Thursday
Today is our last day in India. Looking back on the past two and a half weeks I have come to see that although there is always more to see of India and that India really deserves several trips we have done pretty damn well. I would love to go back and really explore some of the more Eastern coastal regions such as Calcutta and other industrial powerhouses (Bangalore also interest me quite a bit.) But then I realized that this is actually how I feel after every trip I take. Whenever I leave a country I always think about what we missed what else there is I would love to see. But like some famous guy once said: You can’t do it all.
That guy was me-at 900am. Considering we only had one day to see all of Delhi, we broke away from the Hardy family because they are going to be staying in Delhi for the next 3 days. So while the Hardy’s went off to an energy related meeting that Gregg had set up. But enough about their day…
The first place we visited was the Chodri Chang in Old Delhi. New Delhi was built by the British in the year ___. Before that, there was only one Delhi (that Delhi is now called “old Delhi”). I think that Old Delhi fits this town better then straight up Delhi.
Chawdri Chang is a market that lies directly in the middle of Old Delhi. Our hotel is in New Delhi. The way you get form out Hotel to the market is a story in and of it itself. First you hop onto the metro and take the Violet line all the way to the last stop. Then you get on the Yellow line for three stops. (We had a guide with us but we could manage the metro without him.)
We walked up and out of the subway station. We were plopped right into Old Delhi. In order to see what we saw on our first looks of Old Delhi, here is a parable: It has the busy streets of New York but instead of cars you have man powered bicycle rickshaws. Then, take all of the stores and replace them with street side markets that are all selling the same things. Take 30% of the Chicago pedetrains and exchange them with begging mothers with babies in their arms. The air is all Beijing style smog (the kind of stuff that turns your snot black and makes your eyes water). Once you have this whole mix of third world shit, cover the entire place every single visable surface with dust and grime. Can you picture Old Delhi yet?
Like I said above, the smog in Delhi proper is terrible. You can hardly see thirty feet in front of you. The sun doesn’t really shine-it only turns the sky a brownish pink. The smog comes from a mixture of pollution, overpopulation, and also the charcoal fires that the slum dwellers lite to keep warm.
The guide took us up to the top of own of his friend’s shops so we could get a roof top look at the poverty and grime that inhabits Old Delhi. I had slums before in India, so the all-out poverty wasn’t surprising. What really struck me was the way that the people living in Old Delhi were living in the opposite ways that their religion would have them live. Hinduism (which is the majority faith in Old Delhi as well as all of India) over our trip in India has been portrayed to us as partly being about living life to the fullest and also being civilized in life. These people (although they were not given enough means to fullest extent. However, it seemed to me that these people weren’t even trying to live in a civilized manner. I saw a man literally taking a crap on the side of the road. The way that the rickshaws drive is a portrayal of the doggy dog traffic battle of Old Delhi.
The examples about how the people are uncivilized go on and on. These examples would not seem jaw-dropping weird for other third-world parts of India. But this is frickn’ Delhi! If the capital and usually seen as the most metropolitan place in India can’t get their act together, who can?
Gandhi has been a large focus of our travels in India. In America, we all see Gandhi as a freedom fighter, martyr, and patriot. Very few people in the U.S. question his brilliance and leadership skills. Very few of us see his week sides. However, several Indian people that we talked to would tell us only about how much they do not approve of the Mahatma. Here were their arguments:
· “he’s a politician”
This argument was one that we found very common. One of our guides told us that Gandhi was brilliant and smart and insights and blah blah blah but deep down was just another politicians that cared only about himself. Our guide went on to ask the rhetorical question “if you cared about the whole of your country and not yourself then you would work towards freeing your nation without losing all the lives that Gandhi’s actions lead to.” (Too me, this seems like a pretty poorly worded/poorly structured argument.)
· “he holds a double standard”
This argument is only fuelled by the fact that although the Mahatma preached faithfulness inside a marriage he himself held a harem of concubines. This single inconsistency in Gandhi’s life is something that Indians today see as a very large flaw in the man. Although it is a flaw, I don’t think that it should fully change your perspective on a brilliant freedom fighter like Gandhi.
· “he failed in his major mission”. His upfront goal for India was to have one country where Hindus and Muslims can live happily ever after. However, over the years there was much violent strife between the two religions and they were forced to split off. This strife forced the North Western chunk of India to break off and form their own Muslim run country. This country is called Pakistan.
The first Gandhi related sight we visited was the memorial sight for the cremation of Gandhi. None of Gandhi’s ashes were in the water that we saw didn’t have Gandhi in it, but it was still a beautiful memorial for the father of India.
The second place we visited was probably more meaningful. It was the Smitri of Gandhi. This is the house of Gandhi where he spent the last 144 days of his life.
The first thing we saw was the meditation and sleeping quarters of Gandhi. Both were extremely modest. They both consisted of pretty much boards wrapped in pieces of cloth. One thing that really amazed me is that Gandhi lived the modest way he did but he didn’t have to. What I mean by this is that inside India, Gandhi was seen as a god. But he chose to live like a peasant.
The lawn was the most moving part of the whole museum. On the 30th of January, 1948, at around 1000am, Gandhi stepped out onto his lawn for Morning Prayer. People from all over India came to Gandhi’s house to receive his blessing. Just then, a radical Hindu man who thought that Gandhi was the reason for the violent turmoil in India, pulled a Beretta on Gandhi and fired three rounds into his stomach.
The Smirti had a monument that was place exactly where Gandhi supposedly died. It was very moving to stand so close to the place where one of the finest men in the world was lost.
We joined back up with the Hardy’s at a very interesting place. Not the hotel, not a market, but the American embassy.
The largest Embassy in India, this three compound massive space is one of the largest American embassies in the world. This building was designed by the person who designed the Kennedy center in DC. So how were we able o get an “exclusive” tour of the grounds? Simple. Heather had a friend who had a friend who knew someone who had a wife that embassy and lives on the grounds.
The first thing we saw was the “duck pond”. I could see how this swimming pool sized body of water with fountains and small oasis got the name pond, but I had to ask to find the “duck” part.
The story is that when the building was built, there was no roof on the pond so ducks would kind of just live there. It went like this for several years until the ambassador said “Enough is enough. There is duck shit everywhere.” So they got rid of the ducks and put up a screen to prevent themselves from the swine.
This embassy is truly like a small democratic state in the middle of a third world-developing country. With a bowling alley and swimming pool and school and living barracks, this small city is the first time I had heard the term “hey, what’s up” in a long time.
The arch of India was a sight for girty, pluted eyes. The arch remineded me of the Arch de Triemph in France. However, istead of medival guals, there were ceramic elaphants.
We had dinner and desert with the Hardy family. It was, in fact the last supper. I felt like I was Jesus considering I sat in the middle of the table and ate dosa after dosa.
A van came to pick us up at 11pm for our 3am flight out to Frankfurt then to Vancouver then back to Portland.
Our trip was over and I was ready for home.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my journal entries as I desperately tried to keep up to date with what we were doing.
Yours,
Hsanders
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