Village stay in Rajasthan, or: The beauty of the simple life

For those of you who don't know (exactly) what I am actually doing here in India: Laura and me are writing our master thesis about the (responsible!) tourism potential in an rural area of 9 villages. So now, we had the chance to stay in one of them for 4 nights to interview the locals and check out the area. (As facilities for guests are not there yet -most of the houses dont even have a toilet - we couldnt stay much longer)



What shall I say, I LOVED it...! The sincere friendlyness of these people was just overwhelming and the simplicity of their lifes made one realise once more that the consumerism of our 'first world' is simply perverse.
'Our' family made us feel like part of them and tried to do everything possible to make us feel comfortable. Even the heat could not dampen our exitement for this experience and we had the luck of cooling rainshowers on two of the evenings.




Our daily schedule included many visits to the surrounding villages (by motorbike with Subash and Raju, our competent local guides), to interview the locals about what they say about a potential tourism development. In each one we were treated with tea, water or coke, usually accompanied with extreamly sweet goodies or munchies. Soon, we were surrounded by about the whole residents who first looked at us with shy curiosity but quickly realised that we had come in peace (we DID smile a damn lot during those days). Once unbended, they smiled, laughed and asked us to take pictures to then look at them fascinated. Yes, many of them have not seen a white person despite in television so their curiosity about our look and manners (and sweat production) was understandable!



After our daily visits we went 'home' to eat, chill, play with the kids or visit neighbours. We also got dressed up in beautiful saris and had the chance to finally learn how to play cricket. - So, as Indian as it can get.
Due to the heat in the summer season, people sleep outside on very comfortable woven beds and we did the same (in the middle!), which was an exeptional experience.






























As we arrived back in Gurgaon last night, we were quite exhausted due to the heat and the fact that we had constantly been the centre of attraction for the last days. But I already know that I will definitly go back and visit our new made friends whenever I ve the chance to come back to India.