In my onward travel to India, the next destination after Bhuj was Dhrafa, a small Rajput village in Gujarat.
Before coming here, I didn’t know what exactly it would be like. I thought people would be introvert towards foreigner girls and wouldn’t be as comfortable with us as they were with the previous batches. But finally, it seems that they are really interested and curious. They all started opening up really fast, talking, asking questions, making jokes, and simply inviting us to share their life… Of course, the language remains a barrier and it is sometimes frustrating, but it forces us to find different ways to communicate, which sometimes could turn interesting and funny. And the good part is it makes me practice my very little Hindi, which I really enjoy.
Everyone is really warm, friendly, helpful and happy and proud to assist us in discovering their village and explain us the details of its History.
Concerning the lifestyle in the village, I’m still surprised how similar it can be with my own village, in many aspects? Finally, I sense closeness to the people who live in this village than to some other people that I have met until now in India. Because hitherto, it was mostly only about meeting the more privileged group of Indians, which lacked the similarity of background I have. In many ways, I can find a lot of likenesses between Dhrafa and my village. Of course, France and India being culturally poles apart, there are special “rules” which won’t be found in France. But ironically in spite of the differences, the mentalities and behaviors are the same. I can link many people of Dhrafa to my own relatives in my village. So socially, this Dhrafa experience is really interesting in the sense that I can compare similar lifestyles in different contexts.
From an architectural point of view, Dhrafa is full of History and stories that reflect directly the people, their life, culture and customs. Each and every detail in the buildings has an explanation. Studying all these elements and all these traditional buildings is thus automatically related to discovering and understanding the social and cultural part of the village. Dhrafa landscape makes me believe even more in the necessity of not forgetting traditions in architecture. When I see such wonderful and smart details, I’m clueless about the growing use of concrete everywhere and the way people stopped thinking their houses as a part of their life …
These are our last days in Dhrafa and I know I will leave with lots of fond memories, new learning and great discoveries which I never expected.
JAI MATAJI and aav jo Dhrafa!
dhrafadiaries 
Very nicely written Marine. I do wish that I had been there with all of you in D4 too! I can say for sure that it was, even for us, one of the most memorable experiences till date… Jai mata di! 🙂