Tuesday, July 29, 2008
goa
we spent about a week down in goa, which is 2/3s down the west coast of india. it's known for a party atmosphere, trance dancing, sherry wine, drugs and spicy seafood. i guess that's all during high season! we didn't see any of that...it was nice and quiet and peaceful. we rented a scooter and cruised around to different beaches and sights, soaking up the arabian sea air and enjoying the rush of the intense, monsoon tide. the water was too rough to swim, but it was still enjoyable walking or running along the sand. i got a few soakers while running and even got stung by some tiny, glowing blue jellyfish several times while strolling with my feet in the water. ...i prefer the soakers... : ) throughout goa there are tons of shrines. 80% of the population is hindu, but from portuguese settlement, 20% is catholic. the christians built a lot of shrines cause they were all over: on the roadside, seaside, under trees, awnings and any place imaginable where there was space. goa has its own language, too, that's only recently been recognized by the government. considering goa became an indian state in the '80s, things are much different there. the literacy rates and quality of life are both higher than in any other place in india. one of my colleagues from wenddy i house has family living in goa and asked me to go visit them. we embarked on about a 40 minute scooter ride through some rain and beautiful scenery before arriving at their home. it is so interesting to get inside someone's home...they had a beautiful sloping lot with tons of fruit trees and flowers. they were saying that they had so many mangos, figs, jackfruit and other edibles that they had to give most away and some inevitably wound up rotting. such problems... : ) they were nice people and gracious hosts. while in goa we stayed at an old portuguese style guest house. the rooms were fabulously decorated with antique furniture and were accompanied by lovely balconies overlooking the sprawling, luscious flora. they had 2 sweet kitties and a very friendly dog...all of which we found in our room on several occasions!! our time in goa was very quiet and relaxing...and already seems like a long time ago! so, enough of vacation photos...back to the 'du activities on my blog. i promise, when i'm home, i'll look at all your vacation photos if you want... : ) take care, love, j
Saturday, July 26, 2008
sufi singers and raj ghat
these are the last photos of delhi... one of our final nights there we met up with a guy who is an alumni of one of christy's friends. they had never met, but through the alumni association, we were able to connect with him and see the sufi singers. really nice guy...he led us back through the small alleys, past tons of prayer mat sellers, offering vendors and innumerable hawkers of anything muslim. just getting back to the dargah (mosque) took adept maneuvering and resilience. after removing our shoes hundreds of yards from the venue, we popped out at the dargah and realized we needed our heads covered. back we went into the maze to get some "little house in the prairie" head scarves. apparently there was a huge pilgrimage that week which accounted for the large number of people. usually there are a couple hundred, we are told, but easily, this day, there were thousands. the baskets of rose bearing men were queuing to get into the mosque while the women hung outside. after a while, the sufi singers came out and slowly started their rhythmic music accompanied by drums and a harmonium. apparently their songs are mostly of persian origin and are poems passed down through this oral tradition. i felt a little funny being there at first, being in a muslim place and the only clearly westerners, but i soon relaxed into the rhythm of the music and friendliness of the people. we walked around to the back of the mosque and were swarmed by people who wanted to take photos of us or with us. the one woman in purple from the slide show was so excited to be in our presence...we couldn't speak the same language, but she was touching and hugging us and insisted on photos. then the little girl couldn't get next to us quickly enough to have her photo snapped. the photo of the family, however, is the funniest one to me. the looks on their faces cracks me up...we didn't really know where we were, how to communicate, what we were supposed to be doing or what to expect, but we were very warmly received by all.
the next day we took a rickshaw over to raj ghat. this is the place where mahatma gandhi was cremated...a ghat is a cremation pyre. years later, nehru, indira and rajiv were all cremated here. as was ravi gandhi...very interesting and tragic family: the nehrus, if you are inclined to read up on india's history. mahatma was not related to indira, she was a nehru who married a gandhi. one of her two sons, ravi was killed while piloting a plane that crashed, indira was assassinated by her own body guards and rajiv, who took over as prime minister after her death, was also assassinated. now rajiv's italian born wife is high up in office, but does not want to be prime minister because she inevitably will be assassinated, too. in any case, this huge park is on the convergence of several holy rivers and all of the leaders of the country get their own ghat and memorial. all of the people i mentioned had very nice memorials and ghats, except indira...hers was a simple monolith with no signs, no words, no markers, no nothing and she was a huge figure in indian politics. we walked right past it without realizing what it was. rajiv's ghat was a lovely black granite pyre carved with 46 lotus flowers, one for each year of his life. he was a kind and gentle man and was highly regarded amongst his constituency. i didn't photograph nehru, indira or ravi's ghat. as far as mahatma's ghat, it is in a separate section of the park and has an eternal flame. every friday there are ceremonies held there as that's the day he was assassinated and, in addition, there are official services every year on his birth and death day. it is such a big deal that any foreign dignitary who comes to india traditionally visits this site. george w. and laura bush made an appearance in 2006 while touring india. the mahatma gandhi museum is close by and very interesting...i knew very little about indian history. shocking. one more posting of india pics to go...whew...aren't you glad you don't have to sit through travel photo albums and stories??! lol. lots of love, j
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
maoists take their ball and go home
president ram baran yadav
old delhi (in words)
on the outskirts of old delhi is qutab minar. built by the muslims in 1193 as a monument of victory over the hindus, it's 5 stories high and a nice example of afghani architecture. most impressively is how it's withstood all of these years with only a slight tilt. the iron pillar is 7 meters high and over 2000 years old and shows no signs of rust. no one can figure out how they cast it at that time given the technology that was available. one thing that happened time and time again wherever we went, but this time i could get a few photos for proof, is that kids follow us and people come up and want their picture taken with us as if we're tourist attractions, too. the two kids in the pic with christy were following us, yet keeping their distance. when we realized it, we smiled at them and they came closer until we could shake their hands. the kids were smiling and giggling the whole time...until...we took their picture! people don't usually smile in photos here; i think it has something to do with not letting the devil in their soul, but i'm not sure. : / in any case, the same goes with the boy i'm with, sandeep. he had some homework to interview someone while at a tourist place. i filled it out for him and arranged, after many frantic phone calls by his mother, to send him the photo, or 'snap' as they call it, over email. he was smiling with me until...we took the photo. the two that were following us earlier, we saw again with their family outside. they were very friendly people and were all loaded onto a motorcycle ready to go into the heavy delhi traffic. no helmets and 5 people on a motorcycle. all you can do is wish them well...geesh.
next we went nearby to jama masjid mosque. it's the largest mosque in india and built by shah jahan in 1656. he's the same guy who built the taj mahal. apparently he had it built before his son imprisoned him! in any case, it holds 25,000 worshippers when full. we went up into one of the minarets and had a great view of old delhi.
old delhi is a much different experience than being in the malls and movie theaters of new delhi. old delhi is a maze of narrow streets that rickshaws rule and pedestrians swarm like ants knowing exactly where they are and where they need to be. it's amazing that it even all works! it's recommended to take a rickshaw tour through the twists and turns for 2 reasons: rickshaws rule and you won't get lost. we rode around through the different areas which specialize in selling certain things, metal goods, kites, and spices just to name a few. we went through a really old jain temple (where we got yellow tikas) tucked way inside the labyrinth and also stopped and walked around the back alleys of the spice area. the smells certainly changed when we were in the spice area and i found myself coughing a little from the potency. as if the street chaos wasn't enough, the back alleys were another series of stairways and pathways leading through tons of burlap bags of all kinds of spices. unbelievable that they consume that many of anything. we had some tea with our guide and then got back into the rickshaw to continue the tour. one more place we stopped was a paan shop. paan is a mild narcotic concoction that is wrapped in leaves and filled with all kinds of spices and sugars and ...well, ...stuff. you was it up and stick it in your cheek. apparently you're supposed to chew it up and NOT swallow the juice. you're supposed to casually (??) spit out the reddish brown slimy saliva and it'll give you a buzz after a short while. well, i didn't know that, so just kept it tucked in my cheek until it was time to spit it out. christy's was all gnarled and chewed up and mine was...still a big wad. it made a splat as it hit the ground, she had this shocked look on her face and we both started cracking up. maybe i'll try it again some day... : ) by the way, if you drag your cursor over the pics, it'll give you the caption and pause the movement. take care! love, j
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
