Goodbye Pink City

Kels and I spent our last day in the pink city watching the Bollywood movie that I didn't get to finish in Delhi, Agneepath. Seeing it twice was definitely helpful; although, I still can't understand Hindi. English subtitles, please? 

We also explored three of the main historical sites of Jaipur--the City Palace, where the reigning king still lives, the Jantar Mantar, which is full of instruments used to study the stars, and the Hawa Mahal, a gorgeous palace filled with small windows that women could use to view the street. 

From the City Palace. There was also this museum of textiles that the royal families had worn, and they were unbelievably beautiful. But they didn't allow cameras. I guess ya just had to be there. 

The various sundials and instruments that people have used to study astronomy at the Jantar Mantar. This is about all that I can say. Everything looked super cool, but I could not tell you how even one of them worked. We did, however, meet this beautiful old Indian woman who politely asked to have her picture taken with us. LOVED IT!

This palace, the Hawa Mahal, is connected to the City Palace and located on one of the main streets of Jaipur, which is full of absurdly expensive tourist shops. One man tried to charge me 1200 rupees for a scarf and, when I walked away after saying 200, he followed me into the street bargaining down until he finally sold it to me for 200 rupees. That's a price difference of 20 dollars. On the same road, a young boy was bold enough to grab my breast in front of everyone, reminding me of a quote by Lara Logan that I'll steal from Biff. "When women are harassed and subjected to this in society, they're denied an equal place in that society. Public spaces don't belong to them. Men control it. It reaffirms the oppressive role of men in the society."I think that quote pretty much sums up what I think about gender issues in India.