The Last Days in India

In April I finished teaching my Environmental Science students, and they have been so much fun to work with this year.  They were taking my class as a supplemental certificate course and did not have to be there to earn their degree.  I really appreciated their hard work and I think I learned as much from them as they did from me.

This was around the time the weather started getting really hot.  In fact Gujarat has been under a severe heat advisory since the end of March.  It makes it difficult to do anything outside so Gregg and I planned a few trips to other regions in between my last few workshops in order to stay sane.  

First we went to Goa, a stretch of beach just south of Mumbai.  Even though it is further south and still just as hot there, at least we could play in the ocean.  We drank fruity drinks and ate fresh-caught fish on the beach.   

We swam over to and hiked around the small island in the distance and kayaked through the mangrove forest.  If the internet had been faster it would have been paradise but it was hard for Gregg to try to work from the hotel there.  He also got food poisoning just as we were leaving so I think I enjoyed this little trip more than he did.

We got back and I conducted a three-day workshop for students at my university who were studying to be future English teachers.  It was a lot of fun to be with them and try to teach them some of the things I have learned from my years in teaching.  Very few of them had ever taught a class before so I tried to give them opportunities to give short teaching demos.  They were eager to learn and I hope they are able to keep that enthusiasm and passion all throughout their teaching careers.

A few days after finishing the workshop we flew up to Dharamsala and stayed in a little Himalayan town called Dharamkot.  It is just above McCleod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama and most of the exiled Tibetans live today.  We wandered the same circular trail and spun the same prayer wheels that my friend Tammie and I did back in 2005 when I came to India for the first time.

 

We took a cable car and rode past the building where the Dalai Lama lives.  I even went to some of the free drop-in meditation classes at the meditation center there.  I've heard meditating can increase your happiness level in your brain, but I'm sure it takes more than a few sessions to really see results.

Since the Dalai Lama often hosts a lot of important foreign visitors, the internet infrastructure in this area is actually very well developed.  We stayed at a hotel that was also advertised as a co-working space for digital nomads.  When the power went out (as it often does in India) they had back-up generators to keep the internet going.

During the day we found various trails and roads to hike on and enjoyed being in cooler weather and high mountains.  We were both able to work from there (I was doing some online workshops) but our big hiking plans got thwarted when both of us got sick from food.  

Luckily the sickness didn't last long and honestly it was worth it not only for the hiking, but also to be in a region where I could find non-spicy food.  

The next week after we got back was the local election for Gujarat.  India is now the most populous country in the world and also the world's largest democracy.  It is no easy task to get information out to almost a billion people, many of whom live out in villages, and some of whom are illiterate.  On one of our flights they even had voter information guides in the seatback pockets on airplanes leading up to the election.

Since I work at a government funded public institution, the professors at the university had to move their exam schedules around because they had to be available to help with the election process.  Finally on May 7 it was Vadodara's turn to vote.  Because so many voting stations were set up, it didn't seem like a big event in the city, but we did see a few people voting near the local high school. 

It takes weeks for the election results come in, and when they finally came in I was conducting a workshop in a city called Bhubaneswar in the state of Odisha.  Nobody was surprised when the incumbent, Narendra Modi and his BJP party won, but there was some surprise that he didn't get as much of the majority in congress as some had predicted.  During my workshop everyone kept checking their phones watching the final tallies come in.  Despite the small distraction, it was a fun workshop called "Communication Skills for Young Climate Warriors" that I did with some of the young adult members of local NGOs such as The Young Climate Leader's Action Project, The Bakul Foundation, Youth4Water, and UNICEF.

 When the workshop finished one of the NGO directors and some students offered to take me on an evening walking tour to see the city and its many ancient temples.  We passed by the state's BJP political party headquarters where they were celebrating Modi's presidential win.

I had never been to the eastern part of India so it was nice to see another region of the country and have some local tour guides.  The Lingaraja Temple was all lit up at night.

Since it is a working temple with worshippers going in and out, I was not allowed to go inside this one.  Luckily they had built a viewing platform to look down into the grounds.  The oldest remnants go back as far as the 7th Century AD. 

While I was there everyone said I should go down to the coast and visit Konark Sun Temple.  This temple is no longer in operation and the main building no longer stands, but it is known for its intricate carvings.  Many of the figures are of ladies dancing, and the local dances that exist today actually come from these poses.

It is also famous for the 12 chariot wheels carved along the base of the temple, which is featured on the back of the 10 rupee bill.

Here you can see one of the carved horses pulling the chariot.  It was a fun little day trip but way too hot to spend very much time outside.

Since I was all done with all my teaching duties but still had some time before coming home, I decided to extend my trip and travel down to Kerala, on the southern tip of India.  I said goodbye to Gregg just before I traveled to Odisha for the workshop, so he wasn't with me for this trip.  I booked a couple of nights on a houseboat to see the backwaters around Alleppey.

I got to just sit back and enjoy the jungle pass by.  There was a chef onboard who was very knowledgeable about all the local foods and spices.  There was another couple from Mumbai onboard and he would make sure I knew which dishes were spicy or not.  His local dishes were amazing.  This one was served on banana leaves instead of plates.  I think I ate more fiber on that trip than at any other time in my life.

My room even had A/C and an attached bathroom.  It was fun to sleep on a boat.  Even though we would pull over and dock for the night I always sleep soundly when I'm on the water.

They asked me what kinds of activities I wanted to do while we were exploring the backwaters and I said I like swimming and kayaking.  The water wasn't really clean enough to swim where we were, but we did find a place to rent a kayak.  

We also stopped and visited one of the oldest Christian churches in the region.  The Basilica of St. Mary goes all the way back to 427AD and is connected to the first churches said to have been set up by St. Thomas who came to India.  

We passed by quite a few Ayurvedic medicinal herb shops because a lot of the herbs and plants grow here naturally.  It's interesting to think about how many medicines come directly from the earth.  That said, I do still enjoy having access to modern medicine when something stronger is needed.

It was a relaxing tour and a nice end to what was often a noisy, chaotic, dirty, but fun year in India!

The Many Sights to be Seen

I know it's been a while since my last post and I'm sorry about that.  Life got a little busy in the last few months so I'll try to catch everyone up.  

In February one of the teachers at the university me invited me to her wedding.  I was hoping to have the chance to see an Indian wedding, so I was excited to receive her invitation.  I even went to the mall and bought a nice dress and some jewelry to wear to it.

An Indian wedding is at least a full day and often a multiday event.  You do not have to attend all the different parts of it, but I wanted to see as much as I could.  When I arrived in the afternoon, the groom's family were all in a loud procession on the way to the wedding venue.  There was music, confetti, fireworks, and even extra drummers to play along with the music. Since I had never met the groom before, I just had to hope I was at the right wedding.  After he and his family arrived at the venue, the bride came out (and I discovered that yes, I was at the right wedding).  The bride and groom  greeted the crowd and then, along with the parents, proceeded to a pavilion in the center of the venue to do a whole bunch of different ceremonies which lasted for hours.  

Meanwhile, the guests could come and go as they pleased.  Some guests would watch a bit of the ceremony, then go over to the buffet and eat.  Then they would watch a little, then go eat some more, or sit around and chat with the other people there.  I met up with some of the other teachers and tried to ask questions about what was happening at different moments.  They told me, "Oh this is just another ceremony. It will go on all night."  A few times I asked if they were officially married yet, but there always seemed to be more ceremonies.   I asked if the bride and groom and the family would ever get to eat, and they said after all the ceremonies are done and most of the guests are already gone. 

 It was a lot different than I had imagined, and I explained to the other teachers how weddings in the U.S. were more linear, where everybody usually sat down and watched the couple get married, then everybody ate and celebrated together.  I also researched how to give a wedding gift in India and learned that you should give money (at least enough to cover the cost of your meal), but it should be an odd number.  Odd numbers are luckier and indivisible (as the couple should now be).

A few weeks later, Gregg's niece Hayley and her friend Courtney came to visit us.  We didn't have enough vacation time to spend the entire two weeks with them, but after they spent some time at a resort down in Kerala, we met up and saw some sights together.  The first stop was Agra Fort.  

Of course, the main reason we came to Agra was to see the Taj Mahal.  The Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan had it built in the early 1600s as a mausoleum when his favorite wife died.  It is also said he went a little crazy after she died.  I came here for the first time back in 2005, but it was a lot more fun to be here with Gregg since it is considered to be one of the most romantic buildings in the world.  

We got to see it from one side in the evening at sunset, then the next morning we entered and saw the buildings at sunrise.  It was nice to see it in the morning mist and before the majority of the tourist crowds arrived.  Hayley and Courtney even bought traditional Indian dresses for some fun pictures.

A tour isn't complete without stopping at different places to see how the local handicrafts are made.  Here we saw how the handmade silk and wool carpets are weaved.  We may or may not have given into temptation to buy a carpet here.  Oops.

Another stop showed us how the precious stones were inlayed into the marble at the Taj Mahal.  These workers are actually the descendants of the people who did the stonework at the Taj.  The craft is passed down from generation to generation.  Now, instead of building one big building for the king, they are making stone handicrafts to sell to the tourists.  We got to try and carve a piece of stone but we discovered how difficult it really was.

After Agra we drove 5 hours to the city of Jaipur, but along the way we stopped for lunch.  The buffet was definitely catered towards the tour busses of foreign tourists, and I think they knew I was coming because I'm sure they put this sign out just for me:

Jaipur is the capital of the state of Rajasthan and we saw some of the buildings that give it the name of 'The Pink City.'  Hawa Mahal is a place where the women of the palace could sit and look out the windows on the street below, without having to show their faces.

This stepwell used to be a main source of water for the fort's inhabitants, but it is now a heritage site and is no longer in use.  Throughout the year the water gets lower and lower, until the monsoon rains come and fill it back up from June to September.

Amber Fort has a strategic point up on a hill.  It is also called Amer Fort, because the 'b' is supposed to be silent.  It was interesting to learn about the kings who ruled from here.

As part of the tour we were going to ride elephants up to the fort, but I don't really like the idea of using animals in tourism.  Everyone agreed that instead of riding them we would go visit some at a sanctuary and feed them.  It was much more fun and we were able to get closer to them than we would have at the fort.

Those elephants could sure shove a lot of bananas and sugar cane sticks in their mouth at the same time.  I thought they might just grab it from the table but they patiently let us feed them.

We then had a short ride on camels as part of the tour. The camels get pulled by their nose piercings, while the elephant mahouts often use big barbed prongs to get the elephants to move.  Either way, it's not very fun for the animals.

In the evening we had dinner at a place that had some traditional Rajasthani dancing.  

After Hayley and Courtney left we went back home to Gujarat and went back to work for a few more weeks.  One weekend Gregg and I decided to go see the Statue of Unity, which is the largest statue in the world, and about a two-hour drive from Vadodara.  It is of Sardar Patel, one of the country's founders who worked very hard to unify the country after they gained independence from the British empire.  

It's hard to really comprehend how big it is from far away, but when you get closer you realize what a big statue it truly is.  We got close enough to tickle his toes.  

A few weeks after that we had a visit from my niece and nephew, Rachel and Devon.  It has been so much fun having family come visit!  They flew into Delhi, so we first saw some of the sights in Delhi.  This is at the Jama Masjid mosque.

Our tour guide arranged a rickshaw ride through the crowded alleyways of Old Delhi.

It was enjoyable, but it made me wish we had more areas that are completely blocked off from traffic so pedestrians could move more freely.  It seems as though pedestrians don't really have any rights here in India.  On the other hand, if someone is walking in the street in India, the drivers just honk to let them know there is a car behind them and then drive around them.  I think if I walked in the middle of the road at home I'd either cause an accident or encounter someone with road rage who purposely might not attempt to drive around me. 

We went to Qutub Minar and gazed at the tall minaret built back when the Moghuls ruled India.

The next day we drove the three hours down to the city of Agra, where we went previously with Hayley and Courtney.  I think anyone who comes to India should make an effort to visit the Taj Mahal, but it's interesting to know that when I asked my students which tourist sites I should try to go see while I'm in India, none of them mentioned the Taj Mahal.  Most of the places they suggested were big Hindu temples that draw religious pilgrims from all over the country.  Everyone has different priorities, I guess.  

This is not the Taj Mahal, but the I'tmad ud Daulah, another tomb that has been nicknamed the 'Baby Taj' because it was built in a similar style with similar stonework.  

Gregg and I didn't mind going back to the Taj Mahal.  Even though it can get very crowded, I was happy to see the amount of effort that goes into taking care of it.  When I was here with my friend Tammie back in 2005, nobody really respected the signs to keep off the grass so a lot of the grounds looked very worn down.  Now that they enforce the rules, it is a little more orderly and peaceful.

There was something about Devon's sunglasses and big hair that made all the groups of young guys think he was a movie star.  They all wanted selfies with him.

The next day was Holi Festival so we got up early and drove to Jaipur.  We were told the festival would be more fun there and our driver appreciated the fact that there was no traffic on the road that morning.  

We put on as white of clothes as we could find (to symbolize springtime and a fresh start) and went out in the crowd to get covered in colored powder.  We had fun dishing it out as much as we got.  

As the day went on the colors all started blending in with each other and the crowds got bigger and bigger.  We had to move through them with hands on shoulders so we wouldn't get separated.  

Splattered and happy.

Perhaps from being young and light-haired, Rachel and Devon were very popular with the well-wishers that day.  

It took a couple of good showers to get the colors (made mostly from corn starch) to wash off, and some of my clothes and my shoes still show hints of pink here and there.  It's Ok because it just serves as a memory of the crazy day.  The next day we saw the rest of the sights in Jaipur.  Hawa Mahal:

Amber Fort:

The stepwell had some shadowy figures hanging around that day:

We even got to feed the same elephant that Gregg and I fed before.  

We were told elephants can remember people after meeting them only once, but she didn't give any indication that she remembered us.  So rude.☺

From Jaipur we flew up to the city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab.  This is where the Sikh religion has its most holy pilgrimage sight, the Golden Temple.  We hired a guide who showed us around and taught us a little about the religion.

There is a lot more equality among men and women in Sikhism.  It was nice to not be the only ones to cover our heads when entering the holy area.  They had bandanas for the men to cover their heads if they didn't cover it already with a turban. 

One of the coolest parts of the Sikh temple is the Langar, or community kitchen.  Community service is a big part of the religion so most of the temples also have a kitchen to feed the hungry.  This Langar happens to be the largest free community kitchen in the world.  All of the work is done by volunteers, and anyone from any background can jump in and volunteer.  It feeds over 100,000 people every day, regardless of where you are from, what religion you are, or how much money you have.  Donations of time and money are accepted so we did a little of both.

We all sat down with our empty plates as equals on the freshly cleaned floor.  Then volunteers came around with water and different types of foods.  It was all vegetarian, not because Sikhs are strict vegetarian the way some Hindus are, but because they want to be welcoming of the dietary preferences of others.

We had to eat quickly so they could shuffle everyone out and clean before the next group came in to eat.  It was delicious and filling!

Our guide took us around the rest of the building to see where all the work was being done.  I asked if we could join in and do some community service.  Rachel and I joined the women making the flat bread.  I needed some instruction from the women next to us, who were Sikhs visiting from other parts of India.  

We also saw where the plates and other dishes were being washed by the volunteers.

Then we saw where all the vegetables get chopped by volunteers.  I couldn't stay very long there because we were standing right where all the onions were being chopped and my eyes started to water.

It was incredible to see what can be accomplished when so many people work together for a common good.  There was never any judgement or prerequisites to eating there.  Nobody was considered to be in a higher or lower position than anybody else.  We are all humans who need to eat and we should all help each other get through life.

After the Golden Temple we saw the sight of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre where the British fired on and killed hundreds of people following some riots and unrest that happened in Punjab in 1919 when anti-British sentiment was starting to grow.  The accounts of witnesses say that the British didn't stop firing on people until they were out of bullets.  One place nearby was a deep well that people started jumping in to escape but instead were crushed by more and more people trying to jump in.  This wall shows the bullet holes that still exist today from it.  Needless to say, the massacre did not help the cause of the British Empire.

At the time India gained independence in the 1940s there was a lot of talk about how to divide up certain areas and what protections the people there would have.  The country split into two distinct areas: India, East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (now Pakistan).  The Partition was a time of great turmoil, and at the Partition museum we learned that it was one of the largest migrations in human history, with tens of millions leaving their homes and millions who went missing or killed along the way.  Hindus were moving east to be part of India and Muslims moved west to be part of Pakistan.  Tens of thousands of women were raped and abducted.  Most of them didn't dare go back home afterwards because they thought they would be rejected by their families.  Each side accused the other side of committing the atrocities.  It has taken a long time for relations between the two countries to somewhat normalize.  Even today there is a continued struggle for Muslims to be represented and protected in India, despite making up around 15% of the population.

One interesting day trip from Amritsar is to take the road to Lahore and see the border ceremony that is performed each day at the end of the day.  The Indian and Pakistani sides of the border each have a display of military strength and then lower and exchange flags to show that they are at peace with each other now (for the most part).

This part of the road turns into a tourist site, but there are still fences and barbed wire that indicate it is actually an international border.  We entered a large arena area and watched the spectacle with hundreds of cheering Indians on one side and what seemed like maybe 15 or 20 Pakistanis over on the other side.

There was a lot of boot stomping and marching up to the gate then turning around.  There were competitions to see which side could drag out their commands over a microphone more.  It was an entertaining ceremony to watch and see how patriotic it made the Indians feel. 

The last thing we did was to go visit the cultural village of Sadda Pind to participate in different Punjabi cultural activities.  I got to try my hand at embroidering a shawl.

Rachel got to learn how to grind wheat into flour the old fashioned way.

We learned how to hand tie a carpet.  It was amazing to see how fast the guy could work without the extra 'help' from the tourists.

We got to shoot guns and bows and arrows.  Nobody won any prizes.  Then again, maybe it was supposed to be just for the kids.

The next morning we flew to Mumbai to say goodbye to Devon and Rachel.  It was so much fun to be able to experience so many things and travel around together!  

The following morning Gregg and I flew over to Hyderabad because that's where a lot of the software developers live in India.  Gregg has worked with many people from Hyderabad and he wanted to have some context and see where they were coming from.  Old Hyderabad was the center of the Golconda Sultanate and gained their riches from the big diamond mines, some of which produced the Hope diamond and the Kohinoor diamond (over 100 carats and now part of the Crown Jewels in London).  The Golconda Fort was built right into the rocks on a hill in the middle of the city and it was fun to explore.

Then we switched gears and went to one of the many tech sectors and wandered around.  There are such drastic differences here between the old and new, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, etc.  India has it all and everything in between.