Unlike other forts in Rajasthan, Jaisalmer’s fort is a “living” one containing museums, shops, restaurants, residences, and hotels. This particular home/museum was built by a successful merchant who hired two famous architects to design it- one to do the left side – the other the right to incite a competition for who could create the most memorable living space. His grandson, pictured below the merchant’s photo still carries on the tradition of competition – he announced loudly at the cash register when ringing up someone’s purchase registered what he deemed a “real” preservation effort towards Indian history and boldly stared at the rest of us asking if we’d like to beat that.
