The Road to Jaipur

Fatehpur Sikri
Originally uploaded by qiubuo.

Our first stop after Agra was the "ghost town" of Fatehpur Sikri, built in the 16th century by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It was the center of the Mughal Empire for a decade, and was home to the Emperor and his two wives, one Hindu and one Muslim, and their ladies in waiting. The buildings are well preserved, with carvings in many different styles, reflecting the Emperor's openness to other cultures, including Christiandom. I took this photo at the edge of the city, where the buildings have not withstood the passing of time.

A Snowy Egret
Originally uploaded by qiubuo.

Next we visited the Baratpur Bird Reserve, where we rented bicycles and followed a guide through the protected sanctuary of lakes and meadows. The park used to be a hunting reserve for the maharajas and international guests, and the top hunting records are still listed on a wall.

We saw a few eagles, an owl, several egrets, kingfishers and ducks, along with some spotted deer. It was a nice break from the noise and pollution of the city, and although the bicycles weren't very well aligned it was also a nice break from the car!

Agra

Red Fort, Agra
Originally uploaded by qiubuo.

From Delhi we headed to Agra by car, arriving mid-afternoon. The road was surprisingly smooth, though this is perhaps not surprising considering how many tourists visit the Taj Mahal each year. Agra itself is not a very attractive city, except of course for the Taj and for the beautiful Red Fort. We spent about two hours exploring the fort, which provides attractive views of the Taj Mahal and is very beautiful itself, especially at dusk.

We made it to the Taj Mahal on Wednesday morning. The Indian authorities noticed that the white walls of the monument were turning grey some years ago, so they banned gasoline-powered vehicles from the area around the Taj. Now cars must be parked in a lot near the monument, and tourists can then choose between an electric car, a camel cart and a pony cart to travel the one kilometer to the entrance. We wanted to walk, but were told it was not allowed. However, this was probably a misunderstanding. Indians never tell foreigners they can walk - when we ask directions they just say it's too far. So we took a pony cart.

Taj Mahal side view
Originally uploaded by qiubuo.

The Taj Mahal costs $15 for foreigners, which is a large amount of money in India. Usually we spend half that for a hotel room. But it's a fair price considering the fame of the building, which was constructed in the 17th century as a tribute to Empress Mumutz Jehan, who died giving birth to her 14th child. The Taj Mahal, perhaps the world's most expensive tomb, took 22 years to construct and required the labor of twenty thousand workers. Its walls are inlaid with precious stones and inscriptions from the Koran. We took our own picture in front of this "monument to love," of course.

Taj Mahal
Originally uploaded by qiubuo.

It was almost Valentine's Day when we visited, which almost rescued Gilles' Valentine's reputation, but not quite (last year we spent it with his ex-girlfriend, and this year with his parents). French men think they can just cruise through on the romantic count, it seems!

A lesser-known attraction in Agra is the so-called "Baby Taj," a smaller tomb along the banks of the River Jumina. This peaceful site is far from the hawkers and beggars that incessantly follow tourists near the famous monuments of India;

The Baby Taj
Originally uploaded by qiubuo.

lovers sit on its tranquil steps and women wash their clothes in the river below the small garden. We visited in the late afternoon, spending a quiet hour watching the sun set over the monument's graceful turrets.

Delhi

From February 10-13 I attended a conference held by the Delhi Federation of Deaf Women, a self-help organization that provides educational, economic and social opportunities to women with hearing impairments;. The conference was rather last-minute, or it seemed so to me, as I had to push to get the address the night before! But I was happy to find out there was a conference. It was held in a green part of New Delhi called Chankyapuri, and I flew up there from Bangalore.

Delhi is a surprisingly Western-looking city, especially when compared to Bangalore - the avenues of Delhi look a lot like parts of Washington, DC. During the conference I stayed at a youth hostel in the new part of the city, near the foreign embassies and expensive residential districts. It wasn't until the Monday following the conference, when Gilles and his parents arrived, that I went to Old Delhi, which is really a lot more like I imagined India would be than Bangalore is: narrow streets, cycle rickshaws, food vendors cooking in the streets.

Old Delhi

One difficulty is that English is much less widely spoken in Delhi than Bangalore, at least among merchants and rickshaw drivers - I realized that on the linguistic level we're quite spoiled here. But of course I wouldn't mind being somewhere where I could learn the local language. It's not that easy here, where half the residents don't speak it themselves.

The highlight of the conference for me was meeting the participants, especially the other foreign organizers. Vivien is a Danish film and media student who is currently leading the youth division of the World Federation of the Deaf, and Jamie and Michele came to India for some long-term traveling. I hope to see them all again before too long!

I was supposed to present a drama workshop, but the schedule kept getting pushed back and in the end I only had about an hour to talk about drama. I led the participants through a few exercises, such as mirroring and "the human machine" - I think it was pretty successful and the participants enjoyed it. The highlight of the conference from the dramatic point of view, though, was one woman from Hyderabad who does the best impersonations I have ever seen!

Before we left Delhi Gilles and I visited the DFDW workshop, where we bought a few of their gift items. They really make high-quality items, such as binders and purses. Hopefully we'll be able to lend them a hand in selling their wares.

Round the World and Home Again

We finally made it back after a busy month of traveling! I've fallen a long way behind in my blogging, so I'm going to take a big step back and pick up where I left off, our trip to Kanyakumari.

We decided to take the train down, which is a 20 hour trip. The journey was scenic, taking us close to the coast of Kerala before joining Tamil Nadu at the extreme southern point of the Indian subcontinient, which is the Kanyakumari region, a major pilgrimage site for Indians. Gandhi came here early in his political career, and his ashes were spread over the ocean here after his death; the box that held them can still be viewed in a seafront memorial.

This area was not as severely affected by the tsunami as other parts of Tamil Nadu, mostly because it was sheltered by nearby Sri Lanka, which took the full brunt of the wave. However, several villages were damaged and there were around 200 deaths. Additionally, the fishing communities have been economically threatened by the loss of fishing equipment, including boats, and the fact that many of the fishermen lived very close to the coast. These fishermen have been receiving relief from international and local organizations. As they are mostly Christian, they have also enjoyed some support from Christian church-based groups. So at the request of a local NGO, we focused on a different group - Dalits (formerly known as "untouchables") who depend on the collection of seashells for their livelihood. They live a few kilometers away from the coast, so they did not lose their homes, though a few villagers were injured by the tsunami. Many villagers were storing seashells along the beach, and quantities equal to one month's income were lost by some. Worst of all, they have no way of knowing whether there will be shells to collect during the next season. Shell collecting, and the production of whitewash from the cooked shells, has been the villagers' means of livelihood for generations, and only the young people of the village are receiving a high school education. The NGO's goal is to provide new opportunities to these educated young people so that their communities can have more economic stability. While it was encouraging to hear from these youths, their parents and grandparents would have significantly more difficulty changing occupations.

The villagers welcomed us with open arms, showing us their homes, displaying the methods they use to collect shells, and even inviting us for meals and to a wedding! We enjoyed seeing this very different side of India and interacting with the villagers. I recorded about 6 hours of footage, and Gilles took the sound. Now it's to the editing room! (Well, my laptop.)

One side note: as we were arriving on the train, we could not read the signs of stations easily because they were not always in English. We pulled up to a station, but we were far from the platforms. The rest of our car had already been abandoned in Trivandrum. So we started to hunt for the sign of the station and found out it was ours. Gilles found a door out to the platform, so we grabbed our bags and headed for it. The train started to pull away from the station, but Gilles pointed out that we could still get off (he, apparently, has done this before!) However, weighed down as I was by my backpack, and not used to jumping off trains, I slightly miscalculated the speed of the train and my distance from the ground, and landed more on my face than on my feet. I escaped with only a few bruises and, well - many of you may have noticed that I had one tooth that stuck out a bit in the front? That tooth has always annoyed me, especially since after two orthodontists and a couple thousand dollars it still stuck out. Well, the offending bit of tooth made contact with the train platform and disappeared. So, not knowing how badly the tooth was damaged I went to a local dentist, who spoke English but conveniently didn't tell me everything, and he ended up shaving down my tooth for a crown, along with a back tooth that he said had a cavity. He had a very charming assistant who spoke no English but was extremely friendly and talked non-stop. He told me to come back in four days for the crown and charged me about $30. I walked around with a gap in my teeth all week, which made me fit in pretty well with the villagers. I later found out that normally they give you a temporary crown, but ah well...

Anyway, the crown he gave me in the front looked okay, but the back one was ugly and made of gold! So I went to a dentist here in Bangalore when we got back - this time I chose the most American one I could find, an Indian-born dentist who has lived in New York for 20 years. He caters largely to expats. He took one look at my crowns and said they were made of a toxic gold-nickel alloy and had to be replaced. This time he gave me temporary crowns, and I should get the permanent ones tomorrow. He charged me $300 for both crowns - still pretty good considering the prices they charge in the US! I may have more dental work done here. But not in small towns!

Delhi Delight

So, I know I promised to update everyone on our trip to Kanyakumari, but I'm afraid I've fallen into the backlog catch 22: There was just so much to say that I haven't had the time to write it all down, and now more and more things keep piling up! So, rest assured that I will be filling in all the blanks, but it won't be until after the 23rd when I am back in Bangalore.

At the moment I am in Delhi. I arrived Thursday night for a conference of Deaf Women from around India, though most are from the North. I haven't seen much of the city so far but I did make it to a Delhi Pizza Hut with two new American friends, Michele and Jamie, who are spending 5 months traveling around India, starting with the conference. I also went shopping with Michele and Vivien, a woman from Denmark. The conference itself has been fun, though not particularly well organized - in fact, I feel that I am getting to understand Indian organization (or the lack thereof) a lot better as I take part in more events and meetings here. I was supposed to give a drama workshop, though given the uncertainty surrounding the whole program I did not have much time to prepare. However, I think the women had fun participating in a few different drama exercises and I hope they will continue to pursue acting, as some of them are quite naturally good at it!

Anyway, Gilles and his parents are arriving tonight and we will be traveling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then onto Rajastahn. I'm sure I will have plenty of new photos and things to report, so I will be back to blogging soon!