Roaming in India

Street scene. Jodhpur, India.

“Is there somewhere I can be alone ?”, I asked bluntly a the reception desk of a popular backpacker hostel in Jaipur. “Yes, we have this private room on the third floor but no one wants it,” the young man replied. “Who wants to live alone?”

It wasn’t a great room. It had a window covered with deceptively cheerful curtains in a bright blue pattern, their sole purpose being to mask the narrow gap between the building I was in from the…