Jodhpur in Focus: RIFF Turns 20, Japan's Jets Land for Air Exercise, and a Gulab Jamun Legacy Since 1886
🎉 Jodhpur RIFF Reaches Its 20th Edition This October with Seven Acts Making India Debut
The Jodhpur RIFF — Rajasthan International Folk Festival — is preparing for its landmark twentieth anniversary edition this October, set against the soaring battlements of Mehrangarh Fort. Seven musicians and performing projects from abroad have been confirmed to make their India debut at the festival this year, underlining its enduring stature as one of the most significant world-music platforms on the subcontinent. Since its founding two decades ago, RIFF has served a dual purpose: as a global showcase placing Rajasthani folk traditions — Manganiyar and Langa musicians, Kalbeliya dancers, devotional performers — on a world stage, and as an international meeting point where artists from Africa, Europe, and the Americas share stages with hereditary performers from the desert communities of western Rajasthan. The twentieth anniversary edition is expected to be the festival's most ambitious, with performances at multiple venues within the fort complex and the celebrated late-night jams that have become part of RIFF folklore. For Jodhpur, the festival drives significant tourism during the October shoulder season, provides crucial income and visibility for generations of folk artists, and reinforces the city's identity as a living repository of one of the world's richest regional music cultures. [1]
🗳️ Japan's F-2A Fighter Jets to Land at Jodhpur Air Force Station for Historic Veer Guardian 26 Exercise
The Indian Air Force is set to host the second edition of the India-Japan bilateral fighter exercise Veer Guardian 26 at Air Force Station Jodhpur from September 11 to 22, 2026, marking the first time Japanese fighter aircraft will operate from an Indian air base. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force will deploy three F-2A fighter aircraft alongside approximately 110 personnel for integrated air-combat training activities conducted with IAF jets in western Rajasthan's airspace. The F-2A, a multirole fighter developed in Japan, brings advanced avionics and combat capabilities that complement IAF platforms for joint-training scenarios emphasising interoperability and coordination. Veer Guardian 26 is part of a deepening India-Japan defence partnership that has expanded rapidly amid shared interests in regional security and maritime stability. For Jodhpur — home to one of the IAF's most operationally significant bases, positioned close to India's western border — the exercise adds an important international dimension to a station that sits at the core of the country's western air defence architecture. The exercise also provides Jodhpur Air Force Station recognition as a capable hub for hosting complex multinational military engagements of strategic significance. [3]
🍛 A Sweet Shop Founded in 1886 Still Sells Nearly 1,000 Kg of Gulab Jamun Every Day in Jodhpur
In the old lanes near Jodhpur's historic city centre, a mithai shop that has been making gulab jamun since 1886 continues to operate as one of the city's most enduring food institutions. The establishment sells nearly 1,000 kilograms of its signature preparation every single day — a throughput that reflects fierce local loyalty and the city's abiding affection for one of the subcontinent's most beloved sweets. The gulab jamun produced here — deep-fried milk-solid dumplings soaked in rose-water sugar syrup — follows a recipe handed down through more than four generations of the founding family, with proportions and technique preserved with care across more than 140 years of continuous operation. The shop occupies a rare category: sweet shops that are artisanal in origin but almost industrial in scale, maintaining consistency across hundreds of kilograms daily without mechanising the essential preparation. For Jodhpur residents, this establishment is woven into the fabric of celebration — its gulab jamun appears at weddings, festivals, and religious occasions throughout the city and surrounding towns. As Jodhpur develops its tourism economy around the Blue City's historic character, heritage food establishments like this one are increasingly valued as destinations in their own right by visitors seeking an authentic taste of the city's long culinary history. [6]
Sources: [1] ETV Bharat · [3] The Times of India · [6] curlytales.com