Time for INDIA!!

INDIA!
So we are back at sea and I now have some time to write this blog entry. I am warning you now that this will most definitely be a long post. I am going to split this day by day because I did SO much while I was in India. I saw lots of cool things and lots of not so cool things so this journal will be a bit back a forth in that way. So without further ado here we go…

Day 1: My first day in India was filled with an FDP (Faculty directed pracitca) for my world poetry class. The idea of a FDP is to go on an excursion that the professor has put together that directly relates to the class work so that you can write a compare and contrast paper between the experience and the class. We went to a art’s village in Chennai for the day for this FDP. It was a small village that was set up to look like old Indian architecture and used to teach tourists and locals about the history of different art forms in India. They held workshops for students from all over the world on candle making, pottery painting, henna tattoos, basket weaving, and much more. They also had different houses around the grounds dedicated to different religions and those houses would feature items from those religions along with original architecture models for each one. After roaming the grounds and looking at each house and artifacts inside we were presented with a play in the main hall. It was a Theru Koothu theater performance. The actors were all men dressed in elaborate costumes and makeup, which is one of India’s traditions. It is not considered cross-dressing in India when men wear makeup and dress elaborately for plays, because it is an art form and the men are those who do the performance, even if there is to be a woman character. The play was an old tale told in India about 4 brothers who were married to the same woman, and the struggle that occurs when their 5th brother (who is bad) comes and tries to take her from them. I am not going to lie; I didn’t get the play until the tour guide explained it to us because it was all in another language. Also it was much more singing than talking, so in America it would be a lot more like a musical than a play. I still am not exactly sure what it had to do with World Poetry except for it told a message (I guess) but I have to write a paper on it, so good luck to me haha. Oops.

Day 2: I woke up at 3:00 am to meet my group for my 3-day 2-night trip to Agra. We had an early flight from Chennai to Delhi that morning and the breakfast on the plane was beyond disgusting. Needless to say I didn’t eat much. When we arrived in Delhi we got on our tour bus and drove an hour to the Gandhi Memorial. The entrance to the memorial had rows and rows of beautifully colored flowers along with an arch of marble. Inside was very peaceful, as I would have expected for Gandhi. The site was where Gandhi had been cremated, not where he was shot, which is what I originally thought it was. There was a piece of black marble and the eternal flame in the center of a peaceful layout of grass and flowers. From above it looked like one of those rock gardens that people buy, that are supposed to be a peaceful activity. It was silent and beautiful and you could tell how many people were there to pay their respects to a great man. It wasn’t just tourists, like many places we visited, there were many Indians there as well. On a totally different note, and not so pleasant note, I had to use the restroom while I was at the memorial. I wasn’t expecting the nicest of bathrooms to begin with, but I DEFINITELY was not expected what I got. A HOLE IN THE GROUND! ICKKKKKK! I can’t tell you howwwwww disgusting it was to pee in a hole on the ground. ALSO, the floor was wet as hell, and I can only IMAGINE what that was…AND I was wearing flip-flops so I was sliding everywhere! OMG sooooo gross. Anyways, moving on…. next we went to a Hindu temple to full time before our train to Agra. It was spectacular, Gold and burgundy color scheme all in marble. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, which was a real bummer because it was just amazing. The inside had multiple rooms for praying and giving thanks to their various gods. Statues lined the halls of the temple, all in bright, vivid colors. And there were writings and symbols engraved in the walls everywhere. There were two symbols that I recognized right off the bat and found it very interesting that they were present in a Hindu temple, the Swastika and the Star of David. When I asked about them in this context our guide told us that they are both common symbols for people in the Hindu religion, used for many, many years. He told us that the Swastika is actually a symbol for peace, and was considered a peace symbol to the Germans before the Nazi’s and Hitler took over. He said that the Swastika now is considered the peace symbol still and is a very important symbol in Hindu, but if used for wrong doing it is a major sin. Which the Nazi’s did, so basically as long as you use the symbol in good context is it good, when used for bad or wrong doings it is a horrible thing to do. I just found it interesting that the symbols overlapped because I had never seen anyone else use the Star of David who wasn’t Jewish or the Swastika who didn’t follow the Nazi’s. (Just a snippet of something cool I learned).

Next we headed out to the train station to catch our train to Agra. When we arrived at the train station our tour guide looked a little confused and frantic. Not only because we had box dinners that all the beggars were grabbing for, but also because our train had not yet arrived. We all sat and waited for the news on our train while trying to eat our food without being bombarded by starving street children. I couldn’t tell you how hard it was to watch these children who were the size of a stick from malnourishment begging for our food. I, naturally, could not eat anything in my box dinner so I ended up giving it to a little girl who was sitting in a corner crying. The tears subsided quickly when she opened the box and realized she had a meal to eat that night. The smile on her face could not have been any bigger, and the feeling in my heart was indescribable. We finally found out that our train was not coming…apparently trains in India aren’t really reliable. We got back on the bus for a 6-hour drive to Agra instead. The downside to this was that I had no food and no bathroom for a LONG time. I couldn’t help feeling hungry but I also didn’t want to complain about it after seeing what I saw at the train station. I was texting my dad telling him how hungry and starving I was when I caught myself and sent him another text that stated how I obviously wasn’t starving because I had just seen what a starving child looks like. We finally arrived at our hotel and I ordered room service and went to bed. I couldn’t help but wonder how hard it would be to be as hungry as I was every single day, and not being able to fix it. I just had to go 6 hours without food, how about a whole lifetime?

Day 3: Wake up call-5:30 AM! Still dark outside on our way to see the most magnificent building I have ever encountered. The Taj Mahal at sunrise was the first leg of the day, and what a great way to start your day, let me tell ya. The sun rising from behind the trees and to the side of the beautiful marble building standing in front of me. The sun hitting the reflecting pool, marble, and the building in general was spectacular. We did the typical poses that everyone does when they go to the Taj, holding the top tier, smiling with the Taj, sitting looking at the Taj, etc. It really is quite an ordeal how many photographers want to take the EXACT same picture of you with the Taj when you can obviously do it yourself. As we started to walk closer I noticed just how intricate the marble work is. I can’t believe the amount of time and work that was put into this palace. I can’t wait to show everyone at home the pictures so they can see just how amazing it truly was. I’ll get back to the Taj but for now I’m going to move on, next we went to the deserted city (Fatehpur Silkri Royal Palaces). It was a pretty cool place and we took a lot of pictures on all of the old brick buildings. The story behind the city was an old tale of an emperor who couldn't have sons with any of his three wives (only daughters). He met an old magical, holy man who told him in order to be granted sons he should walk barefoot from Agra to the city of Fatehpur Sikri (34km). He did this and was therefore granted with sons and moved his capital city from Agra to Patehpur Sikri. There was a beautiful courtyard, interesting brick architecture, a stunning garden, and a funny looking little pool in the city. After spending about 40-minutes in the abandoned city, we took the buses back to the Gateway hotel for lunch. We finished lunch with enough time to check out the shops in the hotel before heading back to our buses to go a cool little marble factory. We watched men hand-make and carve the marble into a million gorgeous objects. There were beautiful marble carved elephants, tables, hot plates and so much more! I obviously was suckered into buying a couple things but I don’t regret my purchases so oh well. Our next stop was the Agra Fort, which had beautiful scenery and was huge! From the fort we were able to see a breathtaking view of the Taj Mahal. The fort was pretty cool, but we were all super anxious to get back on the bus and head to the Taj Mahal for sunset! Our walk back to the buses from the fort was filled with hagglers and venders/beggars trying to milk us for all we had. When we started to get onto the bus we noticed a man talking loudly to a small boy about 10-11 if I had to guess. The boy had previously tried to sell us some bracelets and had no luck. The man “his boss” went from 0-100 in one second. I turned my head and as soon as I looked back the man had a long stick/bat in his hand. He pushed the boy to the ground and hit him with the stick multiple times. He hit him in the leg, arm, neck, and finally across the face; the boy was bleeding profusely. I found myself banging on the window of the bus trying to get the man to stop, and although there were hundreds of people surrounding this incident no one did anything to prevent it or stop it. The bystander affect was in full play in this instance. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to witness. I couldn’t believe that this was happening in front of so many people and was being accepted to say the least. The bus drove away as quickly as possible to take us out of the situation even though I wish the tour guide had called a help line, which I knew there was one from my family violence class. The bus took us to a place where we had to hop onto a ‘battery bus’ to get closer to the Taj. The Taj Mahal is impeccable! Immaculate! Absolutely gorgeous! And one of the coolest things I have ever seen in person! I was so overwhelmed by its immensity and the fact that the ENTIRE structure is made out of marble, its truly a fascinating place and I was overfilled with joy to be able to see it in real life and not just in the movies or pictures! My breath literally caught at its amazingness. There are two large marble-carved tombs inside the Taj to house the mougal who had created it and his wife who it was created for. The marble felt so smooth and cool underneath my fingertips. The entire inside (and outside) were beautifully marble-covered walls, floors, ceilings, tombs and it was AMAZING! It is definitely the coolest place in the world!! After taking millions of pictures, we watched the sunset on the Taj and saw how pretty the Taj looks at sunset with the light change and the reflections off the marble. No one wanted to leave, two hours was not nearly long enough. We took the battery bus back to where our tour bus was parked and we then went back to the Gateway hotel to use the bathroom and pick up boxed dinners for the train ride home. On the drive to the train station, we passed by an Indian wedding processional with bright lights and brilliant colors. The groom was dressed in traditional Indian clothes, and was riding a white horse, led by boys carrying the lights and carrying other decorative objects to the brides place. We were all marveling over the wedding when our tour guide laughed and said it was a cheap-looking wedding, I still thought it was gorgeous and cool to see. We got to the train station and the bus was immediately surrounded by ‘professional beggars’- women with children, kids with no shoes and dirty clothes, men with strange or missing limbs and we were told to look forward, walk directly behind our tour guide and not to give the beggars anything no matter how hard and depressing it was. We arrived at the train platform, and saw that our train was going to be a few minutes late. Again, beggars asking for money, food, shampoo, chocolate, swarmed us asking for anything they could get their hands on. The kids were all very touchy and grabby, and kept coming up to us and crying and begging for food. It was like a scene straight out of Slumdog Millionaire, and it truly broke my heart. The kids were working for older guys asking for food and money and had to give all their “earnings” to the older guys in order to not be beaten. The train station was a disgusting place and smelled worse than anything I had ever smelled, it was like a combination of dirt, vomit, urine, feces, and yucky smelling spices and body odor. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life- culture shock at its finest. All of us American tourist stood in circles to protect one other from the beggars reaching into our pockets and pulling on our arms. It was so sad, depressing, frustrating, heartbreaking and annoying all at the same time, such a mix of emotions. Finally, after what I could have sworn was three hours (but was only 15 minutes), the train arrived and we finally boarded the 2-hour train back to our hotel in Delhi. When we arrived in Delhi it was already late and we went directly back to our hotel to go to sleep.

Day 4: We woke up a little later than usual today, which was much nicer than the prior days. We had a continental breakfast and then boarded the bus to go see a temple before our plane flight back to Chennai. The temple was the Lotus Baha’i temple. At first I thought that a temple would be quite boring, but it turns out that the Baha’i faith is extremely interesting. They believe that all the main religions of the world are in their own right correct and they follow pieces from all of them. I just thought that was so great. After the temple we had to go to the airport and board our flight to Chennai. We got back to the ship very late that night and I was more than ready for bedtime.

Day 5: I finally got to sleep in today which felt amazing!!!! Today’s mission was to buy as many souvenirs and gifts for family and friends at home that I possibly could. Samantha, two other friends and I went to the shopping plaza about 10 minutes from the boat. It was a mix of mom and pop original handicraft shops and name brand westernized shopping. It was quite an interesting mix. We spent almost all day in the mall and I ended up buying more than enough stuff that everyone will just love, I know I do! On the way back to the ship we took auto rickshaws, which in my opinion was quite a dangerous adventure. The driving in India is NOT like America. It is basically a free for all and these little rickshaws weave in and out of cars, buses, trucks, and motorcycles. It was quite the experience. Our driver was also nuts!!! Every time he would make a risky move he would turn all the way around, look at my friend and me and say “yee haww, yee haww!” It was pretty scary to say the least. We arrived safely back to the boat thankfully and enjoyed a relaxing evening together sharing stories.

Day 6: I woke up this morning with absolutely the worst stomach pains ever. I had a FDP today for my family violence class that I had signed up for and as soon as I stood up to begin getting ready I had to run to the bathroom. From that point forward I was a mess! I attempted to make it to the trip but there was just no way. Samantha had me talk to the doctor and they ended up giving me some anti-nausea medication and a shot and told me to stay in my room for the day. He told me that I would be better after 24 hours and that 15 people on my trip had picked up a bacteria from the food in India. Let me tell you it was a hell of a day. Unfortunately this sickness didn’t last for only 24 hours in my case, because obviously I would get it for longer with my system. I was quarantined to my room for the days at sea up until Singapore. I was not allowed off the ship in Singapore either so I cant really tell you anything about that country except for it looks fun out a window. Haha sorry. I am feeling much better now just so you know and the blog for Viet Nam should be coming shortly. Love you all.
-me-