at the doorways to try to squeeze on to the unbelievably crowded train. The train began to pull our of the station while many people were still trying to cram themselves in…it's a brutal process and I thought how lucky we were to have avoided that situation when we took our local train from Nawalgarh.We impressed Kalibai, our local leader, and stunned Dinesh when all our practise paid off and we introduced ourselves in what we like to think was perfect Hindi! The journey to Chanderi was in a jeep and a small Suzuki car. The jeep set off in the lead and four of us followed in the tiny car along the rutted single track road. After a manoeuvre into the rough ground beside the road to avoid a passing tractor, our driver pulled over and we discovered we had a flat tyre. It was just as well we had Ian with us as it soon became clear that the driver was not an expert at changing wheels! We drew a small crowd of onlookers who were clearly entertained by our plight! Once on the road again we saw the jeep parked on the verge and a very anxious Dinesh waiting for us in the middle of the road. We drove through countryside until we arrived at the small town of Chanderi where we settled into a simple but comfortable hotel.That evening we had dinner on the rooftop of Kalibai's house. We then discovered why we'd been expected to practise writing our names so diligently. Our places were set with our names written in Hindi and we had to find the one that belonged to us. Both men were even more stunned when we managed 100% success with this challenge too and we settled down to a delicious meal home cooked in the little stone oven on the rooftop kitchen.The next day was a busy one; Kalibai showed us a step well, a palace, Jain temples and a co-operative making clothes from fabric woven in the town (Chanderi is famous for silk). We lunched at an old hunting lodge deep in the countryside with the delicious food delivered in tiffins, again made by Kalibai's wife.After lunch was just as busy as we visited more palaces, a museum and lastly some prehistoric rock paintings. This last stop was a real adventure as 10 of us crammed ourselves into a jeep and we set off, first across bumpy country roads which then turned into tracks and finally became an off road experience, across rocks and skirting the edge of fields growing peas and chick peas. We had to walk for part of the most difficult terrain and eventually after travelling for nearly an hour we arrived at our destination. We were deep in the middle of nowhere! We clambered down rocks and were rewarded with many prehistoric rock paintings which Kalibai had uncovered 15 years previously. He was so delighted to share these treasures and leapt up and down the rocks like a mountain goat. After chai made at his 'campsite' at sunset, we headed back on the long rough journey. When we arrived we discovered that the grinding noise had been a shredded front tyre. How the driver had kept going I cannot imagine!
A fantastic local town with a guide who was one in a million made Chanderi a really special experience.