Rajasthan is the largest of India's 29 states, though it has only slightly more than 50 million people living here - it is a land of sparse population, though the colors and rich culture more than make up for the harsh desert landscape...

Rajasthan has always been a proud, and fiercely independent region of the world. Some of the warrior tribes here successfully fought off both the Mughal and British Empires, and were never fully subjugated by either (a feat unmatched by the rest of India). When faced with certain defeat in battle, the brave Rajput warriors would commit mass suicide rather than live under captors.

Today, one still gets the feeling that this part of India cherishes its unique culture and independence. The food is simple but very delicious. The music is rich and complex (often tied to dances), and many of the instruments used are not played anywhere else in the world. At night, exotic desert music floats through the air, evoking a distant past. Even the curved mustaches on the men seem to be found only here. But what really sticks out to the most casual visitor, are the colors. The women's clothing here nearly radiates color due to the strength of the dyes used. The men's turbans likewise seem to use every color in the spectrum (different colors signify a certain status in society). Eyes strain to keep up with the multitude of colors that people flash on the streets. But these wonderful colors aren't just found on the people.

Oddly enough, the cities here seem to be color-coded, like patches of colorful desert flowers. I visited Jaipur, the capitol of Rajasthan, and could see why it was called the "Pink City." The markets and buildings of the Old Town are all painted a pink hue, almost a salmon color. I then visited Jodhpur, and the buildings of its Old Town, settled at the base of a magnificent fort, are painted a rich blue, to symbolize the Brahmin caste that used to exclusively live here. Further west, almost on the border of Pakistan, I came to Jaisalmer, with another indomitable fort - this fort (and the rest of this small, ancient caravan city) has a golden, honey colored hue that comes from the local sandstone. Furthermore, Pushkar (the city with the holy lake where Ghandi's ashes were spread) is almost completely adorned with white buildings. The different colors of these cities seem to evoke a uniqueness, or a way to separate one from the next- a very independent spirit to match the independence of its people. Such a dense arrangement of colorful cities is hard to match anywhere else in the world...

For all the color and culture that I found in Rajasthan, I could not help but notice a huge problem that is only getting worse...Water scarcity. The lake of Pushkar(or the lack thereof) is a perfect example the water problem here. Only a few years ago, this lake was nearly full, supplying holy water to the thousands of pilgrims who visited it. Today, the lake is completetly gone - an invisible holy lake. In Udaipur, where I am currently staying, the lake is still here, but it is very low, and slowly shrinking. Such recent problems are unprecedented here.

Rajasthan is a desert, and much of it is dry and poorly irrigated - its people heavily rely on the unpredictable monsoon to grow crops. Almost 70% of Indians still depend on farm incomes, and 60% of India's farms depend on these monsoon rains, according to the BBC. Sadly, 2009 was the weakest monsoon season in 40 years, and India (especially Rajasthan) is currently facing a sever water shortage. Not only is there not enough water for personal use, but crops are not getting the water they need, and food is becoming scarcer. Such scarcity is a driving factor in the relocation of people from rural to urban areas. One only needs to look in the news today to notice that Indian prices for such staples as potatoes, pulses, wheat, and rice have sharply risen in the last year. Overall food inflation in India is currently at about 18%, the highest it has been in nearly a decade - this is a clear sign of water and thus food scarcity. For a population that is only growing (India's population is set to double by 2050), this is an ominous sign. Soaring food prices in 2007-8 caused riots all over the world. Water wars have already been fought in Sudan and Somalia with brutal ferocity, and future water wars will be no less violent. It doesn't help that more than 70% of India's precipitation runs off into the sea! It is obvious that India does not have an effective water management strategy, and it better get one soon!

For all of the problems with water shortages in the world, including Australia and the American SW and SE, you would think that people would start to take this matter seriously. Local reservoirs, rivers, lakes and dams are blatantly short on water, and the fact that 2007 and 2008 were in the top ten hottest years on record should further highlight this problem. Yet in October 2009, only 35% of Americans believed that climate change is a very serious problem, down from 44% in April 2008 (Pew Research Center)!! Of course the economy can be blamed for turning people's attention away from the more long-term problems of the environment, but can we not think about more than one thing at once?

This is not just India's problem, but that of the entire planet. By 2050, the world population will be at around 9 Billion people, and in order to feed that many people, global output of food will have to increase about 70% (AP). Is this even possible, with more and more land being overused or developed each year? Time will tell. Nevertheless, these problems are very urgent and very serious - not even the most colorful cities or pashmina scarves of Rajasthan can cover them up...