India

First few days in India - Aug 1-4

Shabbat shalom from Delhi!

Wow! What a few days! I met my family on August 3 and we've been in Delhi since.

My flights were pretty smooth, I met some kind people. Big thanks to Auntie Lala for the ride to the airport! On my first flight from Boston to Amsterdam I sat next to an Indian man and his parents who were flying to Mumbai to visit relatives. We had some lovely conversations, some of which I tweeted about, and he seemed generally very nice. I spent the first part of my layover in Amsterdam trying to sleep on the recliners in the airport, then wandered the airport. I had eggs and potatoes and hot chocolate with a couple going from Worcester to Liberia to visit relatives, it turned out the husband was an Anglican priest who had been born to Muslim parents in Liberia and worked at a cathedral in Springfield where there was an Imam and Rabbi on staff. Then I had a legal glass of wine (the drinking age in Amsterdam is 18) and wandered the terminal until my flight from Amsterdam to Delhi. On that flight I mostly slept, although I did have fun zooming in on my friends houses from the map function and taking snapchats of it. When we got to India, there was a 2-hour line for customs and I talked with the people near me in line. Most of them were from Holland, but the guy behind me was from Thailand which was cool. When I got through customs, a man named James was there and he drove me back to the hotel. I got there at 4AM, and slept until 10am.

When I woke up in the hotel on Thursday morning, I showered and I missed breakfast so I sat there until Maya, Mom, and Dad got there around 2. We all had some tea and cookies in the hotel and I sat on Maya, an age old reuniting tradition. When Annapurna, our guide, got there we went out for a late lunch and she told us some of the history of Delhi. The oldest archaeological evidence of Delhi is 5,000 years old, and the city is named for a ruler from the 1st century. Delhi was the capital of India under 7 different dynasties, the oldest of which are Hindu. However, most of the monuments in Delhi are Muslim because Muslim invaders came in the 6th century to loot and plunder, then settled in Delhi in the 9th century. These Muslim rulers destroyed most of the Hindu temples and monuments. Until 1947 the British colonized and also used Delhi as their capital. Now, the population of Delhi is more Hindu than Muslim.

After lunch, we went to the Lodi Gardens. In the Lodi Gardens, there is a large mosque and tombs from the 1-2nd dynasties. The gardens are beautiful, and the mosques had interesting detail work and ornamentation. I did get tired from jetleg part of the way though the walk though. On the way back to the hotel we drove past the India gate. At the hotel, I had a nap while Maya and Mom read and Dad took a walk, then we all went to dinner with Annapurna and then bed.

On Friday morning we had breakfast in the hotel - yummy eggs - then met Annapurna for our big day of sightseeing in Delhi! The first site we saw was the Qtub Minar complex, the oldest mosque in India. It was built by the emperor of the first dynasty that used Delhi as a capital and the big pillar stands about 6 stories or 73 meters tall. It was built by three different emperors, and stories differ whether it was a celebration of the conquest of Delhi or a place for the call to worship to happen. The top piece of it was replaced three times, first it was Muslim, then Hindu, then British. It is removed now though. The entire pillar leans a bit, and Annapurna said that it was because the structure had survived two lightning strikes and some earthquakes. The pillar is intricately decorated with patterns and Quran verses. Also in the same complex is the Iron pillar, which is from the 4th century and has Sanskrit on it, and the tombs of some of the rulers who built the complex. It is a mystery why the iron pillar does not ever rust.

The next place we went was Humayun's Tomb, built by Humayun's widow Bea Beyum in 1556. It's seen as the beginning of the Mughal golden era and a predecessor of the Taj Mahal, which we will see later on this trip. It's built in a Persian-style garden to emulate Islamic ideas about paradise, and the double dome stands about 42 meters. Dad was really struck by the intricate latticework in the windows.

After Humayun's tomb, we had lunch then went to Old Delhi and went on a rickshaw tour. It was suuuuper hot by that time in the afternoon, and we felt bad for the people pulling us around the market in rickshaws. The market was bustling, we went through a wedding market and a spice bazaar, both of them were overwhelming and busy. There were just so many people! Mom also pointed out that there were wires in a tangle above us bringing people electricity, etc.

During the rickshaw ride, we stopped to go into a Jain temple. The man there told us that the temple was very old, and told us about Jainism. Jainism is a type of Hinduism that is based on non-violence to the extreme. Live and let live, if you will. Jains are vegetarian, don't eat roots, and don't eat after sunset so that bugs won't fall into their food. They also don't use forms of transportation besides walking, and during the monsoon season they won't even walk. Their monks wear masks over their faces so that they won't accidentally inhale bugs. There are two sects of Jains, one sect wears only white clothing and one sect wears no clothing at all - ever! Jains don't observe practices because a priest or clergy person tells them to, they have to understand why the practice is significant. The man also told us that, while Jains make up less than one percent of India's population, they are business people so they pay almost 15% of the taxes! The temple itself was beautiful, the first floor was ornately carved and painted and the second floor had mosaics showing the story of a Jain prophet. THe man also put mustard paiste on our foreheads.

After that, we went to Shani Jana Mosque which was built in 1656, then Maya and I went back to the hotel for a rest (I'm still quite jet lagged) and Mom and Dad went to a Baazar. They told us that there was a man there who showed them testimonials for how well he cleaned out people's ears! To that, Annapurna said "people in India survive in so many ways." On our way to the Bazaar to meet them, there was a lot of traffic, but we got there eventually and walked around before dinner. We had dinner at a restaurant called Street Food for Tourists, then came back to the hotel to go to bed!

Next post will be Tuesday if I can find internet!

Good evening (or good morning if you're in the US) from Talabgaon!

Our past few days have been hot, historical, and happy. We traveled from Delhi to Amritsar, then to Agra and Talabgaon.

We started Saturday morning with breakfast in the hotel in Delhi, then bid the women there goodbye and hopped on a flight to Amritsar. I had a really good mocha in the airport! We stepped off the plane in Amritsar and it was even more hot and humid than Delhi, so we spent a few hours in the early afternoon in the hotel instead of walking around. When we left the hotel we went to the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, a memorial for the massacre of peaceful protesters that happened on August 13, 1919. The British gunned down a huge square of people, there was nowhere to escape to because there was only one alley into the square. Some people tried to jump into a well to escape and drowned, it's now called the well of martyrs. It's estimated that a thousand people died, and the massacre is thought of as having jump-started the independence movement in India. Now, there is a huge statue there of a flame, an actual flame in honor of the people killed, and lots of greenery, some bushes are cut to look like gunmen. As we walked, Indian tourists asked to take photos with us white people which was amusing.

After, we went to see the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is a Sikh temple built with a huge free kitchen buy the 5th Sikh Guru. Sikhism is the ninth largest religion in the world and it's relatively new, dating back to the late 15th century. Annapurna described it as a reaction to the strict caste system in India, saying that it takes no hierarchy and is based on being a good person and doing charity and free service, hence the huge free kitchen around the Golden Temple. Something striking about it also was the respect for other religions, most of the prayers being chanted over the loudspeakers were Sikh, but some were Hindu and Muslim as well. The Temple itself was stunning, it is made of marble and plated with 650 kilograms of gold from the 9th century. We got there at sunset and the light on the gold-plated inlays was beautiful. The temple was built in the middle of a man-made lake in the marble, and it's reflection glistened. We got on line to go into the temple and slowly followed the colorfully-clad crowd into the temple itself. As we got in, we could see the intricate inlays in the gold and the inside of the temple had designs on white marble, some painted and some made with mosaics of semi precious stones. There were people everywhere kissing the ground and in the center we could see the man chanting the prayers that were being projected over the loudspeakers, with flowers and garlands around him. People also dropped paper money there. We went up to the second and third floors too, where there were people ceremonially reading books written by the Gurus. When we had seen it, we left the temple and went to dinner. At 10:30, we went back to the temple to watch a procession. Each night they take a small book Guru Granth Sahib from the temple and bring it inside from 10:30pm to 4:30am. It's very ceremonial, they sound a big horn that sounds somewhat like a shofar and take it in and out on a lot of pillows. More information about the Golden Temple and it's ceremonies is found here: http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/A_day_at_the_Golden_Temple

Sunday morning our first stop was the Gobindgarh fort, built in the 18th century and renamed for a guru later. In 1805 it was restored in a French style. It was there to protect the Golden Temple. It is large and red, and slightly in disrepair. It seemed like they were trying to make it an amusement park of sorts, there were different rides and amusements set up. We got there before it had really opened, and it seemed like everything was opening a little late. Annapurna said it was because the Punjabi people are very casual and work slowly, so everything was a little late. We got to see three parts of the fort; the wax museum, the coin museum, and the 7D show. The wax museum was really interesting, there were wax figures of warriors from around India set up. The ones I liked the most were the Punjabi warriors, they were doing a marshal dance according to Annapurna. Next, we went to the coin museum with coins from before the colonial rule. There, there was also a replica of the Koh-i-noor, a giant precious stone that was stolen from the Punjabi by the Mughals, then from them by the British. The coolest thing at the fort by far though was the 7D show about the Maharaja Rajit Singh, the great king of the Punjab from the early 19th century. The 7D show was really cool, our seats moved and they sprayed water, soap suds, and bubbles at us. The story seemed to be about how Ranjit Singh inherited the kingdom at age 12 and went on to liberate/conquer much of the surrounding area through war tactics, kindness, and strategy. He also modernized the Punjabi army with help from French generals. It was interesting to see the mythology of Punjabi nationalism. Dad did point out that it was very much Punjabi nationalism, not Indian nationalism.

After the 7D show, we dropped Maya off at the hotel because she had a headache then went to a museum about the life of Maharaja Rajit Singh, which had paintings and panoramas about his life events and battles. On the way there, Annapurna was telling us about the drug problem in the Punjab. She said smack is a big problem here, and blamed that on the people being more casual. After the museum, we went to lunch, then backs to the hotel for a rest.

After our rest, we drove about an hour to the Waga border, the border between India and Pakistan, to watch what was described to us as a changing of the guards ceremony. It was really quite an experience! We got out of the car and walked through four security checks, then into this huge half-stadium with golden dome decor and 20,000 people in the stands cheering in brightly colored clothing and flapping flags and orange fans. On the other side of the stadium was a tall gate, and on the other side of the gate there was another half stadium filled with Pakistanis and decorated with the Pakistani flag and a giant photo of their first prime minister. Annapurna said that Pakistan and India are two countries because the first prime minister of Pakistan and the first prime minister of India both wanted to be prime minister and neither would give it up, so they fought a war over it. We were close up because Annapurna knew someone, so we could see everything pretty well. Before the military part started it felt almost like a pep rally, there was a man in all white pumping up the crowd, and all of the women in the audience had an opportunity to run around the stadium with the flag of India. Then, everyone had a chance to dance in the middle of the stadium to Bollywood music. That was especially in-your-face to Pakistan, because in Pakistan women can't dance in front of men for religious reasons. After all the dancing, there was a long military ceremony in which people in uniform marched towards the gate and did high kicks, and the Pakistani army on the other side did the exact same marching. Then they opened the gates and shook hands, and did some intense posturing and movements that were both aggressively choreographed and choreographed aggressively. Then they put up and lowered their flags, shook hands again, and closed the gate, and it was over! We had some chai tea and went to dinner, then back to the hotel for bed.

We had to wake up super early on Monday morning to catch our flight from Amritsar to Delhi, then we drove to Agra through fields of maize, millet, barley, and rice. When we got to Agra it was afternoon, and very hot (although it didn't feel as bad as Amritsar), and Annapurna told us that it was a festival day called Rakhi, in honor of siblings. Maya and I traded bracelets and he'd each other chocolate in honor of Rakhi.

On the drive to Agra and also during lunch, we talked about the history of the Moghel dynasty, The Muslim dynasty in the 16th through 18th centuries. The first emperor of the Moghels was Barbar, A military hero who conquered the region and made Agra his capital in 1526 after defeating the Lodis. His son, Humayun, made Delhi the capital and built the giant tomb we saw last week. Humayun's son, Akbar, was the most powerful of the Moghul rulers, he moved the capital back to Agra and tried to create a religion called "peace – to – all" that tried to do away with all of the religious tensions. He even married a Rajput princess named Jodhai Bar, who was the mother of his firstborn son and the next Moghel emperor. That was Jahangir, Who was addicted to opioids and alcohol, but still managed to run the kingdom effectively and arts flourished under his reign. His son was Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife, Muntaz Mahal, as well as the Red Fort in Delhi. He moved the capital to Delhi in 1648, but actually died in the Agra Fort overlooking the Taj Mahal because his son and successor, Aurangzeb, imprisoned him there. Aurangzeb was the last great Moghel emperor, under him the empire disintegrated and was eventually taken over by the British.

The first place we visited was the Agra Fort, where Shah Jahan died imprisioned by his son. The fort was incredible, it was built in intricate white marble, carved with designs. Because the Moghels were Muslim, there were no animals or animal likenesses, but it was easy to see the Hindu influence anyway. The tall columns and carved ceilings were awe-inspiring and we dripped sweat as we walked around the gardens and got to see the Taj Mahal at a distance. Much of the marble used to have paintings and gold leaf, but it was looted so much that almost none remains. The Agra Fort was easily one of the most interesting sites we went to.

After the fort, we went to the Moon Gardens and saw the back of the Taj Mahal up closer, again it was awe-inspiring and incredible. Dad could have sat there for hours on end, but the heat was getting to us so we headed to our bed & breakfast for dinner, cards, and an early night.

We rose bright and early Tuesday morning to go to the Taj Mahal!! The Taj Mahal is a giant mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, Muntaz Mahal. The story is that he fell in love with her in a Bazaar when he saw her selling sugar crystals and thought they were diamonds. When she realized that that was what he thought, she laughed and her veil fell off, and he fell in love with her at first sight. After a long courtship they were married, and she accompanied him everywhere, even to battle camps. She died in 1631 in the birth of her 14th child, and before she died she made Shah Jahan promise her three things. The first was that he would take care of her children, the second was that he would build her a mausoleum, and the third was that he would not marry anyone else. After her death, he mourned for a year and then began the 22 year constriction of the Taj Mahal, which was finished in 1653 and named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007 :) It's an incredible building. Bill Clinton once said "There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who have seen the Taj Mahal and love it, and those who have not seen the Taj Mahal and love it." As we walked through the gates and glimpsed it for the first time, we were floored. I had seen the photos and even seen the building itself from across the river on Monday, but nothing is really quite the same as walking towards it. As one walks through the gates, the giant symmetrical marble towers almost look like they float away from you, even as you get closer.

It was raining, and the water in the reflecting pool was dimpled with raindrops. We walked up towards the monument, taking photos the whole way. Maya and I took a photo on a bench that's called the "princess Diana bench", it's called that because princess Diana took a photograph there as her marriage was ending and she looks very sad in the photo. When we got to the base of the Taj Mahal, we put on covers for our shoes and walked into the mausoleum. The inside of the mausoleum is the only part of the Taj Mahal that isn't symmetrical, because there are two tunes there instead of the originally planned one. Muntaz Mahal's casket is in the center, inside of complex lattice work with semi precious stones (more on that later). Originally she was supposed to be the only body in the mausoleum, but Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son at the end of his life, so he wasn't able to build himself a mausoleum, and thus was buried next to his favored wife. The casket commemorating his burial is placed to the left of her's, and slightly higher because he was Emperor. However, neither Shah Jahan nor Muntaz Mahal is actually buried inside of the caskets, because fancy burials are banned by Islam. Instead, both are buried in the basement with their faces turned towards Mecca. There are two large red buildings next to the Taj Mahal, on either side to keep the symmetry. One is a mosque, and the other a guest house for foreign dignitaries. The entire complex is really breathtaking.

After the incredible experience of seeing the Taj Mahal, we went back to the hotel for breakfast, packed up, and got in the van. Our next stop of the day was a marble workshop and store. The people there explained to us how the intricate marble work in the Taj Mahal was completed. It's made on marble, and only two tools are used on the marble itself – a flat chisel and a pointy chisel. These are used to etch the designs into the marble, and then artisans use a wheel to shape pieces of semi precious stone into the exact shape that they need. Each piece takes hours to shape. Then, they use a special kind of glue to attach the semi precious stone it to the Marble leaf – the glue is activated by heat and can only be melted once, so the work is permanent. Because marble is so hard, it's very hard to scratch or break the marble work. The artisans who make this work start learning at a very young age, usually between 10 and 12. It's a family trade, so the work we saw was made by the descendants of the people who worked in the Taj Mahal (or so they claimed). We had the opportunity to look around their show room, and mom even bought a large marble table for our kitchen(after bargaining for a while like a pro)! It's an animal/tree of life design on green marble. I am very excited to see how it looks in our kitchen!

After some more driving, we made it to the Chand Baori Abaneri step well, the deepest step well in India. It goes down about 13 stories and stretches about 35 meters across. Nobody is quite sure who built it, but it's really incredible. Three of the sides are covered in steps, and the fourth has a structure that Annapurna told us used to be used as a stage. In the bottom, there was a pool of bright green water! Across the street from the temple there was also a Hindu temple, which we explored in the drizzle then got back in the car.

As we drove, it begain to rain harder. Over the sound of rain battering the car, Annapurna told us that the lush green we were driving through only exists during the monsoon season and the land is dry, brown, and hot for the rest of the year like a desert.

Eventually, we arrived at the Talabgaon Palace, which is a "heritage resort" owned by Annapurna's family and operated out of the palace that her grandfather reigned in. It is very fancy- mom and dad were joking that we had the "princess suite"! We had chai on the roof and hung out together, then had a delicious dinner. After dinner, I finished this post!

Next post will be Friday!

India Post 3 - Aug 9-11

Shabbat Shalom from Udaipor!

The past few days were relaxing, astounding, and long. We spent a day in a Rajasthani village and then toured Jaipur.

We started Wednesday slowly in Talabagaon Palace, Annapurna's family's palace that has been made into a hotel. After a late breakfast and some free time, we got to take a camel cart ride into the village! The camels had big, multicolored, woven shawls over their backs, and we sat on wooden carts they pulled behind them. An Indian man lead each camel through the village, and as we walked we gathered an entourage of schoolgirls in brown uniforms walking with us! They recognized Maya's name ("Maya" is a name in Hindi too) and called out her name as we walked. One girl put her schoolbag on the camel cart next to Maya as well. The difference between the clean, white of the palace and the downtrodden town was very clear, most of the buildings looked old and the paint was either gone or close to gone, and the road was muddy from monsoon season. There were goats and peacocks everywhere. The people seemed excited to see us, people in brightly colored clothes came out to wave as we came by. That surprised us because it's something the hotel offers, so people must do it a lot.

Annapurna told us that the headscarfs were resulting from Muslim rule, and that most of the Hindu people we saw wearing them wore them out of tradition, modesty, or respect- but not from the Hindu religion. Someone asked her about the Caste system too- what she said was that it was outlawed now in India and most of the remaining influence was only in marriage- some people wouldn't want to marry in a lower class than they were descended from. She also told us that the government had a version of affirmative action in their school system for people of the lower castes, but she thought it made people work less hard from lower castes because they felt like their spots were reserved. It sounded to me like reverse racism, but I don't really know the politics enough to make a call on that one.

After the camel cart ride, we had lunch in the palace and then a break, and we walked around the grounds. We found an emu, and mom tried to pet it but it got afraid or defensive or something, and made itself tall and big. Then she ran away! I took a hysterical video, let me know if you'd like it when we come back.

After our break, we got into the car again and drive to a slightly larger town to walk through the market. We had to drive around cows in the road to get there, and it didn't seem like anyone really followed traffic rules. Walking through the market was a scene, it was muddy from the rain and people were calling out everywhere. First, we walked through what seemed like a grocery section with vegetables and spices, and Annapurna told us what was good for different ailments. Then we walked through lots of bright fabrics, a lot of them were stripy because stripes are in fashion during the monsoon. Our real destination through was the bangle section, we sat and watched the man make some bangles! To make them, he took a stick of lacquer and heated it up, stretching it thin and rolling color onto it. Then he cut the thin piece off and bent it into a circle, and rolled it on a round piece of wood until it was round. The last step was to heat up decals and press them into the bangle for decoration. He gave us the finished products, and we bought some more as well. As he worked, Dad took some selfies with some children who seemed very excited about it, and Mom took a video of a toddler who was mystified by it. I handed little orange candies to children, both while we sat there and on our way back to the car. When we got back to the Palace we went outside and Annapurna taught us how to make some dishes. There were deep fried vegetables, curry, chai, and my favorite, pati. Pati is a kind of round bread. First, we rolled it round then we cooked it on a pan, then put it directly into the fire and if it was rolled right then it puffs up! Maya and I each tried, but I maintain that I won the contest and my Pati was better!

We ate some of what we cooked for dinner, which we had by the pool with traditional music. The instruments were very interesting. There was a percussion instrument that was long and silver with two silver sticks with bells, and the sticks hit together to make noise. There was a wooden string instrument that looked like a very boxy version of a violin. There was a drum. And the most interesting one was a bagpipe, but the body of it was made from the skin of a goat! Dad tried to play the first two of them.

On Thursday morning we bade the people at Talabagaon palace goodbye and drove to Annapurna's childhood home in Jaipur which is now her brother's house. There we met her brother and his wife, then drove through Jaipur to get to lunch. Jaipur is the only area in northern India that wasn't conquered by the Mughals. Now, it is known for block printing and fine jewels. As we drove, Annapurna pointed out big buildings that belonged to Jewel traders, the big state assembly hall, and a science center built by a prominent business family. Jaipur is split into three cities, "oldest" "old" and "new". The oldest is the Amber Fort, the old is the Pink City, and the new is what was build under British rule and beyond. We didn't see the Amber Fort until Friday, but we drove through the Old and New Cities. The Old City, or Pink City, was built in the 18th century by the Maharaja Jai Singh II. It was built from the ground up in a grid formation, and the entire city is very organized because of it. The shops are all built opening towards the street, with apartments above them that open the other direction onto courtyards. There are also lots of lattices on the second level so that women could watch processions in the street without having to veil. The entire Old City is surrounded by a double wall to ward off invaders, and it was painted pink in 1876 to welcome Prince Edward VII (who was then the Prince of Wales). It was painted with crushed up bricks, so the actual color is really orangish.

After lunch, we went to the Jantar Mantar observatory built in 1734. It's a huge observatory to observe the movement of planets and determine times and such. We looked at the Yantra-Raj which shows the earth and where Jaipur is. We saw the Thruvdarshak Pattika, which can be used to find the polar star. The Nadivala is two huge slanted pieces of marble that shows where the sun is- when it's the equinox there is no shadow. The Jaya Prak�sh Yantra finds planetary positions based on shadows, which is importantfor horoscopes-horoscope is different to the second because planets move every second in relation to the earth. However, the most famous instrument is the giant sundials. One was built to find the time to 20 seconds, then another ten times bigger to find the time to 2 seconds. Both tell the time in Jaipur time, because they were built before India was all one time zone.

Our next stop was the City Palace, which is 1/4 turned into a museum. The royal family, who now hold no legal power, live in the other 3/4 of it, and their flag flys over it. There is a little flag that also flys when the Maharaja is in Jaipur. The first building there is called the Mubarak Mahal or Welcome Palace because it used to be a guest house, but now it holds old textiles. The next building is where the best artists in Rajasthan sell their work, there was an annual contest the winner of which got to work there for a year after. We looked at fine miniatures there, a man even showed us how he uses different minerals for colors and a single haired brush to paint. The next building was weaponry. Then we went into a grand meeting room, and after that we got to see the peacock gate, a finely painted peacock-themed doorway.

After the City Palace, we went to see block printing. They showed us how it's done, and has been for the last 300 years. They use wooden stamps and colors made from vegetable and organic materials. Each color is a different stamp, and they're hand-stamped over the entirety of the fabric the same number of times there are colors. Once it's stamped with all the colors needed, it's hung in the sun for 2 days to be oxidized, which makes the colors brighter and more permanent. After he showed us how the block printing works, we shopped a while. Maya and I also tried on Saris! Dad bought an whole lot of shirts and I bought some funky pants. Then we walked along the outdoor Bazaar and shopped some more, and we got to see some precious stones as well. Then we went back to Annapurna's brother's house and slept.

Friday morning we saw the Amber Fort! It's the oldest part of the city, but it's actually a bit outside if the city in the mountains. It's a giant structure where the Maharaja used to live. Maya and I got to ride an elephant up the winding ramps to the fort, where we walked in through the Sun gate. The Sun gate faces easy to welcome the sun. Then we went with Mom, Dad, & Annapurna into the fort. We saw the Hall of Commons, with elephants and locusts on the columns to represent patience and purity. The columns are marble, but during the period of Mughal influence they were covered in red paint because Hindu temples weren't supposed to have them. There was lattice all around the courtyard so the women could look out on parades, and a window in the lattice for the wife of the Maharaja to shower him with flower petals when he returned home from war. When we walked through the door under the window, we came upon a courtyard with the hall of Mirrors, offices, and winter palace. The Hall of Mirrors has two great domes above it, both have space to store water in as well. The water drops down and cools the palace. The offices over look Gardens- there are Muslim gardens for Akbar from 16th century, as well as gardens with Persian influence. Beyond the gardens there was the valley, with a wall surrounding on the other mountains. We climbed around the fort for a while. The coolest feature in my opinion was the water filtration, in which rainwater filtered through two layers of limestone to be made drinkable. The tanks are large enough to feed the people in the town and palace for three years, should ever a need arise. We also saw huge cooking pots and bought some paintings from a street vendor before heading back to Jaipur for lunch and some more last-minute shopping.

Then we drove to Udaipur, checked into the hotel, had dinner, and fell asleep!

Next post will be Tuesday!

India Post 4 - Aug 12-15

Hello from Aurangabad!

The past few days have been a lot! We have been in Udaipur, Ranakpur, and Aurangabad.

Saturday morning we woke up in a palace-turned-hotel in Udaipur, Rajathistan, India. Udaipur is known as the Venice of India, because it's built on a giant lake and some of the architecture is Italian looking. After a lovely breakfast overlooking the lake, Annapurna took us to the city palace. Our guide there was named Dinesh, and he explained to us that the area surrounding Udaipur is Mewar, and Mewar was historically ruled by a Maharana (not a Maharaja, who ruled Jaipur). Udaipur was the third and last capital of Mewar, founded in 1559 by Maharana Udai Singh on the recommendation of a hermit. Mewar is the only part of northern India but never bowed to Mughals (Jaipur was not conquered by Mughals, but they did marry one of their daughters to them). The city palace in Udaipur is the second biggest palace in India, it was built by 20 different rulers, and the Maharana still lives in half of it. The Mewar dynasty is the oldest surviving dynasty in India, and the family tree of the dynasty is displayed dating back to 566 in the entrance to the palace. As we walked into the courtyard with the palace's foundation stone, a Ganesh statue welcomed us. Dinesh told us that the impressive palace had been built with defensive architecture: narrow passages, high steps and low doorways. The low doorways were to make people stoop as they walked through, allowing the defensive army to chop off their head before they even got through the door! The next floor up had a giant marble tub built from a single piece of marble. It was used only at the coronation of a new Maharana, but not to bathe in. Instead it was used to collect money from nobles who were guests at the coronation! From a window, we could see the Maharana's Summer palace in the middle of the lake, the monsoon palace way on top of a mountain (where it would never flood) and the winter palace on the other side of the lake. The next room was called the "garden palace" but it was actually just a courtyard with marble. Around the courtyard were paintings painted with mineral colors (which are more permanent than vegetable colors) from the 18th century, as well as a chair. Dinesh told us that the chair was from 1911, when George V of England hosted a conference in Delhi and the Maharana refused to go, saying that if King George V wanted to talk to him, he could come to his palace in Udaipur. The chair was left empty, as neither ruler was willing to back down. There is also a fountain, which we were told used to be filled with juice for guests, surrounded by oil to protect the juice from insects. We also saw the wall which they used to have elephants fight over. In the picture it looks kind of like the elephants were fencing with their trunks – the last elephant fight was held in 1951. We then walked through a room that was completely covered in paintings painted directly onto the wall. We were told that the paintings told the story of a war over who would marry the royal family's only daughter. We saw the Moti Mahal, or throne room, and the courtyard with 18 windows for the wives to look out of. When it was built, the Maharana had only 16 wives, but two of the windows were built just in case there would be future wives!

After we finished looking through the finery of the City Palace, we took a boat onto the lake to visit the Summer Palace Jagmandir. The Summer palace was built c. 1625-1640, on an island that was in the already-existing lake. As we sailed, we saw a boat called a Gangoor boat which is used to hold idols during ceremonial water processions. The buildings around the lake all looked like ruins, but they were actually hotels!

After lunch, Maya and I were feeling ill so we rested in the hotel until dinner. We had a lovely lakeside dinner with Annapurna, and it was our last meal with her! We said goodbye and hugged her and thanked her. We miss her a lot! If you're planning to go to India and you're looking for someone to run your tour, let me know and I'll put you in contact with her!!

Sunday morning we started slow. We slept in and had breakfast before meeting our guide, Sandit, to drive to Ranakpur to visit the Jain temple there. I wrote about Jainism in my first blog post from India, but here's a refresher in case you forgot or didn't get to read that post. Jainism is a sect of Hinduism from 500BCE that focuses on extreme nonviolence. They are vegan and don't eat root vegetables because they don't want to harm the insects. Some sweep ahead of them so as not to step on the bugs. They practice non-attachment from objects on the body, relatives, and people/society. To be a priest, one must give away pain (by plucking out hair all over the body) sexuality (by being chaste and perpetually naked) and society (by living outside of society, only eating from hands (no plates), standing while eating, and not having material possessions, so they beg for everything but it has to be from people who are dietarily strict).

The temple in Ranakpur is from the 15th century, built by the 24th pilgrim. The king gave them a place and money for temple on condition that it created livelihood for people surrounding the temple, which is the reason why tourism is so encouraged. The temple has 4 doors, only 1 is open to tourists & only between noon and five o'clock. Sandit told us that the temple is built like female body, the idol is in the womb because that's the most protected part of the body. The stairs are the feet, because that's where cosmic energy leaves the body (which is why people here touch the feet of their older relatives, to gather their positive energies). The temple itself is beautiful. When we stepped in, Maya said "Just like, everything is ornate!" Every bit of it was ornately carved. Dad really liked little guardians on the doors shaped like dragons, and I loved the elephants. The ceilings were also really cool and the 1444 pillars were incredible. There were platforms poking out with a great view of the surrounding mountains. it was really incredible.

After we saw the temple, we went back to Udaipur and walked in the Bazaar. The Bazaar was crazy- there were cows and cars and tuk-tuks and motorcycles all moving in the crowded narrow streets as shopkeepers called out from their bright shops. It was really quite an experience. I got head-butted by a cow! Then, a motorcycle zoomed at me and the guy laughed when I jumped out of the way. Then later, I stepped in poop! I was pretty done after that, and we ate dinner and slept.

Monday was a travel day. Dad woke up early to bike in Udaipur, but the rest of us woke up late and played some cards before a drive to the Jaipur airport and a flight to Aurangabad through Delhi. Aurangabad was built by last ruler of Mughal empire.

Tuesday was Indian Independence Day! We weren't really able to see any celebrations though, because we went to the Ajanta caves. Our guide's name was Pashuk. The Ajanta caves are rock temples built into the side of mountains. They are Buddhist temples from the second century BCE and eighth century CE. There are 30 of them but only seven or eight are finished. They're monolithic, meaning that they were literally carved into the side of the mountains, all from the same piece of volcanic rock. They were built using chisels, pick axes, and hammers, cutting from top to bottom, front to back. The mountain that the Ajanta caves are built into is stunningly beautiful. Because it's the monsoon, it's covered in lush green forest, and the steep mountain side ends on a tiny river in the valley. The caves have ornate openings that cut into the green forest. The most famous cave is the first one, the Mahayana Monastery. It's a big rectangle room with carved pillars around the perimeter, and beyond that there are living spaces for monks. Every surface in the monolithic room used to be painted with pictures of Buddha and the story of his life. There are also impressive sculptures, the most noticeable is a huge Buddha in the back of the room, but Pashuk also pointed out a Giselle-like animal with four bodies and a single head carved into the top of a pillar. The caves were cool, but honestly it was really hot and I wasn't feeling well so I wasn't super into it. We walked along the cliff and Dad looked at all of them, finished and unfinished alike, and lots of Indian tourists tried to take photos with us. I don't like that, I find it rude, but Maya took a bajillion photos with them.

On the way back from the caves, we stopped in a market and haggled over prices for geodes, stopped for lunch, then headed back to the hotel. We had a slow evening. Mom, Dad and Maya went swimming in the pool before dinner and bed.

Next and final post will be Friday!

India Post 5 - August 16-19

Hello from the Airport!

The last few days, we saw the Ellora caves, Aurangabad, then traveled to Mumbai and saw the city. Now we're headed home!

We woke up Wednesday in Aurangabad and packed up. Pashuk (the same guide from the day before) picked us up to go to the Ellora caves, a little ways outside of Aurangabad. On the way, we stopped at a Temple in Shiva's honor. Shiva is a great Hindu deity, I couldn't understand Pashuk's accent very well when he was explaining but I think he's the deity of destruction. The temple was pretty new, but the stone inside was supposed to be where Shiva sprung from the earth (so like really old). We got to actually go inside, where people were making flower offerings and touching the stone. The men weren't wearing shirts (Dad wore his shirt inside out the rest of the day after that) and it was crowded. Mom thought the rock sticking up was a "linga" and it was supposed to be a penis, so people were touching it for fertility. Pashuk never said anything about that though so I don't know if it's true.

Our main attraction of the day was the Ellora caves, 34 caves built into the side of a mountain. Like the Ajanta caves, they are monolithic temples with intricate carvings. However, they are newer than the Ajanta caves and there are temples dedicated not only to Buddhism, but Hinduism and Jainism as well. The Ellora caves are seen as a symbol of peaceful coexistence. The first 12 caves are Buddhist temples, built in the 5th century CE, but we didn't get to see those. Caves 13-29 are Hindu, built 600-875 CE, and caves 30-34 are Jain and were built between the 8th and 10th centuries CE.

We started at the Jain temples. Just like all the Jain art we saw, they were detailed and ornate with carvings of deities and animals carved into the walls. The Jain caves are all interconnected with stairs going up and town the three stories, narrow passages opening on huge stone rooms with ornate pillars and carvings. They used to be brightly painted on every surface, but the paint has worn off. We did notice that all of the figures genitalia had been knocked off, which is probably from a mix of Mughal intervention and treasure hunters taking souvenirs.

After walking through the Jain caves, we went to Hindu cave 16, which is the most famous of the Ellora caves. It is a temple dedicated to Shiva, and is really open on top despite it being carved from the mountain. When we walked in, carvings of the Hindu g-d esses of devotion, knowledge, and purity were there to welcome us. The temple structure is large, surrounded by a courtyard with large elephants and 45ft pillars, and bordered with more pillars and carvings of the life and marriage of Shiva. There were rock elephants all around the temple, and inside there was another linga. Maya touched it for future fertility, but I stayed the hell away! We walked around inside for a while and saw some women dancing and everyone was singing, which was really cool. We also found a row of carvings of "erotically conjoined couples!" When we were done wandering around, we were supposed to meet Pashuk at the gate but we couldn't find him! Eventually a couple of the other guides recognized him from the corner of a photo I had taken and called him, and we went on our way.

On the way to lunch we stopped to see big looms where men were weaving Paithani Saris by hand. They told us it took 6-7 days to complete each detailed piece.

After lunch, we went to the Bibi-Ka-Maqbara, or the "Mini Taj." It's a smaller scale version of the Taj Mahal built by Prince Azam Shah for his mother, Rabia-ul- Durrani. She was the wife of Aurangzeb, the last Mughal emperor and son/successor/imprisoner of Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal. I mentioned him in my 2nd India blog post if you want to read more. The mini-Taj was impressive and certainly an impressive gesture, but really not that exciting after we had seen the full-size original Taj Mahal in Agra. It was not as detailed and made of plaster and limestone instead of marble.

Our last Aurangabad stop was an old water wheel built for pilgrims to the Ellora caves.

Then we got on a flight to Mumbai! You might have heard of Mumbai more often referred to as Bombay, because the name of the city changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1996. It used to be 7 islands, but was filled in (like Boston!). It was a center of Hinduism and Buddhism in the 3rd century, then conquered in 1384 by the Mughals. The Islamic period continued until 1834, when the Portuguese took it as a colonial area. In 1662 it was given as dowry to Prince Charles, who rented it to the East India Company for 10lbs gold/month. When we arrived at our hotel, we met Herashita and Lucian (Annpurna's daughter (our guide) and nephew).

Thursday morning Maya and I had a little flood in our room for the shower, but we cleared it up and set off for our first full day in Mumbai! Our first stop was the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum, which was, until 1998, the Prince of Wales Museum. To get there, we drove past Geobarti beach which is known for its seafood and the properties overlooking it are some of the most expensive in the world. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya/Prince of Wales Museum's foundation stone was laid in 1905 by the Prince of Wales himself, but the museum was really built 1907-1915. It houses artifacts from around the world, but the first two floors have Indian art. There were carvings, metal statues, Tibetan prayer flags, ritual items, miniature paintings, and a lot more. My favorite room was the Himalayan/Tibetan artifacts, there were idols and prayer flags and ritual items made from human bones. The last floor had Dutch, English, and Chinese art and weaponry. I liked the snuff bottle collection especially.

After we all finished marveling at the exhibits in the Prince of Wales Museum, we were walking to lunch and walked past a sky blue building with a sign reading "Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue" and on a whim walked in! It turns out that there are actually 9 synagogues in Mumbai, and 6 of them are still in a traditional style. This one has blue and white decorations- pillars that held up the second level, a blue embroidered over on the bimah, which was in the center of the room. The arc had a curtain over the wood doors. The Ten Commandments and some other passages that I didn't immediately recognize were inscribed on tile on the walls and looked in the prayer books- which had English, Hindi, and Hebrew. Maya explained what the eternal light, bat mitzvah, etc meant to Herashita and we bought a book, some kippot, and a challah cover from the synagogue. It was suuuuuuuper cool!

After lunch in a restaurant that was marketed as "fun Chinese food," we walked along the Colaba street market. Colaba used to be a different island than Bombay, and there was a lot of boat traffic between them. The market is interesting because there are stores on the sidewalk and on the other side there are permanent stores, some in American brands. It was fun to walk along, but we didn't see anything that we hadn't seen somewhere else before.

Our next stop was Dhobi Ghat, the space where people do laundry. The government provides water and all these people's jobs are to do laundry by hand. It's very colorful! After that, we went to FroYo and rested until dinner. Then we went and walked along Geobarti beach in the dark. There were people all over the beach and we bought some ice cream because we couldn't have the street food.

Friday was our last day in India 😟 We started the day with a driving tour around Mumbai. We looked at a map of the city, with the pre-colonization winding streets and British square blocks, and Herashita told us about an explosion that had happened in the bay in 1944 at Churchill's fault. Hershita pointed out the customs house, saying "if you were to enter that, it would make a really great party place because it has everything they confiscate at the airport. Like the booze and illicit substances and all that." She pointed out the Reserve bank of India which prints notes, and said that it was built in the 1930s (in Mumbai to avoid the corruption in Delhi at that time). We saw the mint- there are 4 and every coin printed at the Mumbai mint has a triangle in it. We also saw the grand gates for the navy.

The two most interesting landmarks we saw in Mumbai though were the Taj Mahal Palace and the India Gate. The Taj Mahal Palace was built in 1903 and founded by a very rich Indian man who was denied entry to a fancy hotel for English people because of a sign that read "Dogs and Indians not Allowed". They told him that if he was so rich he should open his own fancy hotel so he did! The hotel used to face the city, but was renovated and now faces the bay and the India Gate.

The India Gate was built 1913-24 to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Mumbai. It's Hindu Saresetic Architecture stands 83ft high, and it also marks the spot where the last British troops left India on February 28, 1948.

Our last Museum of the trip was the Gandhi Museum, which is in his old house. We saw his library, and looked at photos of Gandhi from age 8 on, including the salt march, evolution of the flag of India, and even letters to Hitler and FDR. The letters were super interesting! The letter to Hitler asked for avoidance of war and the letter to FDR said that as much as Gandhi respected the United States, it was difficult for him to understand how they sided with Britain as Britain was fighting for democracy while oppressing India. the next level had panoramas of events in Gandhis life. My favorite was the bonfire of foreign cloth in 1921. We also saw Gandhi's room and read a lot of quotes.

Our last tour in India was of the Dharavi Slum in the suburbs of Mumbai. we met out guide, Hitesh, in the train station. He explained to us that the company he works for, Reality Tours & Travel, is an NGO which provides a community center and education services to the people in the slum which we toured. We were in a tour with an Italian couple from Venice, and Hitesh bought us all tickets for the fast train. The fast train is very fast! It only stops at each stop for 15 seconds. The train system seemed like it could use some work, we were told that 2-3 people die in the Mumbai train station every day from leaning out or from crossing the tracks. When we (quickly!) got off the train, Hitesh told us that Dharavi is the largest Mumbai slum by population, with about 1 million people living in 172 acres, which is half the size of Central Park. 60% of Mumbai's population lives in slums, and there are more than 1000 slums. Dharavi is 177 years old (older than Canada!), and has 30 billion rupees of industry every year. A slum is defined as houses built illegally on govt land, but they're actually only illegal now if they were built post 1995. Dharavi is not under threat of removal because it is so old. As we walked in, some people said hello to us but most were busy walking around the market. The buildings were made of tin, mostly repurposed paint cans, and covered with tarps. The ground was wet and dirty, but paved in some places.

On the tour, we saw lots of different industries happening in the slum. The people who work in Dharavi don't live there, and the people who live in Dharavi work in Mumbai. The first was in the 13th compound, it was plastic recycling. It turns out that 80% of Mumbai's plastic ends up in Dharavi. To recycle it, they sort it by hand by color/quality, crush it into tiny pieces with homage machines, wash it, dye it, and make it into little pieces called palates. The workers are provided sleeping quarters in the shops for the 10 months a year they work (the other two months they go to their farms and families) as well as gloves and masks, which they offer decline to use because it slows them down and they're paid by production not by hour.

We climbed up a narrow ladder to the roof, where we could see plastic being "stored" on rooftops and above the slum, the high rises of Mumbai. On the other side, we saw some high-rises from the Slum Rehabilitation project built as new homes in 2008. They essentially failed because people didn't want to loose the industry they were doing in their own homes or the community of the slum. Hitesh told us "nowhere is better than heaven- except birthplace". Up there we talked about plumbing as well. There are only 700 public toilets in Dharavi for 1 million people, so people often relieve themselves in empty spaces. Most of the houses have shared taps. There are lots of common illnesses, but the most common is Malaria.

We climbed down the ladder and walked through the textile area, where men were working with sewing machines, apparently making clothes and attaching brand labels like "forever 21" to them. These people were also paid by piece, but they did look up at us when we peered in. There were also people making jeans and suitcases.

We walked past a river that was grey and trash floating, the smell was horrendous and we were told it goes right to the Arabian Sea with no processing.

We saw people making khaki. It's a baked good mace sign water, purified butter, and sugar, then the dough is stomped on, baked, packaged, and sold. They produce 500kg/day and they're sold around Mumbai. However, they don't say they're from because nobody would buy them.

We had to go through narrow alleys for the next part. The alleys were a little wider than my shoulders, with wires hanging down so we had to duck. We had to step around puddles too, and it was dark from the buildings. It seemed like people's houses opened into the alleys, and we could hear people talking and smell them cooking because the rooms were really only separated from us by curtain. Each family has a room, if the family is more than 5 people they might have a second room, usually built as a second story to the first room. The alleys opened to a playground where Maya gave out candy (she wanted to give out apples but they were too heavy).

The next industry we saw was leathermaking. The leather was made start to finish from skin of water buffalos, sheep, and goats, but most of it was then printed with a reptilian texture. Dharavi actually just started its own brand, and I bought a bag even though I normally don't buy leather products.

We went out to the market next, where Hitesh told us that this was a 5-star slum because of the bank, atm, wedding hall, local market, and supermarket, as well as the fact that it was close to hospitals and public schools.

We walked through the Hindu residential section, where we saw paparams being made and a festival she being decorated for a Ganesh festival.

We next saw the community center run by the your company for education. They teach English(important for a globalize city as well as allowing students to get jobs on call centers), computers (Word, PowerPoint, excel), and life skills (confidence/job applications). Each class is about 3 months long and is open to everyone, but also capped at 20 students which I didn't 100% understand. The sat we were there students were actually getting certificates of completion for a course, so they were dressed up.

The last industry we saw was pottery. The pottery community in Dharavi is 1200 families. They use cloth to burn in the kiln from the fabric industry because it's cheaper and burns slower. Everything in that area is dirty and black from the fumes. Most pottery wheels are electric now.

We finished our tour and big Hitesh goodbye, then went to our last dinner in India at a hookah bar. Mom and Dad didn't let us smoke though. We went to the airport and said goodbye to Herashita, and we were off!

What an amazing two weeks! Thanks for reading/following along 😊