The Amber Fort and Other Jaipur Sights

11/28/09

Eleven pictures today, and one powerful moment to share. (Numercal order of pictures at same level go right to left).
1. The “Palace of the Winds” in Jaipur. Built in 1799, this is a façade one room thick—a kind of stadium seating on steroids—for women of the court to use for viewing parades and festivals. When the Mughals invaded India, they helped establish the concept of “purdah,” the exclusion of women from public life. So women had to stay hidden in structures such as these, even in the case of Hindu royalty such as Jaipur’s. Of course, “har har,” women talk so much that it must be windy in there!
2. A close-up of one of the viewing rooms. On purdah: it’s sad to see women still so subordinate in India. Our guide told one of our traveling companions (Reade) that he never eats meals with his wife. The American idea of spouses as best friends and companions is really incomprehensible to the Indians with whom I’ve talked. The fact that the President of India (a seventy-something female) indulged in her own “Mission Accomplished” moment this week and flew a fighter jet doesn’t change that.
3. The Amber Fort, a few miles north of Jaipur. This was the seat of the Jaipur Maharajahs from the late 1500s to when they built Jaipur in 1727. We spent most of the morning there.
4. And also #5
5. Support of women’s equality doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching them and hanging out with them. The first woman in red was shooting some type of movie and made repeated entrances through the doorway. The second picture shows another woman in red (Denise) who consented along with Reade to explore the fort together with me.
6. The pleasure garden of the Fort. (Remember “In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a pleasure dome decree?”)
7. Text describing the basil plant pictured in #8.
8. The god Tulsi—basil. Denise can relate, as can consumers of her pesto!
9. The Ganesh Gate to the Fort. Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god, is the most popular deity in India, according to one guidebook. This is because he is the remover of obstacles and bringer of good fortune, and he is therefore placed on doorways and entrances of all sorts. In Denise’s and my spiritual tradition we experienced a similar concept that often when we center and listen to the Divine, “way opens,” and problems are overcome.
10. The “Water Palace” (Jal Mahal) built for day excursions (to play music or hunt birds, for example) by the Maharajah. It seems to float.
11. Sunset from the Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Temple on the south side of Jaipur.

Our driver took us here this afternoon because we wanted to see a temple. Because photography wasn’t allowed inside, I didn’t pay attention to getting a good picture outside. I was busy leaving my shoes for the shoe-check guy. The marble structure was built in the 1980s. It is cool and airy, with many marble carvings and stained glass windows showing scenes from the Hindu epics and depicting Hindu deities. We sat cross-legged on the marble floor and meditated for at least 15 minutes. Although many people were passing through, I was as close to centered worship as I’ve been since 11/8 when I was last in Quaker Meeting. Coming out and watching the sun go down seemed to be a good end to the day—and more of what we had hoped India would be.

PAUL

Giving Thanks

Paul talked about Jaipur, so I’ll talk about our time in Varanasi, which is the holiest city to the Hindu (like Mecca is to the Muslims). To quote one of our guidebooks:

“Spiritual life in Varanasi revolves around the ghats, the long string of bathing steps leading down to the water on the western bank of the Ganges. Most are used for bathing but there are also several ‘burning ghats’ where bodies are cremated in public.” Per our guide, there are about 70 cremations a day. Tourists are taken by rickety boats to the burning ghats to see the cremations, which are performed by male relatives as part of a Hindu ritual. This felt ghoulish to us – it felt like exploiting families’ grief for the boat rowers and guides to make money off of voyeuristic photo-taking tourists.

We spent three days in Varanasi, which for me was two days too many. I wish I had a scanner to post a photo showing 8 cows sitting in the Ganges from Thanksgiving Day's Hindustan Times (an English language Indian Newspaper). The caption read: "The divisional commissioner's order of keeping cattle away from the river front being openly flouted in Varanasi." Varanasi may be a holy city, but it is also the filthiest place I have ever been. (Maybe I shouldn’t mention “filth” after a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s cabinet took so much grief a couple of days ago for saying “If there was a Nobel Prize for filth, India would win it.”) The narrow streets are packed with residents, pilgrims, and a few tourists, and also goats, cows, dogs, and monkeys. You need to watch where you step! Cow dung is collected, dried, and used as fuel (see photo). In addition to the filth, tourists are constantly hassled by street vendors and tugged on by women and children begging for money. Who can blame them when they are so poor, and of course we – compared to them – are like millionaires.

Based on our first week in India, this is my Thanksgiving list that I sent to my family and a few of my public health colleagues of things for which I am thankful:

Dependable electricity
Water from the faucet that I can drink
Good sanitation
Clean air
Fire standards
Food safety standards
Traffic safety laws
Sidewalks
Freedom from marauding monkeys
Peace and quiet

Being in India has helped me appreciate the 30 year increase in longevity in the United States over the last 100 years as a result of public health measures, and reinforced my concern about legislators and members of the U.S. public who see government regulation as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

I will share things I like about India in another post.

INDIA!!!

So it’s Friday night in Jaipur, known as the “pink city” 150 miles southwest of Delhi. That’s 5.5 hours of what, a week ago, we’d have considered to be insane driving. Now we’re somewhat used to it, and think we can tell the difference between drivers skilled at this lawless transportation and ones who are merely dangerous! But that is only the tip of the iceburg.

At least two people told me before I left North America that a visit to India would be “life-changing.” I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I’m facing new experiences of such an extreme level of strangeness to me that I can only compare it to 40 years ago when I went off to college. (I think Denise shares some of this—she wrote a lengthy email to her family for Thanksgiving listing all the things for which India makes her thankful.) Not being someone who splats my feelings onto the internet without a lot of care, I’ll post more about the past week in due course.

In the meantime, today started with breakfast in the charming courtyard of our hotel, pictured here past Denise’s shoulder. The hotel is the “Madhuban,” the home of “the erstwhile ruling family of Patan, an ancient state which lies about 70 miles northeast of Jaipur.” The quote is from the hotel’s publicity.www.madhuban.net
One of the amazing things we saw today was a huge sundial, shown in the attached picture. It was part of a huge outdoor astronomical observatory built (1728-1734) by the maharajah who founded Jaipur. The guide claimed that it tells time accurately to within 2 seconds, and we were able to confirm that the time shown was at least as accurate as our casually-set watches.

Paul

1 1/2 days in Paris

Sunday evening, 11/22/09

We’re flying to Varanasi in the morning after two exciting, if not always comfortable days in Delhi. So, as schoolkids with late assignments, here’s the Paris two days.

First picture is the glass pyramid at the Louvre. We chose not to make it our priority museum. Instead, as dusk fell, we walked up the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe, until we found a good bridge to the Eiffel Tower. We rode up to the second level and got a good tourist view of the city. (Second pic is of one of the four legs of the Tower.) Then we tracked down the new restaurant (see third picture) serving French “comfort food” as pitched by Susan Stamberg on Morning Edition a few weeks ago. We were not disappointed in the tender pork and the chicken casserole we had. We were disappointed that the ’07 Gigondas red wine, so beloved of Mark and Ellen Sullivan was listed on the menu but sold out! We settled for a Bandol red from near the Spanish border.

Thursday a.m. we used our metro passes (having walked probably 9 miles Wednesday). We spent three hours in Notre Dame, appreciating the architecture (4^th picture), Denise’s friends, the gargoyles (5^th picture) and sadly, the Memorial to those deported from France by the Nazis (6^th picture). We bought a baguette and cheese and yogurt from a grocery store and ate in a park. It was after 3, and we assumed we had missed our chance to do much else. But Denise thought we ought to at least check out the Orsay Museum, where the art of the greatest French impressionists lives. We found that on Thursday nights, the Orsay is open until 9! So we spent over 3 hours viewing Van Gogh, Millett, Manet, Monet, Gauguin and others—including Whistler and his “Mother.” (We giggled, remembering the last time we saw the Whistler, when it was on loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Friends of ours from Lansing who were visiting in Paris at the time had to go without!) Striking new (to me) fact: Degas, who painted many ballerinas and dancers, was also a sculptor, and sculpted them too. (Picture 7)

Empires? There are connections to be made between several, but not simply. So keep in mind the year 1160, when construction on Notre Dame was begun. It relates to things we saw today in Delhi. Of course there will be a test!

Paul

Catching Up

11/19/09 (US format) or 19/11/09 (European format)

We’ve cut the trip photographer’s pay for failing to take a picture of Lina. On the theory that since Denise’s garden is her resume, Lina’s garden must be Lina’s resume, here is a picture of Lina represented by her “resume.”




Further, we never got around to uploading a picture of the Roman bridge in Vaison:

Joie de vivre

November 18, 2009

We are now on our own in Paris, after having five wonderful days in Vaison la Romaine with our Lansing, Michigan neighbors, Mark and Ellen Sullivan. We loved the opportunity to see their “other life” in France. Their “other life” is filled with beautiful countryside, the beautiful French language, fine wine, good food, and the community that they have built for themselves. Can’t get much better than that! Here’s Mark and Ellen with their friend Benoit, a chef extraordinaire, at his restaurant La Lyriste, after we had finished a fine dinner. Here we are with Mark’s and Ellen’s friend, Jean-Marc Espinasse, a vintner extraordinaire, at his vineyard and winery, Domaine de Rouge-Bleu, visit http://www.rouge-bleu.com/ We had the opportunity to stay at a B&B run by Mark and Ellen’s friend, Madame Lina Blanchard, hostess extraordinaire. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a photo of Lina. Denise

Another sunny day in Provence

November 17, 2009

Monday we hiked (partially on a rails-to-trails path) along the river to the campers memorial and back, where I ran in the morning. Pictures of the memorial and the Rotary plaque describing it are attached.

I don’t run with the camera, so things I see while running have to be captured later. Hence, the Roman Bridge, and the 13th Century castle ruin of the town of Vaison la Romaine are now attached. The blue heron standing in the middle of the Ouveze (oo-vezz) River that I saw on this morning’s run? Priceless…and unphotographed. Paul

A picture is worth a thousand words

Provence Region, France

This trip is an ad hoc collection of places reflecting who we’re planning to see and what we’d like to do together more than it is an organized tour. However, even in the planning stages it was clear we’d see the Taj Mahal, built by a Mughal emperor; and the Angkor Wat complex left by the Khmer Empire. Our starting 5 days in Provence (acquired by the Romans even before they were an Empire) emphasized that past.

Our friends Mark and Ellen live for 6 months of the year in Vaison la Romaine, a village complete with a 2000 year old Roman bridge over the river. That bridge survived a huge flood in 1992 that washed out a more recent bridge and killed some campers along the river bank. (I took my morning run by the memorial to the campers this morning. The memorial was constructed in part by the local Rotary Club.)

Sunday Mark and Ellen took us to several nearby towns; lunch time found us in one where the only restaurant apparently open was a Vietnamese restaurant. The French ruled Vietnam (along with Laos and Cambodia—called, together, Indochina) from the 1880s to 1954. As in the US, one result of foreign wars seems to be new cuisine.