Pink City Blues

Faith and John Singh of Anokhi, the Jaipuri shop that does lovely clothes with really large sizes for Western women, came up with the idea of a Jaipur Heritage Society two years ago and persuaded the sarkar into 8216;informal8217; partnership use-of-space permits, no money and sundry banks and businesses into paying for pieces of the action at the Jaipur Heritage International Festival.

After a modest two-day start last year, they needed an international celebrity list. Who they didn8217;t get yet: Sting, who8217;s horse-trekking in Rajasthan with 15 others, including wife, daughter, daughter8217;s boyfriend, led by Bonny Thakur of Dundlod.

Whom the Jaipur Virasat did bring in: Jade Jagger, famous daughter-talented jewellery designer, who came with boyfriend Dan because 8220;I love crafts and jewellery8221; and to get some of her designs executed by Manu Kasliwal of Gem Palace.

Di Robson, who makes the Edinburgh Festival work and is studying this one, since, 8220;The potential is huge. The city of Edinburgh puts in five million and makes 1.5 billion from the festival. I8217;m here to advise, but I can tell you already that they need to work out infrastructure8221; like loos, for one.

William Dalrymple was Faith8217;s house guest and talked about travel writing at the Gandhi Dham in Rajasthan University. Introduced by a long over-the-top lecture from a local academic, he had nothing to say, except about himself.

Besides the foreigners, who barely managed to find their way in and a few Univ types, nobody in Jaipur knew or cared, so why was he there?

Meanwhile, no talk was scheduled by that piece of Jaipur8217;s living virasat, Padmashri Kripal Singh Shekhawat, the great authority on blue pottery. He8217;s lectured in Japan, Central Asia and Europe and even taught at blue-tile-heaven Isfahan. But he wasn8217;t showcased in his own city.

Also grooving was a bunch of nice, young London lads, the Sonic Gurus, who played for a late night party at spectacular Jaigarh Fort. It was great to see that space used, but the Gurus8217; sound was limited, which not all the balle-balle or Rajasthani-folk pounding on nagaras could enliven.

Bombay princess Lia Dubash and her girlfriends were extremely jolly with 8216;uncle8217; Rajeev Sethi in a fret about bundling them back safely to the Rambagh Palace. Talvin Singh, who played a brilliant jugalbandhi with sitarist Shujaat Khan at Amber Palace, hopped around looking like a munimji from a 1960s Hindi film.

Jaigarh was a ticketed party at Rs 1,500 per person for the gilded youth of Jaipur for instance, Priyanka, a trendy Jat girl who owns a petrol pump in Jaipur, had come with two Punjabi exporter friends. The middle-class settled for a downmarket Euphoria Delhi band afternoon concert, but since the Virasat people had staged it in the silence zone around SMS Hospital, the cops blew the whistle and the band didn8217;t play on.

Folk artistes were supposed to perform at city venues but when they danced at the bank-hosted Rambagh lunches unpaid, since the 8216;exposure8217; was the wage, nobody seemed to listen, not even to Jumme Khan, the terrific folk singer of Shekhawati whose contemporary verses crackled with wit and satire.

The thought did intrude that in the bad old days of the rajwaras, jajmani responsibility ensured a place of honour and a relationship of mutual respect between raja and praja.

An exclusive fashion show at the private haveli of the Golcha-Raj Mandir-Maratha Mandir family saw cotton couture by Rajesh Pratap Singh and exquisite Mughal-motif saris by Brigitte Singh, the French designer who only takes shoppers by appointment.

Singh found a place in Jaipur when she married the son of the late Thakur of Nawalgarh, Sangram Singh.

Jarringly conspicuous by their ceremonial absence were the Jaipur royals. The story in town is that Rajmata Gayatri Devi personally raised pound;25,000 for the Virasat last time, but was furious that it was squandered on parties.

When asked about the festival now, she snaps, 8220;It8217;s nothing to do with me. I8217;ve got nothing to do with it.8221; Perhaps the festival, like fiestas abroad, would find focus and enthuse locals if it began by actually respecting local context: 8216;grassroot8217; Jaipuris consider it most inauspicious to start a festival in the month of Mrigashirsha, that ended only with Lohri.