One Week Down (almost)

Well, we have not quite made it one week in India, but already we are starting to get accustomed to it. We currently find ourselves in the backpacker (read hippie) haven of Rajasthan: Pushkar. It reminds me very much of Dali in Yunnan in that sense, but Dali has a nicer old town. On the other hand, it’s a bit holier, as this is the place where Brahma (one of the four main Hindu gods) was said to have dropped a lotus, creating a holy lake. He later went here for some important ceremony, but his wife, Saraswati failed to attend. In revenge he married another woman. To get back at him, Saraswati swore that he would never be worshipped anywhere but here, and so one of the only temples dedicated to Brahma is located here in Pushkar.

In any case it has been nice today to relax a bit and reflect upon our experiences so far instead of being ferried from one tourist spot to the next!

Where to start? Perhaps the tourist Mecca of the Taj Mahal. We went there three days ago, and I can’t really stop thinking about it. I know that the building gets a lot of press in the world, and so I thought that it couldn’t possibly live up to all the hype, but it really did. It captured my gaze from the rooftop of our hotel in Agra, and it held my attention until our departure. It’s not as big as I was imagining, but the building itself is just splendid, the sleek curves and the shining marble and mother of pearl entrancing!

The city of Agra, on the other hand, is nothing to write home about. I had expressed concern back in Delhi to some Indian friends of Chesa’s family that Agra would just be a tourist hole. It pretty much was, but who can blame them? In order to stop the erosion of the white marble of the Taj, the Indian government banned industry in the area. What other option do the locals have then to join the tourist bandwagon?

After a morning of sight-seeing, both Chesa and I were happy to head off to Jaipur. Upon arrival in the town, I felt more comfortable at once. Here we saw the aforementioned doctors, but also participated in events held during a local heritage festival. Probably the best part of our time there was meeting up with a Kiwi friend, Bethani, who was studying in Kunming for a bit last semester. She was performing a Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) fire dance while another couple of friends did Rajasthani dancing. It was quite a spectacle, and I just love those small world moments where paths cross in the strangest of places! It reminds me of the universe’s inherent connectedness, and for that, I am appreciative.

As for basic impressions so far: the animals in India amaze me. At one point we were on the road in Jaipur and saw a man riding a horse on one side of street, while an ox was pulling a cart on the other, followed by a camel! All we were missing was an elephant to round out the work animals here! Streets are also filled with goats and boars, and buildings with flocks of birds. Chesa seems to think there was a Maoist campaign to rid Chinese cities of the pestering birds, which I can neither confirm nor deny, but the lack of birds in Chinese cities is quite shocking when compared to their domination here in India!

And as for cultural experiences, our dinner last night here in Pushkar would have to top the list. We sat down for dinner at a little restaurant a bit outside the normal tourist strip. After we sat down, a cow moseyed over to gawk. We gawked back, and even took pictures, not being used to eating in the presence of cows. As we were snapping the photos, a group of what turned out to be farmers from Hariyana (a nearby state) turned to gawking. They eventually got bold, and even sat down with us. We chatted and had a lively conversation for over an hour. The group continued to grow, as there were 40 or so farmers travelling with the Forestry Department to learn new methods of farming here in Rajasthan, and we became the evening’s entertainment. It was fun, though their English was, not surprisingly, stilted, and the restaurant manager didn’t seem to like the crowd. The farmers were clearly more interested in Chesa (I wonder why), and I was worried that I was going to have to deal with that, but when we decided to go, there was no brouhaha.

My favorite quote from the evening came when I was explaining the term half-sister (a term I’ve had to explain to the Chinese just as often). When I said I had one, the man with the best English said: “You mean she’s lame?”

“No, no,” I insisted, and I gave a chortle.

“You mean she’s small?”

Again, “No,” and I smiled and delved into as simple an explanation I could. I think they got it in the end.