After my last post, India continued to be a combination of columns A and B ("A" being uber cool and "B" representing experiences that had us yearning for the peace and anonymity of Canada).
On our last day in Jaipur, Caitlin and I both had henna done by a very sweet and incredibly talented woman called Sheshi. She invited us back to breakfast with her family the following day, which turned out to be a highlight of the trip.
Following a delicious meal of stuffed parantha and chai masala (my new favourite tea!), we were taken to the various temples where she and her children go to pray each day.
Unsure of my own faith, I've always been interested in the religion and faith of others and I tend to get overly emotional at important or potentially important places (I cried like a baby during my first visit to Canterbury Cathedral, Temple Church and Stonehenge, to name a few...). Surprisingly, I hadn't experienced this intense emotional connection at any of the Hindu temples we had visited throughout our trip. However, attending these places with Sheshi and her family was a more moving experience for me. These small, intimate temples proved to be much more appealing to me than the large, elaborate ones we had frequented. This, combined with the hospitality of Sheshi and her family, made it a wonderful morning, despite the presence of Creepy Driver Guy.
In the afternoon we headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Our visit was more than worth the 750 rupee admission fee; so much so that we could almost forget the hassle of getting past the guards! (Apparently mine and Caitlin's combined possession of a plug, a Nintendo DS and a deck of cards put us on par with Osama Bin Laden... While I realize that security measures are going to be high when visiting one of the World Wonders, I have yet to hear of an incident -- although I am not, admittedly, an explosives expert -- where anything at all was blown-up by a playing card... but like I said, what do I know?)
The Taj is, undeniably, a beautiful structure and a work of art. The outside is covered in verses from the Quaran and seeing it re-enforced my desire to learn more about Islam. Hopefully at a later date I will be able to do so!
After enjoying a lovely sunset in the shadow of the Taj, we headed to one of the sketchiest train stations I have ever been in (and I've spent a fair bit of time in some really dodgey ones...). It was alright though, because our sleeper trained proved to be a fitting match to the train station. Overnight trains in India are NOTHING like their European counterparts. I'm not sure why this surprised me, but sleeping in an open car, surrounded by all of our luggage and about thirty unknown men was not conducive to a good night's sleep...
Exhausted, and more than a little irritable, we finally arrived at Varanasi (and only three hours late! Here I would usually make some off-hand comment about Mussolini, but I'm not going to do that in case someone takes me literally and I get myself into a whole host of trouble... anyway, use your imagination. That way, whatever you come up with can't be pinned on yours truly, but rather only on your own questionable conscience and morality. :P)
The city of Shiva was an... interesting... experience. We went to the burning ghats to learn about Hindu funerary rites. As the most sacred city in India, it is believed that dying in Varanasi sends the soul directly to nirvana, thereby releasing it from the cycle of birth and death. My spiritual side found this incredibly intriguing, but my logical side couldn't help but think of the environmental effects of the way in which the bodies of the dead are disposed of.
When an Indian Hindu dies, the body is often brought to Varanasi to be burned on a funeral pyre of sandalwood (real or artificial). Upon arrival to the burning ghat, the body is washed in the Ganges and left to dry. Once cremated on the banks of the river, the ashes are scattered on the water. Everyone is desposed of as such, with the exception of children under twelve, holy men and lepers. These people are taken by boat to the middle of the river where their corpses are thrown over-board with a stone tied to their ankles.
Although the rite itself is spiritually appealing, it's also an environmental disaster.
The Ganges is so polluted that it's technically considered unsafe to bathe in, let alone to drink or cook with (the stats are actually unbelievable)... In addition to the sewage that runs freely into the river, and the garbage that is so carelessly tossed into the water, I doubt that the presence of human decay contributes to the sanitation of a water system that millions of people and animals depend on for survival.
The pollution through India (well, in the three states that we visited anyway) has put a bit of a damper on our trip. Everywhere you look there are massive amounts of rubbish: in the desert, in the cities, in the sacred Ganges... At one point we were driving past a man-made forest of saplings and EVERY SINGLE ONE of the trees had garbage tangled in its branches. In such a beautiful country where people are so patriotic, it's easy to imagine what a successful clean-up campaign could achieve.
We're back in Delhi now (and it's not so helish now that we're fully prepared and know exactly what to expect!) trying to fill the time before our 5 am flight to Abu Dhabi. We're both anxious to continue our travels so that we can (...wait for it...) reflect on our experience here in India. It has been a good one, albeit utterly exhausting, overwhelming and, at times, disheartening. Despite all of this (and the fact that I have yet to have an epiphany of any sort!) I'm very glad to have come, seen some of the country and to have had the opportunity to experience a bit of the culture, thanks to some of the amazing (and amazingly creepy) people we met throughout our travels.
So I'm not going to promise to write more in the weeks to come, seeing as I can't seem to keep a promise to save my life as of late, but here's hoping!
1 comment:
reflect. reflect. reflect.
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