January 2008
30 January 2008
Getting lost and found
Today
I got lost in Nizamuddin. I signed up for the Seven Cities of
Delhi tour group which involves 30 people (at least in my group
consisting of 29 women and 1 man) who are divided into smaller
groups of 2 or 3 and assigned a historic part of Delhi to write up a
report on and present a guided tour of the area. My group of 3
is responsible for the 3rd city of Delhi to include the Nizamuddin
area. I won't go into the historics of it all, but suffice it
to say that we met today to "tour" our area and decide what we
wanted to highlight and what we wanted to skip. The area is
densely inhabited and very impoverished. We found what we were
looking for right off and really enjoyed ourselves. We made a
new "brother" who happily showed us around the
Nizamuddin
Dargah for free (after we donated to the poor). There was
another section to explore that was a little bit of a walk through
some alleyways that we wanted to check out. We headed in that
general direction and used our rudimentary Hindi to help us if we
were uncertain. After about our 6th guess at turns in the
right direction we realized that we were lost and no amount of
directions from locals would get us back to the point we wanted to
get to. So we laughed about it and set off to find the bigger
alleys that led to the bigger streets in the general direction of
where we were supposed to end up. Eventually we made it, and I
had a great sense of accomplishment that we had made in on our own
and that my little Hindi proved helpful. One of the other
ladies has also taken a little Hindi, so between the two of us we
could get our point across. What a sight we
were
though, a middle-aged British woman, a middle-aged Greek woman, and
me, winding our way through the narrow streets with our heads
covered, our guide books and a camera. There was
one point where this adorable little girl and her brother were
sitting on this wall that must have been 7 feet tall (see photo),
she jumped down, and he must have been standing on her skirt because
he fell off the wall and landed smack on his head and began
screaming. The mother in me, ran over to them and wanted to
check on him, but some other man standing nearby started yelling at
them, and she quickly removed him from the area. OUCH!
Aside from that... and getting lost, and similar to Old Delhi, I
really enjoyed the atmosphere of crowded streets, crowded shops, and
the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Time and again,
experiences like these seem to fuel my appreciation for the chaos
that is India.
Oh, and here are a
few pics from the Parade...
The desert unit...
can you imagine fighting with machine guns from the back of a camel?
Love the
uniforms... they had uniforms in just about every color of the
rainbow.
This was the border
patrol... seriously! They had some amazing acrobats.
26 January 2008
Happy Republic Day!
Happy
Republic
Day to India! This celebrates the day in 1950 that the
Indian Constitution came into effect and India became a sovereign
republic. Last night the first of 6 Olmsteders from China
arrived for their India tour. Richard secured us tickets to
the Republic Day Parade; and Dave and I, and S from Shanghai
accompanied Richard and Kelly to the parade. True to Indian
form it was crazy and insanely impressive. We were not allowed
to bring in cameras, but I have a friend of a friend of a friend who
took pictures and am hoping to have access to them to share just a
glimpse of how amazing it was. I have no idea how many people
were there, but it was quite crowded. We stood in lines,
(although we were ushered past a very long line, before we realized
we had totally bypassed the line everyone else was standing in,
solely because we were not Indian--it's nice not to have to stand in
line, but I don't like the different treatment of people) and were
frisked prior to entering our respective corrals. Yep...
that's what they resembled, each numbered area was fenced off with
numbers and you were herded into your corral to find seats, whether
on the ground, folding chairs or bleachers. We got decent
seats on the bleachers and waited for the parade to start. As
the start time neared we learned that the crowds still waiting to
get in were getting pushy, more pushing ensued, anger brewed and
boiled over and the police at the check points were overwhelmed.
The crowds pushed past the police and hundreds started jumping the
fences. So much for all the cautious security checks.
The bleachers were assembled as long as two months ago in
preparation for this big day...so there were months of bird poop on
the seats or just a thick coating of dirt. We learned from
watching others who had been previously or had prior intel and who
did not. The prepared ones brought newspapers or other items
to sit on to protect their clothes. We were not so prepared,
but also not so dressed up that we actually cared. The guest
of honor for the parade was French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who
arrived in a very nice car escorted by the Indian President's
bodyguards in impressive uniforms on horseback. That seems to
be the theme of the parade--amazing uniforms. As I understand
it, the army units are regional, many staying in their home states
and each unit has a different uniform. All of the uniforms
were equally impressive as was their synchronized marching and arm
swinging with white gloves. The parade itself was a
magnificent display of arms, with the Indian Army, Navy and Air
Force being represented, including a unit on camel back accompanied
by their own camel riding band. Each State that chose to had a
float to represent their region, as did several ministry posts.
Army helicopters released what we thought was colored smoke in a
fly-over, but turned out to be flower petals. It was
beautiful. Elephants were represented, as was a very
acrobatic-motorcycle-riding border patrol. And we really
enjoyed the Air Force fly-over at the end of the parade.
Having heard about the crowds prior to the parade we opted not to
bring the children to this one, and I'm torn as to whether it was
the right decision. It was amazing, but also very long, and
very crowded. Well, I have another year to debate that one in
my mind.
22 January 2008
Mmmmmm...
tastes like chicken!
See article
here. I'm hoping that I don't have to forego chicken as
well as beef for the next few years. I'm not ready to be a
vegetarian!
Lessons
from "Little House on the Prairie"
Saturday
I confiscated my friend's antibiotics and started self-medicating.
It worked. I am back to normal (whatever that is) and what a
blessing it is to be healthy. I was going through some
pictures and realized that I hadn't posted our outings to Old Delhi
and Purana Qila/Humayan's Tomb from when the Littles were here from
China. I added the Old Delhi ones to the
photo page. It's
interesting for me now that we are over the insane several weeks of
traveling that I feel like I have nothing exciting to document.
I wonder if upon returning to the States that I'll be excitedly be
reporting on what I was able to find at the grocery store, or how
clean the streets are... it is really remarkable how adaptable we
are. Things may be difficult, but we can always adapt and
adjust to accommodate the differences. I was reading Little
House on the Prairie with the kids last night... Charles was
building their house with logs in the middle of nowhere, and I was
thinking how difficult that must have been for Caroline... and then
the epiphany came that it is no different than every other time we
set up house in a new state, or even country. It's all about
our ability to adapt. And if I can do this, than
anyone can.
18 January 2008
Pining,
Politics &
Pollyanna
Homesick!
It's official... I am officially homesick. I saw a scene today
from a preview of a movie that had the Lincoln Memorial in it (one
of my favorite places), and I actually had a physical reaction.
I felt like my heart was being pulled out of my chest and a huge
weight was put in its place. It's still there. I realize
that I've hit a "low" point of our time here: We've just
finished a wonderful whirlwind "travel/visitor season" and school
has resumed and life is back to "normal." I also have my first
experience with Delhi Belly, which doesn't create warm fuzzy
feelings (well at least not ones I'd share with the reading
viewers--yeah, I know, you didn't need to know that). So, this
is one of those times that I know will pass, and I will get back to
enjoying our fabulous experience here. On a similar vein, with
all that is happening in American politics, I find myself being
grateful I am out of the country for this election. Let me
explain, while I am a responsible citizen and exercise my right to
vote, I am also becoming increasingly aware that ANYONE running in
our elections would be better than what is here in India. As
is frequently reported in the local newspapers, corruption runs
rampant in the government here--so much so that many "programs"
aren't implemented, and laws are not enforced. I'm not naive
enough to think that there is no corruption in our government, but
with our checks and balances that work relatively well, there is
consolation knowing that in 4 years things can be changed, and for
the most part things don't get too out of hand. (If I may
get on my soap box for a moment, the one thing that is increasingly
frustrating to me is that freedom of religion seems to apply only if
you are NOT Christian--but that's an argument for another time)
So while I applaud the freedom to hold different political views,
and I am immeasurably grateful not to have to sit through relentless
campaign commercials, I also appreciate that politics in America,
while important, are not worth the contention that arises by
forwarding inflammatory, hateful emails and the like.
Our country is much greater than whichever political party holds
power. The power of our great Nation comes from the positive
perspectives and principles of the people living ordinary lives,
doing ordinary things. Wow! This wasn't what I sat down
to write, but I was moved...so there you go. What I really
wanted to say was... take a look around you and try to appreciate
the great freedoms we so often take for granted:
clean
running water, 911 service, people generally get out of the way for
an ambulance, people follow traffic rules, beef, grocery stores,
free education available to everyone, the FDA, government funding
for preservation of our short but amazing history, police you can
feel confident will protect you, department stores, airline safety
standards, fixed prices... the
list could go on and on and on and on... but the point being, there
will always be a reason to be dissatisfied with your life--the real
test is finding the many more reasons to be grateful. And if
you're reading this, I assume you know me... and in that case, I am
grateful for YOU, and I'm writing this because I miss having YOU
around me, my friend and family who give me strength and love and
comfort. So there, I've admitted it. I'm homesick for
friends, family and freedom. But I will play the "Pollyanna
Glad Game" and say that I am glad I have friends, family and freedom
to be homesick for. I am glad that I can have this experience
to refine my character and expand my soul. I am glad I still
have another 18 months to be refined and expanded. And mostly
I am glad that moments like these don't last, and I will soon be
ready again to embrace India and all its enigmas.
14 January 2008
"Game On!"
We
are game people. We love board games, card games, games of all
kinds. For Family Home Evening tonight we broke open a game
that B got for Christmas called Sleeping Queens. D
received the game called Rat-A-Tat Cat, both by GameWright
Game company. The Sleeping Queens game was created by a
6 year old girl. It was really creative and fun. I've
played kids' games before that my kids love, but I can't stand
playing. But these games were great. Both of these games
are fun and entertaining for both kids and adults. We also
received a kid's board game called Enchanted Forest--which is
awesome. And D&L sent us a new game called Zooloreto
which totally rocks. We learned how to play this weekend and
are excited to add it to our "regulars." Still on the learning
docket is Scotland Yard which looks like it has a steep
learning curve, but also looks very interesting. So... if you
are totally bored or in need of a new family game. Check out
any of these--we recommend them all to you.
12 January 2008
At The Movies...
Today, Dave and I took the kids to
see National Treasure 2 at the movie theater. We splurged and
got the Premier seats for 175 rupees each (~$4.50) which means
we were on the upper level in the theater. We had our own
snack bar and bathroom... and during intermission (yes, even a 2
hour movie gets intermission here) they actually came through our
section and asked if we wanted anything from the snack bar.
How's that for service? BTW, the movie was very enjoyable.
We give it 6 thumbs up!
10 January 2008
Our Olmsted Foundation
Visit
This
weekend we enjoyed our Olmsted Foundation visit from Gen. and Bonnie
Smith. As a part of the program each Scholar is visited once
during his time in country, to see how things are going and to give
and receive feedback on the program. As a result of these
visits, many changes have been made to benefit the Scholars and
their families. We really enjoyed getting to know Gen. Smith
and his wife. Included in each visit is a dinner/luncheon put
on by the Scholars who invite friends, fellow classmates and any
others who have assisted in acclimation to their host country, there
is also a private dinner for the Scholar and spouse and the visiting
Foundation representative. The rest of the time can be used
for touring the University and/or seeing the sites. Because
there are two Scholars in New Delhi, we split the time with the Luthers and hosted the luncheon together. We loved our trip to
Old Delhi with the Smiths, which is the best way to fully appreciate
all the Delhi has to offer, and as Gen. Smith says to see "the
teeming masses." Old Delhi was in peak form as it was late
afternoon and "everyone" was out and about their business. We
toured the Jama Masjid, and wandered the narrow streets of Chandni
Chowk Bazaar--fast becoming one of my favorite places in Delhi (at
least in the cooler months).
1 January 2008
Happy New Year!
What a year this has been for us! It's difficult to look back
on this year in astonishment at all the things we've done--did I
really live in the States for half of this year? It doesn't
feel that way, and I have a hard time remembering what "normal" life
was like. I am happy that we have all adjusted well to our
life here in India and are excited to spend the next year and a half
here. There are so many things to see and do; we won't get to
see everything on our list, that's for sure. We hope that
those of you who are considering making a visit will really try to
make it reality as this is a truly remarkable and unforgettable
experience. I haven't sat down to make resolutions or any
other introspective things, but I find that just living in India is
enough to create those feelings on a regular basis. So, as
seems to be par for this course, holidays are just another day here,
and an opportunity for traveling or family time--for appreciating
India for the blessings we have in our life as a result of our time
here. Here's to great 2008!
Now, back to the trip...
Christmas
morning we headed to
Fatehpur Sikri,
(photos) the seat of government under
the Mughal Emperor Akbar, father of Shah Jehan (built the Taj).
After Akbar's death, it was abandoned due to lack of water. We
hired an expensive guide who gave us a tour of just the Mosque
complex. The Main Gate was spectacular (see photo left).
We had to cover our heads to enter the Salam Chisti Ka Mazar, a tomb
to honor a Sufi Saint, and for the first time I found myself
unprepared for this. I know this is a small thing, but I was
quite disappointed with myself. The kids looked cute in their
plastic caps. We donated a piece of fabric and got to make
wishes. There was a functioning school run out of the mosque,
and the village right outside the gate was bustling. We didn't
realize until after we were back on the bus, that we missed the city
ruins. We were a little disappointed, but it turned out to be
a blessing as the drive to Ranthambore was much longer than we
expected and on treacherous roads. This drive produced most of
the On the Road photos.
Ranthambore & the
Tiger(less) Safari
When
we arrived at our hotel, the
Sawai Madhopur Lodge, and were really excited to stay for two
nights. It was very comfortable, and included all our meals,
and activities for the kids: bike riding, baseball, swings,
playgrounds, boxing bags, etc. There were monkeys roaming the
beautiful grounds and large fields for the kids to run in. We
got an extra room just for the kids to sleep in, which made is
especially nice for the parents. That first morning, we woke
up early, for our 6 am "tea and biscuits" before our first Tiger
Safari (photos). The jeep was
waiting for us in the parking lot with blankets to cover up with--it
was cold riding in an open jeep before sunrise. As we drove to
the park I was worried that we would be so cold we wouldn't enjoy
ourselves. But as we began to climb up some of the hills and
the sun crested, it warmed up pretty quickly. We saw fresh
tiger tracks really quickly which got our hopes up, and as we
overtook another jeep ahead of us, they showed us their photos of
the tiger they had seen 20 minutes earlier.
Impressive...
however, that ended up being the closest we got to a tiger the whole
trip. And while it was a little disappointing not to see a
tiger, the park itself was beautiful and full of other visible
animals, including: Sambar deer, spotted deer, nilgai (or blue
bulls), tons of birds, owls, langur monkeys, peacocks, etc. We
also saw leopard tracks. During our mini-break, B and Z
instigated a round of bird-feeding that involved Indian Tree Pie
birds eating out of their hands. Upon returning to the jeep and
proceeding down the trail a ways. We stopped, and the birds
landed on our jeep, and we all had a chance to have them land on us
(A declined). After the morning safari, we headed back for a
10:30 am breakfast which was, of course, delicious. Dave was
quickly making friends around the hotel with his Hindi and one of
the staff brought him out a bowl of buttermilk and millet with some
other veg and spices. Sounds disgusting, right? Wrong!
It was really good. I quickly sought out the place for a
massage and had the best Indian massage to date. Despite the
fact that I was covered head to toe in olive oil, which was
challenging to wash off, it felt incredible. I was much
refreshed and ready for another afternoon of bouncing through the
"jungle" in search of the elusive tiger. The PM Safari was
warmer, and while we didn't see any "predators" we saw some great
animals pretty close up, and the scenery was very impressive.
After the afternoon break stop, we found that we were hauling
through the rest of the safari to make the "out of the park by 5:30"
rule. It was a fun ride. We were exhausted and ready for
another fabulous outdoor buffet dinner at the hotel, complete with
fire pits and Rajasthani music and dancing.
Jaipur
and
Amber Fort
The
next day we checked out, loaded up the bus and headed to Jaipur.
We pulled into town around 3pm and went to the City Palace first.
It was nice, but we realized that
Jantar Mantar, the
astronomical observation park built in the early 1700s closed at
4:30, so we headed over there. It was pretty impressive, giant
geometric "building" used to measure different aspects of the
heavens, one even telling the time in Jaipur accurate to within 20
seconds. After this, we headed down several streets to find
the Hawa Jahal, a 5 storied one room deep building with small
"screened" windows used by the emperor's harem so they could observe
the bustling market below without being observed. It was good
to see it, but a little underwhelming given the write ups. The
boys really wanted to see the armory at the City Palace museum, so
we split up: boys to the weapons and girls to the market.
Sara and I found some great Rajasthani tapestries, mine to hang on
the wall, hers for bed covers, or whatever. I LOVE shopping in
India! We met back at the bus and went to find our hotel.
The Hotel
Alsisar Haveli. It is a Heritage Hotel which is a group of
hotels of historical significance, many of them converted palaces or
forts. This was a beautiful building and grounds. We
really enjoyed our rooms, and the food was really good.
Unfortunately, B came down with a high fever and very upset tummy.
It was a little bit of a rough
night.
The next morning, she was still not feeling very well, so we
medicated her and drove up to the
Amber Fort.
We passed the palace on the lake, Jai Mahal--the Water Palace, it
was very beautiful. We got to the fort a little after 8 AM and
had to wait in a long line to ride the elephants up to the entrance,
but it was worth it. There were 2 people per elephant, and D
and I passed Dave and B's elephant early on. About 10 minutes
after the rest of us had disembarked, Dave and B "pulled up,"
their elephant was painfully slow--it had an ugly infection on it's
foot. He should have taken a sick day. The Fort was
really impressive. We hired a guide
as
they say you can get lost here. The Mirror room was really
beautiful: our guide made sure to tell us the Bill Clinton
came to visit and kept saying "Amazing...amazing!" the whole time.
B was still a little sick and threw up her Sprite on the ground.
Some woman kept chasing me around for a "tip" to clean it up.
What she really did was just kick sand on it. We really
enjoyed this fort and the beautiful architecture and views. As
we were leaving, a giant Langur monkey bounded over the wall, and
nearly bowled us over. Never a dull moment in India.
There was another fort located at the top of the hill above the
Amber Fort, so we drove up there. A had started feeling a
little sick (oh, great!) so she and I stayed in the bus,
while the rest of the group explored Jaivana Fort which is home to
the Jaivana
cannon. The boys really like that.
Neemrana
Fort Palace--my most favoritist ever
After
that, it was mid-day and we headed to our final place to stay, the
Neemrana Fort Palace (the website doesn't do it justice).
This is by far the most amazing place I've ever even seen, let alone
stay at. It was built during the 1400s and was used as a fort;
each room is unique. Our room had 3 rooms, two bathrooms, one
you had to go outside to the private verandah to access and
different levels with very unique arches and stairs. I can't
even begin to describe how awesome this place was. Just
getting to our room was an adventure, through winding passages,
narrow staircases, around odd balconies, etc. We had "tea" at
6 pm and the kids and daddies gathered in our room to watch Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom, something they had been planning to do
every night of the trip to date. How appropriate, albeit scary
for the younger kids. Dinner started at 8 PM. The food was a
little on the spicy side, but D-licious! A was still
feeling sick, so we medicated her and sent her went to bed early.
When we woke up, we wound our way to breakfast. As we had been
eating Indian food all week, the kids were not in the mood, and just
ate toast. I however, have decided that I love Indian
porridge. Yummmmmm. A and I went back to the room so she
could rest some more. Dave and Barry said they needed to run
down the hill for 5 minutes to get some more batteries for their
camera. Z, D, and H went off exploring the fort. B and M
hung out with Sara and J doing some exploring of their own.
More than an hour later, Dave and Barry returned... they had found
more than batteries. They had both bought some Indian
paintings done on old stamp paper. Hard to describe, but very
Indian, and very cool. Sara and I decided to make our own stop
on the way out. There was time for one last game of hide and
seek before check out. We were very sad to leave, and Dave and
I decided to return very soon. A asked if we could come back
for her birthday. (me too! how about for Valentine's Day,
Anniversary, my birthday, Dave's birthday, tax day, whatever!)
On our way down the hill we stopped at the shops Dave and Barry had
previously scoped out and due to lack of tourists and Dave's Hindi,
we got some really good deals. Did I say I love shopping in
India? So, home we headed. We were happy to have the bus
for the week, but also happy to get out of the bus and into our own
home, arriving to the fabulous smells of Manjula's turkey dinner.
