How I spent Inauguration Day

Well, I felt very blessed to be part of Jocelyn Hunter's inauguration party at her house yesterday. One of the big benefits of Los Angeles is you can have friends and meet people of all different shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, creeds, colors, nationalities, whatever. It's a much more integrated place than most of California in my opinion, if not most of the US. And, knowing all these people as people, makes me a better person. And, I gotta say, I couldn't have hung out with a nicer group of people that morning. Here's a blurry photo of everyone I took w/my iPhone. It was simply grand.

The end of my trip to India

So, as I write this I'm waiting as a standby passenger on a flight from Newark, NJ to Florida, hoping to get home tonight and to be with the folks on Christmas.

I've been thinking alot since my departure of India has come along of what my impressions of India are. I feel they've about as diverse as India itself. My trip was, in turns, heartwarming, shocking, amazing, harrowing and sublime. Many of my co-workers showed me many kindnesses, and were really wonderful people. They really worked hard to make my feeling of being in Hyderabad and Mumbai special, and I was really appreciative. But then I would also run across people, mainly those how make their living plying the tourist trade, that were deceitful, aggressive, and sly. But then again, my hosts in both Agra and Jaipur were beyond any hint of reproach. They were honest, kind, generous, and extremely accommodating. They really made my last week enjoyable and safe. 

So, really, what I'm trying to say is that India provided many extremes of experience that seemed to change quickly from one to another. It's definitely a complex world with rules that may seem similar to the west in appearance, but aren't really. Also, to even refer to India as if it were one cohesive entity may not really be correct. It's such a diverse collection of states with such a wide variety of influences over the ages, that it's amazing they are able to maintain the unity they have. (And sometimes I thought it was hard for US to keep it together!)

However, if I were to make broad, perhaps largely baseless, generalizations of the Indian populace I met, I would say they tend to be kind. Often pure strangers, in passing, would exchange smiles easily. One of the many delightful moments was when two boys just started to speak to me from their scooter as they were motoring along side the tuk-tuk I was in. Just, really, to say hello and find out where I was from. The Indian populace seem to be, as a rule, friendlier and easier to interact with than many westerners can often be, especially if the westerners are from cities as densely compacted as Mumbai.

But, really, all my experiences are rather surface. It would take many more trips and much more time spent there to really get the feeling of the place. It's just that much more complex and different than our western-european cultures. But definitely an adventure!

Well, the plane here is about to board, I'd better get ready to go!

The Taj and Other Agra Sites

I can't resist posting at least a couple of photos of the Taj I took today. I can add a few more later as time permits, first the classic:

From Agra, second day, The Taj

And then in the category of 'Usually Not Seen With the Taj'

From Agra, second day, The Taj

A few folks chatting about the Koranic verse written in Jasper:

From Agra, second day, The Taj

The ceiling of a building adjacent to the Taj used as a guest residence:

From Agra, second day, The Taj

A framed snapshot from the same building:

From Agra, second day, The Taj

A stolen snapshot of another visitor (nice sari!):

From Agra, second day, The Taj

And who would have thought just outside of the doors of the Taj is 'Bob's Restaurant'?

From Agra, second day, The Taj

Jaipur

Well, after Mumbai I want to Jaipur for a few days

before heading to Agra. Jaipur is part of the Rajput kingdom,

and has much Rajastani architecture that's extremely impressive.

Primarily Hindu, there is some Mughal influence. So below are links

to some of my albums and pictures. Btw, I stayed at this wonderful

place called Jas Vilas which was really a very beautiful hotel

run by Mahendra Singh and his wife Lily.

By the way, if you want to see my whole album, just go to my

spot on google. That should show you my Picassa web pages albums.

Anyway, first was the City Palace, for my first day:

From City Palace, Jaipur

They have here some of the largest silver items in existance,

built by a Maharajah who was a devout hindu, and brought

2 giant silver jars filled with water from the Ganges for daily

bathing when he traveled once to England:

From City Palace, Jaipur

The second day had trips to the amazing Amber Palace

just outside of Jaipur, the Water Palace, and the Monkey

Palace:

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

From Jaipur

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

And I have to add at least one of the Water Palace:

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

And finally a couple of photos of the Monkey Palace, a temple

at the top of a big hill, so named because of all the monkeys there:

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

From Jaipur Second Day, Mughal Tombs, Amber Palace and Monkey Palace

From Jaipur onto Agra and the Taj! 

The Kanheri Caves

One of my last days in mumbai, two of the R&H'ers were kind

enough to go out with me for the day, Rohit and Anil, for a day

out at the famous Buddhist cave complex, the Kanheri Caves.

Spending the day with Rohit and Anil was delightful, they

have a great sense of humor, and they were, like me, very into

the photographic aspects of the caves. In other words, they didn't

mind as I took forever... :0)

Here's one of the cave entrances:

From The Kanheri Caves

Here's a picture of the ever companionable Rohit:

From The Kanheri Caves

Who actually doesn't like to be photographed! :0)

Also, here's our other companion Anil:

From The Kanheri Caves

And a few of the Amazing Buddhist sculptures we saw at the caves:

From The Kanheri Caves

From The Kanheri Caves

From The Kanheri Caves

We even stumbled on a mini Bollywood moment, with one of India's biggest Bollywood stars filming a public message promo outside of the main cave and we got to hear him singing asking his 'friend' not to write on the monuments. We actually had to hear him sing over and over again as he did take after take. Finally we were able to slip past between takes.

From The Kanheri Caves

It's the guy on the left in the white, btw.

The best things about the caves tho were the main stupa room, which is like the heart of the complex. I'd studied it over 20 years ago in college in my Indian Art History class, and I could finally see it in person!

From The Kanheri Caves

And a little side shot back by the stupa:

From The Kanheri Caves

And to top it all off there were butterflies, monkeys, and tigers that day too!

From The Kanheri Caves

From The Kanheri Caves

From The Kanheri Caves

Out and About in Mumbai

So yesterday Jenny, one of the pre-lighters at R&H Mumbai, was kind enough to take me around Mumbai. She's grown up here, and without her it would have been impossible for me to see everything that we did. We saw one mosque, and what I like to think of as two and a half temples. It was really three temples, but one was so busy we didn't get that close to it.

First the mosque, out on an island, was very cool:

From India

From India

Here's a little vid of the same mosque.

Here's the view of the walkway leading to the island,

with the view of Mumbai in the background.

Then we went to a Hindu temple right in

the city. On the way there, I caught a glimpse

of this other small, off to the side, temple.

You wouldn't know from the photo that

this is surrounded by homes and high rises:

From India

But the main temple we were going to see was

too crowded. It was the day to go to temple,

actually, so there was a long line. So, we

headed off to another, much smaller temple, and

it was really spectacular:

From India

From India

From India

I suggest clicking on one of the photos above so you can get a better view of these
images. It'll take you right to the google album. 

There were lots of steps up to the temple, and on the landing of 

one of the steps was where a sadhu lived, he makes food for the poor:

From India

I asked and he let me take his picture.

From India

We also made a quick stop at the Hari Krishna temple

that was literally across the street, this is the same

group as the Hari Krishnas in America. They even

had a Govinda's restuarant:

From India

And our final temple of the day was Baganga, where the goddess Lakshmi was said to have touched the ground and the waters flowed forth. They're actually still flowing forth today.

From India

This was also a treat for me, because this was the same place that was often featured in the movie 'Outsourced' that I'd seen on the way over. Of course, that was depicted to be in a small Indian town, not next to one of the ritsy neighborhoods in Mumbai!

Finally we ended our day down by the Taj Hotel and the Gate of India, as there's some good shopping that way. :0)

However, I didn't really get the opportunity to buy much as I had to head back to work fora movie I was helping present. Here's my last photos for this entry, the Gate of India:

From India

Being Welcomed in Mumbai

So when I first came to R&H in Mumbai, they had a small

welcoming ceremony for me. It was really beautiful. This

wonderful woman, Rama, that sort of seems like the den mother for the place, came out with these candles and they did a little blessing and gave me the dot of purity on the forehead. (And a little rice thrown in as well.) It was great.