Further on down the road babe, you will accompany me…

The lyrics for this week’s blog may seem a bit obscure (sure, why should this week be any different?). Well, two things A, it refers to Rae and me, traveling through life and India together; and, 2, these lyrics are from a song by the musician Taj Mahal and this week we went to (drum roll) the actual Taj Mahal. So there’s that.

Rae is going to write this week, as I wrote last, so without further ado I’ll turn the blog over to her. Rae?

The majority of this week for me was rather a bust.  I’ve been sick for most of the week and Phil was away on business in Nepal for 3 days.  Probably a lucky move on his part.  Our goal was to go to the Taj on Saturday so that was forefront on my mind as I lay in bed trying to appreciate the ab workout I was getting from my continual coughing.  I fully expect my 6 pack to pop through any time now.

So, the highlight of this week for me was definitely the Taj and the Agra Red Fort.  I say the Agra Red Fort because there are several Red Forts in India.  There’s one here in Delhi which we have yet to visit. 

Now, back to the Taj.  Like I have said many times in the past and will certainly say many more times in the future, India is full of contrasts, and the Taj strikes me that same way.  The Taj is grand, truly amazing, beautiful, spectacular, impressive, and a true work of art.  The contrast begins once you exit the walls and enter back into the world of small spaces, uneven surfaces, crowded roads that are shared with any number of animals, poor construction, garbage, people wanting you to buy their wares and let’s not forget the beggars.  CONTRASTS!  As I talk about these contrasts, hopefully I don’t sound too negative, because in reality I find so many of these things both fascinating and delightful.

The Taj really is an amazing work of art.  We are including some pictures that will hopefully give you a small idea.  The inlay work of semi-precious stones that are set into the marble.  The symmetry and accuracy that are achieved with no modern technology.  There are pictures of the Taj at a distance and some close-ups of the detailed carving and inlay work.  The number 22 is significant in that it took 22 years and 22,000 workman to complete.  On the picture of the main gate you will also see 22 small domes, these are representative of that.

The Red Fort is also amazing. It has 94 acres of land and 75% of it is still utilized by the current day military. It is obviously not made of marble, but rather red sandstone.  There is one section of it that is made of marble and that is the area where the Shah Jahan lived until his death.  Most of you probably already know this story, but I will give a bit of background.  The Shah Jahan had two other wives, but he had one wife that was a “love” marriage and it is for her that the Taj was built.  She died after giving birth to their 14^th child. The Shah had the Taj Mahal built as a declaration of his love for her.  It was his plan to build a black marble tomb on the opposite bank of the river, behind the Taj. That tomb was started but never completed.  The Shah’s son decided that his father had spent enough money on such things, overthrew his father, and placed him under house arrest at the Red Fort until his death eight years later.  The Shah is now resting in a tomb next to his” love”, Mumtaz Mahal, in the Taj.   One of the pictures is of the view that the Shah had of the Taj for those years he was under house arrest. 

Phil here. I will add just a couple of items. First, Rae really has been sick. I was quite worried about her but it appears the antibiotics and rest are helping. She probably should have called off yesterday’s trip but she soldiered on. She is my Mumtaz Mahal. I will never be able to build her a monument like the Taj Mahal, but she is my one true love.

Second, as Rae noted I spent three days in Nepal. This is my second trip there and I really want to go back and spend a few days with Rae just enjoying the country. Here is a picture of a replica a Temple Pagoda that is famous in Nepal.

From a business standpoint the Nepal trip was good. However, it wasn’t without its forehead slapping moments. There is one institute that is trying to establish an articulation agreement with us. They offer, through its three component organizations   preschool, K-12, and college programs. I was asked on our second day in Nepal to come and speak to 1200 or so of the parents and tell about MAII/Stratford. I arrived to find out there were 1200 or so parents as advertised but I was the honored guest at Parents’ Day – a five hour program in which each class from preschool to high school made presentations. I cut my presentation to about a two minute comment about the importance of education and parental involvement. I didn’t stay for the whole program but I did actually enjoy the hour of so I stayed to watch. Little kids dancing around and singing is cute in any language.

So, not one to learn my lesson, I went the next day to make a presentation to 900 or so Juniors and Seniors. Well, what really was going on was the annual talent show. The school leadership couldn’t understand why I thought it would be inappropriate to give a thirty minute presentation (with PowerPoint and videos). I am not sure what possibly could make them think that delaying the start of the talent show for some college presentation was a good idea. 

I wanted to just take our leave and let the kids enjoy their talent show. They wanted me to do the whole presentation. We finally agreed I would give a five to ten minute talk with just a few slides and one video. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it was a disaster. I have been the last speaker between an audience and dinner. That was nothing compared to being the only speaker between nearly a thousand teenagers and talent show of their peers. Let’s just say, it went about as poorly as I was afraid it might. The students were about as attentive and polite as I would have been in the circumstances. Which is to say not so much.  Oh well, no rotten vegetables or fruit were thrown, so I have that going for me.

 Until next week…

Namaste.

And there upon a rainbow, Is the answer to a never ending story…

 OK. It’s not exactly a never ending story since it did, in fact, end. It just seems like the last six weeks or so have been endless. When I got home from work on Friday night and knew that it was over - the accreditation, the convocation; the fresher party; the three weeks of inspection and correction from the execs from Virginia – I was numb. I was glad to have it over but somehow also a little depressed. Weird, right? Yeah, I know I am a sick man.

So the other highlight of this week was having Leslie, Allen, and John and Liz McConkie here. Well, not here so much, but here in the sense of in India. Well, they were also here in the of here Saturday afternoon and Sunday as well. So how’s that for confusing? Maybe I haven’t actually totally gotten over my six week intense drill. To clarify: our four visitors from the US were with us on Saturday/Sunday, then left Sunday night for a tour of some of the famous sites in Northern India. They got back Saturday evening, were here Sunday, and left VERY early Monday morning for the States.

Anyhoo, it was great to see Leslie and Allen again and to meet and get to know John and Liz. Having the contact with the US, even for a couple of days, was fun. They aren’t our kids but it still felt like that. I hope they go back to the US and tell our kids what a great time they had and encourage them to come visit.

During the days in Delhi, we joined our US visitors in some site seeing. Some of the sites were repeats for us and some were new. We went to Akshardam Temple, an amazing place where we definitely want to go again. We spent about an hour there but we could easily spend half a day. Unfortunately they do not allow photography so here are some pictures I borrowed from the Internet. We went back to Humayun Tomb, and I am including a couple of pictures taken there at dusk. Finally, we went to India Gate. Again, we have posted pictures of that before but I thought these two were pretty good so I am posting them anyway.

On Sunday, after Church, we joined our visitors and Garden of the Five Senses. They were having a flower festival and you’ll see a few pictures of Dahlias that reminded us of Portland, an elephant made of flowers, and few interesting shots. Here are some pictures from our visits:

Sorry for the delay in posting this. We’ll try to do better, but there’s no guarantee. 

Namaste.

Short and sweet, my baby's all mine, Head to feet, she's barely 4'9"

Well these lyrics from a Spinal Tap song have almost nothing to do with this week’s post – except it will also be short and sweet. (Question: if you cite the lyrics of a fictitious band, does it make for a fictitious post?)

So, let’s see. I am about 2/3 through my crushing two week schedule. It’s the gun lap and I can’t let my focus or effort slide now. The accreditation visit went amazingly well. The team was very positive and complimentary. Even the President of Stratford said we operate better than they do in the US. We had two minor citations to address, one of which was actually not our issue; Stratford has to fix it. The item we need to fix already has been done.

The Joint Venture Board Meeting was kind of like A Tale of Two Cities: it was the best of times and the worst of times. Over all it went well, but our Vice President for Marketing got beat up pretty bad, and I seemed to have little ability to deflect or soften the criticism. Still, the meeting ended on a positive note and no one lost his or her job so I guess All’s Well That Ends Well, it was Much Ado About Nothing, and Richard III. Wait. That last Shakespeare play doesn’t fit there at all. Never mind.

Friday morning we had convocation. 150 students form 22 different countries received their degrees. It was a well-run ceremony and everyone had a great time. There was little difference from this ceremony compared to the dozens I have seen and participated in before. The exception to that was the Lighting of the Lamp. It's a tradition to light a lamp first before starting any auspicious events or rituals. Light symbolizes the absence of darkness, grief and unhappiness. An open bronze bowl on a tall stand is filled with ghee (clarified butter). Eight cotton wicks, also soaked in ghee, are lit one by one. A Hindu prayer is then sung, in this case by three of our students.

Friday night we had a student party. It was fun to see the students from different cultures interacting in a social setting. The African students are much more open about pairing up as boyfriend and girlfriend. The Afghani men were very exuberant dancers, with each other and only as the evening wore on with girls. Indian girls were more open to dancing initially than the boys, again with other girls more than boys. As the evening wore on for Indians and Afghanis there was more mixed gender dancing but it was more groups of people rather than pairs.

Yesterday our niece Leslie Graff, her husband Allen, and their friends the McConkies arrived at our house. Leslie got in several hours ahead of the others because she had been in India on a medical mission. So she and Rae went shopping and I went along to carry the bags. The rest of the group got in, showered, changed, and we went to dinner. They then crashed as the 25+ hour trip in economy class had clearly taken its toll. Today we all went to Church then this afternoon we went to see some sites around Delhi (India Gate, Raj Path, Lakshmi Narayan Temple, and Lodi Garden). Rae fed them a good dinner and they boarded a night train to Varanasi. They will be traveling all week and then back here next Saturday.

As I said: short and sweet this week. I hope the pictures make up for the dearth of words.

Namaste.