Leaving India

As I write this I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight back to Toronto – it is 12:30 am and my flight doesn’t leave for two more hours. I am happily exhausted -it is way past my bedtime!
I have enjoyed many things about India, here are a few:
- Meeting many people who were all helpful and enjoyed helping me understand and learn about Indian and Tibetan culture, customs, food and lifestyles.
- Being blessed by four religions- Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu
- The landscape, the architecture and the history
- the mass chaos – especially on the streets and in the markets- with so many people, animals and excitement. Even in the airport right now there seems to be chaos- loud announcements, staff running around shouting something (but no one can hear them because of the announcements) and a lot of people. Oh and of course the internet doesn’t work.
- Feeling like a celebrity- all the children want to touch you and say “hello”, and many people want their pictures taken with you. Even from our oversized bus as we drove on small roads through towns and rural areas (basically imposing ourselves on them), they still all waved, yelled hello and were genuinely excited to see us.
- The cows everywhere. I literally bumped into one while I was on a sidewalk, at a market in Jaipur. None of us expected to see one there as most cows were on the street but this one wanted to walk right next to the stores. The shocked look on my face entertained the locals (we were the only tourists) and the icing on the cake for them was when I pulled out my camera and ran ahead to the cow to get a front view shot. As I did this someone laughingly yelled “my country, my cow, my culture!”

There is so much more to tell all of you about my trip.

Taj Mahal

The grand finale of my trip in India was seeing the famous Taj Mahal. Of course I had heard so much about how magnificent it is and seen many pictures, but nothing compared to being there.
We were there for the sunrise and after some explanation of the story of how it came to be and how it was constructed, we spent nearly two hours wandering around and admiring the structure. As the sun rose, the light shining on the marble and inlayed stones changed, making it look different, so we all took many pictures during the two hours (I only took 179). It was a peaceful way to finish my trip.

Ranthambore

Accompanied by a naturalist and in an open jeep we braved an afternoon drive through the Ranthambore National Park to look for wildlife. The main attraction to see is a tiger in the wild, but only 30% of visitors see one and we weren’t in the 30%. To find the tigers, the guide listens for an alarm call that the monkeys give out to warn the deer when there is a tiger nearby. When we heard it, we rushed in the jeep towards the spot. One time we could watch the monkey in the tree giving the call, so we knew the tiger was there somewhere, but we couldn’t see it. Incidentally our tour guide told us stories (afterwards) of people (including himself) having close calls with tigers in National Parks; all had a happy ending, but were a little scary.
We also looked out for leopards, but they are much harder to see. We did see summer and spotted deer (also known as tiger food) monkeys, birds, crocodiles as well as interesting plant life.
I’ll have to come back to India to see a tiger!

Jaipur

Jaipur is a large city in the state of Rajasthan; located south of Delhi. Our group spent two days there.
First we visited the Amber Palace which is one of the earlier examples of architecture that blended Muslim and Hindu styles. This mixed palace was the result of a marriage between a Muslim Prince and a Hindu Princess; a marriage intended to unite the two cultures and religions.
This part of India is known for items such a hand printed cloths, hand woven carpets, and miniature paintings. Craftsmen and artists demonstrated the intricate details of how each of these treasures is made from start to finish. In most cases the craft or skill has been in their family for many generations. Picture above is a man stamping colours onto a cloth that was previously hand stamped with a design.
Jaipur has an ancient astrological observatory. One of the kings who ruled in this area during the 1700’s was very fond of astronomy and had it built. There were large historic stone tools that measured everything related to the sun, including time, altitude, the position of the planets etc. There was also a tool for each zodiac sign, used to predict horoscopes. This observatory holds a world record for the largest sundial. It is still used today.

Mandawa

Mandawa is a small town in the desert state of Rajasthan, famous for its Frescoes. We stayed there two nights, first in town in a Haveli (old merchant homes with frescoes painted everywhere) restored to a charming hotel. We enjoyed walking around looking at the artwork, of which most seemed to retain their vibrant colours even though they are about 300 years old.
The next night we stayed at a resort made of mud- the walls, beds night tables were all made from local mud. It was beautifully painted with designs by local women. We overlooked the desert which had sand of course, but also trees spaced out as if they’d been planted. We swam in the afternoon and then in the late afternoon, when it was slightly cooler, we went for a camel ride to a nearby village. On the camels we were so high up that we could see into everyone yards; the villagers didn’t seem to mind but I don’t think I would like it. All the yards had a water buffalo, goats, sheep and cows. At the village a local family invited to their house and offered us Chai. There was even enough room in their yard to park the eight camels. My first camel ride- neat!

Delhi

I spent 3 days in Delhi; during which time I finished my program with CCS and joined Imaginative Tours. Both groups took me sightseeing in Delhi; some of what I was able to visit included: Humayun’s Tomb, India Gate, the Lotus Temple, a Hindu Temple, a Sikh Temple and Gandhi’s Memorial. We observed great architecture from all through the ages and rulers of India. I am getting particularly attached to visiting Temples. The Lotus Temple is the most modern one I’ve seen and it looks exactly like a lotus flower.
Delhi, like all big cities in India, was very busy and chaotic. It was fun to watch and see all that goes on, but I was usually glad to escape into a quiet store or tea shop, or even a Taxi to rest from all the bustle. I found in more hectic than shopping at Christmas in Toronto. Cars, cows, bicycles, oxen, carts, rigshaws, dogs, people etc are all over the streets in one big free for all.
Of course to add to my confusion, people knew I was a foreigner and thus I was constantly being approached and surrounded by beggars and merchants trying to get some money or my business. We were advised not make eye contact with the beggars, and that even a “no thank-you” to a merchant would be taken as a maybe, and he wouldn’t likely give up very soon. Since begging is huge exploitive business in India, our hosts really do not want it encouraged. It was very hard to ignore the children. They grab at you, want a pen or money or food. Our travel company has arranged for us to give money to charities that work to save children from this exploitation, so this eased my conscience a bit.
I caught a glimpse of my first charmed cobras in Delhi. A man was playing his flute and they were moving in time to the music. But I didn’t watch (again an exploitive business), but also I am a big chicken when it comes to snakes and I walked as far away as fast as I could from them. Since then I’ve been on cobra watch at all tourist spots so that I can successfully avoid them. When I was at the Gandhi Memorial I saw a man playing a flute; I took one look at him and turned away and walked very fast in the opposite direction. He must have seen my face because I heard him say “ma’am no cobra, no cobra ma’am, no cobra”...poor man was just playing his flute.

On the Move

Hi All
I am in Delhi and I have joined my tour group. The internet is quite unreliable so it has been difficult to post blogs, and likely will continue to be difficult. So I am posting before I lose this again...

Life at the Home Base

I have to say that I quite enjoyed the month I have spent here at the Home Base in Dharamsala. I would describe it as supportive and fun. I lived with 7 other volunteers and the staff that came during the day were available to help us if we needed assistance or had questions (they were also available by cell phone at all times). The staff also organized our outings, Hindi lessons, guest speakers, meetings and placements. We were never bored. There were 3 community workers Monica, Kanchan and Anju who were all women and whom I particularly enjoyed talking with. I thought of them as my older Indian sisters even though they were all at least 20 years younger than me.
Some of the things that the other volunteers and I noticed or found interesting:
- we had wireless internet; however it frequently went out and nobody (i.e. the staff) knows why.
- we could get our laundry done within 24 hours. The service came to the house everyday (including holidays, weekends), picked it up and delivered it all for a very small price
- switches in Canada are opposite the ones here, so I often turned lights and fans off instead of on
- we would run out of water, but with 10-15 minutes there was usually more
- knives were not routinely put out for meals; someone found them in a drawer a week after we arrived. I had already adapted to using a spoon.
- to insert our adaptors into an outlet, we needed to push a pencil in a hole at the top of the outlet, put in the adaptor in, and then pull out the pencil. Somehow sticking a pencil into a 220 volt outlet worried me; however nothing has happened so far.
- we take bucket showers. This means we fill up a bucket of water, and using a small cup, pour water all over ourselves, soap up, and then rinse with more water using the cup. This took some getting used to. I particularly found it challenging not to get my soapy hands in the clean water that I was about to rinse from. Also, the entire floor is wet afterwards. There is a drain in the floor but the area is not separated off. After you were done you squeegeed the floor the best you could, and hoped to get the floor dry enough so that you didn’t slip.
- Out toilet was a squat version- I just pretended I was camping for a month.
Overall adjusting to all this with other the other volunteers enriched our experience. I can’t wait to come back!

Amritsar

Last weekend five of us took a side trip to Amritsar, the capital city of the State of Punjab, also known as the Holy City. It was a chance to learn more about the Sikh religion (as the majority of people in Amritsar are Sikh) and see some important sites.

We visited The Golden Temple (Sikh), Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, The Silver Temple (Hindu), a museum, and we witnessed the changing of the guard at the Indian/Pakistani border. The Temples were grand and beautiful, both were surrounding by water and well maintained. At the Golden Temple the Sikhs were eager for us to learn about and see their Temple, and eat with them , so it was a pleasant, peaceful experience. At the Hindu Temple, we were each blessed by the priest (not sure of the title) who did this by saying something to us and tossing a lay made of marigolds around our necks. The museum was interesting as it was a tribute to a very popular King known for his kindness and policies on equity. He ruled about a thousand years ago so the museum gave us a glimpse into history and the lifestyle of this time period. The changing of the guard was facinating - both sides teased and competed with each other all in good fun.

For me the most significant site to see was Jallianwala Bagh Memorial as this is the place where in April of 1919 the British Army fired on people, without warning, (Indian men women and children) who were meeting to discuss an act that was unfair to them. General Dyer ordered the soldiers to fire into the crowd, until all the bullets were used. The victims were trapped in a city square, with the soldiers between them and the only gate, so there was no place to go, except a water well in the middle of the square and many people jumped into the well to avoid the bullets (but still died ). In the end over 1000 died (including babies, children)and another 500 were injured. The spot where the General was standing was marked, the well is enclosed with glass and some of the bullet holes can still be seen on the original walls. This event is one of the many heartbreaking scenes that was re-enacted in the movie “Gandhi”.

Pictured above: me in front of The Golden Temple; the spot General Dyer was standing during the massacre; bullet holes in the original wall.