How they make rugs in India

Had another magical day videoing the manufacture of handmade rugs in villages outside of Jaipur Rajistan. The company Jaipur Rugs.com is quite modern and is represented at the big show in Hanover Germany currently, but the work is done at one plant where we watched and filmed the sari-clad women trimming the rugs, and men washing the rugs with big wooden paddles two and two, back and forth, and other men working the rugs with all kinds of instruments to get them aligned properly-- so many steps involved.
Then we drove an hour out to a village that looked no more recent than 100 AD. Truly as primitive as any spot on the planet. The loom was in a thatched lean-to in a little cropping of huts with no running water or facilities and buffalo, goats, and dogs everywhere around us.. We mostly ended up photographing the little kids that bunched around us and didn't even beg. (That was different.) They were all so delighted to see their faces on the digital photos and say 'Bye bye' back to us with such glee. Everything was funny and wonderful to them--all ages. The village chief allowed us to photograph him, an old man in a white turban and white folds of clothing. We return tomorrow to video the designing of the rugs.
I'm sticking around Jaipur on my own then joining Leanna at the huge religious festival, the Kumbh Mela that has had 13 million people in Allahabad. Jaipur is a pretty rough city and I feel the need to get out of these large cities that have traffic that puts LA to shame. The main problem with it is THE HORNS.
We've been at a charming hotel that is on a quiet street but one has to walk down a very deserted alley to get to the main drag and this cyber cafe which has a very slow connection tonight. I'm moving to a funkier hotel with other foreigners so as not to be so isolated. There is an ongoing Music and Literature Festival which I will experience briefly before I leave, will miss Solmon Rushdie but I caught him recently on C-Span.
The food just keeps getting better as I keep discovering new tastes, flavors.
Still relishing the strange palace of yesterday. I'd seen the documentary on the Mongols and it featured this Fatapur Sikri extensively. Little did I know at the time that I would be visiting it a few months later. We lucked out with a few good guides there and at Agra Fort. Hadn't had a good guide since one that took us through sites in Israel where he could identify the many strata of deposits--an inch of Syrians, an inch of Babylonians, then Assyrians, etc., etc. Centuries, milleniums piling up in inches. Really gives you a viewpoint on your own era. How these long prosperous dynasties and kindoms can blow themselves out overnight, or...gradually, sometimes with the blustering idiocy of ONE LEADER, like our own Aurangzeb (if you got my last installment). He killed off his finer brother who was intent on distilling the best of both religions--Hindu and Moslem as did his father Shah Jahan and great grandfather Akbar. I have a cassette on their story but haven't listened to it in a few years.
*****
Today we returned to video the finished rugs and compare the rugs: 8 knots per sq inch, 10 x10 knots, 10 x 14 knots and 14 x 14. Learned a lot. I still prefer the Kazak village rugs, while these are more the Persian floral patterns, BUT, they were certainly gorgeous. I really loved the Sumak flat weave carpets. And then the SILK rugs were amazing. I don't know how professional our footage will turn out but they seemed to think we were bringing a lot to the job with our questions. It was fun.
Leanna took off to the Kumb Mela and I finally made up my mind to follow her 2 days later to send 2 days there, only to find there are NO train tickets available. I guess when 12 million are expected, seats are taken. I could go lower class with no heat and no blanket over night. Since I have been cold so often here, that did not excite me.

I went to Jaipur's Albert Hall, looking very different than London's round one. This was palatial and crumbling a bit, under restoration. all white marble columns around lovely courtyards. Lots of Indian miniatures which I have a thing for. Various different young school girls who would introduce themselves to me out of nowhere as I'm engrossed with double glasses on my nose-- cutting quite a figure...( at the Met they provide magnifying glasses and a chair to really examine these teeny paintings). These girls are so sweet and thrilled to practice a little English.
Reading several newspapers I repeatedly never see any mention hardly of the U.S., let alone of W. Amazing. Yes, the Golden Globes and the gowns... But that's about it. Nothing more!!
Usually I can answer "California" when I travel, but here when I say that they add, 'the U.S?"
One guy confused Los Angeles with Las Vegas.
Our confusing language really causes problems. One man complained about 'stomach' problems but pronounced it 'stom match', kinda like 'spinach'. The Estonian woman in charge of rug design spoke of 'canots' for knots. What a crazy language.

Went to the market and bought turquoise and other pendants.
Got on the internet while I ordered food; ate with some Germans and French then came back to this. UP TO THE MINUTE! Now I must return to my new hotel where my bags await me. Probably by auto-rickshaw, the open-air, three-wheeled triangular affairs that fill the streets. Tons of motor cycles and these, thank God. last night we walked back through the dark narrow street that is filled with wet garbage scavenged by buffalos, that reeks of perfumed urine. Then suddenly we saw about four of them kinda stampeding toward us! Got up against the wall then they slowed down. They didn't mean to scare us. Everyone is preetty gentle here; they just want you to get in THEIR rickshaw or shop. Or just give them money period. I read in the paper about the begging mafia, and child slavery capital Mumbai.
Getting cold...
Goodnight.