The Mehrangarh Fort at Jodhpur is one of the most impressive forts in Rajasthan and easily the best maintained and managed of all the Forts I visited during my Rajasthan trip in February this year.
It caters to all to all kinds of tourists and does it rather well without letting anyone feel left out. Quiet spots for contemplation; fantastic photo-ops for the serious or click-happy photographer; architecture, history and a jaw dropping collection of objets d’art on display for those interested in culture, design and history … the Fort has it all. But the activities that are the most popular and draw the tourists are the fun ones like ‘how to tie a turban’, ‘how to play chess’, having your palm read, etc.
That afternoon in February, I had just finished walking though one part of the museum at the Fort and was crossing one of the many courtyards there, when I saw a couple of international tourists requesting some Fort’s ‘volunteers’ to show them how a turban was tied. And within seconds, it was showtime.
Presenting the story of how a turban is tied in the words of the “demonstrator” 🙂
First we spread out the turban cloth to show how looooooong it is.
Then we kind of scrunch it up length-wise, take one end of the turban cloth and begin wrapping it around our head.
We wind the turban around our head just right — not too tight, not too loose.
The turban goes round and round and round …
Now this is where the details become important. Why don’t you zoom in a bit. That’s perfect. Now see carefully, there has to be a nip there, a tuck here…
Followed by a pull here, a pull there … Don’t forget to straighten out that last metre of cloth for that final flourish…
The final metre of cloth, the final coil around the head…
A last little tuck…
and that final adjustment later…
We are done. Thank you for joining us 🙂
The whole process must have hardly taken over in a minute, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Going through the photographs, I could not help noticing the expressions of the people in the background or how one of them pulls out his camera halfway through tying the turban.
One thing the photographs do not show is the excited squeals of the international tourists, who went “Wow” every 5 seconds or so. My request is that when you read this post or attempt to tie a turban, please do imagine the excited squeals in the background. It was highly entertaining. 😉
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This is what I’m trying to do and it’s quite a process. I wanna try it sometimes and the joy of wearing a turban:)
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You’re trying to learn to try a turban? Did this photostory help? Good luck 🙂
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I wanna try it but not here, yet:)
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Beautiful photo story on tying a turban!
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Welcome here, Rupa, and thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. Glad you liked the photostory 🙂
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It was almost like watching tying a turban live!
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Hello Sudha. For participating in the “Caputre the colour contest” I was asked to nominate 5 bloggers that I liked and I have nominated you. My entry to contest is at: http://sunil-wallpaper.blogspot.it/2013/09/capture-colour.html while the contest website is: http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/
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Hello Sunil. Thank you for nominating me. I will try andparticipate in the contest.
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lovely post, Sudha! we saw someone demonstrating how to tie a turban when we were at Jaisalmer, but as u said, it was so quick, and I was completely unprepared, so, as usual, i have no pics 😦 and ur post brought back those memories!
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I think nearly every place in Rajasthan will have this ‘activity’ 🙂
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Should’a taken a video 😛
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I know. But I am kind of slow on these things and it always comes as an afterthought 🙂
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Wow.. lovely post and captures.
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Thanks, Avinash 😉
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What a delightful smile of total satisfaction he gives in the last frame 🙂 Lovely post 🙂
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I love the last picture myself and feel that I was quite lucky to have captured it 🙂
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Lovely post, Sudha! Brought a smile to my face! 🙂
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Thanks, TGND. The last picture brought the biggest smile to my face 😀
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Your smile is so very cool……
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Thanks 🙂
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Wow very interesting..
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Thanks, Nasreen.
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I did one better. I went, ‘Wow!’, ‘How cool!’ and ‘Amazing’ even as I squealed 😀 It brought back memories of my mother tying the turban for my father (he had a kudumi) when he was still working. The turban of course was like that of President Radhakrishnan and not anything like the Rajasthani one. She always got it right the first time as she clucked and tutted and went round him, adjusting the fit, with father sitting obediently. I was sometimes pressed in to assist her efforts 🙂
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Ooh ! I have never seen such a type of turban being tied. I have a photograph of my paternal grandfather with such a turban. He too had a kudumi at one point. 🙂
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Thats super awesome…I think tying a turban is very very tough..and look at the ease with which he has done it 🙂
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Psst… I tried it at home and ended up with a mess 😛
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This is nice post to learn to wearing turban…
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I hope that you learnt to tie a turban by following the steps in the photograph.
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I just love the smile on the guys face at the end. Cute!
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Thanks, Raghav. It is that photo that spurred me to write this post. The smile is quite something, isn’t it?
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Nearly every corporate event has this and at times Saree wearing tutorials too. highly entertaining they are. Now after the intelligent Ophrah visit perhaps there will be classes and demonstrations of How to Eat with Hands 🙂
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Demonstrations of “How to eat with Hands” is something that I want to capture for sure 😉
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Awesome !
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Thanks, Paresh 🙂
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Thanks for this wonderful basic exercise…
Best Regards
RAM51
http://about.me/ramchandra
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Thank you, Ram51. Glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂
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