Road to Ranthambore

Topic: Women in India On our drive, Prashant talked about the status of women in India. Girls can suffer early, particularly in the city, they may be aborted after an ultrasound to determine gender. In the rural areas, they may be drowned right after birth. Why? A girl is a liability - you raise them, only to marry them off; when they become part of the husband's family, they require a dowry; and might dishonor the family via premarital sex. For this reason, many girls don't go to school, even though the government subsidizes girl's education with books, a uniform, and a bike. Though the practice is declining, some marriages are arranged at age 5 or 6, even though the girl won't move out of the family until puberty. If a boy and girl fall in love, but the family doesn't approve, both may be killed (such an incident was in the papers a few weeks ago). Today, laws are in place that assumes the husband's family is responsible for an unnatural death of the wife during the first seven years of marriage. There had been many cases where a wife dies in a kitchen fire because they determined she wasn't suitable, the dowry hasn't been paid, or she couldn't get pregnant.While many women work today in India, we didn't see any in the hotels or restaurants or very many shopkeepers, we did see them in the fields, as street sweepers, or in construction, always dressed in their saris. Yet at the same time, there are more Indian women who become doctors, scholars, or scientists than in the U.S.

Women harvesters

While traveling today, we stopped to observe the harvesting of peanuts. The farmer has about ten acres, he plants peanuts in the summer and then a second crop will be mustard, both used for their oil.
We made it to the Nahargarh hotel in time for lunch. We were all shocked - this hotel is built like a modern Indian palace with ornate courtyards and huge rooms with marble floors. We felt like royalty as tea and coffee were served in the courtyards.

View from our hotel window

 In the afternoon, we hiked up to Ranthambore fort. Built in 944 at the top of a rocky butte, this place is impregnable. There is only one entrance with multiple gates exposed to the archer's arrows. All other approaches are up sheer cliffs. The fort is located along a key route to the Ganges. On the way there and back we saw Sambar Deer, a white-breasted kingfisher, and lots of Gray Langur monkeys. On top was a beautiful Hindu memorial, several mosques, crop land, and a Hindu temple.

Grey Langur