A Winter in India

Hello From A Learned Traveller,

This is Kate writing, and I'm to add my own observations about my educational journey through the land they call India. This photo is taken at Fatehpur Sikri, which is a Palace/Tomb that was the capital of the Mughal empire sometime around the same time that William Shakespeare was alive in England. Fascinating to see the vast differences in artechtecture between England and India of that time. England would invade India about 400 years after this palace was built.
This particular place at the Fatehpur Sikri is called the Astrologer's Seat. I've chosen to sit here and contempelate my fates. I wonder if Saturn will smile on the gates of my stars, and so on *winks*

These are some photos that Kate and Rob took along the road on our drive from Delhi to Agra.

Two women simultaneously decorated Kate's hands, palms and back. Two very different designs. Took almost 40 minutes! After the henna dries, you rub off the dried dye that you see here and it leaves a red-orange design that will last a month or two.

Kate also has a small stone tikka on her forehead, put there by one of the stonecutters at the crafts place we went to.

These Christmas decorations were in the Beauty Parlour at our hotel. Kate went to get her hands henna tatooed (not permanent), and Dave and Rob each got very good haircuts. The people who run the shop are Moslem. It made us stop and think how odd the Christmas story and its customs must sound to someone who isn't Christian. OK, Chrsitmas is Jesus' birthday. He was born in the desert, but you put decorations on a pine tree and dress up as Santa Claus to celebrate. Jesus later died on the cross, so why not celebrate the more religious part? Skip the intervening 33 years and put the decorations on the cross. The henna artists were asking us questions about what was the name of that tree that we use. (In addition to these pictured, they did also have a decorated rubber tree, as in the tree that rubber comes from, not a tree made of rubber).

This one doesn't really need a title. Here it is, supremely beautiful, just after sunset.

At the Taj Mahal, we were asked by many people if they could take our pictures. So we take theirs too. These guys wanted to know where we are from, so we asked them the same question. They are from Gwalior, about 200 miles south of Agra in the state called Madhya Pradesh and were certainly enjoying their excellent adventure.

We have just gotten back from a three-day trip to Agra (more on that, separately). We had a hired car and driver, which turned out to be a 9-seat van and driver-plus-assistant. It’s a good way to travel because you see a lot of Indian life right on the roadsides, and the driver knows his way to all of the monuments and shopping and takes you wherever you want to go whenever you want to go, and waits for you until you get back.

With a stop at the Rajastan Motel for breakfast, it was a 5-hour trip from our apartment to the Clark’s Shiraz Hotel, where we checked into rooms on the fifth floor (top floor) with a view of both the Taj and the Red Fort (at least until the fog rolled in). It’s a four lane divided highway new since we were here in 1998. There is a 10 to 15 foot median strip filled with bougainvillea that was all in bright-red bloom. They neglected to make provision for the movements of the villagers who live literally right on the edge of the road and whose farm fields may be on the other side, so there are inventive coping strategies, like removal of the stone curbs so carts can go across the median strip.

Kate and Rob arrived last night pretty much right on time despite really thick fog here in Delhi. We had a great day today, with lunch at the Bengali Sweet Shop and an afternoon of siteseeing. This photo is at Humayan's tomb, one of the World Heritage Sites here. Humayan was a Mughal Emperor in the late 1500s, so this tomb pre-dates the Taj Mahal, but is kind of a "rehearsal" for that design. We leave tomorrow morning to go see the Taj itself.

Santa is right here in Bengali Market handing out goodies. The Bengali Sweet Shop is in the background behind him. The temperature is a chilly 48 degrees.

The two card and party supply stores in the market have expanded out onto the sidewalk and the Star of Bethlehem has settled right on their shop.

The tree is genuine plastic with deluxe flashing lights. The ornaments are lovely handpainted papier mache ones from Kashmir.

There are Christmas decorations in all of the markets here, and many buildings have lights up. It is not a religious holiday for most people, but everyone is happy to join in. The High School that Pam visited had Merry Christmas posters and when she commented on that, the teacher said, "We are a secular society, so we celebrate all the religions in school. The children should know about all of them." Seems like a better attitude than our extreme separation of church and state where no one learns anything about anyone's religion.