When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run. Abraham Lincoln

Quick Facts on India

• Population 1.2 billion; 27.8% urban
• Religions: Hindu 82.41%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, others (Buddhist, Jain, & Parsi 2.5%)
• Languages: Hindi, 16 other official languages - over 400 different spoken languages
• Literacy-There is a wide gender disparity in the literacy rate in India: adult (15+ yrs) literacy rates in 2009 were 76.9% for men & 54.5% for women. 
• The low literacy rate for women has dramatically had an impact on family planning & population stabilization in India. Studies have shown that female literacy is a strong predictor of the use of contraception among married Indian couples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India
• Over 70% of the people in India live in over 550,000 villages
• Religion, caste and language are major determinants of social & political organization in India today.  http://www.crownrelo.com/relo/in/india.facts.html

I found India more enjoyable, different, exotic, colorful, shocking, and interesting than I ever imagined it would be. It stimulated every sense I had, and some I didn't even know I had. The people were kind, serene, interesting, and exotic.  It was religion, spices, history, poverty, extravagance, color, beauty, bizarre, and shocking all rolled together and shaken...not stirred.


One can't visit India and not be awed at their historic architecture. They have perfected the essence of combining Indian, Persian, Asian, and Islamic styles with gardens and fountains.  Geometric layouts, and the use of mathematical elegance in their art and buildings, have brought symmetry and balance to a grand level. Their forts, mosques, towers, palaces, temples, and mausoleums of red stone and white marble are pure sites of elegance to be visually enjoyed. 


The grand opulence is a stark contrast to the abject poverty, and the strain on a country and its resources overpopulated with 1.2 billion people. They seem locked into the past with ancient traditions that perpetuate social situations of poverty. They lack clean water and an effective mass transit system, and they have a severe litter, pollution and smog situation. The street families, beggars, and ragged children marked with signs of malnutrition are very hard sites to absorb for an American couple who live in the land of plenty. Four & six year old children begging for food or money on a six lane street with cars and scooters whizzing at great speed is heartbreaking. 


But we did see a new and emerging middle class,  a sense of hope for the future bubbling from the people, and a government encouraging their people to recycle and plant trees. We saw bus loads of girls and boys heading to and from schools, and heard stories of free health care. We wish India the best in their developing future.


So long to India...thank you for your kindness.
Namaste  
India, they love their elephants ... 
Ganesha is one of the deities best-known and most widely worshipped in the Hindu pantheon. Wikipedia source

Eye of the beholder

Ganesha statue with garland of marigolds

Greg & Melissa in front of elephant painting in Udaipur

Door with elephant spikes to protect from charging war elephants

Mosaic of Ganesha in Jaipur

Elephant treat

Elephant column at the Capital

Elephant shadow

Elephant shrubbery

Look real hard for the elephant heads & trunks

Elephant cruising

The elephant pooper-scooper guy

Butteautiful

Melissa   Jan. 26, 2011  

Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in one of his famous quotes likened the Taj Mahal to a teardrop that glistened "spotlessly bright on the cheek of time".

On Sunday, Jan. 23 we were in the car by 9:00 am, driving to Agra from Jaipur across the farmlands of India.  Once the shock of city life in India wears off, you get used to the different, shocking, unexpected, and bizarre. It's morning, so the street people are washing themselves on the sidewalk in open view, urinating, and bathing children. Scooters are loaded with families on their way to..., horns are honking, taxis are full of kids on their way to school, and people (1.2 billion of them) are preparing for their day.

Morning sweeping

Motorcycle family

Juice vendor

Taxi full of preschool girls on their way to school

Milk vendors

Street bread vendor

Carrying water

School boys hanging on to a very full taxi

We headed out to the open farmlands, and the farm families and small villagers are doing the same. We pass fields and fields of flowering mustard plants, farm villages, bee keepers living in tents by the flowering mustard plants, women walking with firewood balanced on their heads, toddlers running around with only shirts, young children flying kites, young boys/teenagers playing cricket, and women making cow dung patties.


Cow patties are made by the hundreds and dried on the side of the roads, farm fields, and the top of houses. They are used for fuel and stockpiled for monsoon season when firewood is wet. They are stacked in beautiful geometric patterns. They also make small shelters from the cow's dung and beautiful designs are scratched on the walls.  Funny how one finds beauty and art even in cow poop.

Dung hut

Women making cow dung patties

Bee keeper's tent & bee hives in mustard fields

After arriving in Agra, exhausted, our guide says see you at 6:45 for a sunrise trip to Taj Mahal. Sunrise at the Taj Mahal was wonderful.


The Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was ordered by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his third but favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during the birth of her fourteenth child. It stands as a beautiful symbol of eternal love. The Taj was built in Mughal style architecture that combines Islamic, Indian, and Persian styles. It took 20,000 workers and 22 years to build.


Now as I read the book I bought on the Taj Mahal it explains that there are at least two other wives of the shah buried on the grounds. Reaaally?! Humm, how does the "chosen one"wife feel about that?! The biggest monument to our inseparable eternal love and you buried your other wives on my mausoleum grounds?! 

Sunrise at Taj Mahal

Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the Taj.

Sunrise sleepyheads

Symmtrical beauty

The Taj Mahal is flanked on each side with a mosque. This is the one on the left.

Melissa   Jan. 25, 2011     10:10 pm

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know. Groucho Marx

Goodbye Udaipur, hello Jaipur.  We arrived at our hotel, RamBagh Palace, which was originally built as a hunting lodge before being converted into a palace for the Maharaja of Jaipur. After traveling through India, I get the sense it was good to be a Maharaja. The best part of this hotel was the guy whose job is to chase the birds out of the garden and fountain. It's stuff like this that just make my traveling so unique and fascinating. Really, the jobs around the world you did not know even existed! I've seen pyramids, mosques, forts, but a bird chaser just stops me in my tracks.


     "Hey Honey, how was your day?"
     "I shooed away 16 parrots, but the pigeons were killin' me today!"

Off to the Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, then to Amber Fort, which is a beautiful fortified palace and once the capital of Jaipur. Next stop, a reserve where we rode elephants and had lunch. After a traditional Indian lunch, we headed to City Palace and Jantra Mantar, an observatory in the 18th century. There are 14 major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, and tracking planet & stars.  It has, according to Guinness's Book of World Records, the world's largest sundial.  The last stop of our very busy 10 hour day was a private tour of the Jal Tarang, which was very impressive.

Hawa Mahal - Palace of the Winds

Amber Fort

Elephant Ride

Elephant Ride Shadow

Baby got back!

City Palace

Sari shopping

Wrapped in sari

Jal Tarang

Melissa  Jan. 24, 2011  10:16

Nirvana is here in Udaipur...look no further...

After Delhi, we flew to Udaipur and checked into the opulent Oberoi Hotel Udaivilas that overlooks Lake Pichola. Let me say, I have stayed in every kind of West Texas Motel Hell to the Ritz in London, and I have never had an experience like the Oberoi Hotel Udaivilas.  If every time I walk in the house Greg doesn't throw flowers on me, greet me with a warm towel, fresh squeezed juice, candles & incense burning, and bows of Namaste, there will be hell to pay! Really, is that too much to ask from my hubby? Well, it wasn't from this hotel. I can't brag enough on this hotel. The rooms were exquisite, quiet, beautiful, and comfortable. The grounds were an endless array of fountains, sculptures, gardens, peacocks, flowering trees, and pure bliss!

http://www.oberoihotels.com/oberoi_udaivilas/index.asp

Enough of the hotel. Our guide met us for our Udaipaur tour, and he knew people from Midland. It's a small world!  He was so excited we were from Texas. He's a big rodeo fan, former polo player and, we quickly found out from the local people's reaction to him, part of the local royal family.


First stop, the opulent City Palace. It was in a fury of activity because of an upcoming royal family wedding. In the morning we saw the Cyrstal Gallery at the Fateh Prakash Palace that houses the world's largest cyrstal collection, and then a stop at a miniature painting school and gallery. Then back to the hotel for afternoon tea and some relaxation. For dinner we sat outside under a full moon, had delicious Indian food, and watched a spectacular fireworks display from across the lake.


Udaipur was great, the people were great, the hotel was great, and the sites were great.


We left the next day with one last request. I wanted to participate in a local custom of purchasing some alfalfa and feeding the local cows for good luck and prosperity. Our driver took us off the beaten path to a local neighborhood. We caused quite a flurry of excitement. Apparently, it's not every day American tourists stop by to visit in this neighborhood. The seller was an elderly Indian woman who properly held court, made a dignified fuss, and searched for the right location to feed the cow. The other neighborhood ladies on their front stoops were squawkin', kids running around, and general confusion in the neighborhood. Well, the cow got fed, she let me take her picture & she got paid more than the going rate for alfalfa (I gave apparently a large amount - 100 rupees/$2), and now I have good luck. It was a win/win. 

Camel beast of burden choice in most towns we've visited.

City Palace

Worker at Fateh Prakash  Palace

No worries...he has a safety rope around his neck ?!?

Local woman with rose petals coming from the temple
 

 Beautiful women of Udaipur

Melissa  Jan 23, 2011   7:28 pm