Work begins

We are waiting to see Shriji, the Maharana, and have been delayed. I sit in the hotel reception, as I have in the airports of Sydney, Singapore and Delhi, and pass time with the Sudoku in the Times of India. The ruler of Udaiper is known as a Maharana. The others are all Maharajas and Maharawals. But Maharana is a direct messenger to God – in this case the deity is known as Eklinji, an incarnation of Shiva.

As we waited the princess, Padmaja, came out to greet us. She was smaller than I expected and a lot more beautiful. Perhaps she’s named after the beautiful queen Padmini who was desired by the ambitious Allaudin Killji.

But I digress. The call came and we headed to a section of the palace where the royal family live. The waiting room was plush. Full of miniature paintings and European trinkets. Then we were ushered in to Shriji's office. For people of the sun, it was very dark. His desk was a large table and he motioned for me to sit beside him. We spoke for not more than a few minutes about nothing of consequence and then we were on our way to The City Palace Museum where we met the man in charge. He sat at his clean desk covered in glass. Under the glass was a single piece of paper torn from a book or magazine headed "Where The Mind Is Without Fear" - a place my mind needs to be as I begin my work.

The Museum has some extraordinarily lavish nooks and crannies. And some of its more amazing gems (literally) are fairly inaccessible and gated off, or appear in a narrow corridor. The challenge is more to find out what their purpose was. There is no curator here. No sense of story. I’m grappling with these issues right now.

But in the meantime, my little ‘apartment’ is very comfortable. I live at number 33. The floors are white marble. I have air-conditioning that works, and two fans. It's too hot for tourists. The hotel is very quiet. Only three rooms are occupied.

There are two plants on my terrace. They are in soil that looks like hard dry clay. I'm making them my project. I'm well trained from Sydney's drought, and use the little bucket in the bathroom to gather my shower water, and am going to water them every day. I want them to be thriving by the time I leave.

They hotel is installing wireless internet, and have promised that I will be the first to trial it! I look forward to working at a faster pace and adding pics.