Government, Gandhi and Qutab Minar

India Day 3 - 

Woke up reluctantly this morning!  Could have kept sleeping but we had a 9:00 am departure!  

Busy day and it will be a long night as we are attending a New Year's Eve party in the hotel and will be dancing and partying till about 1:00 AM!

We started out our day seeing New Delhi, the part of the city built by the British in the early 20th century, including their Houses of Parliament and President's house.  There was all kind of security fencing going up as Obama is scheduled to visit at the end of the month and they are already battening down the hatches to be sure that security is in place when he gets here!

After that we went to a museum about Mahatma Gandhi, which is on the grounds of the place he was living when he was assassinated.  We toured the grounds and saw the very spot where he was killed, which is now a quiet and meditative park.  Then we went in the museum which was wonderful, with pictures and scenes from his life and lots of quotations from his work over his lifetime and artifacts.  The bedroom he was in in the last months of his life, including the day he died is in that building and they have artifacts like his glasses and his watch (which stopped right at the time of his assassination - 5:17 PM) and his walking stick.  It was a lovely museum and a wonderful tribute to him and his life's work.  We spent quite a long time there and enjoyed it a great deal. 

From there we went to a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Qutab Minar, an example of Indo-Islamic architecture from the 12th century, with a spectacular 234 foot high tower made of ornately carved sandstone, the ruins of a large mosque built during the 12th century and a steel pillar from a VIshnu temple that is 1600 years old.  The whole site is really fascinating and our guide was terrific in pointing out how the Muslim architects who built the structures had taken Hindu architectural pieces and converted them for their buildings (defacing images of gods/goddesses and people so that they would be appropriate for a Muslim prayer space, for example.)  The place was teeming with schoolchildren on field trips and we had a great time talking with a school group of 7th grade girls who were adorable in their uniforms and very exuberant and talkative and excited to engage us foreign tourists!  

After that we went to lunch at an Indian/Chinese restaurant, which was an experience.  Chinese food with an Indian flare!  We all decided, however, that we prefer plain old Indian food to that particular fusion.  And from there we went to a place where there are vendors of artisanal crafts from the state of Kashmir.  Kashmir is a place of considerable tension and violence between Pakistan and India, so tourism isn't allowed there.  The kashmiri artisans and craftspeople have gotten permission to sell their crafts in various Indian cities since tourists can't come to them.  We saw some beautiful silk carpets, silk scarves and jackets and dresses and artwork.  I couldn't resist a gorgeous silk, embroidered jacket.

Then we wound our way back to the hotel and got here a little after 5.  The traffic in Delhi was horrific today (its never good, but the holiday and the partying that will be going on this evening is causing greater than usual congestion today!)

Tonight we're going to some festivities here at the hotel.  There will be Bollywood singers, a belly dancer, buffet with unlimited drinks and traditional Indian singing and dancing. We're looking forward to the experience of an Indian New Year's celebration.  I'll tell you about that tomorrow, as I doubt I will be up to blogging when I get back from that party, given that we have to be up and around early tomorrow! So details to follow!

Pics today include the site of Gandhi's martyrdom, shots of me and Tracy at the Gandhi museum, one standing beside the "World Peace Gong" and shots of the Qutab Minar and the young Indian girls who posed for many pictures for all of us!  They were really enchanting kids, very bright and laughing and engaging.  

More tomorrow night, from Jaipur!

Happy New Year!

Gurdwara,Mosque and Market

Blog India Day 2

Day 1 got lost in travel!   Its Tuesday morning in India and I'm only just getting acclimated.  Traveled from very early Sunday morning for 30+ hours and got to India yesterday at 4:30 India time.  My flights were flawless and I discovered that Emirates Airline is a wonderful way to fly if you must go coach. Very luxurious planes, immaculately kept and good food and free booze and snacks and great in flight entertainment.  I changed in Dubai and that airport was something to behold too.  Amazing how much money there is in some parts of our world!  By the time I got here yesterday I was exhausted, as I simply cannot sleep on planes anymore, so I took a 2 hour nap just to feel a little human again.  Then met up with Tracy and we had a light dinner here at the hotel. I was too tired to go out exploring and it was dark by then.  Went to bed around 11 but only managed to sleep till 3:30.  Laid awake till after 4, then watched 2 episodes of House on Netflix, then tried to sleep again, and finally gave up at 6:30 and did an hour of yoga (quite a challenge without a mat!) using a You Tube video.  Worked up a bit of a sweat so it must have done something!  Then showered and Tracy and I went down to breakfast around 8:30.  It is very cool and was pea soup fog earlier and now, (9:30ish) is beginning to burn off, although its still quite cool.  Once the fog burns away and the sun appears it will likely warm up, but I'm glad I tossed a fleece in my bag at the last minute as it is handy in these early morning, cool hours. I'm really excited to begin seeing India today!  A dream of a lifetime finally coming true!  More later....

Later...

We had an amazing first day.  Slow start with an orientation meeting in the morning.  Then at 1 we left for our first sight of the day which was the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.  It is the second largest Sikh temple in India.  We had to remove our shoes and socks and don head coverings (both men and women) and then we went into the temple.  There were hundreds of devotees going through the temple and someone was preaching while others tended to the holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib.  The temple is made of carved marble and inside, the canopy that shelters the holy book is made of pure gold leaf.  We stayed awhile in the temple then went outside and walked the grounds. Then we went to the community kitchen where the free langar meal is served.  We sat on the mats on the floor and enjoyed a meal of chapatti bread and daal (lentil soup) and Indian tea.  Then we went back into the kitchen where the food is prepared (all by volunteers) and we helped roll out the chapatti.  There were lots of volunteers in there working on the various parts of the meal, with huge vats of daal simmering and big tables where we sat on low benches or squatted next to the table to roll out the bread. 

The Sikhs are the ones who are famous for their belief that all people are equal before God and so the ritual of sitting together on the floor to eat is part of their spiritual practice.  There will be beggars sitting next to brahmins, men and women, Sikh and non-Sikh.  They believe this ritual enacts the reality that all humans are created equal in the site of God, and that race, nationality, sex, religion are not important.  They are unbelievably gracious and hospitable people.   That Gurdwara serves over 25,000 meals a day every day of the year.  Anyone can come and be fed, no questions asked.  It was remarkable to see the spirit of everyone there eating, and then helping to cook and to serve after they have eaten.  

After leaving the Gurdwara we drove to Old Delhi where we went to the Jama Jasjid Mosque, the largest mosque in India.  We western women had to put on robes and cover our heads to go inside the mosque complex.  The mosque was built by the same architect who built the Taj Mahal.  We were able to go inside the masjid area because it was not prayer time.  During the official prayer times, non-Muslims are not allowed on the grounds.  After visiting the mosque we took a rickshaw ride through the Chandni Chowk Bazaar, which was a real experience of the congestion,noise, sights and sounds of Delhi!  Cars, trucks, buses, motorscooters and motorbikes, tuk-tuks and every other imaginable vehicle vies for space on very narrow streets. Animals are everywhere - dogs and goats in particular!  I had to laugh when I saw many of the goats wearing sweaters!  Their owners are trying to keep them warm on cool winter days (which are warm by our upstate New York standards!)  The rickshaw ride was really fun, although it had its moments where we wondered if we'd get crushed by other vehicles.  Our rickshaw driver was a little skinny man, but he had powerful legs, pumping us up and down the market streets.  We drove the rickshaw through the Muslim quarter of the market area.  After the rickshaw ride, our guide took us on a walking tour through the Hindu section of the market area, which was absolutely teeming with people, animals, motorcycles, rickshaws, bikes, you name it.  The sound of horns beeping is constant and people shouting and pushing their way through the crowds.  We tourists just get swept along with the tide of humanity coursing through these very narrow, very old, very dirty little lanes.  Its quite an experience for the senses!  We passed rows and rows of auto parts stalls, then many stalls with live chickens for sale, then grocers, then bakers, then clothing stalls, jewelry...it goes on and on.  All that one hears about the poverty in India is very much evident in Delhi.  We saw many beggars and homeless people all over the city, living outside in terrible conditions.  The density of the population is mind boggling really.  

After our walk through the market area, we returned to our bus and went to dinner at a lovely restaurant where we enjoyed a great meal.  After dinner, because of some political rallies going on in the area where we were, our bus driver could not get our bus back to the restaurant to pick us up so we returned to our hotel via Metro.  On Delhi metros, the first two cars of every train are "women only" cars, so all of us women chose to ride in one of them.  It was fun to experience the metro rather than ride above all the fray in our tour bus!  We got back to the hotel after 9, and most of us, myself included, were pretty tired. The jet lag is not yet over!

Pics include shots of me at the Gurdwara, standing outside it and also kneading the chapatti bread, shots of some of the Sikh men we saw at the Gurdwara, me at the mosque, and the market streets. I tried to get the goats but they were moving too much and with the crowds I couldn't get a focused shot.  I'm hoping to catch some later on this trip.  It really is a sight to see!

More tomorrow.   Its past midnight and I am hoping for a better night's sleep tonight!

Getting Ready....

I'm off tomorrow, very early, to fly to Dehli, via JFK and Dubai!  Arrive Monday afternoon, India time.  Hope to post something fun by Tuesday evening!