Out In The Blue 1
- krolesh
- Dec 28, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 14, 2024
It was Sunday. The day of the Cricket World Cup final, to be played in front of 100,000 wildly expectant Indian fans in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Not all that far from here actually.
Given that Indians are absolutely crazy about cricket, and given that the Indian team have actually made it to a home World Cup final, today’s game has grown to become one of the biggest single sporting events in the country’s history.
And guess who else made the final?
Australia, of course.
India have had an unbleminished tournament so far, winning every single game convincingly. They’re the red hot favourites to win the title.
Australia, on the other hand, lost its first two games by significant margins (to India and South Africa), but have won every game since, although some were very close. Everyone rightly sees Australia as the underdogs in this game.
Australia have already won five World Cups in the past, considerably more than anyone else. India and the West Indies are next on the list, having both won two. Surely it’s India’s turn again.
The game was due to start mid-afternoon, so off I went to explore the streets of the Blue City of Jodhpur beforehand.
The view from my bedroom window.
Cute mosque
Another political rally, for the BJP. Politicians really should listen more.
Aussies would never get this excited about an election campaign.
Electric rickshaw
I’ve noticed a number of women wearing black in Rajasthan, which I haven’t noticed so much elsewhere. Hindu women don’t wear wear black when mourning, like in many other cultures. They actually wear white, which represents purity, and respect for the departed’s family.
Women dressed in traditional Rajasthani dress, buying sweets.
The dress colours are amazing here, they’re always so striking.
And just in case you were wondering, traditional dress here is not just your run-of-the-mill sari affair, but it generally includes 4 pieces of clothing:
a long skirt called a ghagra, which is normally patterned.
a choli, a blouse that matches the ghagra, which is often sleeveless.
the kanchli, worn over the choli, a close fitting bodice.
and finally the odhni, a large cloth worn over the head to protect from the desert heat, stitched at either end.
Now you know.
Hole-in-the-wall
The Sardar Market, and all the streets surrounding it, are awash with shops and market stalls, and thousands of people swamp the place during shopping hours. It’s an incredible place to people-watch. I can’t seem to get enough of doing that.
Sparkly wedding decorations
Upmarket bangles
Ghanta Ghar, Jodhpur’s clock tower
Various spices, and, at the bottom, gur, which is known in English as jaggery, an unprocessed sugar made from either sugar cane or from the date palm.
I visited the Umaid Heritage Art School, after being invited in by Vijay, who runs it. He proudly explained the long history of the school, and told me they have 160 students studying there at any one time. The school’s mission is to try to develop the centuries-old Rajasthani tradition of miniature painting.
The works there are extraordinary, I could easily see a whole bunch of them exhibited in the Asia Pacific Triennial Art Exhibition at GOMA in Brisbane, they’re that good. Will someone please tell the curator?
I didn’t photograph the big works, just a couple of smaller ones. Vijay is careful the larger ones don’t appear online, as they’re original works and he’s had experience of them being copied and printed, and sold for profit.
The paints are made from local natural ingredients, including local stone and soils, flowers, fruits and other plant bits.
The variety and scope of the work in the gallery was mind boggling. There were literally hundreds of works, of many different styles.
Vijay also told me he’s proud to be known as Lentil Man, a superhero, just like Superman and Spiderman. He’s Lentil Man because he holds the world record for the fastest painting on a ….. lentil. No shit. It took him 32 seconds.
Vijay’s a super nice man, and is doing amazing things for local artists and local traditions in the area.
Yeah, Alex is sometimes easier for the locals than Oleś. He painted me my very own art lentil. It was mental.
Dried rice pastas and snacks
More election flags. Don’t ya love the Pooja Unique Salon?
My guesthouse is the blue building in the distance.
Eventually I returned home, because Raju, the manager, said they’d all be watching the World Cup cricket final, along with pretty much everyone else in India.
I was happy to join them around the telly, with the Hindi commentary and graphics, and the poor picture quality making for interesting viewing, at least from my eye-challenged perspective anyway.
India batted first.
They made a sizzling start, and the crowd went wild! But Australia’s bowlers bowled really well, and eventually took control of the innings. India were eventually all out for the relatively low total of 240, which is considerably less than the 300 - 400 they’ve been making all tournament, if they batted first.
It was always gonna be a hard total to defend, but India has a whole pile of crack bowlers, and a huge home advantage.
Australia started pretty poorly, and were 47/3 in no time, ie, they’d lost 3 wickets for only 47 runs, and it looked as if India would cruise to victory, and finally realise their dream of a home World Cup victory.
Everyone around me was super cheery, laughing and joking around. Optimistic.
But the Australian batters Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne refused to yield. They dug in, and tried just to survive, for awhile. They were lucky at times. But they did survive, and then Travis Head started to let loose, and began to hit the ball to pretty much every boundary in the whole stadium. Or over it.
The runs piled up. The mood changed. As Australia’s run total rose quickly, a deathly hush enveloped the whole jam-packed stadium.
Pics from Ahmedabad:
The stressed out and worried Indian team.
It began to get pretty quiet around our telly.
Such a bummer.
Australia went from strength to strength, Head and Labuschagne put together a huge partnership, and eventually an Australian win became pretty much inevitable.
The masterful Travis Head, after he’d just reached his century. It was a great knock.
Everyone around me either left or became totally disinterested, and stopped watching the game completely. I don’t blame them.
The room was empty when Australia won their sixth World Cup crown.
Even I’d left by then.
It was a great victory, but I have to be honest and say that, being here, I was so much hoping for an Indian win. It would’ve made 1.4 billion people so happy, even just for a while. India were the better team all tournament.
I was so looking forward to the celebrations and parties in Jodhpur, which would’ve kicked on through the night, and for days to come.
But instead everyone just went to bed early.
Including me.
Go to Part 2
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