Slavery in India

Don't remember if I have mentioned, but my local family has a slave. Or, well, maybe they don't call him a slave. But I do.

When I first arrived to this house I greeted all the people. Tried asking this one guy (maybe 20-25 years old) if he's a student or so, but it turned out that his English relies mostly on smiling. And on offering food. So he is the family's own maid/cleaner/gardener/housekeeper/slave.

I have tried asking cautiously from the family if the guy is their relative or something, but I think not. So, whenever I see the guy he is either going behind my window doing different household chores or cooking food. Basically anything I ever need, the family tells me to ask of this guy (yes, he does speak a few words of English). It seems he is never allowed to sit to the table where we eat. Sometimes when I'm eating alone and he has nothing to do he sits on the floor by himself. Even if there's nobody else around besides me and him and there are 5 empty chairs around the table. I hope somebody is paying him something. And a bit extra for having to smile all the time I am around.

Kids playing cricket, their national sport. In the heat. Crazy people.

I general, it seems there are quite some rules about who gets to do what. I bet it has been a lot stricker in the past but something has still prevailed. Basically here first comes the dad, then the mom and then the slave. If slave is around, he does everything. If slave is not around (no idea how he manages to escape sometimes) the mother is the next in line. Ok, I have never seen the mother cooking, the food has always been ready (guess who has prepared it) but dad never moves from the table for anything.

From the pool

In other news. There is a 'tradition' here that every Sunday the international Idex people go to one hotel's pool for the day. So, I went there also. It costs 200 rupees (4 euros) to get in. The place is like a paradise inside Jaipur. Green, nice and most importantly, there's the pool. And by accident that Sunday happened to be the warmest day in Jaipur for 10 years. It's absolutely great to be able to just jump in the pool when it gets too hot (so, all the time). Otherwise there aren't many green areas in the city.

Also from the pool. Not bad, hmm?

Also in other news, we started talking about midsummer today. As there are quite many Finnish people and a few Danish and Norwegians around, we should organize some midsummer celebrations for next weekend. So we started thinking that there is actually a central park here. It will definately get closed&locked at some point, but could just climb over the fence and hope there are no guards and spend the whole night there. We wouldn't have sauna nor a lake nearby, but could buy a few beers at least. Well, will have to keep on planning this.

P.S. Yes, I have now working internet at my room. The family's son had given me the wrong password. Yay!