A socio-economic roller coaster
The polo match was held on the Jaipur polo grounds, which is nestled about 1.5 km off the main road to Ajmer. The interesting thing about this last 1.5km to the polo grounds is that it takes you through a very poor and crowded looking slum. It really is phenomenal, and I wish I’d gotten pictures worth posting. You pass dirty broken down homes and piles of garbage that children are looking through. The place was a study in dogs, dust and drear.
The unpaved road ends abruptly in the arched gateway of the Jaipur polo club, which looks like a western country club. A man in uniform with a massive handlebar moustache salutes as you drive by. You drive up to green polo fields, white clubhouse, horse stalls, pool, tennis court, servants offering drinks. When we arrived two patrons were lounging by the pool with their bikini-clad girlfriends. They played some tennis for a change of pace, and that pretty much seemed to be how their days went.
Anyway, the point is that it was just jarring, shifting from one socio-economic extreme to the other without a clutch.
The unpaved road ends abruptly in the arched gateway of the Jaipur polo club, which looks like a western country club. A man in uniform with a massive handlebar moustache salutes as you drive by. You drive up to green polo fields, white clubhouse, horse stalls, pool, tennis court, servants offering drinks. When we arrived two patrons were lounging by the pool with their bikini-clad girlfriends. They played some tennis for a change of pace, and that pretty much seemed to be how their days went.
Anyway, the point is that it was just jarring, shifting from one socio-economic extreme to the other without a clutch.
posted by Linton at 9:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home