Monday, April 5, 2010

India - a very short stay

April 1 Agra India

The airplane was over an hour late leaving Kathmandu, and getting through Indian immigration was frustrating, because the airline did not hand out the landing form, and it was not at all clear where to get them. There was a long counter next to the immigration counters, with baskets apparently designed for the forms, but they were all empty. Fortunately another tourist had a couple of extra ones and gave me on. Then I had a misunderstanding with the hotel's driver, who had said he would be "outside gate 2 arrival," which I understood to mean the area inside the terminal building where hotel drivers usually pick up passengers, but he meant entirely outside the building. That added a good half hour of telephoning the hotel for clarification, etc. I had to stiff the telephone agent because he wanted 19 rupees for the call, but the ATM handed out only 500 rupee notes. (I encounted this problem repeatedly - absolutely no-one wants to make change. 500 rupees is only about $10.00, but it is often all but impossible to spend one.

When I finally arrived at the Taj Plaza, it was a pretty nice hotel - clean rooms (although I later discovered fleas in the bathroom) with a good bed, a very nice view of the Taj Majal from the rooftop restaurant and, in principle, from my room - except the window AC was plopped smack in the moddle of the view, so you had to stand up to see over it. I write this on the roof-top restaurant with the Taj slowly emerging from the gloom as the morning light slowly grows. It is quite lovely.

India in many ways seems as chaotic as Nepal, but at a lower level of intensity, with an underlying sense of order or potential order that is mostly absent in Nepal - the contrast principle made it seem much better. Highway 2, which leads to Agra, is well paved with 4 lanes most of the time, separateed by a divider of one sort or another in many places, and there are stoplights. However, in 4 days I was unable to figure out the principles that govern when people obey the stoplights and when they do not. The same sort of rude, pushy driving behavior is evident here as in the rest of Asia. As in Nepal, the roadway is shared by all manner of vehicles, with extremely slow ones often causing small-scale traffic jams: motor bikes, huge slow trucks, farm tractors pulling wagons loaded with briks, bicycles, tricycles with cargo beds and loads often stack precariously 8 feet or more above the driver's head, tuk-tuks, little 3-wheel jitneys sometimes carryng cargo, sometimes with up to 9 passengers sometime jammed into them; busses, both very fast and very slow, ox-carts, horse-drawn carts, carts drawn by camels and pulled or pushed by hand, an elephant with a bunch of pans strappped on behind the rider. Unlike in Nepal, the driver would occasionally get up to 90 or even 110 kpm for a mile or two - then come to a screeching almost-halt to deal with a traffic barrier.

April 2

Writing this time in the late afternoon - the Taj is an almost flesh color with the late afternoon sun behind it. Today we toured three major sites and some lesser ones. I will try to pair up the guide's detailed commentary with the photos I took as soon as I'm able to upload them (and check the spelling of names). We begin in Fatehpur Sikri, the central palace complex near the center of what was the second and fourth capital of the Moghul dynasty (15th-16th century). The palace complex includes several palaces built by different emperors. The city was founded by Emperor Akbar, who moved his capital there from Delhi. It was later moved to Agra because of a shortabe of water, but the third emperor, Shahjehan (who built the Taj Majal) moved it back and renamed it the City of Peace and Love.

Originally there were no wood doors. India was quite hot to the Moghuls, so they used a lot of ornate lattice-work for ventilation, and separated rooms and maintained purdah by hanging carpets between rooms. (The carpets, along with the gold and gems, were looted by the British during their control of India.) Surprisingly given the softness and erodability of sandstone, the lattice-work is intact, and still quite stunning to look at with its many geometric designs.

In a small room are some excellent bas reliefs of birds and animals commissioned by Shahjehan, who was an art lover; all the heads were chiselled of by a later emperor in accordance with the muslim prohibition against images of humans, animals, or birds. Emperor Akbar had both a Christian and a Hindu wife; he built separate kitchens, vegetarian for the Hindu wife, meat for the Christian wife. He also commissioned a pillar combining calligraphic and sculptural styles from the four main religions present at the time, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism.

Both here and at the Agra Fort there are both summer and winter palaces, facing each other across a large courtyard, identical except for climate control features, here open lattice-work for summer cooling, closed walls for winter; in both cases the winter palace faces south to catch the warmth of the sun. There was also a royal hospital, with small bedrooms separated by carpets.

The treasury is a large, open room with alcove / shelves cut into the stone wlls; each shelf has a square hole cut in the bottom with a fit plug; gold and jewels were stored there. The treasury has many pillars open to the outside; carpets were hung throughout and Akbar used to play hide and seek there with his wives.

The palace complex is within an inner wall; the outer wall enclosed a fair- sized city, most of which is in ruins, and has not been maintained or repaired by the government. As we drove back toward Agra we passed rows of small rooms, barracks for the soldiers.

We proceeded to Agra fort, 85% of which is currently used by the army so it cannot be viewed. As I entered the fort, I saw a pesky monkey being chased off by some tourists he had been bothering, seeking handouts of food; I caught a picture of him on a high wall in the entry to the fort. Within the fort, the palace complex is open, and contains some interesting features. Notable is a large forum or parliament, adjacent to the palace, with a ceiling supported by pillars and no walls. In the center of one side is an ornate raised platform where the emperor sat; below his platform is a lower platform where the prime minister sat; other ministers were positioned according to rank. All others in attendance stood, since it was forbidden to sit in the presence of the emperor. On either side of the Emperor's platform are grilled window openings behind which the queen and ladies of the court could observe the proceedings. The pillars are arranged in such a way that both emperor and queen could observe all who entered or left the courtyard. The pillars themselves have beautiful artwork, much of which is faded, as well as semi-precious minerals inlaid in marble, which still retain their full rich colors.

After visiting the Red Fort we visited the "Baby Taj," a smaller mausoleum with many design features similar to those of the Taj Majal, and the Tomb of Akbar. The Baby Taj has many pillars with semi-precious stones inlaid in translucent white marble. The tomb of Akbar is notable for its simplicity; a tunnel of white marble leads to the unornamented room where he lies. The most spectacular feature artistically is a filigree lamp made ofan alloy of a dozen metals. Architecturally, the acoustics are very interesting; a shout continues echoing for several seconds, and a sung or chanted tone resonates in a very beautiful way.

April 3, Taj Majal.

I had an unsettled stomach, so didn't get as much sleep as usual, but I got up as early as I always do and was ready to by the time the guide showed up at about six. It was a clear, pleasant morning under slightly overcast skies, and we walked quickly to the east gate, where a large crowd was already lined up. They don't let anybody in until 6:30, and they do a thorough pat-down of everyone, but I still managed to get in well before sun-rise. The sunrise was not spectacular because of the overcast and the ever-present smoky haze, but the first light of the sun still infused the translucent marble with a warm golden tone. Pictures taken right at sunrise make an interesting contrast with pictures taken a half hour later, and with pictures taken from across the river and from the hotel's roof-top restaurant at various times of day.

It is forbidden to take pictures inside the Taj Majal, but the most striking features are outside, including all the inlays in the translucent marble and the bas relief carvings. The building is octagonal, symbolizing the eight ways into paradise in Islam. Even tired and a bit under the weather I found it to be a stirring sight in the morning light.

After breakfast and some long-overdue coffee I finished packing, checked out, and began the long drive back to Delhi. The driver had a hard time finding the B&B; I think we may have circled it twice and he called for directions at least three times. It was worth it; when I arrived I found Mrs. Dass and her son and staff to be utterly charming, and their hospitality everything I could wish. Saubhag B&B is heartily recommended.

Other than catching a stomach ailment, possibly from something I ate at lunch but most likely from some water the hotel proprietor served us after the first day's sight-seeing, the only negative aspect of the experience came near the end of the first day. First, the guide promised to take me to someone who would explain the marble inlay process and show me the Star of India. It turns out the first place was a sales outlet for marble furniture and collectibles and the second was a jewelry shop - what he really meant was to show me a star of India. I was quite irritated - time wasted that I could have used in more productive ways. Then, after I had explicitly expressed a wish not to eat lunch at a tourist place, he took me to - a tourist place, where the sign advertised "Indian, Chinoise, and Continental food," the menu included the word "mild" for every item, and the bill came to an astounding (for India) $8.50. I know that the guide got kickbacks from all three establishments. After debating with myself I gave him a small tip, but I probably shouldn't have.

April 4 Delhi

Although it never got mucn worse, the stomach ailment persisted, and significantly dulled my enjoyment of Delhi. The fact that the weather was warming steadily didn't help. At Mrs. Dass's suggestion, I hired a knowledgeable taxi driver but not a guide, and spent a bit over half a day seeing some of the most important sights, including the Grand Mosque. I got some pretty nice pictures of that, and a couple of tombs of various emperors. At the very end, I took a walk through the Bodhi Gardens, a park with three monuments, a neat bansai exhibition, and lots of families and other groups picnicking - got a couple of pictures of groups doing a kind of line dance to Indian / modern music.

It is evident that the hot season is approaching - I had to get up at 1:30 to get to the airport for a 4:45 flight, and it was already more than comfortably warm outside - it never actually cooled off.

Because of illness plus tiredness, I don't think I was able to give India a fair chance. I did not find New Delhi to be nearly as chaotic as I was led to expect, and the mixture of highest of high tech with almost primitive farming and transportation is even more striking there than in Nepal, and very interesting. I feel bad that I was not able to allocate a week or so to visit a couple of the wildlife preserve parks, and to spend some time out in the villages.

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