January 1, 2012

The Taj Mahal is a love story...

Agra is just over 200 km - 2 hours and 59 minutes according to Google Maps - add India traffic and we'll call it 4 hours...

On New Years day we set off early (7AM) with our car and driver, and a picnic lunch tucked in the boot, to visit the Taj Mahal.  I'm not usually compelled to hit the big "tourist" sites but, ... I did want to experience this seventh wonder of the world.

I thought the Taj was a cool building but, there is a lot of cool architecture in the world so what was so wondrous about this building?

I fell in love with the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is in Agar built on the banks of the Yamuna River.  A labour of love that took 22 years to build (1632 - 1654), a marble tomb for an emperor's wife.

Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built this monument for his beloved third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.  Their marriage was a true love match.  Mumtaz was her husbands inseparable companion on all of his journeys and military expeditions.  She was his trusted political adviser and counsel for 19 years before she died at the age of 39 after giving birth to her 14th child.  The Emperor resolved to immortalize their love by creating a symbol of their love for posterity.  This building is constructed of Indian Marble inlaid with precious stones - it is not only stunningly beautiful in perfect symmetry and material unmarred by time - it exudes the energy of love.

Really, I was not the only one in our party of four that was moved - all tingly and bleary - in the gardens at the foot of this seventh wonder of the world.  And, this emotion was present in the midst of thousands of people here with us to start the New Year!  A true marvel.

Was it worth 10 hours of driving?  YES!
Did I mention that the drive home was 6 hours ... I might consider taking the train next time.

Thanks to Jane and Mike for buying the Taj Mahal book, from the hawkers that swarmed us at our car, so that I could check the details of the story our guide shared with us.

Faces of India

Christmas Eve day... 2011

The water fountain provided a foreground that might be construed as snow falling but, it is a clear, sunny 21 degrees C in Delhi today.

What seems like a balmy Christmas eve to me has the local shoppers bundled up against the cold with toques, fleece jackets peeking out from under colourful stoles and one gentleman even confessed to wearing long underwear when confronted with our short sleeves and sandals.  

This young Santa painted his face white/pink.  I never really thought about it before but, Santa is caucasian!

Merry Christmas Everybody - wherever you are in the world may this day bring the joy of family and friends to your heart.

Namaskar.
     ~ Mike

Site Portraits

Pulled out the big telephoto (100-400mm) today and planted myself atop a large pile of sand.  Here are some portraits of the people on site.

 

On the Mangar Hotel Site

 33 degrees and a bit smoggy today.  The effects of the Delhi population are drifting south.

This is what the work site looks like before any rammed earth walls are erected.  We will start with the SIREWALLs at the far (east) end of the hotel.

While we are waiting for the final design details so we can start building the formwork we are keeping busy getting the Volumetric Mixer tweaked to perfection.  Normally we would have a machine loading our mix into the truck but... there are a lot of workers around moving dirt and rocks, bricks and cement - they are already perfectly equipped.  So, this is what loading the mixer looks like today.

First you throw up some scaffolding and climb to the top of the truck.

Then, you stick a bag of cement on your head.
Then, you wrestle it to the top of the scaffolding to get it into the bin at the top of the truck...

And, then you do it again.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the workers here do not wear steel toed boots.  Check out the foot wear. Or, just leave the footwear at the bottom of the scaffolding.

Krishna (below) works at the site with her husband as do many women.  They are dressed in beautiful flowing colours and somehow manage to stay clean in this dusty environment, doing labour jobs alongside the men.  I don't know exactly how many layers she has on but, it is really hot here...

In this light it seems that you can wear any combination of colours and it will look great.

March 20 Celebration of Colour

Holi Hai 

The colour of spring is here, love is in the air and it is time to celebrate Holi. 

"This festival does not recognize bars of caste, class or creed.  Drenched in colours everybody comes to resemble each other, all differences dissolve in the colours that flow in plenty."  Well, I would doubt that anybody would think Jerry and this lad resemble each other even with the pink dusting but, the friendliness that was expressed was more free flowing on this day than we have experienced on others.  This celebrant and his friends were happy to share colour with Jerry - it was lovingly touched to his face and head followed by a bear hug - and, of course, the photo op.  Maybe intoxicant was imbibed that helped diminish the natural boundaries somewhat but we felt no ill will from this encounter.


We were cautioned that too much alcohol was consumed on this holiday and things sometimes got out of control.  Our driver was very agitated as Jerry and I tromped through clusters of people, photographing  the Chattarpur Mandir temple - He had not really intended for us to get out of the car at this location and seemed to be in quite a lather about something happening to us on his watch.  Initially he drove very slowly, following us up the street in the car, he eventually found a parking spot and followed us on foot until we got just the right angle on this giant statue of Hanuman (Monkey God) and agreed to move to safer ground.


Hanuman

Krishna

Our hosts from the Lalit Hotel project, after much discussion, advised the best place for us to experience Holi was at the Iskcon Temple where the colour was expressed in flowers rather than water and dye.  It was beautiful, peaceful and full of ceremony.  (It was not what we were expecting in keeping with Holi celebrations.)

The colour in the altar displays was stunningly beautiful.

Ganesha

After all of this the display that touched me the most was this one of Lord Ganesha with the dried up flower garland, placed against a tree amongst broken icons, at the side of the garbage strewn road.

This beast was in the middle of the road, at a busy intersection, with his heard - including a nursing calf.  I so wanted a picture of that but didn't dare step out of the car in that chaotic space of honking, edging vehicles and zipping motorcycles, where cows have the right of way and people...  well, people need to fend for themselves. 

Saturday March 19, 2011

It's the weekend again - and we were determined to get work boots for the guys.  Not an easy item to find in a country where anything looking like WCB is non-existent and sandals are the normal footwear for the workers.

But, first a Hindi lesson.  A tutor came to our house and not only taught us about language but about customs as well.  An hour (turned into 1.5 hrs.) for 800 rupees.  He has 2 masters degrees in languages - English, French and translation.  Things don't add up the same way here as what I'm used to.

The main thing to remember is that the verb  ALWAYS goes at the end of the sentence.  The word of the day is:  Nahi (No) and with respect Ji Nahi.  Very successfully employed "Nahi" stopped the rickshaw drivers from following me down the street.  Not so successful with the wee urchins wanting coins.

Then, it was time for lattes at our Galleria Market...
and, the trial and error with cards at the 24 hr. ATMs...

and, a pause for a trim...  and lunch...

The guys really got into power shopping!

4:30PM and still no work boots  ...at least 3 shoe stores with blank looks & offers of the popular pointy toed number - people couldn't even fathom a shoe with steel toes - wrong turns, wild goose chases, (asking directions is an adventure when nobody will admit to not knowing where we should go) ...we did finally find a more industrial shopping area and Bata shoes (in India since 1932) able to provide us with very light work boots for Rs1,000/$20.

Tired and dusty and probably dehydrated, we were in no mood for our driver's kind offer to take us to yet another shopping emporium.  ji nahi nahi

Find us some electrolytes - coconuts at the side of the road...

Shukriya, Achchwa Shukriya.  (Thank you, good thank you.)
Namaste.