Since I didn't get a video that really showed Delhi traffic.

This one is awesome.
http://youtu.be/MvRMZ5iIb18

Makes me miss it.

Pictures!

My photos can be seen on my Shutterfly site here- http://roadtoindia.shutterfly.com/

 

And my first picture after getting home: Waffle House, on the way home from the airport.

 

Videos from India...

Now that I'm back to the land of speedy internet, I can actually post all the videos I have!

Seeing Delhi from the front seat. Notice how they have a non-committed relationship with the lines in the road?

Tame glimpse in to the ways of the road.

On the way to the Lotus Temple.

Heading toward the President's house and other government buildings.

On the way to Earth Saviours. So many cars, so little road.

Green Avenue, on the way to Earth Saviours. With bonus commentary from me and Daisy.

The 4-wheeling adventure in to the Earth Saviours site, as described on my blog someplace.

More to come...

 

Missing you

I'm loving the hot showers, brushing my teeth with water from the sink, fresh mountain water to drink, giant super comfy bed, catching up with friends, being able to pet dogs, etc.
But of course I ponder what I left behind.
I miss the little secret handshake that the kids at Earth Saviours taught us. And the tiny baby goat.

I miss Ravi's smile and happy greeting almost every day. And getting chai before break.

I miss hanging out and giggling with my India mommy Marianne, and my India little sis Daisy. It's not that I don't miss Terri and Jamie as well, but it was just us 3 for a while and I left them so it feels different. Good times were had all the way around.

I miss the noise and chaos.

And I miss all those sweet fellas who I want to tell you more about. They have funny little descriptions in the welcome packet, but I'm going to write my own.

I'll go in order of the picture since maybe some of you haven't memorized their names, eh?

Ashwini- He's kind of stoic and more often than not silent when he's with just us girls. He'll give input when we're saying something wrong in Hindi or answer questions, but you wouldn't call him chatty. At least not in English. He strikes me as someone I wish I could talk to more to see what he's all about. He giggles at the prank call show in the radio and one day we both sang Sheila Ki Javani in the car. It made me love him a little bit.

Lalit- Oh Lalit. He's the big brother you'd love or hate to have. Daisy can attest to that more than I but since he doesn't pick on ME at any given opportunity then I just have to assume. His signature phrase is "What!?" Why is it so hilarious is totally beyond me. We got to have a couple chats during our time together and hopefully we'll have more in the future. He reminds me of a playful puppy trying to behave himself. :) I have Daisy on a mission currently to give him a hard time since I didn't get to tell him goodbye. She needs an advantage over those picking on her for a change.

Vicky- Sweet Vicky is the first person I met and was our escort from the airport when we arrived in Delhi. He's full of information and has a sort of soothing nature for some reason. I know Marianne has enjoyed working with him as a field-worker. He was brave enough to try to learn salsa dancing and it was completely adorable.

Sunil- One of our trusty and fearless drivers. Anytime you get in a car with someone you can consider the fact that your safety is in their hands. This seems slightly more relevant in India. Not once did I feel an ounce of concern with these guys. I remember seeing Sunil on the very first day and thinking that I saw a little twinkle in his eyes. I battled with him on Holi and after that he became one of my favorites. I can tell his giggle from anywhere in the office and it makes me happy.

Kewal- Human Teddy Ruxpin. Go ahead....search it and tell me it's not true. I've heard maybe a grand total of 5 words out of him (in English, he's more talkative in Hindi) but he's never without that cute little smile. He was there at the beginning and the end as my airport driver both ways. It seems significant somehow in the universe.

Jaggi- What can I say about Jaggi...I've requested that he either adopt me or come back home with me. I want to pinch his adorable face. He helped mellow me out when I was having issues and he had his son hunt down Cheetos for me. He's a good friend from the first moment, without hesitation. He may think I'm slightly insane, but that's always part of the package with me anyway.  He made all the difference in how awesome the experience was for me. Thank you, thank you to him.

Pawan- He doesn't say much but I think he sees all. He sings while he cooks. He has beautiful eyes and I kinda wish I could read his mind. Or at least talk him in to singing to me.

Satinder- He's like a house mouse. He comes in and does all kinds of things but you don't always see him there. He doesn't say too much either but it's always cute to hear his little "hello" when he comes to the flat.

Ekraj- Mr. Smiley from Nepal. He's pure sweetness. His smile can brighten your day and luckily for the world he smiles at all times.

Suresh- Possibly the quietest of the bunch. He doesn't need to talk to impress us though, he makes amazing food! He also sings as he cooks.

I think a few of them weren't quite sure what to make of me but even so, I wish I could have gotten to know every single one of them better. Of all the things in India I miss, they take up a big portion of the list.

I TOLD them all to pack up and come back to Colorado with me but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I hope to go back some day and drink chai with them, and learn about cricket with them, listen to them laughing, and secretly learn Hindi so I know what they are saying when they don't think anyone can understand. :)

Hopefully the Queen Bee Bela will be there next time as well! I've only seen her twice but I love her already.

Jetlag, bad tea, and other adjustments.

As I'm sitting upstairs drinking my extremely bland Prince of Wales tea, all I can hear is the sound of the heater, something rattling, and the clock ticking. I really really wanted to go sit in my car and honk randomly at anything that moved or anyone that drove past.
I'm generally not up at 6am and having toast and tea by 7, but my body has a schedule that seems to wake me up for my standard India meal times. 1pm we'd have lunch, 7pm we'd have dinner. About 12:30 and 6:15 on the dot I'm wide awake. I haven't any idea what time I fell asleep but I remember my mommy coming down and turning off my TV.  I remember thinking about eating dinner...then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......
I'm really gonna try to stay up later tonight and not be still wearing my jammies at some point today. It was my first full day back and all but still. Jetlag is winning so far.
We sat out in the sun yesterday for a while. That was nice and crisp. The smell of wood fire has replaced the smell of trash fire. Though I'm not sure which I prefer at the moment. The wood smells awfully mountainy, which makes me think of snow, which makes me nervous.
I was also slightly nervous in DIA surrounded by white people. Sleep deprivation aside, some things don't change, even after India. They just amplify.
A run to Krishna's Market in Lafayette is in order soon. I need proper tea. And I mean just regular tea, I'm not ready to talk about chai yet.
There's about 100 other things that I'm still adjusting to but I won't bore you with all of those. Yet.
Definitely missing the energy and noisyness that is Delhi. I'm not yet fully able to appreciate the lack of black soot in my nose seeing as I've had a cold since I was flying over Russia, but I'm sure when I'm stop sneezing I'll love being able to sort of breathe again. (Altitude isn't my friend either but at least it's not gross.)
While washing my cup and plate this morning I automatically tried to avoid dripping water on the strawberries that were sitting in the dish strainer. But moments later I remembered that here in Colorado we don't have water of death. I can sprinkle it on whatever I want. Don't they say that it takes 30 days to make or lose a habit? Well...I've acquired several, so it seems.
Who would have thought one could sort of miss the faint smell of trash and urine?

Holi Holi Holi!

I'll leave it to you to Wiki Holi for all the details but this quote sums it enough for the time being-
Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. Furthermore, Holi celebrates many religious myths and legends.

During Holi in India, the general rules of acceptable public behavior are not as they usually are.
For example, I was handed a giant Kingfisher beer before 11am. It was magnificent.
I explain it as the Mardi Gras of India. Drinking and smoking is accepted, less conservative dress won't get you scolded (and is preferred unless you want your nice clothes to be a new color at the end of the day), interactions between men and women can be less "proper", and the overall mood is fun, festive and joyous.
Daisy, Marianne, and I are the last remaining volunteers from our original group and we had plans to celebrate with the CCS staff. We really wanted to be able to go to Earth Saviours as well to celebrate with the kids, but we'll aim for that next time we're in India.
Many people know that I have a radar for hidden cheekyness. I knew that some of these sweet, quiet, reserved staff members had more going on than meets the non-Hindi speaking eye.
Luckily I was right. They are awesome.
When we got to the office...after hiding around the corner for a moment in case there was a sneak attack...we saw that the floor was covered in newspapers and the furniture on the porch was cleared away. They had already powdered each other but their little yellow and orange faces were just the beginning. We had stolen a packet of powder from the office the night before, just so we were ready when we got there.
Daisy and I started sprinkling it on each other like a couple of little girls. Eyes closed, turned the opposite way, just flailing our arms at each other. I got it in my teeth at one point but thankfully there's not a close up picture of that.
So we had some snacks and drinks, told all the gentlemen that smoking is bad for them (but it's just a Holi thing for several of them), took some pictures of our powdered faces, and THEN they filled the buckets.
Then it was a war. It was 7 boys against us 3 ladies! Not fair! I'm twice the size of a couple of them so I guess that's fair enough...but still. Marianne got her hat taken away. No fair hiding your hair. We'd put on coconut oil to try to avoid turning purple for days to come, but that was only so useful as we found out later. And anybody that knows my aversion to greasy things on my skin won't be surprised to know that I didn't slather it on myself. I was taking my chances.
I don't know which one of these menacing characters started it but Daisy and I both got a bucket of cold water flung at us. Marianne, however, was the first one to get a LARGE bucket dumped on her. She was far too dry anyway. Then we saw what the deal was with these guys. We had to get on the ball!
You turn around to fling poweder at someone and another one comes up behind you and rubs it in your hair, you try to throw water on someone with the little bucket and you get a soaking from the big bucket. No one is safe! I began to see Sunil as my nemesis. He's a little bit taller than the others so we're more evenly matched I feel. We almost broke a bucket that we were fighting over. Lalit and I did break the little bucket later. Oops.
They brought out water shooter things and just kept refilling the buckets over and over and over again.
I don't know which Holi tradition came first...the water, or the wearing of white shirts. That's all I'll say about that. My shirt will never be white again anyway.
There was a lot of screeching and cackling and spitting of powder and slightly more mayhem than I expected from grown ups. It was epically fun.
Daisy and I have said that we feel bad that new volunteers won't get to have this experience with the staff. I'm also bummed out that I feel like I know them so much better just before I leave. I still can't quite believe I was in India for Holi, something I've had on my list of life goals for a while now. I don't know if I've ever really achieved any of my other goals before. I should check.
My Indian Holi was the most fun I've had in ages and I still have purple patches on me to show for it.
It sharpens the misery I will have leaving all these guys but it was definitely worth it.

Forgotten moment from the Akshardam...

I remembered this last night, and seeing as I'd tried so hard to remember it in the first place, I thought I better put it here.
If you have read about my trip to the Akshardam, you saw that we went to see the light and water show.
Before it begins, there is chanting that comes booming out of the speakers. All the lights are dimmed except those below the huge golden statue of...someone. I assume the same guy who has a huge golden statue in the inner sanctum.
It was dark and cool outside. The moon was just over the statues head, and they were doing a ritual of some sort with a flaming torch thing. I leaned over to Marianne and said "I really wish I had my camera for this!" She agreed and said she was trying to capture the image in her mind since we weren't going to have a picture of it. So I just stared at the image of the shining moon, glowing statue, and dancing fire for as long as it was there trying to burn it in to my brain for as long as possible. It was a very "auspicious" moment which would be hard to duplicate. ;)
(We have a bit of an inside joke about the word auspicious, as it is everywhere in India. So it might not be the most accurate word technically, but it is for us!)

I've been slacking on the blog.

But only because I've been having such a super duper time.

Jaggi brought me Cheetos puffs, which he had his child hunt down for me. I love them. Anywho...

We'll begin with last...Monday? I think?
Our day was going along as usual. Go to placement, come back for lunch, earthquake, nap. You know, normal stuff like that.
At least that's how it seemed to our CCS staff but the rest of us were like...um...what???

I felt it and I just thought one of the guys was trying to get behind my chair. But then I realized all the chairs were still full and saw Lalit looking up. I just thought I was having some sort of phantom spasm or something until he says "earthquake" and goes back to eating his lunch.
The 4 of us volunteers look at him and say "earthquake? Was that an earthquake!?" (And Daisy..."oh my god!") Jamie had overdone it on the chocolate covered espresso beans and already was a bit shakey so she didn't actually even notice.
It was my first earthquake. Clearly not the first for the gents. They just chatted for a moment and went back to eating. Not shaken a bit, metaphorically speaking. :D
Me, being the natural event fan that I am, thought it was AWESOME that we just felt this little earthquake.
It was 4.6 and not centered right under us so there was no damage and no injuries of any sort.
That night Marianne, Daisy, Jamie, and I made a nice Italian dinner for the staff. Candles and flowers and everything.
Marianne, who is the pro here, made chicken cacciatore, Jamie made cheesy garlic bread, I "made" a salad, and Daisy made what she calls rice krispie cakes, which is different from our rice krispie treats. (Daisy is the Brit and we're always having discussions that start with "you call it WHAT?" or "how do YOU say it?") She just puts in chocolate rather than marshmallow. We had a chocolate mishap but after round 2 they were still good and went really really well with Indian ice cream. Seems like the guys really enjoyed it and the garlic bread was definitely a favorite.

Now on to Tuesday.
We went to visit the Swaminarayan Akshardham in Delhi. It. Is. Amazing.
It kind of looks like any other temple from afar, but once you get closer to can see that there are TONS and TONS of carvings on this massive structure.
Photos are not allowed and I didn't get any from the road so if you'd like to see it, take a look here:
http://www.akshardham.com/index.htm
Marianne bought me a little souvenir book as well so those at home will be able to take a look at it when I get back.
Thanks in part to the bizarrely detailed list of things that are not allowed inside, it is pristine from the moment you pass through the metal detector and frisk. The grounds are perfectly manicured, the stone and marble are amazing as always, and the statues and carving are just unbelievable. Simply the number of them is unbelievable. This temple is quite new but was constructed to reflect the ancient styles.
It was a breezy but beautiful afternoon, and first we took a walk around the temple to see the life-like stone elephant sculptures in the wall. It tells a story about the nature of elephants and their signifance, as well as other tales of the Buddha and other Hindu characters. All around the building are pools filled with coins and golden geese spewing water from their beaks. And that was just the beginning.
After leaving our shoes at the "boot house" (the name of my future pub, by the way) we walked up the steps in to the temple. Inside are dozens of carved marble columns, paintings, statues of Rama, Krishna, Hanuman, etc. However the main attraction here is the Inner Sanctum. It has an 11 foot tall statue of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, and everything within it literally sparkles. It's the most shiny thing I've ever seen. The website sums it up as so- "The divine serenity in the garbhagruh inspires peace and divine happiness." It sort of blinds your aura with it's shiny. It's lovely. We also saw the prayer/chant ritual thing before we left.
Then we made our way to the boat ride. After a scavenger hunt through several buildings trying to avoid going to see the movie (which would make us miss the last boat ride) we finally found the place.
It's like a little Small World ride (in a giant swan) showing you the important historical discoveries from India in 12 minutes.
After our boat ride we went to wait for the water and light show to begin at the giant lotus fountain.
I love fountains. I really really love fountains with lights and music. It was awesome. It was like a day at a tiny Disneyland but...peaceful. Definitely recommended for anyone in the area.

Wednesday on the way to placement we say a rickshaw sort of clip a motorcyclist, who steadied, but then ran right in to the huge curb, fly through the air, land on the ground, and get right back up again to chew out the rickshaw driver. It was disturbing but luckily the rider didn't seem to be broken in any way.
Wednesday night was much more pleasant. We went to a little informal party at Ravi's home. We thought it would be tea and snacks and a little chat and back home for dinner. However...all of his staff was there, they gave us food and beverages, and got us dancing. I had the most fantabulous time and finally really felt like I was part of India. It's only here that I've found people that will happily listen to Kolaveri Di over and over and over again. I also had these little smiley face snacks that were amazing.
Marianne attempted to teach a few salsa lessons, Daisy tried her best to hide in the couch to avoid dancing, and we finally got Lalit and Vicky up to dance with us. I took a little cool down break to enjoy Ravi's veranda where he showed me the park across the way. He said that when he moved there it was nothing, but they took the initiative to beautify it. (He didn't say beautify but same difference.) On the way home Kolaveri came on the radio again and we saw the bright moon hovering above us all. It was a perfect way to usher in Holi!

Night out in Hauz Khas

Since it was Terri's last night in Delhi, and will soon be Jamie's last night in Delhi, we decided to treat ourselves to some Mediterranean food at Zo in Hauz Khas village.
We made it across the road on our own, without following any Indians. We did abandon Terri in the middle of the road for a minute but that was only because she didn't follow us when we hopped across. She was wearing fancy white clothes and was trying to keep them that way as long as possible. How that works for anyone here I have no idea. But eventually we all made it back together and wandered to Hauz Khas village, taking pictures as we went. There are ruins and temples and all that cool stuff that's everywhere in India.
We did some window shopping as we went. I hadn't been over there since we went to eat at the south Indian place during our first week, and I had no idea that quite so many stores were packed in back there. It's like a little maze of stone and towering buildings that look as though they might tip over at any minute. The stores are tiny for the most part and if there's anyone else in that are the time it will be neccesary for you to invade their personal space. Marianne decided that we'd have to go back on the weekend since we were planning on a dinner date while it was just us two. I saw many windows full of old Bollywood movie posters. The size of them was thankfully what prevented me from spending a lot more money. They are massive, but I found some nice smaller ones.
We finally made our way to Zo, which is a very lovely place. It smells of roses as you walk in which is both pleasant and a relief. The men working there look as pretty as it smells. Terri had been in a few times and made friends with Ankit, the owner, so we were well taken care of. Oh and he's also ridiculously handsome and charming. The power went out a couple times but as opposed to the home reaction of OOH! ~chatter chatter chatter~, people just carry on as if nothing is different. It's quite peaceful to eat by candlelight for a few minutes. It was the whole village so everything was dark except for our candles and however much moonlight makes its way through the smog. It always comes back on though. So far...
Terri and Marianne had a bottle of wine and our night was slightly silly from then on. We giggled, took a lot of pictures, talked to and about the cute men, ordered dessert, and decided that maybe they didn't want us to leave since they were reluctant to give us the check. Terri stayed behind to enjoy her cappucino, as she had to stay up until her ride to the airport came at about 3am. So the 4 of us went to find a rickshaw home. We all squeezed in to a single rickshaw, with Jamie on my lap, and the to-go dessert being balanced by everyone. All of this would have been highly illegal at home and I'm surprised every time I get out of a rickshaw without having suffered some sort of injury. But it's fun and cost 50 rupees (about a dollar) to get the 4 of us the mile or so back home safely and quickly. Sort of. I tried to tell them that we wouldn't be able to get in on the side where the mosque is (the gate is locked on Fridays because Friday is mosque day, and it would have been locked anyway because it was past 10) but after confirming this, rather than turning around and walking around the corner we went aaaall the way around the entire block to get to the main entrance, which is manned 24 hours a day. It was amusing but I was up for a walk anyway. And now we know this.
As usual when it's dark, we saw NO other women until we got up to the big gas station next to the entrance. The rest of them are smart enough to know where they are going in the dark I imagine. But with 4 of us together, I don't think we were too worried. I wasn't anyway. If I start seeing a lot of Indians bigger than me then I'll be more concerned.
But overall we had a lovely night, good food, good company, and we know Terri made it to her final destination ok. Wishing her well on her travels.
If you'd like to learn more about her travels and her mission, you can read about it here:
http://www.afreshchapter.com/
She's aiming to put together a foundation that sends cancer survivors, such as herself, to volunteer overseas.

A day at Earth Saviours

In the morning Jamie, Daisy and I (now just Daisy and I, Jamie's last teaching day was Friday.) head over to the office at about 9am to find our driver for the day. He quietly listens to us chatting all the way to Vasant Kunj to the Earth Saviours site, and occasionally helps with Hindi. None of them are too chatty but they'll all answer our random questions and probably pass on some of the stranger things we say unless they just zone out from the girl talk. All of this would be different without our drivers and I love them.
The route has become familiar; fruit stand here, man peeing there, children begging on that corner, man with 1.5 legs on that corner. At the beginning they all come straight to our car because they see lady foreigners, but we usually don't get a second look now because they all remember that we don't give them a second look. It's essential in order to avoid harassment.
We turn on to Green Avenue which is filled with high walls, gates, and guards. We desperately want to see the houses behind those walls and will get a rare peek behind the gate when a car is going through. But so far no good look at the massive homes back there. All the way at the end of Green Avenue is the entrance to Earth Saviours. What I would call the driveway would be the envy of any 4-wheeling adventurer, aside from the dogs and little old guys wandering it.
When we head through the gate the kids are usually lined up in the center listening to Ravi or one of the teachers. Then Ravi will often have them doing some stretching. Now, I don't know how old Ravi is but he bends better than most of the children and certainly better than me in my strangling kurta.
He always comes over to say hello with his big smile and shake our hands as soon as he sees us.
On Friday he had gathered all the children around and was speaking to them in Hindi. The ever wandering Karen was standing up in the middle in her own universe and everyone is yelling at her to sit. Ravi looks up to me and Jamie (Daisy had the ick and stayed home to rest) and with a big smile he says "Today I am teaching them to fight for the first time!" To which I said, "Oh! Goodness..." They don't need too much encouragement in this area but hopefully he will eventually teach them the control part that goes along with being a 4th degree black belt or whatever it is that he has.
He has one of the older kids stand up and help him. He kicks his foot over this kids head without touching him. The rest of them do this- GASP!....squeal....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So they do this kicking thing for a few minutes to show the kids how it's done then they all run off and try it on their own. Of course later during class it turns in to just regular kicking but it's a process. They often walk/jog a trip around the field but this morning they just wandered back to their classrooms after their fighting lesson.

**Cute side story about Ravi- a couple days ago I was sitting with my group and Ravi came over to say hello. A younger man came over, touched Ravi's feet and Ravi said something to him and he wandered off. He then came back with a towel which Ravi then used to wipe the nose of the snotty little face right in front of me. It's not like I've never seen the snotty face "ok blow" scenario before but this was extra cute that he bothers to wipe the noses of the children, because he's got plenty to do. He never rushes, which I'm always surprised by. At any given moment he has about 800 things to be doing but he will ALWAYS stop and talk for a few minutes and ask how you are doing. And maybe wipe your nose if you need it.**

Jamie goes off to her classroom, and Daisy and I usually wait to get some children assigned to us from the preschool set. They come wandering out of the tent with their bright little chairs over their heads either wandering off to where they want to sit, or yelling "ma'am! ma'am! Here!" One of the boys usually goes and finds a chair to bring over for me. Friday was a busy day. I had a few children for about 20 seconds who then all got yanked away by a relatively unpleasant old man. They all went in the tent to recite ABCs and sing Row Your Boat in that aggressive manner that they sing everything that they don't actually know the words to. They pronounce things pretty well for not having the slightest clue what the words mean.
A couple of the teachers asked me why I was sitting there by myself and I told them all my students were taken away. As I thought I was going to get them back they were all called to line up again and sit down.
About once a day someone stops by to bring snacks, clothes, or some kind of donation. Today was a Earth Saviours supporters birthday so he and his family game with lunch for everyone. All the kids sat about as patiently and quietly as I've seen them do anything. All the elderly and mentally challenged residents were gathered up and given a seat and everyone got a plate with these yummy fried bread things that we'd actually had at the home-base the day before, and some sort of spicy garbanzo bean tastyness, and a little sweet. Jamie and I stood aside to let everyone else enjoy their lunch but eventually a round Indian woman came over and decided we should also eat. So we did. It was yummy. All the children also got a new pencil, which I was pretty excited about! They use the pencil until the last little stub is dead and then they sharpen the other end until it's non-existent. A new pencil makes a big difference. They all sang happy birthday to the generous man and he and his family went away. They were all very nice. A couple days before some people had come with little bags of snacks and fresh samosas, which I had yet to have in India. I love snack days.
I was directed to a nice shady spot with my fresh batch of children, unfortunately about a foot away from the slides, but whatever. I wrote an A on a piece of paper and went around my group and had them all copy an A on the paper. Some know it right away, and some you just wonder what they little eyes are seeing when they finish and look at you for the right or wrong confirmation. For some of the younger ones, I'll just have them take the pen and I'll help them write it. Often the rest of the children are sticking their heads in to see how it's going and nobody can actually see the paper we're writing on. But we got to O I think before I'd lost half of my class.
A woman who I hadn't seen before, who I'm going to assume was previously homeless based on her disheveled look, came over and said something in Hindi. She wasn't looking at me so I thought maybe she was talking to the children. But none of them responded or really seemed sure why she was there. I didn't quite know what to say to her so she touched my knees and went back to the corner where she had been sitting with an older woman. (Touching the knees or feet of someone is a sign of respect.)
A while later she was laying in the lap of this other woman crying her eyes out. I'm still not sure why.
A couple teachers came over to see what the problem was, so some of the children started drifting over and peeking until they got shoo'd in Hindi and came back and sat down. I asked if she was ok, they said "oh, yes yes." And then suggested that I find a new shady spot as all mine had disappeared. They told me my white skin was going to turn black in the sun. I asked if I might look Indian before I left and they just laughed.
I take my children, 4 of them by this time, to a new shady spot and we get out some of the books from my bag and look at them and trade them and yank them away from each other. The usual. But I can deal with 4. I also had the little girl that I've been trying to work with. She never speaks. She never really does what everyone else is doing. She'll be there but she'll just do her own thing. I'm hoping for my last week to be able to work with her. I actually heard her speak on Friday, AND saw her smiling and playing so at least I know she can.
We were reviewing colors and animals. Her little bossy keeper was in her face, saying the colors so that she would repeat them. You can barely hear it, but she did repeat them. Her friend says PURPLE, PURPLE! Then the quiet one says ....purple.... Her little friend then would laugh and say them quietly like her. Every time any of them turn the page they whack me on the leg, arm, boob, wherever, yelling "ma'am!" They either tell me what the picture is, count something, or wait for me to tell them what it is. My little one started doing this as well. She'd pat me and them point at something so I would say the word. It's progress but I definitely don't have enough time to do as much with her as I'd like. But Ravi, being the saint that he is, said that if I point her out to him he'll make sure to check in on her when I'm gone.
As our car arrived I went to fetch Jamie who was getting mauled by her students since they would not see her again. She had drawn picture of some of them and make a coloring page for them to keep. We also got escorted to the car by some of the girls. It was all adorable.
So that was a few hours of my Friday. After that we come back and have lunch, had a feedback meeting with Jaggi, I worked on my temple visit blog until I had to come back and get ready for our outing for Terri's last day in Delhi, which I will talk about at a later time. Now I need brunch!

Temple Trip

A couple days ago we went to visit the largest Mosque in India, a Hindu Temple, and a Sikh Temple.

To get to the mosque, Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, we had to wade through a sea of people (as we do to get to anywhere in India), vendors, ankle-breaking holes in the path, good smells, bad smells, mysterious puddles, half nude children, and any number of other interesting things. This is more or less always the case here but this was one of the places that seems slightly more interesting than the markets and little streets where we usually venture.

Like the Agra gate, there was an unpleasant looking amount of stairs, but it wasn't quite as treacherous as Agra. The steps at this place were made for human feet rather than goat feet. It's just a looming presence at the top of the stairs. Like God him/her/itself is sitting there watching you make your way up the stairs through more people and puddles. Unlike Agra, we were not attacked on the steps by vendors from all sides. It's less hostile, which is nice. Once inside it's a massive courtyard, surrounded by just as massive stone walls. This also sums up many of the sights in India.

If I remember correctly, there is room here for over 1000 worshipers. I was kind of hoping to hear the call to prayer (azan, thanks Moody for the correct word) while we were there but we would have had to leave if we did. All foreigners, women, and children are required to leave the mosque when it is time for prayer. Some mosques allow women to pray also but I think it just depends on where you are.

If you were not properly attired at the entrance, they had brighly colored mumu things for you to cover yourself with. (No shorts, skirts, bare shoulders, etc...this is the general rule for India most of the time anyway.) We were required to wear our Indian clothes for this trip just to avoid these sort of things, and we did remove our shoes.

One of the most interesting points of this stop was that they are the keepers of some of Prophet Muhammad's relics- a RED hair from his beard, a foot print, a sandal, and passages from the Quaran written on 1000 year old deer skin. If I was somewhere else I would question their legitimacy but I assume they have been put to the test before.

The little hobblety man came out to open the door to the mosque replica where they are kept and all the women and children that were in this little nook came rushing over to see. Mr. Hobbles shoo'd them away since they hadn't paid for this honor. There was one woman looming over my shoulder either praying or reciting the whole time and she was not shoo'd very far. It was pretty cool to see stuff that was so old and that could cause a massive event of some sort if misplaced or mistreated or something along those lines.

It definitely seemed like an awesome place to shop but for better or worse I didn't bring any money with me. Plus, we were trying to not lose Lalit in the hordes of people, and I was trying to check and make sure our photo happy companions didn't get too far behind or get run down by an enthusiastic rickshaw. (Only the bicycle ones were here. There's no room for autos in there.)

Next we went to visit the Lakshmi Narain Temple. This was one of my favorite places that we've been to. We had to go through a metal detector, as we usually do, wash our hands, and take off our shoes. I'm starting to get attached to the feel of cold marble and warm stone under my feet. This place was the opposite of the mosque. Few people, shiningly spotless, quiet. The mosque has it's own peace and many people are praying but this place was much smaller to begin with.

This temple is home to some of the most amazing pristine statues and shrines EVER. The Hindu trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) is the most prominent theme, but Hanuman, Ganesh and the rest of the family are represented as well. On the walls there are pictures depicting the Ramayana and Mahabharata, passages in English and Hindi (or maybe Sanskrit? I dunno.), statues on most available surfaces. There is a monk-looking person sitting at every statue, which is in it's own little room. They will kindly accept donations for the deity of your choice. All of the main gods have a designated day that their followers will worship. I don't know how a family decides who their specific top god will be but once that is established they know on what day they will practice whatever ritual it is that they do.

There are also several places that explain the significance of the swastika, which is eeeeeeverywhere. People of course associate this with horrible things, but that's only because horrible people borrowed it from the Hindus (and flipped it the other way) and sort of ruined it for the rest of the world. Originally the symbol represented a “prayer for success, accomplishment, and perfection in every walk of life, under the guidance of the Almighty.” It's sort of a shocking symbol for most people, but once you've been in India for a few weeks you don't think much of it anymore.

On the way out, after gathering my shoes yet again, I picked up a pamphlet and these are a few quotes that I like from it:

Swami Vivekananda at the International Congress of Religions in 1893- “I am proud to belong to a Nation which has taught the world toleration and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration but accept all religions as true.”

(My favorite thing about Hinduism, by the way.)

From the Vedas-

“Remove the darkness of our ignorance and open our eyes to see Truth and Reality.”

“May good come to us from the entire Universe.”

And my favorite- “There is One, which the wise call by many names.”

This is a highly recommended stop for anyone visiting Delhi. If you're feeling overwhelmed by the constant everything in the rest of the city, just go here and sit for a while.

On the way back to the car I saw the cutest (and tallest) security guard I've seen the whole time. He smiled at me for several minutes. I love him.

Our last visit for the day was to the Sikh temple, or Gurdwara. Before I tell you about the place, I'll tell you about the faith. It's much less well known in the US, and I just happen to have a handy little book given to us by the man who was watching over our shoes.

The word Sikh means “disciple.” They believe in one god, teaching of 10 gurus, the Sikh holy book, and one must take Amrit (baptism.) If you have heard of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, it is a Sikh temple.

Now I will quote directly from my booklet because it sums it up nicely:

The basic postulate of Sikhism is that life is not sinful in its origin, by having eminated from a pure source, the True One abides in it. Thus sayeth Nanak:

O my mind, thou art the spark of the Supreme Light; know thy essence.

Not only the whole Sikh philosophy, but the whole of Sikh history and character, flows from the principle.

The Sikh do not recognize the caste system nor do they believe in idol-worship, rituals, or superstitions. The gods and goddesses are considered non-entities.

This religion consists of practical living, in rendering service to humanity and engendering tolerance and brotherly love towards all.

It advocates optimism and hope.

Any man or woman of any nationality, race, or social standing, who adheres to the principles of the faith has a right to receive baptism.

A woman is considered to have the same soul as man and she has an equal right to grow spiritually and to attend religious congregations and recite divine hymns in the Sikh temple. She is also eligible to participate and perform all ceremonies including baptism.

Dowry and divorce are not permitted.

It is forbidden to erect monuments over the remains of the dead.

On marriage- “They are not wife and husband who only sit together. Rather are they wife and husband who have one spirit in them.”

In every Gurdwara there is a community kitchen to provide food to all devotees, pilgrims, and visitors. It is a symbol of equality, fraternity, and brotherhood. It is there that the high and low, the rich and poor, the learned and the ignorant, the kings and paupers, all share the same food sitting together in one row.

Now that your lesson is over I can tell you about my visit.

We took our shoes down to the room of foreigners shoes and covered our hears with our scarves. Men, women, and older children all cover their heads at the temple. You can identify a Sikh man by his turban. The way the turban is wrapped is dictated by which region he comes from. (I'm pretty sure that's the deal.) We walk through a little pool of water to clean our feet before walking up to the temple and the massive pool in the center of it. I don't remember the exact details all that well but the Sikh who came there many years ago found many diseased people and had them all drink from this pool, and the diseases went away. People come and drink or throw water on their heads from the pool as a sort of blessing. There was giant coy and catfish things in there. There are 2 giant cloth-covered flag poles which are supposed to be higher than the golden dome so that Sikhs can find their temple from far away. There was a guy at the TOP of the flag pole replacing the cloth. All the way from top to bottom...just dangling up there.

As always the floors were marble, the arches were awesome and it was a nice calm place. On the way out of the inside part of the temple where people were silently praying (other than the sunrise to sunset chants on the speakers) we were given a little handful semolina pudding (aka Cream of Wheat!) and it was a super tasty little treat. It wasn't runny, it was just a little doughy scoop. I thought it would be weird but I will be making it when I get home because it was awesome. Just my little dollop was enough to be comfort food. You accept it with your right hand, I assume because of the general rule that in India the left hand is the “bathroom” hand. I don't think it has any other religious significance but I could be wrong.

We also saw a ridiculously cute baby with one of those tiny fountain ponytails coming out of her head.

Quote I found in my Volunteer Handbook

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of our exploring

Will be to arrive whre we started

And know the place for the first time..."

~T.S. Eliot

Suddenly hilarious thoughts

I could be delirious from boredom and not having an actual conversation with anybody for weeks but still. I just amused the hell out of myself.

Just today, I went to a mosque, Hindu temple, and Sikh temple...and as I'm lying here playing mah jong because I have nothing else to do, I suddenly thought of other people I know going to these places.
These are all extremely holy sites, but all for things that many people don't know anything about. Of course a lot of people wouldn't feel inclined to visit but I just got an image of a tourist bus unloading and all these unlikely visitors hopping off with their cameras, sock and sandals, funny hats, loud American voices, etc etc. Like the cartoon version of an American tourist.
I started to giggle to myself. I don't know if it's just cause I'm a jerk or what but it was so funny out of nowhere.
You have to take your shoes off for all of these places, some you have to cover your head (men and women) and I guess there's just some people who I know wouldn't be able to feel the sacred nature of a place because it's not sacred to THEM. But if you let yourself just be there to be there you can feel the calmness of it. I'll try to post more about my visits later, because they were all very cool places.

The other thing that I suddenly realized is that I am STILL a crap teacher. I thought I'd give it a try with kids and see if I did any better than my try with adults.
Nope.
I'm pretty sure several of the children just don't like me. I don't do anything very fun and I make them stop punching each other and strangling the puppy. They wander off and join different classes whenever they please, but they all do that all the time. I'm almost completely useless.
Sooo...epic fail for me, but at least if I'm going to fail, I'm doing it somewhere cool.
My win rate at mah jong is at 10% now so that never really makes me feel better. It just keeps getting worse.

I'm like a crippled 800 year old woman. My joints hurt more than they've hurt in about a decade and I'm always telling the youngins I live with to turn off the god damn lights.

YUM!!

I will explain this further later but I wanted to post it before I forgot what it was called.

Halva (Semolina pudding)
Ingredients:

1/2 C semolina (cream of wheat)
1/4 C sugar (to taste)
1/4 C butter or ghee (clarified butter)
1 C water
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1 Tbsp raisins
2 Tbsp sliced almonds
Method:

• Mix sugar and water in a pan, bring to a boil and set aside.
• Heat the butter or ghee in a frying pan. Add the semolina, raisins and cardamom powder and fry until it is very lightly golden brown in color. Constantly stir to ensure even browning.
• Add sugar water slowly (it may sputter!) and stir rapidly to prevent lump formation.
• Cook over medium heat until the water gets completely absorbed.
• Immediately place the warm halva in a bowl, tray or individual serving cups or molds. It will become firm as it cools.
• Garnish with almonds, walnuts or raisins if desired.

More newspaper fun

Today I was reading the entire section of the newspaper devoted to bride & groom seeking. All boys are tall, handsome, and smart. All the girls are desired to be slim, fair, & from a good family.
I can't understand half of what it says because it's in "classifieds" talk but it's still amazing.

Yesterday, after my corpse ad discovery I also found an ad for:
Matrimonial & corporate detective (???)
Massage parlor with Indian and Russian girls. There's lots of ads for Russians and I'd like to know why that is.
The funniest and most confusing one was: "Hi-Fi Escorts"....WHAT does that mean?? I was tempted to call.

I think the papers here are even more full of crap than ours. The writing is not remotely unbiased most of the time. It's refreshing and disturbing.

Hinduism

Our latest speaker came to us to talk about Hinduism. It's my favorite of the topics we've had but my least favorite speaker. He's a retired police officer and was weird and slightly unpleasant and...glaring. Like at any minute one of us might pull out a machete.

Here are interesting things about Hinduism:
Hinduism is the 3rd largest religion in the world. It has a billionish followers around the world.
It has no single founder, and it's both monotheistic and polytheistic. This sounds silly but it works. They believe in one supreme power but then there are 33 MILLION incarnations of him/her/it. Gods and Goddesses come in many forms afterall.
The supreme being is called Parmatma, it is within all things, and beyond any human perception.
The incarnations of Parmatma can be present in anything, for example- forces of nature. Sun, wind, fire, rain, mountains, the Ganges river, the planet Saturn...all gods and goddesses.
The Ganges is a particularly spiritual place, as it's said that if water from the river is dropped in your mouth when you die that you will go straight to heaven. It is ideal if your body is burned on the banks of the river as it helps to purify your soul.
One thing I did like about Captain Grumpy is that he didn't totally make a distinction between faith and superstition; there is a different connotation for the words but essentially it's the same thing.

There are many holy scriptures, rather than just one. I think having one book would have undoubtedly split up the religion in to more parts. If there's more to reference you can stick with what you have and just reference the part you prefer I guess. My theory.
The 4 Vedas are the oldest known religious texts, they are full of hymns (for lack of a more relevant word), and I can't remember if it's in each one or if it's all together that there are 10,000 verses.

Karma is, of course, a big factor in Hinduism. They see the universe as constantly changing; it lives, dies, and is reborn, just as we are.
Karma means "actions" and will be the deciding factor in your reincarnation. Each new life is a chance to purify your soul. My least favorite thing about Hinduism is that they are really attached to the idea that we live in a world of sorrow, grief, and struggle. It's true, but there's kind of more to it than that. It's too simplified for my personal liking. But if it makes it easier to accept knowing that you will hopefully purify your soul then I guess it works. The belief that you are making up for past mistakes can make suffering more bearable. People understand it to be their fate and accept it rather than fighting against it. This has many pros and cons.  They came up with this theory when they were trying to figure out the purpose of life. They decided that it couldn't just be to struggle through and then die, because that was too mundane, but that you were doing penance for past life wrongs.
After complete purification of the soul you achieve mokti (liberation) and mokshar (salvation). After you have achieved mokti there is no further rebirth and you live next door to God or something like that.

Dharma is the practice of good deeds and will help you reach mokshar. Personal hygiene is apparently significant, which seems ironic in a country that leaves me filthy every day. Giving charity is obviously good dharma; and going for pilgrimage is also important.
People who follow tha path of dharma, who are enlightened and teach others are gurus. The world is full of fake gurus. More irony.

An amusing thing he talked about was how many temples came to be. Someone will place an idol somewhere with a couple flowes, a candle, something shriney; then given the "superstitions" nature of Hindus other people will start leaving things around this idol. Eventually this is a regular spot and a temple is built. I want to try this at home and see if it takes. Due to this superstition, along with several other factors I'd think, people can be trained. There is a wall just outside Hauz Khas village, where I'm living, where people used to pee constantly. (There are no public toilets so people/men pee everywhere. I'll be talking about this later.)
Someone finally had the brilliant idea of putting up pictures of gods on the wall and now people no longer pee there.

Little bit o' history-
2000 BC the Vedic religion was brought here by the Aryans, and mostly involved worship.
800 BC is when we see sanskrit, upanishads (philosophical writings), and the religion becomes more meditative, with more focus on karma, the purpose of life, and more philosophical overall.
After that comes the Epic period, in which the Mahabarata and Ramayana were written.
Ramayana was first, it's about the journey of Ram (an incarnation of god), who was born a prince but ousted by his step-mother so her son could become king instead of him. So he goes off with his wife Sita and his brother, and they live in the forest for 13 years. All kinds of fun things happen; Sita gets kidnapped by a demon king and is rescued with the help of Hanuman the monkey king.
The Mahabharata is about Krishna's (also incarnation of god) battle against evil and many other things. Both are good, I'd recommend reading them. Get the revised versions...unless you are really in to looong epic stuff.
Modern day Hinduism is still essentially the same as it was. The core beliefs haven't changed in thousands of years. (Interesting factoid- Hindus used to eat beef. I can't remember the story now about how it changed but it's sort of a "fish on Friday" thing...as in it wasn't motivated by anything religious.)
A large amount of art, music, movies, etc is devoted to retelling the stories of Rama and Krishna. Krishna is a ladies man, he plays his flute and steals the clothes of girls bathing in the river, that sort of thing.

He talked a little bit about the Krishna Consciousness and Bakti (?) movement, neither of which are extremely interesting to me so I won't write more about them. But you can find them everywhere. They like singing and dancing...which is how I got the funny quote from the otherwise unfunny man: "Community singing...Hindus love that."

Terry asked about the mourning and rebirth process, which I was sort of wondering about myself so this is a summary of that:
In order for a soul to rest in peace the cremation has to be done very carefully, a wood pire is built, people chant, a priest is present, and the family will then go and give food to the poor so that the soul is happy.
There is a 13 day period of mourning where no cooked food is eaten, only fruits, breads, and vegetables. Modern Hindus shorten this to 3 days for practical purposes, not everyone can take 2 weeks off work when someone dies. At the end of this period there is a prayer meeting, and then the soul is free to move along to its next destination and life "goes back to normal" as he said.
It is believe that the soul sort of goes in to a transition plane of existence before moving on to it's next life but there's no definite answer to where/what that might be. Some believe that young souls will sometimes visit and be restless compared to when an old person dies but there's nothing official there. He suggests that it's just psychological because losing young people is more difficult than losing older people.

Hmm.

I have some other things I write about but...

I just discovered today that in some of the Delhi papers they post pictures of corpses.
They post a description of the person, what they were wearing, where they were found, etc...in case someone can identify the body.

How bizarrely interesting.

Taj Mahal, and other Agra-riffic stuff

A few things seen on the drive to and from Agra:
Giant Shiva or Vishnu statues...I can't remember which now but they are massive and awesome and just hanging out in the middle of a field. Crazy.
Fairly decent sized group of nude men walking down the road. On the way there AND back. And by nude I mean NUDE. Carrying sticks.
A goat wearing a sweatshirt.
A peacock crossing the road.
Puppies brawling on the side of the road.
Giant musclemen posters and billboards. Never have I seen an Indian that looks like that, nor do I know anybody that wants to look like that, so I'm slightly confused by the whole thing. Who are they advertising at?

But anyway, on with the trip recap.

The trip to Agra started out early and shakey. Ratish was sick and I wasn't feeling so hot myself.
The stop and go traffic doesn't help these kinds of things. I was involved in my first Indian fender-bender and am surprised it took as long as it did. Our driver, Salim, was amazing other than this little mishap, which was just inevitable. You'd think it would happen every 40 seconds. I've seen more accidents in the last couple days than the whole time I've been here though.
The procedure for this accident was different than it would have been at home. The men get out and have a few slightly annoyed words, then start kicking and pushing the car bits back in to place. Then we get in the car and go. That was about it.
I don't know if I could have counted the number of things we nearly ran over, even if I wanted to.
We made a pitstop at the Maharaja Motel for some chai, and browsing of the many knick-knacks they have there, all of which I want.
When we came in I saw a monkey at the front entrance, and when we were leaving she was standing up, in her wee little dress doing something cute. Ratish asks if I want to stop for a picture....
Do I want to stop for a picture of a little dancing, dress wearing monkey...?
Um, YES.
So we stopped, I got to hold the "wife" monkey with makeup on her little face, who also sat on my shoulder and snuggled me. The "husband" monkey had a mustache and sat on his little stick in the picture.
When I got up to leave the guy asked if I wanted to hold the cobra. Automatic reaction to that question is NO, I do not want to hold the snake. But he told me it wouldn't bite, and I believed him, so I held it in it's little basket. Ratish was very reluctant to come near me but we got him in the picture.
I'm not sure how they train them to do the things they do and I'm sure I don't want to know but I got to hug a tiny monkey so I can cross something off my lifetime goals list now.
The monkey high stayed with me the rest of the day.
We made the rest of the seemingly never-ending journey in to Agra and visited Akbar's Tomb first. It's not as busy and fancy as the Taj but it's still very cool. All tombs are pretty cool really... Also literally; it was nice to venture down in to the cool marble darkness. There was a whole herd of deer things, chipmunks/squirrels, parrots, white birds, a monkey, and a nice breeze.

Taj Mahal
In the midst of a teensy weensy, super packed street you can simply look across the half dried up river to see the Taj Mahal, and on the other side is the Agra Red Fort. It's always a little strange seeing something so epic from your little dirty street where everyday life passes by like nothing is there. People long to see the Taj, many people never get to, and yet to local people it's just that white building over there. I think it must be sort of similar to how I feel about the Rocky Mountains. I know they are there and pretty but I don't give them much thought for the most part. But there has to be days at sunrise or sunset where a lone goat-herder looks up and thinks, hey that's neat.
When we arrived I felt like I had my own posse. There was a herd of young men waiting outside my car door, when I got out they said hello and asked where I was from; if they wanted anything else I haven't any idea what it was. But they were there the next day as well. We got ourselves a mostly Hindi-speaking tour guide and Ratish filled me in on the details. I don't know how much he charged but he seemed pretty worth it. There was at least a couple hundred people in line when we got there. They have seperate lines for men and for women. They give you a little frisk when you get there and it seems to be inappropriate for men to see women get patted down. There's usually two lines anywhere that this happens.
We, however, got to skip the line (not the pat down) and made our way through the main gate in just a minute or two. Then there was a courtyard with another red gate, which leads to the Taj.
When you walk through there it's slightly surreal. It's something I've seen a million times, but never in person. It looks exactly the same and completely different at the same time. Somehow. The shape is the same, I know what the ponds/fountains look like, I know where the trees are but of course in pictures you can't get the sense of how bright and perfect it is.
Once you start looking at details and it occurs to you how long ago it was built and how much technology they didn't have, then it kinda blows your mind.
I read in one of my books that the two mosques on either side of the Taj were build there because the foundation is "floating" marble. It's not actually floating is in on the water but it's somehow not as solid as it could be and the weight evens things out. We also learned from the guide that the 4 pillars on each corner were built to lean slightly away from the main structure; in the event of a large earthquake the pillars will fall away from the Taj and not in to the tomb itself. Clever!
There are 22 steps down to the the main chamber thing, because it took 22 years to make. There's all kinds of number significance in these places but I don't remember the others.
Of course all the marble carving was done by hand back in those days and I can't even begin to imagine how on earth they did that. There is teeeeny tiny stonework in the marble that looks like it was done yesterday. It really makes me wish I could have seen it in it's glory days with fountains going and flowers and brand new marble and clear skies. It must have been able to shine for miles.  It's just crazy to look at the work and imagine how long it took to make even a square foot of this building, let alone the entire thing. And he had intended to make a black replica as well! It would have been really amazing if he got to finish but his family put a stop to all his spending of their inheritance.
The grounds of the Taj are lovely as well; it's nice to get away from the messyness of the rest of India for a little bit. There has been a lot of effort to move industrial things away from Agra to help protect the Taj so the air quality out there is slightly better than Delhi.
The little road leading away from the Taj out to the main road was filled with people, monkeys, birds, camels, and puppies. Not to mention kids trying to peddle their Taj snowglobe keychains and whatnot. I read in my India book that some believe replicas of the Taj Mahal are bad luck, so I did not buy one of those. They are very pretty though.
After leaving the Taj we stopped by some marble makers home/showroom/I don't know what, chatted and had chai, checked out his awesome tabletops and whatnot, and then we left. No idea how we knew this person but he seemed like a lovely guy. We got slightly lost, and then when we finally found the hotel I made a mess of things by not bringing my passport with me. I have a copy of it, and I also have a scan in my email but they needed to see the Visa part. Jaggi TOLD us to take our passports with us if we went to a hotel but I spaced it. Maybe I was gazing at his eye lashes instead of listening to him...who knows.
I had to call one of my flatmates to find my passport and get out my computer and take a picture of my Visa and send it to me. Such an ordeal. But I finally got it and all was well, I was just beyond exhausted by then so we had McDonald's again and then relaxed. The ice cream cone was amazing. I had been afraid to eat all day so it was the first meal in several hours. We stayed at the Kant Hotel. They were decent and let me use the internet to try to get my Visa info, but not overly friendly. It's not what I would call "clean" either but it wasn't terribly gross so I dealt with it. In the morning I took a LONG relatively HOT shower and it was the best shower ever. I had toast and an Indian omelette (not what we think of generally, not filled with stuff, just simple) with chai for breakfast. It's becoming my favorite.

Agra Red Fort
From the outside it just looks like a big red fort...thus the name, but inside it's totally amazing. Honestly, just based on the inside it's far more impressive than the Taj. Taj is just a tomb afterall and didn't have to be functional on the inside. This place housed the important people, daughters had their own sections, there were concubines, a market, all marble and stone, there were once diamonds in the ceiling, oil lamps and swings hanging from everywhere, pillars, decorative doors. So awesome. I want to live in it. The courtyards were spotless and green, so refreshing to see. Everything was decorated in some fabulous way. There was a GIANT bathtub thing in the middle of the courtyard that was meant for the prince. It's ridiculous but awesome at the same time.
The fort has two moats, one for water full of alligators/crocodiles/whatever, and another past that in which they kept snakes and lions and other intruder-eating creatures. Also AWESOME. I want a lion moat.
One of the neato things our adorable tiny guide told us was that the fort had double walls; if you hit the wall you can hear that it's hollow. There was a large water tank on the top and during the hot months the water would trickle down between the walls and as the breeze came through it would basically operate as A/C. Also clever!
As you enter the fort there is a steepish incline up to the main grounds; the guide said that when invaders would come up the ramp the soldiers at the top would roll down a huge stone and basically crush them all to death. The history major part of me thinks it's cool that I was walking over a place where someone had been crushed to death who knows how many years before.
Most of the fountains were apparently filled with rose water back in their days. Sadly they no longer function or are too expensive to operate.
As we were finishing up the tour, our guide was showing how if you stand behind a pillar that you can't see any of the others, showing how exact the construction was. I kept noticing a little man kind of scooting around next to me so I kept trying to scoot out of his way thinking he was trying to take a picture of the pillars...but he kept scooting with me. I finally noticed that he was telling his child to come over by me for a picture. I knelt down so the poor 11ish year old boy could come over to me in his little Ganesh shirt and have his picture taken with the white lady. Then dad showed me the picture saying "ok? ok?" It was ok.
Down the walkway a bit an older man gave me crumbs (in exchange for rupees, of course) to feed the chipmunks, who just hopped up in to my hand and were fighting with each other. It was extra cuteness.

**Side note for anyone going to these places...pee before you go. The facilities are not amazing, and you usually have to pay and tip.**

Agra Gate (I think it's called something else but I can't find it.)
Getting here was ultimately confusing and I'm still not entirely sure what the hell happened. I thought we were heading home but then we picked up some guy off the side of the road and he started talking about these ruins around us, so I gathered that this was another sight to be seen. We pull over and get out of the car, get in a rickshaw for about 2 minutes, stop before a gate, walk up a hill for about a minute, the car comes back, people get out, we get in, drive up the rest of the hill for like 40 seconds and then we get out again. I don't know if this was a money saving scheme of some sort but I was very confused. And then I had to climb steep scary steps. With goats.
Anyway...Agra Gate (or whatever it's actually called) is one of the tallest arches in the world or something. And now I can't remember how tall it was either. But you have to climb 50something steps to get to it and it's also 50something high. These people had a thing with the significance of the number of steps.
The inside was similar to the other tombs we'd been to with the exception of the shining bright white mosque inside. The very bizarre thing about this place is that the whole central bit was extremely familiar to me and I can't quite figure out why. I guess I've seen a documentary or something of the sort.
Our guide, who I call Indian Jesus, seemed very in to his showing of stuff. You can tell they do this all day every day because they just speed walk over these graves whereas I'm trying not to step right on top of one and fall over the dead people. If you are able to see my pictures you'll see what I would call marble screens, for lack of a more fitting term. They are like little mosaics but with nothing in between. They are present in many different areas of these forts because, depending on the religious beliefs of their wives and whoever, the women weren't always to be seen. So the women could stay behind these screens because you can see out quite clearly but you can't see in. I think they are very cool. The architecture in this particular place was somewhat unique and cool because it took basic arcitecture from different areas. I can't remember who is who but there's a son, father, and grandfather that built all this stuff and they were all about inter-religious marriages. Too bad we're not as evolved these days.
From what I remember several of them had several wives, and at least one of them had 3- one Hindu, one Muslim, and one Christian. There's one little bit of a rooftop that incorporates symbols from all 3 religions in to one little carved red stone across the roof, basically where our gutter would be. I think the arched part was Muslim design, the symbol in the middle was Hindu, and in between each arch a cross was cut out from the stone. I love mish mashes.
We bought an overpriced but (hopefully) to be donated cloth to take in to the mosque as a sort of offering. They would lay the cloth down on the altar, then you put flowers on top of it, and tie your string to one of the screens. They say that it's a place to make your wishes come true, but like many wishing rules, you're not allowed to tell anybody what your wish is until after it comes true. I had to put an easter basket looking thing on my head to go in but they didn't require me to cover my hair otherwise, which I thought was interesting. There were little men with drums who were either singing or chanting outside the mosque.
There was an elephant tomb behind this fort-esque thing which was the burial place of what's-his-name's favorite elephant. There is a staircase leading down to the tomb which has 7 spirals. Brothers and sisters do not enter this place together because in Hindu tradition 7 trips around the fire means you are married. So this would be not so good.
This place was definitely the worst as far as being harassed by people trying to sell you stuff. I'm fairly certainy that at several points of my visit I could have just reached out to bite someone because they were so close to me. If you have a guide they will shoo them off for you on ocassion but they will also take you to their brother, cousin, something, to show you what was "made in my village" and "special price for you." But this is the way it works. I bought some cool marble stuff from Indian Jesus. Slightly overpriced for India, but not so bad elsewhere I think.
There was a youngish lad who I thought I might have to adopt because he was committed to selling me or Ratish everything he had. He's smart though. When I told him I might come back he said "ma'am, look at my face, ma'am, you remember me." When I came back and didn't want to buy bracelets that I was pretty certain wouldn't fit on my hands he gave his guilt trip. He said, "Oh ma'am, I've been waiting so long for you to come back. This is no good. You are very nice ma'am. You have a nice face." Indian Jesus also said I had a nice face and that his ex-girlfriend was American. I love salesmen. I also had an old man with all of about 3 teeth that told me of his five children that he had to feed and he'd give me the best price. He just kept adding things to the pile of stuff he wanted to sell me. Eventually it was a good deal so I bought some. I think I spent most of my money just at that place. It was quite the experience.

On the way home we stopped for a chai and I saw a bunny begging. It was ridiculously cute. Seriously...he'd get up on his little back legs and stretch his face up there. Oh man. The guy feeding him started giving the bunny more I think because I'd freak out every time and start laughing hysterically.

Just remembered something from Madame Jaya...

When we were talking about feminism she stated that she thinks bra burning is silly and not "feminist" truly.
In response to that I said, "I like my bra!" and she paused and said...."As do I!"
It was just ultra cute coming from a 75 year old little Indian lady. :)

Mrs. Bela Singh, Mrs. Jaya Srivastava & Prof. A.K. Ray

I think I mentioned briefly meeting Bela and getting a more in-depth introduction to the history of CCS and a little outline of the ways of India.
Bela talked about some of the values that are most important here in India. I don't think my list is complete but the few that I remember are: family, respect of elders, religion, and hospitality.
We talked a little bit about sexuality and how India is full of contradictions in many ways. Women don't bare their shoulders but the traditional sari will show off your belly and back. (Which is why I will not be wearing one.) Kissing in public is considered somewhat obscene but there are temples that display Kama Sutra statues. This is all stuff that's generally more of an issue for women than men. If you're out long enough you will see a man peeing on something. Guaranteed. They get a pass on many of the contradictons and complications.
Another thing that she discussed is punctuality. Here in India, on time is early and late is on time. It's a much better system than the one most people are used to at home. If someone is 15-30 minutes late, don't expect a profuse apology. If they are an hour late then you may get a "oh sorry, this thing came up" and then you carry on. It's not a drama, all is well.
Lastly, she talked to us about a sort of lack of privacy. People here will ask you about what they want to know and tell about what they want you to know. It's not bizarre for you to hear the life story of someone near you on the train. Since I've been out and about with a man people feel free to ask if he's my husband, boyfriend, friend, or what exactly my relationship is to him. If you seem hesitant they will sometimes back off but that's been with men so far in my experience. I suspect a woman might stand and wait for an answer no matter what. Some in the group thought it was bizarre to think that they might be expected to divulge so much information to a stranger, but like most of the other things she talked about, it seems perfectly normal to me.

CCS invites a couple speakers to come and talk to us about Indian issues and India in general. It's like going to class without having a test so I quite like it.
The first speaker that we had was Jaya Srivastava, she came to talk to us about women in India. She told us about some of the movements that have been taking place in which women have played a very important role, and lower caste/class women specifically.  She told us about several women who have risen from the lowest classes to have a great amount of power, none of which I can remember the names of but it was interesting. We talked quite a bit about the massive problem here of people killing off their girl children because they are hoping for a boy. It's a whole convoluted system of dowry, tradition, and reluctance to progress. She said a common misconception is that this is done mostly by lower class families but actually the higher percentage of people doing this is the middle class. She said there's been a bit of a push to start teaching sex education in India which I think (hopefully) would help various things all over the place.
She enjoys working with women from the forest and small villages. She said that they really listen and embrace what she is trying to teach them and appreciate the importance of it all. On the other hand, she's not terribly fond of doing conferences with educated masses because they don't listen. Educated people sometimes think they already know everything so it's like drops of water on a sponge in a bucket full of water. It's not going to do so much good. I'm sure there's exceptions on both sides but she was quite funny.
Marianne asked Jaya if she considered herself a feminist, she sort of laughed, and thought about it a moment. She had the same response as I do, that she doesn't like the term. I think she might like the quote that I couldn't remember at the time but it came to me later, that says: Feminism is the radical idea that women are people. In her opinion, the poor and lower caste women in India are the most oppressed group of people in the world and I can't think of a really good reason to argue that. At least here in India all citizens are legally granted full equal rights (as of 1950); it has it's pros and cons but they didn't have to fight for it like a lot of the world did. Now if only they can begin to fully take advantage of that fact for the good of all of India.
Her son, Aseem Srivastava has written a book called Churning of the World, about the globalization of India. With a mother like her I imagine he's quite an enlightened and interesting fellow.

Our second speaker was Mr. A.K. Ray, a professor somewhere that I've forgotten. For those of you that know Dr. Goodlett, this was his Indian counterpart but without any discussion of movies and music.
He explained some of the history about how India was created, who invaded, who took over, the reasons behind the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh, etc. He was pretty interesting but gave us SO MUCH information. Here's a little outline:
He talked about pre-Vasco de Gama India, and post-Vasco de Gama India. Apparently that's sort of a turning point for the whole lot.
5000 years of history means 5000 years of baggage.
He said- "Get shocked if you want to but don't dismiss it as irrational." regarding some reactions to different cultures and behaviors.
Kerala is "God's own country" and he and his wife debate on whether the girls or boys are more beautiful there.
I don't remember the context but he said something about Americans mistaking Sikh men for Osama Bin Laden, which was funny.
Some time in the past there was a group of people seeking asylum in India or a region or something. The story says that the King, being generally hospitable and not wishing to say no outright, sent a jar of milk full to the top. He said to them that this jar represents India and if you come in the milk will start to spill out. The people wanting to come over added a spoonfull of honey and returned the jar to him to say that their arrival will only sweeten the milk but will not overflow the jar.
Apparently curry was something that the Portuguese brought over, the professor says "blame the Portuguese for your Delhi belly."
From what I can remember of his bit about the creation of Pakistan it came from this- after the British vacated the newly independent India, it would have a strong Hindu rule. Much of the Muslim population was worried about this and asked for their own piece, as it were. Gandhi was against breaking up the country because he believed that they could all peacefully coexist just as before but eventually Pakistan and Bangladesh were created. India gained independence August 1947. There's some story about Midnight's Children here too but I can't remember the details of it. Basically they waited until midnight on the 15th or 16th of August to make it official, which had some significance that I can't remember. It's also a book by Salman Rushdie, which looks pretty awesome. I've never read it.

According to Professor Ray, a great success of India is that since gaining independence from the British, they have "survived in one piece, as a democracy." I agree that it's quite impressive.
The other successes and failures he outlined were this:
India is self-sufficient in food PRODUCTION. Food distribution is still an issue; 25% of India still goes to bed without food.
They have a diversified economy; vs the Middle East which essentially has oil and nothing else.
They have a plethora of skilled human resources in the area of technology. He noted that it's interesting that years back parents might say "Finish your food, there's kids going hungry in India," whereas now they are telling their kids to finish their homework because someone in India will get a better job than them. The downside of this is that they are unable to provide free education for all children. They have not abolished child labor in practice. It's illegal but there are only so many ways to enforce it.
Power outtages are common, drinking water is not readily available.
"Health tourism" as he called it (people coming here for cheap medical treatment) is doing quite well but care is lacking for citizens.
It is, as I've heard many times, a bundle of contradictions here.
In his opinion, the worst issue India is facing right now is "corruption and criminalization"; a disturbing amount of elected leaders have any number of things on their criminal record.
So as he gets up to leave us he says, "I can see the depression I have spread all around." However, his hope lies in new social movements, and people standing up for themselves and bringing things out that need to be seen and fixed. That goes for the rest of the world really in these bizarre times we live in. The only hope that there is lies with the people who realize that you can't turn a blind eye to all things. Reality will eventually come knocking on your door no matter what. If India is broken, the world is broken.