April 20, 2013

Pooja’s Dad had arranged for a car to pick us bright and early so we could get a good start to Agra. We had about a 4 hour drive and during that time we become completely convinced we did not want to bicycle in India. The traffic was crazier than anything we had ever seen, I was surprised we made it to Agra and back alive. Drivers swerved around each other, braking suddenly and horns blaring the entire time. Although the lanes were marked the traffic just used space as it was available, burgeoning into massive jams near traffic lights, which surprising broke up smoothly as everyone jockeyed forward when the lights changed. We actually saw a horse get hit by a guy and the front of his car including his windshield was destroyed. He continued driving. The shoulder was not safe from traffic either.

Once we became comfortable that our driver wasn’t going to kill us, we learned not to pay attention to what was happening on the road. Instead, we chatted with Hari and listened to music. We stopped for a delicious lunch of onion and cheese stuffed paranthas and chole batera with salty lassis. The driver had a lot of local knowledge and we about to point out interesting buildings along the way and give us a bit of history. Apparently, he took Steve Jobs to see the Taj Mahal in the 1970s.

Our first stop in Agra was the Taj Mahal. Hari had never been to see it either, so he was excited to visit as well. After buying tickets, we had to walk to the entrance and go through security which included the standard metal detector (which always went off) and pat down. We saw this sort of security everywhere people congregated in India, tourist attractions, malls, the metro even had soldiers behind sandbag bunkers with weapons pointed and ready.  Now, we were in the outer courtyard of the Taj Mahal. There are three gates surrounding the Taj which were made of red stone and quite beautiful.

Gate to the Taj

Gate details

We quickly passed through one of the gate to get to the main event: The Taj Mahal. She was just as incredibly amazing as you would imagine, even more imposing than in photographs. The vista from the main gate is positioned so that the backdrop to the Taj is only the sky behind it, making it seem bold and well defined. Unfortunately the building has yellowed a little due to pollution, but this didn’t detract from the beauty, it fact it looked quite good for such an old building. The Taj was built in the 1630s by Shah Jahan. When emperor’s wife died, he vowed to build her the most beautiful mausoleum. I would say that he succeeded.

The Taj Mahal

Entrance to see the tombs

Worth the price of admission

Photos were not allowed inside, but it was underwhelming and kind of disappointing. The two tombs were inside, surrounded by an ornately carved limestone fence, making them hard to see. The room was very small, poorly lit and not well ventilated, so it was really hot and we were eager to be back outside after a few minutes. The acoustics were pretty interesting though, all the blended conversations bounced around and sounded like the droning of bees, which was complimented by lots of honeycomb carved decorations on the windows. We all agreed that the inside was a bit of a letdown, especially after visiting Akshardham (awesome Hindu temple in Delhi) a few days earlier.

Our next stop was the Agra fort, also built in 1565 with some additions by Emperor Shah Jahan. This was evident in some of the marble work and the use of the same red stone as the gates of the Taj. We opted out of having a guide, so we weren’t exactly sure what we were looking at most of the time. The fort was interesting but paled in comparison to what we had just seen. We left without exploring everything to start the long drive back to Delhi.

Hari’s door

We made one last stop of the way home, another beautiful temple. This was another beautiful Hindi temple but we were allowed to take pictures inside. The temple was constructed out of white marble, with the interior similar in detail to Akshardham. This temple didn’t have a relaxing and serene feeling as Akshardham, but this might be due to the number of people or the color changing lights inside. It felt more like a party for Lord Krishna and Lord Rama.

Amazing detail

Lord Krishna and his wife

After our temple visit, it was finally time to go back to Hari’s apartment. We didn’t get back until midnight and all of us crashed into bed.

April 19, 2013

We were fortunate to experience the last day of the Navraatre festival the next morning. Navraatre is dedicated to the goddess Durga. On the last day of the festival, local girls are worshipped as if they were the goddess. The children are brought into the house, have their feet washed and then offered money, food and presents like lunchboxes or pencils. The girls were all very cute and more than willing to pose for the camera.

The goddesses

Our next stop was to visit the farm that belonged to a man that worked with Pooja’s dad. The farm was an hour outside of Delhi, so we had a nice time chatting with Ekta about what she is studying, life in Delhi and various other things about Indian culture. We visited a small Sikh temple before arriving at the farm. The farmer showed us his wheat fields and explained that he had just had a harvest and that in a few days he would be planting another crop. His entire family came out to greet us and show us around their house. We meet their three cows and two buffalos. We were served an amazing lunch with hardy glasses of buttermilk. The farmer’s mother offered to accompany us back to the US to cook for us. We immediately agreed to take her home with us, but she might have thought we were joking.

Nice necklace

Wheat fields

Chandler, Grannie and I

After a round of photos with the family, we drove back to the city where Ekta took us to the ISKCON temple or The International Society for Krishna Consciousness. This temple focused on the teachings of Lord Krishna. We toured through a number of displays that explained the basics of the Hindu religion and the highlights of Krishna’s teachings.

Our last stop of the day was downtown Delhi so I could get henna on my hands. This is something I would never do in the states, but when in Rome… There were many designs to choose from, but I just allowed Ekta to do all the talking and decision making. The woman doing the henna did a good job and I have to let the henna dry for half an hour. Good thing I didn’t need to use the bathroom during that time. When we got back to the house, Pooja’s mom made a lemon-sugar mixture to help bring out the color even more. We had another superb meal with Jalebis for dessert and when to bed super excited for the next day.

Henna!

Jalebi baby

April 17 – 18, 2013

We arrived at the Delhi airport tired but excited for a new country. We got through customs and picked up our boxes with no problems. As we wheeled the cart with our boxes stacked up high, we went outside to look for Hari. Hari is the brother of Venky and Pooja, some friends from the US. We had never met Hari before so we were not exactly sure who we were looking for. Luckily, we immediately saw someone who was looking at us like he knew us, it must be Hari! We all shook hands and he led us over to a taxi to take us to his apartment. After an hour of chatting and a snack, it was time for bed as Hari had a big day planned for us.

The next couple of days were a whirlwind of activity. Hari took the 17^th off from work to show around a few temples and to take us to some amazing restaurants. After not eating very well in China, India was like a vegetarian’s heaven! The first temple we visited was a Hindu temple, Birla Mandir. The best part of having Hari was that he was able to explain the significance behind everything we were seeing. Neither Chandler nor I were very familiar with the Hindu religion and Hari was able to answer all of our questions. We feel like we have a much better understanding now of what we are seeing.

Hari at the end of the dosa

Birla Mandir

We then visited a Sihk temple. Again, Hari was able to explain some of the differences between the two religions and the importance of the items on display. The last temple was our favorite, Akshardham. This ended up being the most beautiful temple we saw in all of India. Every surface, inside and out, was carved in intricate designs. The craftsmanship was just unbelievable. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside, so here is a link to the website: Akshardham. This temple had a number of exhibits dedicated to Indian culture and Swaminarayan, the inspiration behind the temple, including a movie and boat ride. The best display was the light and sound fountain show at the end, which was an amazing display of huge jets of water illuminated by colored lights all coordinated with a booming soundtrack of classical Indian music. We made one last stop to see the India gate before heading home and collapsing into bed.

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

Akshardham

India Gate

Hari had to go to work the next day, so he dropped us off at the mall while we waited for the Kingdom of Dreams to open at noon. We spent a little bit of time in a bookstore, but mostly in the food court eating chaat, which are Indian snacks. Chan’s favorite is papri chaat, which is a dish of little crispy wafers covered in chickpeas, yogurt, chilies and tamarind chutney. We ate until bursting. We even went to the McDonald’s because they have an amazing vegetarian menu and don’t serve any beef.

Chaat

At noon we went to the Kingdom of Dreams, which showcased food and handicrafts from the different Indian states. There were also dance and puppet shows from the various regions. Around 6, we met Hari at the Metro station to go to Pooja’s parents. Pooja’s parents were great. We spend the evening chatting and getting to know them. Her mother made us an amazing dinner and her father arranged for us to visit a village outside of Delhi with Pooja’s cousin, Ekta, as a guide for the next day.

Dancing girl with pots on her head

Camel