Delhi to Agra on the Bhopal Shatabdi Express

In a country that appears to thrive on chaos the railway system is amazingly efficient and organized. Trains run on time, tickets can be purchased ahead of time online with reserved seats. Chai, snacks and meals are served on longer trips courtesy of the “Meals on Wheels” service. Commuter trains are a different story. They are packed with less than “standing room only”. Indians are crammed into these trains and just when you think no one else will fit in another person will hop on and literally be hanging on to a hand rail while his body is dangling out of the train.

The Bhopal Shatabdi Express runs from Delhi to Agra in less than three hours and was our first experience of Indian Railways. Our train to Agra was scheduled to depart at 6:00 a.m. The Cabana is a 15 minute walk or a short rickshaw ride to the Main Delhi train station. In small groups we made our way through the quiet streets. At the station it was a different story. People coming and going; sleeping on the platform and bringing supplies to the train on large hand carts. The train heads out of Delhi through areas of extreme poverty. Slums, huge festering garbage piles, small children playing in the filth of the trash that they also use as toilets. Among all of this poverty many of the houses have satellite dishes for TVs. Having read Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katharine Boo while in India I have a better understanding of slum culture, the lack of hope that so many people have, and the structure within the slums. However this does not make what we saw from the train and the continuing pressures of over-population any easier to accept.

Leaving the slums behind the train goes out into flat country. There are very few trees; man has literally taken them out of the landscape. Rice fields predominate and in other areas cattle and water buffalo graze in fields with rough grass and small shrubs. Arrival in Agra threw us back into the crush of humanity as we tried to make our way out of the train station while being bombarded with requests for taxi and rickshaw. We all had luggage to deal with so paired up to ride rickshaws to the Siddhartha Hotel.

After checking into our rooms Professor Bushoven with a glimmer in his eye said, “follow me,” which of course we did. He led us up to the roof top where we got our first glimpse of the world famous Taj Mahal. It is indeed breathtaking and incredible that we were so close to it. Later that evening on the roof at sunset we watched how the color of the marble changed as the light faded. Around 9:00 p.m. the Muslim call to prayer began starting over to our left. In the course of the next 30 minutes or so the call echoed from different parts of the city seemingly surrounding us with the call. Difficult to describe the atmosphere on the roof with the Taj as our back drop – very memorable evening. 

 

The Taj Mahal as viewed from the roof top of the Siddhartha Hotel

A closer look

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This home is across the Yamuna river from the Taj Mahal. The wealth/poverty contrast is stark.

Pigs and feral dogs feeding on a small trash pile

Laundry on the banks of the Yamuna just down the river from the Taj.

Beating saris clean

Rain and a Bonus Day!

There is nothing like the smell of wet dog with morning Chai! This morning as I do most mornings I waited for the first glimmer of daylight to appear, put on my sneakers and headed out the door with Abby my large yellow dog for our morning walk. It was drizzling a little so I did take a second to grab a light jacket. We usually walk for an hour around the lake so Abby can run and chase squirrels and I get some exercise and also use the time to let my subconscious work on projects and problems. This morning it was warm and the rain did not bother us until we got to the dam and the drizzle became a downpour. We continued and had a great walk, but it reminded me of the last time I saw heavy rain which was in India on one of our bonus days in Delhi.

Our plane home was cancelled so the group had two bonus days in Delhi. On the last day which happened to be Indian Independence day a group of us gathered on the rooftop of Sams to drink chai and pass the time until our late evening flight.  All around the city Indians were celebrating. Indians fly small kites and there were probably 200 kites flying over Delhi from our vantage point. The rain came and went but did not discourage the residents from enjoying their day. With each torrential downpour Indians embraced the water standing out on the rooftops and relishing the refreshing water. At the beginning of the day I had witnessed a young man who literally took a shower in his shorts in the rain – right there on the rooftop across from the hotel’s rooftop restaurant. We shun the rain but in India it is embraced as a blessing.

Rooftop Showers!

Typical Delhi Rooftops

Flying Kites on Independence Day

A common rooftop scene in the rain

Kites flying on Independence Day over Delhi

Lodi Gardens

Lodi Gardens are located in residential Delhi and a favorite location for joggers, yoga enthusiasts, families and couples looking for some green space within the confines of this crazy city. Architecturally, the tombs and mosque in the gardens are a wonderful representation of India itself.

Designs from the Lodi and Sayyid dynasties (15^th century) can still be seen along with a mosque built in 1494. Arabic script resides next to lotus flowers and elephants which are Hindu symbols. Intricate detail is the hallmark of the Lodi and Sayyid dynasties including the original mosaic blue tile from the 15^th century that can still be seen today.

The gardens are well cared for by multiple workers who use push mowers and manual labor to mow, plough, prune, plant and weed the gardens. As in other tropical countries ficus is trained into hedge rows and banyan trees grow throughout. Parrots, parakeets and other exotic birds call the garden home and in true Hindu tradition are fed along with the crows and pigeons – all living things being considered sacred. 

Bara Gumbad (big dome) and Sheesh Gumbad (glazed dome) are the tombs of unknown Lodi Emperors 

Arabic script is just part of the hand carved detail

This photo shows the sandstone detail of the Lodi tomb

The octagonal tomb of Sikandar Lodi (1489-1517)

Another view of Sikandar Lodi's tomb.

Butters and Vinnie playing on some of the exercise equipment that is provided in Lodi Gardens

We passed India Gate on our way to lunch after the Lodi Gardens. India gate is a memorial to the British and Indian soldiers who died in WW I and for those killed in the third Afghan war. 

New SAUEquestrian Website

Since this blog is now my personal blog and point of view of all things related to SAU, we have developed a new site for the Equestrian blog and our own website! We have our own domain sauequestrian.com and will be posting regular updates. Check out the new site at http://sauequestrian.com/ Click Here and enjoy!

Lakshmi "Birla" Mandir

On our first full day in Delhi we took “the plunge”, ate our first Indian meals, (will write about food later) and walked through the streets of Old Delhi. Old Delhi’s streets are even narrow than the ones in the Main Bazaar. A couple of us newbies followed the trip pros through the streets dodging rickshaws and motorbikes all the while bumping and jostling with the many pedestrians. Stores sell spices, clothes, cloth, jewelry, cookware, dishes, street food and numerous other necessities. (In the entire 36 days in India I visited a total of two small grocery stores – big box does not exist!) The streets were decorated with what look liked Christmas garland strung from store to store to create a tunnel channeling the mass of humanity. Initial observations reminded me of a colony of ants each with their individual agendas designed to serve the good of the group.

The next day we split into smaller groups to visit the various tourist sights. My destination was the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir Hindu temple. Built by Industrialist GD Birla in 1938 it was one of the first temples to have no restrictions on caste. Hindu scripture is posted on the wall with English translations. The temple is typical of contemporary Indian architecture and is surrounded by a park with theme park type amusements designed for children.

Hinduism is based on four “Vedas” and “Upanishads” which are sacred scripts dating back 5,000 years to the Aryans. Some of the better known Gods (there are many of them) are Vishnu the Preserver and his consort Lakshmi goddess of wealth. Ganesha with his elephant head is invoked at the beginning of any new task and Hanuman the monkey god who is called on for courage and fortitude.

We were surprised to see reverse swastikas decorating many areas of the buildings. We learned that long before it was a symbol of Nazi dominance in the 20^th century (the pattern was reversed by the Germans) the swastika dates back 8,000 years as a symbol of Aryan civilization and culture. The Aryan’s swastika is a symbol of implied prayer for success, accomplishment and perfection guided by the almighty. Languages such as Japanese, Chinese, Greek and Latin are thought to have derived from the swastika base.

The visit to the Lakshmi temple was the first time I experienced cultural differences of men and women. An Indian was handing out leaflets explaining Hinduism. The guys I was with were each handed one and I was bypassed. This happened several times in India in different settings. A huge culture shock to my western sensibilities, which I chose to accept without becoming the ugly tourist!

Lakshmi Narayan Mandir. Gandhi attended the first puja (ritual prayer). Celebrating the temple's lack of caste restrictions.

A building within the complex, Note the Aryan swastika on the columns.

The gardens behind the temple.

Vinnie & Butters in the "theme park" area of the garden

A colorful mosaic in the temple garden. 

Getting Around in Delhi

After our morning taking the plunge in the Main Bazaar we were next challenged to take an auto rickshaw and ask for the Delight Cinema where we were to meet as a group for lunch. Finding an auto rickshaw is not a problem. If you are of European descent you are continually bombarded by drivers asking if you need their services. Negotiating the price is the next step. Haggling is part of the culture and expected in most cases. Having agreed on the fee all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. The first time or two it is terrifying as the vehicle weaves in and out of traffic, horns are honking all around you and what appear to be near misses are par for the course. You quickly realize there are unwritten rules that are followed and cooperation abounds from virtually everyone. Road rage as we know it in the west does not exist and drivers of all vehicles work together to solve congestion problems.

We pretty quickly learnt that there is order to the traffic chaos. As a pedestrian on the streets of Delhi once you figure that out the craziness starts to make a lot more sense. The horn is used to announce your presence, not admonish other drivers as it is used in the U.S. Cooperation makes everything work, stay on the path you selected, don’t change your plan and everyone will work their way around you. It helps that the average speed on most city streets is probably less than 20 m.p.h. A guide that showed me the sights in Jaipur shared his three rules for driving in India. 1. Good brakes, 2. Good horn and 3. Good luck. In the beginning these appear to be the only possible rules of the road but as time goes by you realize that everyone understands that pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaws (both the auto and pedal type), motor cycles and trucks must all get where they are going and it is the responsibility of everyone to make sure that this happens.

Later in the trip on the road through the Spiti Valley. I use the term “road” loosely here – think single lane cart track hugging the edge of a mountain often serving as a river bed also – we observed two Indian cargo trucks passing a pair of tourist jeeps by backing up, pulling forward and waving one another forward and back. On the same road we also watched as the passengers of a local bus worked together to move a large boulder from the road so the bus could continue on its route.

"Tuk-Tuk" the Auto Rickshaw 

A typical road in the Himalayas