Surface decoration inside Junagarh Fort

Painted  door

Ceiling decorated like a cashmere shawl

A swing bed with ornately decorated wall

Coloured glass window

Decoration around a window

My favourite place is the Junagarh Fort in Bikaner. Every millimetre is decorated. These pictures give you a small taste of what the walls and ceilings are like.

The women who lived inside the fort very rarely went outside it because of the fear that they would be captured by the enemy. Metal rings in the ceilings were for beds to be attached to give them a change of scenery. They could look out of the mostly latticed windows but could not be seen by outsiders.

It makes me think about how lucky we women are today. Until fairly recently in history, women everywhere spent most of their life inside their homes; but now, where there is the opportunity for women to go to school, they have choices.

 There are still places in the world where women are not offered the chance to be educated and have a career. And of course, women should have the exact same opportunities as men. But I think that some women in the west have become trapped in a different way:

 They get a mortgage based on their salary as a successful career woman, coupled with their partners salary and then they are obliged to go back to work soon after having a baby in order to pay that mortgage. They don't have the choice.

 Most women don't want to hand their baby over to a stranger to look after, most women would prefer to look after their baby themselves.They have to return to work to help support the family and, unless granny is prepared to step in (but that is a whole different story) they must pay a nursery to look after their child. 

Visiting India is very thought-provoking!