Riding to Jaipur, Riding through the night, Riding with my baby, Oh, what a delight...

As everyone reading this in the US knows,  This past Thursday was Thanksgiving. Even though it is not a holiday here, I took a couple of days of leave and Rae and I made it a long weekend. We went to Jaipur with our friends the Slocombes, who are here from Canada on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was AMAZING! It was one of the best experiences we have had in India. Well, that whole kidney stone thing last year at this time was pretty great. No. No. Wait. I am pretty sure Jaipur was better. Yes, it was definitely better.

We have more than a week’s worth of pictures. So, this week we will talk about the sights of Jaipur we enjoyed. Next week we will write about some amazing experiences we had.

Jaipur is the capital of the state of Rajasthan. Originally called Amber, a city named after the Goddess Amba, Maharaja  Sawai Jai Sing moved the city from the hilltop Amber Fort ten kilometres or so to the plains below in the early 1700s. It was one of the first planned cities, though frankly you couldn’t tell that anymore. “Old city” has been totally overrun by and encompassed by “new city,” although in some places the original city walls are still standing. The city was laid out in a grid with wide streets. There is no historical record of him saying he wanted a wagon to be able to turn around in the street (reference anyone?). Nevertheless and notwithstanding, the new city offered access to water and room to grow, neither of which characteristics were true inside Amber Fort.

Jaipur is also known as the Pink City. When I first heard this name, having been to Jaipur and having seen the number of sand stone buildings), I thought that was the source of the nickname. However, it turns out the name was applied relatively recently in the city’s history. In the 1870s, the Prince of Wales visited Jaipur and the Maharaja had the city painted pink in his honor. The interesting thing is everything in the city was painted pink except the palace, which was and is painted yellow, as you will see below.

I have already mentioned Maharaja Sawai Jai Sing II. He was one of a string of Maharajas named Singh (Lion in Hindi) who ruled over Rajasthan (and at different times other countries and Indian states). The family has ruled over Rajasthan for several hundred years. Even when the British ruled India, the Maharajas were left in place. They continued to have tremendous wealth and power until 1947 when India became an independent democracy. After that, they maintained their title and wealth but no political power, unless they won elected office, which some of them have done. When we went through the museum, which is located in the converted public reception hall of the City Palace, we saw portraits and personal effects of many of them. It was interesting how many of them were not the children of the previous Maharaja. Time after time there was not a male heir. So the Maharaja would adopt the son of his oldest daughter.

A couple of the more interesting Maharajas were the one who was over seven feet tall and four feet wide. That is all unusual but what was really amazing is that his legs were only two feet long and his feet were very small. So you had this huge guy on very tiny legs and feet.

The pants of this Maharaja were amazing. They took up most of a wall in width but were very short.  I wish we could show a picture but no photography was allowed in the museum. The Maharaja who was known as Bubbles was pretty unusual as the one who looked quite a bit like John Lennon from the Sargent Pepper album. Finally there is the current Maharaja, who is 16.

Well, on to the pictures. We took over 300 pictures whilst we were in Jaipur. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to show them all. The major sites we went to, and for which we will show pictures and provide some description are below.       

Pink City (Old City) - Here are a few pictures of the Old City in Jaipur, entrance into the formerly public areas of City Palace, and some of the public areas. Much of the the former public areas have been closed in and turned into a museum, where, unfortunately, one cannot take pictures

City Palace - as noted above, in the midst of the Pink City, the Maharaja left his palace painted yellow. The current Maharaja (16 years old) still lives in the palace. As with England, when the flag is flying, the Royal Family is home.

This is a silver jar; about six feet high. There are two of them. One of the Maharajas visited England. The only problem was he only drank holy water from the Ganges. Therefore he had these two jars made to carry the Ganges water with his entourage. It took two silversmiths two years to make the jars out of 4000 silver coins. In the technique this used, there was no soldering so the jars are considered individual silver pieces: the two largest silver objects in the world according to Guinness Book of World Records.

Below is the visitor's palace. This was built because the Maharaja was a pure vegetarian. He knew many of his royal guests, particularly from England, would want to have meat prepared for them. Rather than contaminate his palace, he had this palace built.

Jantar Mantar (calculation instruments) - this was one of the most mind boggling things we saw in Jaipur. One of the Maharajas was very interested in astronomy, astrology, and celestial matters. In an area of about 10 acres he had 14 major instruments calculated so that he could track celestial bodies, determine time, and the changes of season. One of the sun dials is accurate to within 2 seconds. Amazing!

Lake Palace - A couple of weeks ago we posted a picture of the Lake Palace at night. This may not be quite as dramatic but I think it is still beautiful. This was built as a summer palace and is being converted into a hotel (as many of the royal palace are or have been). The lake is man made. They built the palace and then built a dam to create the lake.

A vendor at the lake carrying her wares on her head.

Albert Hall - named after the English Prince Albert,  this was originally built as a town hall. It is now a museum (the other major use of historical buildings other than hotels). I missed it but after I shot this picture the pigeons in the foreground (plus a couple thousand others) started swirling around in a huge cloud.

Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) - closed to the public, this was built so the wives and concubines could sit at the windows and watch what was happening on the city's main commercial street. The windows used to open (hence the wind) but they are now sealed.

Step Well - This was the main well for those (other than royals) living within Amber Fort. It is still being used, as noted in the pictures below which show women using or carrying the water from the well.

Amber Fort and Palaces - clearly one of the most amazing structures we have seen. there are three palaces, that are connected with each other into one. The oldest was built about 50 years prior to the construction of Taj Mahal; the second palace was built contemporaneous to Taj Mahal; the most recent was build about 50 years later.

 

The next four pictures are from the middle of the three palaces. To our mind it was the most spectacular of three. The shining diamond (almost literally) of the palace was the Hall of mirrors. We could do a whole blontry on this hall alone. These pictures don't do it justice. Stunning.

This is the Maharaja's quarters from the original palace.

 

 

 This picture shows the Mahararja's quarters (upper  center) and three of the TWELVE queen's quarters. Each queen had its own court yard, interior quarters, and secret passage to the Maharaja's quarters.

The next two pictures are of a jar conveyor system that brought water from the well to the highest part of the palace.

And what is a water conveyor system without a toilet? This is one of the 100 built in latrines placed throughout the three palaces.

And from the ridiculous to the sublime: is a floating garden in the man made lake outside of Amber Fort that provide fruit and vegetables for the royal family.










Hope you enjoyed Jaipur!

Namaste 

At every occasion I'll be ready for the funeral…

It is official you can find lyrics to fit any situation. It’s a bit morbid but this lyric from Band of Horses’ “The Funeral” was a pretty good fit for how yesterday went.

This weekend is our District Conference. For those who don’t know, in our church District (or Stake if there are enough members) Conferences happen twice a year. All the members of that area are invited to a series of meetings that typically take most of Saturday afternoon and evening and a couple of hours on Sunday. As noted, this weekend was our District Conference and as such we anticipated that would be the central part of our weekend. However, as it often does, life took a direction different from our plans.

We have a friend/fellow church member/new Stratford University MBA student whose mother has been quite sick; in and out of the hospital and intensive care. We found out about mid-day that his mother had passed away that morning. We knew then that the day was not going to play out exactly as we thought it would. Under well-established custom, in fact regulation, a body must be cremated, buried or embalmed within 24 hours. Embalming is extremely rare; usually only done for foreigners who want to ship the body. Therefore cremation default for Hindus, or burial most common for Muslims and Christians, typically happen within the day of death. Added to this is the custom of actually trying to make final disposition of the body before sunset of the day of death and it is clear that when death is unexpected things need to be organized very quickly.

With all of that background I expected to hear about the funeral for Shibu’s mom but the day wore on and I hadn’t heard anything. So Rae and I got ready and headed to our first meeting. We were about a half an hour in when another friend appeared in the doorway and waived me out. The funeral was set and we had to leave right then to get there in time. So four of us jumped in the car and took off.

I won’t go into all the harrowing details (I will say that an armed procession for Prime Minister Modi was involved) but despite serious delays we got there just in time to see the top of the casket being nailed in place.

This would be a good time to write a little more specifically about funerals – at least Christian funerals – in India. Let me start by saying if Indian marriages are among the world’s most elaborate ceremonies (and they are), Indian funerals are among the most simple. I wrote about a funeral over a year ago but I think I understand a little more now than I did then. As noted all of this takes place within 24 hours and often within 12. First, the body is laid out in the home or, if there is not space inside the house, outside. The body is usually laid out on a sheet but if it is very hot (when isn’t it?) they might arrange it in such a way that ice can be applied to keep the body as fresh as possible. There are usually flowers arranged around the body as well, which plays the dual role of honoring the deceased and adding some perfume if needed.

There are separate cemeteries for Muslims, Christians, and I assume Jews, as well as crematoria for Hindus but also for those of other faiths who choose to be cremated. The Christian cemetery where the burial took place last year was one of the oldest, most established in Delhi.  It is nearly full and people are dying to get in. The one yesterday was in a remote, outlying area of the city and appeared to have much more capacity. It also was not as nice. The cemetery last year had many nice, above ground mausoleums, trees, and landscaping. This one looked a bit more like boot hill: dirt was mounded over each gravesite and names were indicated by white wooden crosses with the names and dates painted in black.  

In any case, once the details of where the burial will take place is determined, the body is placed into a simple wooden casket (of the three funerals I’ve seen, two had painted caskets and one was wrapped in white cloth) and transported by ambulance to the cemetery. Once there the casket is placed on a table, opened, while family and loved ones gather. While everyone is gathering, people look into the casket and make the usual types of comments and comfort family members while waiting. Once everyone is gathered, a few words are spoken and then the lid of the casket is nailed in place. Then the assembled men lift the casket onto their shoulders and carry it to the gravesite.

Once there, the casket is placed on the ground next to the hole over three or four ropes (grave diggers are standing nearby, waiting). After the grave is dedicated, the casket is lowered by the ropes into the grave. All mourners step forward and throw a handful of dirt onto the casket and then the grave diggers quickly finish covering the grave and build a mound over it and place the cross. Mourners then come forward and place flowers on the mound. At the funeral last year, the flowers were strings of saffron marigolds that were piled on the grave. Yesterday the flowers of choice were red roses and individual flower stalks which were stuck into the mound. The whole process from start to finish might take 20 minutes. Here is a picture another friend took of her gravesite:

Actually, I attended two funerals yesterday. Two members of our District died yesterday and there funerals were held back to back. I didn’t know the second person but the people I was with did and wanted to stay, so I joined them since I didn’t really have a choice, not having a way back other than their car. The only thing of note for the second funeral was that it was well and truly dark by the time the family gathered and it started. The person running the cemetery made a point of telling me that they really weren’t supposed to do the funeral; they should make the family wait until the next morning; but that he was doing “us” a special favour. “After all,” he said, “we aren’t living the Mosaic law. Right?”

Well, that’s probably a lot more information than you wanted. It’s not the first time I have explained how to build a watch when asked for the time. Anyway, here’s Rae.

Another name for India could be delays, and this weekend certainly had those.  The Prime Minister was the cause for yesterday’s delay for Phil.  Today trying to get to District Conference we faced another delay.  Because we don’t have any church buildings that will hold all the branches together, they always reserve an auditorium somewhere in Delhi for the Sunday conference meeting.  The particular auditorium this time happened to be located on a road where a huge race was taking place. So, after trying numerous different routes that were all blocked off, we finally had to get out of the car and walk a few of blocks to actually reach the building.  The race literally ran right in front of the building.  See picture below of the building we had such a hard time reaching.

Because most members don’t have their own cars and a lot use some sort of public transportation the district arranges buses to pick up members at the respective branches and transport them to the conference location.  For some members this transportation means they can come.  Getting to church for some families takes a good portion of their income so the buses mean they can afford to attend. Because of all the street closures groups of people were continuing to arrive after the meeting started.  Not the best way to start things out, but nice to see everyone preserver and eventually get there. 

In our walk to the conference we had to walk across a bridge over the road where part of the race was happening.  I thought it was interesting that there seemed to be runners/walkers everywhere.  We passed runners along some of the side roads leading to the bridge, going up the bridge, going down from the bridge and I’m not sure you can actually see it in the pictures but they were headed in both directions on the road below the bridge.  Organized chaos at its best. There just seemed to be runners/walkers, everywhere headed somewhere, but where? Luckily the conference and the race were to end at noon so our drivers was actually able to get to the building to pick us up.  Phew! I was wondering if we’d actually figure out where to find him since we bailed out in the middle of traffic and didn’t know where he would end up parking. 

One last, and totally, random thought/picture.  I think I’ve mentioned in the past about how parents bundle up their babies.  Here’s a picture of two babies from our branch.  These babies had on snow suit type outfits and the one is also in a bunting.  It was just under 80 degrees when we took this picture.  WINTER for sure.    

Namaste  

I thought I could do something good, But I'll never do that again…

If you are an obsessive reader of this blog, or if you have an eidetic memory, you will recall I swore when I went to Jaipur again, I would NOT return to Delhi at night. Well, never say never. I was in Jaipur on business this week. It was a toss-up whether I would work late on Thursday and return Friday or if I would get away early enough to leave Thursday. Well, it became clear I was going to be able to leave by 2:00, which should have gotten me home by 8:00; dark but before the trucks start into Delhi. Well, 2:00 ended up being 3:30 and the traffic was about as bad as I remembered. Robinson is a better driver than Mehndi was, so the overall experience wasn’t as bad.

The only time my heart stopped was when a pair of motorcycles pulled out in front of us without any warning and with little time for Robinson to react.  One motorcycle floored it and got passed us, one motorcycle slammed on its brakes, Robinson slammed on his brakes and swerved, missing both of them…barely.

Rae and I are planning to go to Jaipur later this month with the Slocombes. I was hoping I would have time in Jaipur to take a few pictures – sort of a photograph amuse-bouche. As it turned out, I was so busy I had no chance to take any pictures, so here’s one from the files.

If all goes well, in two weeks we should be rotten with pictures to share.

As implied above, this week has been made of long work days. We have been working with a large services outsourcing company to offer our MBA to their employees. A few of us have been meeting with employees at several of their locations. Our days have started early and have gone on late into the evening (the earliest I got home was 10:00 PM and some of the teams worked later than that). It appears to have been time well spent however. We had over 700 of their employees who have indicated they want to do their MBA with us. Now it is probable not all of them will start, but in any case it should be a great boost to our organization.

Well, that’s it for me this week. Sorry it’s not too exciting. I’ll try to do better. In any case, here’s Rae.

  

Well, while Phil had a very long and busy week I did my best to keep the universe balanced by having almost the complete opposite.  Because Phil was away with the car, my options for going out were limited.  So, I stayed home, worked on a few random projects and hoped that his time away was productive and safe, knowing he might be doing a night drive home from Jaipur. 

Because I didn’t go anywhere and have no new adventures to share, I've decided to post a few random pictures from previous outings that haven’t made it into earlier posts.  Hope you enjoy them. 

India is a land of contrasts.  What you see on the roads is no exception.

While high tech is  alive and well in India, the electrical systems don't fall into that category, another contrast.  I don't know how anyone sorts this out, but somehow they seem to,  Amazing.

We were riding in a rickshaw in old Delhi and came upon this guy carrying this lantern thing on his head.  Don't know where he was going or what it is used for.  

Our one-armed rickshaw driver.

Taj Mahal taken from Red Fort

Two interesting doorways in a Sikh neighborhood in Old Delhi

More electrical fun.  Below is the result of the burning smell and sizzling sound we were getting from our geyser plug. The picture on the left is our geyser which gives us hot water at our kitchen sink.  "Oh, do you want hot water in your kitchen?" was the reply when we asked how come no hot water came from any of the taps  This is our solution.

When in Rome, (India)

We now have a new plug.

Namaste