I have always been interested in doing street photography in Jodhpur blue city as I was fascinated by the blue color of the houses there. Last year in November, while visiting Pushkar mela, I decided to go to Jodhpur and fulfill my wish. The old city in Jodhpur has all the blue coloured houses and still retains the charm of the by gone era. It is very good for doing street, portrait and architecture photography. 

Jodhpur blue city

Jodhpur is called the blue city because of the abundance of blue coloured houses. Several reasons are given as to why the houses are colored blue, some of them are –

1. The houses are coloured blue because the blue color helps in keeping the house cool during summer. Jodhpur exceeds temperatures of 40 degrees celsius from April to June as it is very located close to the Thar Desert.
2. It has been found that blue color has a calming effect on the mind and body, which is essential during hot summers.
3. Also, brahmins, an upper caste belonging to Hindu community considered the blue color auspicious and used it to paint their house.
4. Another reason that is given is that blue color was easily available due to the presence of Indigo plantation in the area.

Street photography in Jodhpur

My journey started around 7 am in the morning. I hired a guide, as it was my first time in Jodhpur and I had no clue where the blue houses were located. As I walked through the narrow lanes and by lanes, I was amazed at how people live there. The streets are so narrow that cars cannot enter there, local people rely on cycles, scooters and motorbikes for transportation. Most of these houses and streets are very old, even though they have changed with time, they still retain their old charm.

As I walked through the narrow lanes and by lanes, I discovered that apart from blue, there are other colors as well. To find these colors, you have to do a bit of searching as they are easily seen. As you can see, the lanes are very narrow and all these connecting streets appear like a maze to first time travelers as they all look and feel very similar to one another. Also, I found GPS does not work properly there, therefore I felt a guide is necessary for navigating these streets.

Street food photography and tasting

It was 9 am, both me and my guide and walked for 2 hours and became tired, so we stopped in front of a few eateries on the way and tasted the local food. Our first stop was a sweet store, where Jalebis were being prepared. The unique feature is that each Jalebi weighs 100 gms. Then, we came upon a shop frying kachoris in a big pan. They were very tasty and spicy. The paan shop came as a blessing, because they a mint flavour in them, which helps in cooling the body.

Finally, it was time to end the trip and he dropped me near the Sardar market, where I visited the clock tower and surrounding areas by myself.

Second day walking tour in Jodhpur

I had two more days left in Jodhpur, so I asked my guide to conduct another walking tour, but in another part of the old city and to include more blue houses as the previous tour had only few of them. He asked me come near the Navchowkiya dispensary at 3 pm and we embarked on another tour. During this tour, I saw and photographed more blue houses than the earlier tour. Street dogs are vicious there and they attack strangers without any provocation, so be careful if you are not hiring a guide. Finally, it was 5 pm and time to end the tour, he took me to his house and served me tea and biscuits. Overall, I paid the guide 2000 rupees for the two day tour.

Conclusion

Overall, it was a good tour and I learnt a lot about the culture and history of the place, but I was expecting to see more blue houses. What I concurred was that the new generation are not very keen in keeping their houses blue and are putting different color in it. Most of the blue houses are in shambles and have not been painted in many years. I felt that it is just a matter of time that blue houses will be a thing of the past.

Other street photos of Jodhpur

If you’re interested in using my photography or article please contact me as I am available for freelance work.

If you want to know about other sightseeing spots in Jodhpur, you can visit my blog on Jodhpur sightseeing. Furthermore, I have also written about other places in Rajasthan like Kuldhara, Mandore garden, Jaisalmer street photography, Jaisalmer photo tour, Bada Bagh, Patwon Ki Haveli, Pushkar mela photography, Udaipur photography, Udaipur, Jaipur architecture street photography and Jaipur photo tour.

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