BBA Gratitude Challenge :: Indian Carnelian

The month of November is a month for giving thanks, and the BBA team challenged us to stop, give thanks and create something inspired by our gratitude. Yes I am aware that today is actually December, but I just have not had a chance to get to this blog post until now!

Ok, so on with the show. As those of you who follow me regularly know, I have been doing an on-going series on things to be thankful for while traveling in India. 

I recently gave you my top 10 reasons to be thankful while in India, with my top reason being traveling with my mother-in-law. 

Yep, you read that correctly. I really love spending time with my mother-in-law. She and I haggled with a guy for some strings of carnelian who was sitting right on the front steps of a place called Fatehpur Sikri. 

This is one of the best preserved collection of Mughal architecture in India. It was built in the 1500s by one of the Rajput Rajas, and served as the capital between 1571 and 1585 - a very short time. What is so interesting about the city is that it rather perfectly preserved since it was abandoned in 1585, they say mostly due to it's lack of a water supply. In its hay day it included royal palaces, harem, courts, a mosque, private quarters for the Raj. Akbar, the ruling Raj of the time, was seeking to revive the splendors of Persian court, and planned the complex on Persian principles. It is gorgeous architecture. The complex has independent pavilions on the ground level in patterns derived from Arab and central Asian tent encampments. And there is a large open air market with stunning columns and roof ... still standing. The city spreads out over nearly two miles long and one mile wide, and today is India's version of a ghost town. What is left are red sandstone structures to a time past. 

So my piece that I've created for giving thanks is from the carnelian I purchased for 100 Rupee (roughly $2.50). I wanted it to be a bit rustic, so I used knotted hemp cord with the strings of carnelian chips. It reminds me of my time in India, learning about the culture of the country where my mother-in-law grew up. 

Thankful in India :: The Top Ten

I hope you all have enjoyed this series as much as I have. For me, it brought back good times and many laughs my husband, mother-in-law and I have had over the years. We love recounting these stories and giggling about some of the situations and characters we met along our travels.

When we planned the trip, I remember looking at my husband saying "we have to take your mom."  And I'm so glad she agreed to come with us. I can not image this trip without her. I am one of those lucky people who actually like their mother-in-law. And no I don't have to say that as she doesn't read my blog unless I send her a link.

Ok let's get to the list; shall we? I'm going to do this David Letterman style and start with 

#10. Peaceful [Paid] Gardens: when you are traveling as a tourist there are times when the solicitation can be overwhelming and you just need a reprieve.  Try a pretty place with a small admission and you'll find yourself alone in no time. Exactly what we did when we were being followed around town by a network of children trying to sell us photographs they had taken of us earlier in the day. 

#9. Restaurants with Food: one restaurant we stopped at literally had no food, but they had us run through the entire menu before admitting it. They did suggest running down the road to see if they could find some eggs? We decided it was best to push on to our next destination.

#8. Electricity: India's infrastructure is not growing at the same rate as it's population's. One big problem is the need for expanded electricity capacity. We experienced plenty of black outs and were caught in complete darkness (several times) in the middle of dinner at a local restaurant.

#7. Tea Done Right: nowhere in the world is tea done better, in my opinion. And if you want Chai, you've got to try it the way it's done in India. My favorite place to buy loose tea is Peet's, which you can find online. And if you want to try your hand at authentic Chai try this blog with walk through directions.

#6. Traveling Laundry: there is a good chance that when you are traveling for more than 2 weeks you will need to do laundry (unless you are traveling with a steamer trunk and have plenty of clean underwear). When you are in India you send it out. And it ends up getting washed by a vast network of local workers who beat your clothes up against the rocks, hang it, sometimes from the trees, and then press it and return your laundry to your hotel. We were so incredibly thankful not to see our laundry hanging from any trees, and that every piece sent out returned to us. 

#5. Western Bathroom Amenities: while I wanted to do an entire post on this topic, my husband begged suggested I not. But there is an episode of me being taught how to use a Turkish toilet on a moving train by my mother-in-law, which is worth a giggle if you haven't already read this post. As much as I loved my trip to India, I do have to say that I was extremely happy for my American bathroom upon our return.

#4. Trains Doors with Locks: yep, same train ride noted above. There are apparently several things to keep in mind when taking an overnight train in India. The main one is buying the entire sleeper car compartment and making sure it has a locked door.

#3. Gentle Large Animals: we saw many large animals while in India, but I am happy to report that those that I ended up eye to eye with were actually quite gentle. Thank goodness since one elephant was standing behind me in the market.

#2. Our Guide Sharma: we were so lucky to be matched up with our guide that we all adopted into our family while traveling in India. He was good to us, and really watched out for us. He also taught me a few things about how to look at life through a different lens. I was quite thankful to have met him.

#1. My Mother-in-Law: my number one, hands down reason to be thankful while traveling in India was my mother-in-law. It was amazing to see the country through her eyes, and to hear her tell the stories of her childhood. It was a once in a lifetime trip for us, and I am so glad we did this, with her.

I do have one other thing to be thankful for today. November 22, the birthday of my baby who is 10 years old today. Happy Birthday Anne. I am so thankful to have the pleasure of being your mom. What are you thankful for today? 

Thankful in India :: Tea Done Right

Tea. Nothing else in my day gets me started quite like a strong cup of tea. I prefer mine strong, hot, black, sweet. Yes I'm still talking about tea. Stay with me people.

Tea comes from all over the world, but there is nothing quite like the flavors from India. Darjeeling is the mostly widely known variety; grown on the slopes of the Himalayas in the northeast part of India. 

But a lesser known variety is actually the one my husband's family prefers: Assam, a high plateau region even further northeast in India which straddles the Brahmaputra River. It is the largest tea-growing region in the world. The first harvest in Assam can have a fragrant, fresh, flowery and slightly spicy character. Yum! 

Assam is the region my mother-in-law grew up in. I told a bit about her story many blogs back. Her home was a small village in the Garo Hills of Assam. Her father, a local missionary, was the only man in the village with a gun. And so when a tiger would venture into the village (and threaten life or livestock) he would be called to handle the matter - pronto. My husband grew up with the stories and the skins of these big cats his grandfather shot.

I've always been a tea lover, but I had never had Chai before visiting India. And when I came home I craved it. Looked for it, and then tried it at Starbucks. It was like liquefied pumpkin pie. Now Pumpkin pie is perfectly fine --- on Thanksgiving, after turkey. But first thing in the morning when you are expecting straight up tea? I don't know what they do to it over at Starbucks, but letmetellya ... that ain't Chai. 

REAL Chai is strong black tea boiled with spices like cardamon, star anise, cloves, cinnamon. Most of the street vendors I saw making it also included the sugar when bringing the mixture to a boil. Once piping hot, milk is added then carfully brought back up to just under a boil (as you would not want to burn the milk). The Indian version of Chai still tastes like tea, only with a spiciness to it. Starbucks? not so much.

So this is my last installment of Thankful in India. I will give you the final top 10 on Thanksgiving Day, so check back next week. A few of you have said you enjoyed this series, and so I was considering doing another one about shopping in India. If you all want more stories, let me know!

Thankful in India :: Our Guide Sharma

When we first arrived in Delhi it was just after midnight. We had been traveling all day, we were tired and all we wanted to do was sleep. At the airport, we grabbed a cab to our hotel that was part of some kind of hustle. The cabby did bring us to our hotel, but when we got there his (large) friend was standing outside to tell my husband that the hotel was full and we could not stay there. Same thing happened at the second hotel, and then off to a third hotel that was at least 3x the cost of what we booked and it was filthy. We were just too tired to fight it. We pulled out clean t-shirts from our bags, covered the pillows and slept on top of the bed. 

The next day we headed off to find a tour guide, and we could tell there was yet another bit of hustle happening. But a stroke of luck matched us up with a guy named Sharma. He was good to us, watched out for us and gave us good advice throughout our time with him. He became like family to us and he took to calling my mother-in-law "Mom."

Sharma had a different way of looking at things. Life through a different lens. I told his story about running over a farmer's chicken. And he negotiated what he thought was a fair deal by paying the farmer 30x over for the chicken. His rationale was that this chicken would lay eggs and have other chickens and thus cost the farmer much more over the course of time.

There was another time when we had been off looking at the Taj Mahal and when we returned to the car Sharma was getting his ears cleaned. Yep, I said his ears cleaned. I found this so incredibly odd. And asked Sharma why he'd pay someone to do that? He said because his ears needed cleaning, and that this man needed a job, that cleaning ears was this man's job, and that we all have our own roles to play. Sharma felt we should follow this balance in life. Wow was that profound for a simple ear cleaning with a Q-tip swab.

Then there was the story about the network of kids following us around with a picture of us on an elephant. Sharma helped us find piece and quiet that day. He had seen me tell the boy not to take the picture of us. But Sharma also told us when the fun was over. And that the cost (at the end of the day) would simply repay them for the cost of the film. To Sharma that was simply the right thing to do. You see, Sharma was right there with us on our adventures.

Sharma has a good job as a driver for a tourist company driving people like us around India. He told us his dream was to be able to own his own car and run his own company. So that he could support his wife and daughter who live in a small village, and whom he sends money home to. Right before we parted ways with Sharma, I handed Sharma a $100 bill that I had been holding on to. My mother had given it to me to buy a nice souvenir to bring home. I just couldn't think of anything better to do with that money then to give it to Sharma. I was surprised by his response as he seemed so taken aback. My mother-in-law explained later that I had given him something akin to 2 month's salary with that tip. Ok, now I was taken aback. Shocking how little money people live on in India. But it also made me realize how hard it would be for Sharma to earn enough money to buy his own car. I was happy to help him; in what I felt was a small way. Sharma was a big part of our having an amazing trip through India, and I wish him a lifetime of happiness.

Thankful in India :: Electricity

This past weekend I was out to dinner at a local restaurant with my family and some friends of ours. It is a place we go to often not only because we like the food, but because it is a nice family run place. These guys on Saturday night were trying to run their business with power coming and going, back up generators kicking in, and some kind of an inverter hooked up to a truck engine in the parking lot. I give them so much credit for rolling with the situation. People all along the coast here are just trying to get their lives back to normal.

What was so weird for my husband and me was that the first time the lights went out, we both shot a glance at each other and instantly remembered our time in India. Specifically in Agra where the Taj Mahal is located. A truly amazing place to see, and somewhere I continually get inspiration from. 

I love the stone inlay, particularly all the carnelian. It's translucent look gives such a beautiful, warm feeling. 

India is a place where the old traditions and the modern world bump up against each other. In Agra you can see how population growth has affected the air quality. These pictures we took in Agra, while not the best, shows the Taj Mahal from a window in the Red Fort from across the river. You can see the haze in the air from the traditional use of 'cook fires,' which are open fires to cook your meals. At night there are not a lot of city lights, or street lights, and you can see the glow of cook fires way out into the distance.

When we went out to dinner we came across the sweetest little boy dancing in traditional dress while his father played a sort of part flute, part recorder. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of him, but a quick google search found pictures that really brought back that sweet look on his face as he danced. We headed into the restaurant that had bare light bulbs hanging from cords in a web from the ceiling. Just after we ordered, the lights went out. It was pitch black. I mean we held up our hands in front of faces and you could not see them. The lights didn't come back on for at least 3 minutes ... a very long 3 minutes when you're wondering what is going on. After the second or third time we lost electricity, we got into a rhythm and didn't let it slow us down the rest of the night.

So, as I continue my list of things we were thankful for while traveling in India, it includes electricity and the ability to see my husband's smiling face over our curry dinner, which by the way was out of this world.

Thankful in India :: Peaceful [Paid] Places

For this story about India, I'll have to use a few old, slightly blurry photos. My apologies, but it is all part of the story. You see while we were in Jaipur we went to the Amber Fort, a majestic old Mogul structure from the 1600s with long corridors, domed arches, and amazing views of the lake below.

To get to the fort, you've got to hike up the hill. Or you can opt, as most people do, to take an elephant ride. A tad touristy, but what the hell. How many times do you get the chance to ride an elephant? As we headed off, an Indian boy ran up to our elephant, camera in hand yelling "smile." We told him no, but he clicked away. We'd been in India long enough to know that he'd try to sell us that picture. 

While we had started off near the front of the pack, we realized quickly that we had by far, the slowest elephant in the bunch. And this gave our friend the opportunity to run up to us twice during our climb to us ask us to buy the pictures. Oh yes, there were multiple pictures. We were a bit trapped sitting atop a seriously slow elephant and could not avoid the boy. But we forgot about it once we were up at the fort. It was stunning. We paid our admission and walked in.

The arches of the fort gave off beautifully angled light, and overlooked a calm lake with a palace sitting in the middle. And as we looked out over the view, monkey’s jumped from the arches in the distance. Such an ‘other world’ experience. We wondered around the old fort for the better part of the morning before we decided to head back down the hill. As we climbed up on our elephant a small boy ran up with the pictures of us. Crap! Almost forgot about those stupid pictures. Now mind you, this wasn't the same boy from this morning. This was a different one, but he had our pictures in his hand and knew exactly who he was looking for. Our answer remained ‘no.’  We managed to get a faster elephant for the ride down, but once at the bottom we were once again asked to buy the pictures before we could get off the elephant. 'No!' we said in unison.

Our next stop was the Jain Gardens where we were out of reach from anyone local who was hunting us with the morning's Polaroids. We were now acutely aware that there was a network of children assigned to follow us around town for the day to try to get us to buy the pictures. The Jain gardens had a ‘paid admission’ and we were for the first time all day … left alone. It was peaceful. Quiet. No one wanting anything from us. At last.  We stayed for more than 2 hours enjoying the found solitude. Then decided we had just enough time left for a museum we had hoped to see in Jaipur. 

As we entered the museum, yet another boy ran up to us asking us to buy the pictures. We didn't recognize him, but the pictures were the same. Completely exasperated, the answer remained ‘no.’

Once inside we were left alone to wondered the grounds. We saw lots of mogul tapestries, armor, clothing and architecture. A wonderful museum. At one point we asked the guardsmen for a picture, only to find out that we would owe them money for taking their picture. Sigh. But as you see we took it anyway, and paid them. 

When we were leaving yet a different boy ran up to us. Asking again about the pictures. At this point our guide looked at us and said that the cost (roughly $1.00 USD) was their cost and they just wanted to re-coup their money. I admit I was furious. From the beginning I was clear that I did not want the pictures, and that I had no intention of buying them and so no pictures should have been taken. Sigh.

The $1.00 USD was nothing to us, and I felt obliged to give them what it cost to take the pictures. Yes, the pictures at the beginning of this post are in fact the same ones we were hustled to buy all day. Now these pictures sit in the bottom of a box in my den. Pictures I did not want, nor ones that ended up in a frame. But I did pull them out for this post. And as I continue my list of things we were thankful for while traveling in India, it includes finding peaceful [paid] places of solitude for a few hours away from the hustling. 

Thankful in India :: Eye to Eye with Large Animals

One of the things that amazed me about India were all the animals. Animals seem to share the streets freely with people, cars, scooters, camels, buses ... and of course the many wayward cows. I do have to say that I am so glad that we decided against renting a car and hired a driver. The cost was a bit more, but it certainly was so preferred to trying to navigate the streets of India on our own. While there were traffic lights, there were no clearly marked lanes. Driving 'rules' seemed to be more of a suggestion.

On our way out of Dehli, we pulled up next to a brigade of camels who were taking over several lanes of the road. A group of 100+ camels all mounted by the Indian Army Camel Corps --- truly amazing looking and majestic. But a bit of a traffic obstacle. Again, so glad we were not driving.

Our driver, Sharma, recounted a story of hitting a farmer's chicken. There was a negotiation afterwards in which the agreement was that Sharma would pay the cost of the chicken 30x over. The rationale was that not only had the farmer lost this one chicken, but all the chickens that might have come from this chicken (assuming the eggs weren't scrambled for breakfast!). I remember thinking how crazy this rationale was, but Sharma assured us that this really was a fair exchange.

We arrived in Pushkar, a beautiful city along the shore of a lake and so picturesque. It has one of my favorite local bazaars for shopping where we wondered in and out of the shops along the water. I was lost in thought in a tapestry shop when I heard my husband say "I think there is something going on." He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but the locals were running in all directions … in complete chaos. We quickly realized that we had better take cover with everyone else.We jumped into a door frame that was just large enough to hold the two of us and held our breath. The next thing we saw was a brahma bull snorting and swinging its head just 2-3 feet away from us. A few people who were still in the street were screaming and running off into whatever corner they could find. We stood still waiting for the bull to pass. I guess this was India’s version of the ‘running of the bulls’ and thankfully no one was hurt – at least not from what we witness. 

In another city, Udipur, we were drifting through the main bazaar of town. Yes, I love to shop. I felt what I can only describe as a presence behind me. There wasn't a shadow as it was high noon, so I had no idea what I might find when I turned around. As I did I nearly jumped out of my shoes. Standing less than 2 feet away was a large elephant looking me straight in the eye. The old girl was actually sweet. But that's not the point! I mean, who expects an elephant to be peering over your shoulder?

So one of the many things I am thankful for while traveling in India was when I was eye to eye with one of the larger animals ... she was quite gentle. 

Thankful in India :: Traveling Laundry

I have written a few times now about the things that I am thankful for while traveling in India. I promised to finish up this series with a top ten, but first I've got a few stories to tell. And so as we wind down the year, I'm going to complete my list of reason to be thankful while I was traveling in India.

We were in India for several weeks traveling around the Northern part of the country, which was long enough to need to have our clothes laundered. Pretty much any vacation longer than 3 weeks you run out of ‘essentials.’  And so 2 weeks in, we sent our clothes out to the hotel's dhobi wallah (loosely translated means 'laundry worker'). One thing we'd noticed as we traveled was that there was laundry hanging from trees, or Indian women beating it against the rocks near rivers. But we told ourselves that this was just how the locals did their laundry, and that our laundry was of course cleaned as we might traditionally do at home in the US. You know at some sort of laundromat - although I confess I never saw one. 

Funny thing was that when our clothes came back at night there was a tell tale sign of how all laundry is done in India. There would be a smudge near a collar, a small twig near an elastic band. Nothing really quite noticeable, but nonetheless it was there. The wonderful thing about it tho was that every thing, and I mean every last piece of our laundry came back lightly starched, ironed, folded and smelling sort of earthy. I did really love that. 

As the weeks went by, I looked for my items hanging from a tree, or perhaps hit up against a rock by the river, but I never did see anything that looked like my clothes. There were entire networks of people who did laundry. Who moved it from one station to the next. From the washing near the river, to the drying in the trees, to the tent cities where they were steamed and pressed before returning each item to its owner. How it all ended up where it needed to go is such a mystery to Western eyes, but I did not lose one item.

So one of the many things I am thankful for while traveling in India was never seeing my underwear hanging in a tree, and that all my laundry traveling through the local laundry network ended up beautifully cleaned, folded at the foot of my bed each time I sent it out. 

Thursday Favorites Blog Hop: Thankful While in India

I've recently joined an on-going weekly blog hop called Thursday Favorite Things over at Katherine's Corner blog. It is focused to either writing about your favorite things or sharing a link to a favorite post.  Still getting the hang of this hop, but here goes.  
I wrote last December about traveling with my Mother-in-Law through India (click here to read the story). It is a true story, and a funny one at that. It is meant to be a series of the top 10 things to be thankful for while in India.  I haven't written them all yet, but will endeavor to complete the series by year's end.  If you've never been to India, I do recommend seeing it at least once in your life. But understand that India is not exactly a vacation, but more of an adventure. Enjoy!

Thankful in India :: Restaurants With Food

India is a place where nothing goes to waste.  A stone that I discovered while we were there is white amethyst (the stone in the earrings).  Who knew there was such a thing? But when you think about what the natural stone looks like (right) there are parts that are white. And if you're going to use all of the stone ... well then you'll end up with some stones being white. 

As we were traveling through India we experienced an interesting quirk: the tendency to avoid the word 'no.' We were on the road and decided to stop for lunch.  We pulled off at what seemed to be the only restaurant we'd seen for more than an hour.  Nowhere India.  Literally dust in every direction.  We walk in and before we could sit at a table a man runs out with a hand-held switch broom and dusts off the chairs. Plumes of dust go everywhere.  Honestly, this is when we should have just turned around and left. 

Looking around I noticed that we were the only people in the place. We sit and check the menu.  The man comes back perhaps 10-15 minutes later ... apparently very busy doing other things?  And we ask for the chicken curry, which he proceeds to tell us that it isn't available today.  We ask for vegetable curry, then the naan, then try the lamb curry ... and with each request the man shakes his head and says "I am very sorry, but it is not available today."  We decide to try this a different way.  "Why don't you tell us what IS available today?" He explains that he could run down the road for some eggs and perhaps make us a scramble. Ok, let me get this straight.  So you don't have anything available, here IN the restaurant? 

This was a common theme on our trip.  Never wanting to say no, always hoping that they might make a sale - somehow.  This wasn't the only time it happened to us on this trip.  We were out for dinner one night and my mother-in-law asked for dessert: gulab jamun (India's version of doughnuts). We watched our waiter run out the front door and down the street.  He didn't return for about 10 minutes, and arrived carefully holding a bowl of gulab jamun he had clearly bought at another place.  Her dessert cost as much as dinner -- only fair since he had to jog cross town to get it for her?! It always makes me laugh when I think of my time in India and how it made me look at life from a different angle.  

Yin Yang: Lotus Flower

One of my favorite charms, or symbols to work with is the lotus flower.  Not too frilly, has just a little sparkle to it when done in silver, adds that 'other world' touch to a pattern.  I saw a lot of lotus symbolism while traveling in India, which has made its way into many of my jewelry patterns. 

I found this hammered silver charm at my local bead store and have used it in a number of patterns.  The one to the right I used with long tear drop, jade stones.  I used the same charms in the pair (below) with dainty pink mystic quartz and Bali beads for accent.  Again, just a simple pair to highlight the charm. The colors and style seemed the right balance to me based on what I saw in India.

The traditional Buddhist explanation for lotus flower history is that 'the glorious lotus flower appears to spring not from the sordid earth but from the surface of the water and is always pure no matter how impure the water may be.' 

Some say that the perfection above the surface in contrast to the mud beneath represents yin yang, or the concept used to describe how polar opposites (or seemingly contrary forces) are interconnected and interdependent. Opposites thus only exist in relation to each other.


We visited a beautiful temple in India shaped in the form of a lotus flower. Large, magnificent, single structure with a reflecting pool.  At night it casts an alternate shadow of the temple out across the water. Absolutely stunning.

As with any of the temples, shrines, mosques or places of worship in India ... you start with removing your shoes.  One thing that stands out in my mind from our travels through India were the rows, upon rows of abandoned shoes lining the entrances of these places. This particular one is an active place of worship for the Baha'i faith in India.  India's version of a cult, but don't take my word for it -- check the link.  

    

At the Baha'i Temple the lines are long with streams of people wandering through.  All barefoot, all quiet and organized.  The entire place is white marble (the steps, the walkway, the inside walls, the domes). Once inside it is almost church-like with rows (or pews) facing the center of the structure. The white in a lotus flower (a significant color in Asian thought) represents the state of spiritual perfection and total mental purity.

The marble is indigenous in the Nagaur district of Rajasthan with 56 million tons and 40,000 laborers working 400 local mines.  Seriously.  There was marble absolutely everywhere we went in Rajasthan ... it is as prevalent as building wood houses in Pacific Northwest. 

We drove through the district with stacks of marble slabs as far as the eye could see.  Many places in India are made from this marble including the famous Taj Mahal.

I do love using the lotus flower.  And you'll find it in many of my patterns.  I used it with the simple bracelet to the right. And you'll also see it in my previous blog on a turquoise bracelet.  It adds just that little extra touch.

This bracelet is a simple double strand bracelet using top of the line Miyuki seed beads in black and accent reds.  It brings out the pattern of the single, white, speckled lampwork focal bead. I added a simple lotus flower charm to balance the yin yang pattern of opposite colors between black and white.  

Red is also significant in Asian culture.  In China it is the symbol of celebration and luck, and in India it symbolizes purity (thus used extensively in Indian wedding outfits), and it signifies joy when combined with white in Eastern culture.

Thankful in India :: My Shiva

While traveling through India with my husband and his mother we visited a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas called Mussoorie. The train ride was a life altering experience: see my previous post Thankful In India: Mother-In-Law. Seriously, thank God for my Mother-In-Law on this trip.  Without her I might have turned around after the first night. 

We flew into Delhi landing at nearly midnight. Note to self: arrive during the daylight --India is a different world at night. After finding our luggage we head out to grab a cab.  My husband and I (consider ourselves New Yorkers) pride ourselves on our street smarts.  NY street smarts are child's play and only mildly useful in India. 

When we walk out from customs we are solicited, no strike that, accosted from all sides with taxi drivers. Once in the cab it is like we're in an old film noir driving at night. The cab looks to be circa 1940, diesel, clutch and very jumpy. Driving along the Grand Trunk Road the oldest road in South Asia ... 'nough said.  

Our destination was a hotel in the middle of Connaught Place. When looking at a map from a Western perspective, it would appear to be 'downtown' New Delhi.  Note to self: when a country is as old as India there is not likely to be a 'downtown' in the American, or Western European understanding. 

Our Taxi driver runs up (yes up, there is no main floor lobby) several flights of stairs to check our booking.  "Sorry sir but there is no reservation for you here" he reports. Now that's strange.  I personally called at least 3x before our arrival to check our reservation and was told "don't worry, there is plenty of room." Ok, now what?  Our cabby sets off like an Indy driver through the back streets. 

We arrive at a second location, and are once again told there is no room, specifically "there is a convention in town with an extra 10 million" he says.  This is starting to sound very fishy as nothing appears to be quite that over run, and the hotel we are now outside of had a guy waiting at the front gate to tell our cab driver this news.  We set off for a third location where they miraculously have a room for us, but it will be nearly 3x what we had originally budgeted for with our reservation. 
    We know we are being hustled but we're just too tired to negotiate at this point.  Welcome to India!  They appear to have blown their budget on the lobby since the room was Times-Square skeevy.  However at this point we'd been traveling for more than 15 hours and had been driving the back roads of Delhi for more than an hour. Like I said; too tired to care.  The sheets did not look clean.  I pulled out a shirt from my luggage and put it over my pillow and grabbed my coat to lay on top of the bed.  

The next morning I am woken up at sunrise (that's about a total of 4 hours of sleep at this point). The sun is just starting to filter in through a window screen and I can hear the call to prayer from the street.

The procession uses bells, and they sing rhythmically in a 5-note chant. All this seems to excite the local dogs who yip and run around below. An 'other world' experience. 

We explore Delhi for the day, which includes a stop by a massive statue of Shiva. Lord Shiva is the Supreme Being in Hinduism and is known as the creator and the destroyer. Shiva continuously dissolves and recreates in a cyclic process of creation, preservation, dissolution and recreation of the universe. Shiva is the original sati victim. Sati is the Hindu practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre, which is now abolished by law.  

A few days later we were up in the Himalayas (Mussoorie) and drifting through the market bizarre where my husband spots my bronze statue of Shiva. I knew immediately that this Shiva was coming home with me. My husband began the negotiation dance that is 'to shop in India.' Truly an art, and he has it in spades. It was still early in our trip and was one of the first things we bought.  I threw it into my backpack and quickly realized that I was not going to be able to buy a lot of bronze -- it's really heavy and rough to carrying around India for 5 weeks.  Note to self.

My Shiva is a version called Nataraja, Lord of Dancers (nata in Sanskrit means dance and raja means Lord). The link notes: "To understand the concept of Nataraja we have to understand the idea of dance itself.  Like Yoga, dance induces trance, ecstasy and the experience of the divine."  I don't know what yoga this guy does? While I like it as much as the next guy and certainly can become quite relaxed ... my state is not normally one of a trance nor ecstasy ... but one of sleeping.  More than once I have fallen asleep in a final released locust pose (lying on your stomach with your arms tucked under you). Perhaps there is a theme here ... I need more sleep in my life!   For more stories on our lack of sleep in India read about our overnight train to Mussoorie: Thankful In India: Mother-In-Law. My Shiva still sits on my shelf, and is used liberally in photographing my jewelry. More on Shiva try: Shiva or Gods

Thankful In India :: Mother-In-Law

Just after my husband and I got married we decided we wanted to see India, and we wanted to see it with his mother who grew up there.  My  Mother-In-Law was just 3 months old when her parents moved to India; heading off to the subcontinent via steamer ship (circa 1928).   She has always said that her father 'walked her across the Atlantic' ... as she cried he soothed her walking up and down the deck.     
    Her parents were Christian missionaries who had just accepted an assignment in India; in a land dominated by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and the occasional Jain.  Their destination was Assam, a remote part of India. Assam is just on the other side of Bangladesh in the northern most corner of India. 
    While her parents' village was in Garo Hills of Assam, she would take a train to her school on the other side of the country in one of the 'Hill Towns' of the Himalayas called Mussoorie. Her school was a boarding school up on a crest (you can see the it, right) with a beautiful view of the Himalayan peaks from the campus. It took 3 days, by train, to get to school from her village in the Garo Hills. She rode in an open box car train consisting of wooden benches where people sat in rows. .... wow .... seriously? How do you sleep? But then that would explain why she was good with the 'first class' sleeper train we took up to visit her school. Trains in India are a world of their own.

    A lock on the train compartment door would be one of the many reasons to be thankful while in India (yes there is a Top 10).  You know it just wasn't the first thing that came to mind, but my Mother-In-Law insisted and I thought "well she does know the place, even if that seems a bit, um, extreme."  
    Throughout the night there was the occasional pull at the door of our sleeper compartment (I should mention that the door was a steel plated one that slid open with a lock-in-place bar handle). Thus the air quotes around 'first class.'  Our compartment was similar to the one shown (below, right).
    The pulling at the door would turn to a yank, then an aggressive rocking rattle with what I assume to be swearing in Hindi.  The pounding would begin in earnest after that (I should also mention that you cannot see through the door, so we could not see who was there or if they had finally given up).
    We bought all 4 tickets so we could sleep in peace without worry. However since it was a compartment that slept 4 and there were only 3 of us, the train conductor was working some cash on the side and re-selling our 4th bed ... over, and over.  It seemed that at each stop a new suspect would get on and the pounding would begin anew.
    Another important piece to this story is that the this 'first class' train was also a mail train, which is why it stopped at every friken town from Delhi to Dehradun (our destination). And why the pounding continued throughout the entire night.
    One more reason to be thankful while in India is for my Mother-In-Law who had done all this before.  Remember the train ride she took regularly to school, through the foothills of the Himalayas ..well it must have taught her a trick or two about how to ride a train in India.  And so as it goes with most women, I had 'to go' in the middle of the night.  I get up, swing open the door and try to close it.  However, I can't and notice my Mother-In-Law is standing behind me blocking the door closure.  I think, well ok she's gotta go too.  She turns sharply to my husband and says "lock it behind us and don't let anyone else in."  Right, forgot about all that.  

    She follows me down the corridor and as I go into the bathroom compartment, once again I can't get the door closed behind me.  There she is again "um thanks, I think I got this" I say. She gives me that look only a mother can do ... that look of pity and knowing all in one and says "you'll need my help."  Once inside I quickly see the problem.  There is only a hole in the floor, aka a Turkish Toilet (left).  Note, I decided to use a picture of a new, uninstalled toilet as there just is no need to show one that has been in use, particularly one from a train in India. 
    Now the interesting part of this kind of toilet is that it is on a train, and so the it opens to the bottom of the train with the train tracks quickly flashing below as I look down.  Oh lord - really?  My Mother-In-Law kicks into action and demonstrates for me that I must brace myself against one wall while holding on to a bar on the other side and watch where I put my feet (the raised bumps are for traction).  I am supposed to do all this while managing to get my pants down.  Good God - really?  Let's hear it for 'first class.'
    We finally roll into to Dehradun and I get my first Indian Chai - street style.  Now I have to say the Chai you get at Starbucks is nice if you like liquefied pumpkin pie.  But real Chai doesn't taste like that.  
    They steep the tea on the burner with the sugar added, then cool it with the addition of milk. Finally they draw the tea (pouring it back and forth between pots) to both mix and froth it. You just can't find it here in the states.
    We find a taxi and head up to the Mussoorie along the switchback roads that make up the foothills of the Himalayas.  Our 45-min, white-knuckle drive land us along the main road of Mussoorie, which is lined with a sort of half outside and half inside market bizarre. These markets are prevalent throughout India, and it is where I find my bronze Shiva.  The one I use for my profile picture.  See my following blog My Shiva.