250 year old window

Visited the Museum in the Bagore Ki Haveli – a huge house/palace built in 1750 by the current prime minister of Mewar. When he died it reverted to the Maharajas younger son and since then whenever a Maharaja failed to produce a son he adopted from the household.
I was trailed around to begin with by a man who was hoping to be my guide and for £1 it was hugely well spent. Mohammed was a mine of information – too much to write but he filled in lots of gaps in my knowledge of customs. There was a display of turbans worn by different castes and the divisions of labour within. I asked why he didn't wear a moustache and he explained that in his caste only the two senior members of a line may wear one – the younger sporting a less flamboyant one than the senior. He lives in a joint family and grandfather has the full set of whiskers, his father and also his uncle both have handlebars (because the uncle is another line to the senior) – the cousins therefore don't have moustaches either. His wife has to veil herself when in the presence of in-laws and can't look them in the eye but she works freely with M-in-law in the kitchen.

Back to the Haveli where I watched a woman open up a small shrine, wash all the objects reverently and then mix turmeric paste and put a dot on each figure or object again. She lit a small oil lamp and then from it incense sticks which she waved as she turned to N,S,E,W and N again over the shrine. It took about 20 minutes and was enchantingly simple and respectful.

I found some more paintbrushes made from the small squirrel tail hairs. It is illegal to pull them now but they cam 'from an old collection' at the school I used to work in. I didn't question it!

Am rather cross as I've had to move to another hotel just round the corner for my old hotel has been taken over by a Bollywood group who claim to have booked it all ages ago. Never mind, they've put me 5 floors up with a gorgeous view but it is nearer the mosque and its loudspeakers and there seem to be a lot of people running around up and down the staircases so I may move again somewhere else tomorrow.

Flip through fst as there are far too many but I can't seem to block them from uploading