The first sight I had of Jaipur with my train entering the city, made me fall in love with it instantly...so much so that when the opportunity arose, I followed my heart and took up a job hundreds of miles away from home just to be near it!

Life can be so fulfilling when you have what you'd wanted out of it all along. I've never had very large unweildy dreams to realise. Now, this may sound very much like a lack of ambition to some and, who knows, maybe there is a modicum of truth in such an assumption, but I've never been too bothered by what others may think me to be...if I was happy doing the work I'd chosen for myself...Right or wrong.....I really don't know......

Well, back to lovely Rajasthan...... and its unique attraction! Yes, as we all know, most of it is desert and as arid as it is expected to be, but what astonishes me is the amazing splash of colour I see all around me! Not soft, earthy , pastel colours, but ones that seem to burn right into my brain with their vitality and brightness.....pink and red and green and orange and blue....everywhere....on the turbans wrapped round the foreheads of men....on the 'dupattas' draped around women....on the puppets, dancing jerkily on a wooden stage...on the stuffed birds, dangling from the fingers of children in the markets.

I know, these bedazzling vibrant hues will remain with me for a long time....perhaps forever.... once I leave Jaipur and Rajasthan behind me....and like the daffodils did for Wordsworth all those years ago, they too will 'flash upon the inward eye/ and be the bliss of solitude'.....

Till later on this subject.....