Monday, October 31, 2005

Gandhi Memorial on Diwali


Gandhi Memorial on Diwali
Originally uploaded by taraksharvari.
Happy Diwali to everyone!! We are in Pondicherry (former French colony) during Diwali, the most celebrated Hindu festival. It's crazy..every sweet (mithai)shop is packed with long lines, and the whole city is lit up with decorations and filled with literally deafening fireworks. Diwali celebrates the New Year which begins on Nov. 2nd...

Also..we are celebrating our second year wedding anniversary.. :)

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Magic of Munnar








Well, we are halfway through our South India trip and have seen some incredible sights!! From where we left off, we next headed to Cochin, actually the area called Fort Cochin (the older area). It’s a pretty amazing city. Talk about the religious diversity..we saw the oldest church in India, plenty of mosques and a very strong Jewish community with a 16th century synagogue. We basically visited the sites and then just relaxed in the city. The strangest thing is that we don’t think Indian nationalists (Indian locals) who are vacationing, ever stay in Fort Cochin..they just stay in the actual busy, overcrowded city. When we told our driver Fort Cochin..he had never been there and we all started getting worried as we kept going into deeper and darker streets..and then out of nowhere…it was touristville..or, should I say foreignville…it was nothing but backpackers and white people, cyber cafes and budget hotels..it was great!!
Anyway, after seeing the sights, we all quickly ran for our much awaited “ayurvedic massage". We had read they use special oils which cleanse the body and that it was a “must do”….hmm..let’s just say, it was interesting. We all walked in at our appointment time, into these 4 separate small rooms, with strange music playing and this small bamboo mats on the floor with these 2 small woman (my dad and Tarak, had 2 medium sized men, I think)..and then, in my room, I was told to take off my clothes…so, I, a little shyly took off my top and my jeans..and then she said, “Take it ALL off”…I just stood there in shock and vetoed…I asked for a little towel.she said no..then I begged for a little loincloth thingy(I wasn’t even sure where they would have one)..and she said no..I looked at her little assistant..and she just looked at me (no sympathy) waiting for me to strip….needless to say, it was hard to appreciate an hour long massage when you are butt-naked with their hands getting awfully close to certain risky areas and all you can think of is first, “I wonder what Tarak said and did” and then “how the hell is my mom handling this?”…Afterwards, we all recovered and dissected with each other in detail of the trauma we experienced and then went to an amazing Kathakali dance.
For those of you not familiar with Kathakali, it is an art form, that originated as early as the 2nd century, and literally means “story play”. It is used to portray the Hindu epics, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. The actors prepare with extremely elaborate costumes, makeup (takes 2 hours to put on) and headpieces. Interestingly, all of the makeup comes from natural rocks, and they put seeds in their eyes to make them turn red (look at the picture above). Each of the colors, are also representative of good, evil and so on. There were drummers and singers accompanying the dancers who tell the story only by facial expressions and body movements (mudras).
Next, we set out for the gorgeous city of Munnar…I think thus far, this is has been our favorite place. Munnar is the commercial center of some of the world’s highest tea-growing estates. It sits amidst amazing mountain scenary, beautiful tea estates and crisp mountain air. We just sat mesmorized by the view and we actually saw a ton of women, who came and collected the tea leaves, which are then dried and crushed to form the actual ground tea. We went on walks around our cottage, and saw cardamom, sandalwood and coffee plants…our cottage was nestled in between a large tea estate, so everyday we could see the women coming and leaving for work. It was so serene and awe-inspiring. We extended our stay there a day and wished we could have stayed there even more.
Of course, I had to get attacked by another 2 LEECHES!! My god, this one was huge and I threw a big fit in the middle of the tea estates..Tarak, instead of coming to my rescue, busted out the camera..so, you may enjoy the leech under the link, our trip photos. Let me just add, the camera makes that gross thing look smaller than it was..it was huge on my leg. Anyway, we of course, bought some tea, cardamom and headed further south to the backwaters in Alappuzha for our houseboat adventure. We had heard sooo much about renting a houseboat for a day, and going through the backwaters of Kerala and seeing the bustling village in the water. So, we set off in our boat..and it definitely was great…the boats made from bamboo, traveling along narrow canals where we saw people transporting everything from sheep to hay to schoolkids by small boats from one end to the other. It was crazy to see tiny settlements where people lived on narrow slits of reclaimed land only a few metres wide. We also experienced Keralan food, but I think something in the water, did NOT settle well in our stomachs. The scenary was amazing, but I think the hype was too much.
Now, we head off to Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of India.....

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Masala Dosa Anyone?







Greetings from South India!! Well, we started with yet another night train..this time from Baroda to Mumbai and then we flew to Bangalore. We first headed to the famous city of Mysore, well known for silk and sandalwood. Here we visited the amazing Maharaja’s Palace (in picture above) which was absolutely beautiful and apparently built by some huge raja (king) for his wife (I definitely wouldn’t mind one of those). The interior was decorated with stained glass, mirrors and many paintings. There were also a ton of mosaics portraying life in Mysore during the kingdom period and well known Hindu stories. Afterwards, we visited Chamundi Hill, which overlooks Mysore and in which resides the famous Sri Chamundeswari Temple. We took the 1000 steps to the top (and then nearly passed out) and enjoyed some fresh coconut water outside the temple. Afterwards we headed south to the even more well known Udhagamandalam (yes one word), thankfully known as Ooty.
Ooty is apparently South India’s most famous hill station, which was established by the British in the early 19th century as the summer headquarters of the Chennai government. It is a wonderfully quaint place, it is was definitely quite cold. We had to the bust out the shawls, and even considered buying 10 rupee hats they were selling off the street. Interesting tidbit: Ooty is also well known for chocolates, so of course, Tarak and I went to town. Next, we visited the botanical gardens and lakes but what we really enjoyed was getting away from the crowded city and taking a steam engine train to a small town called Koonor. Although it was only an hour ride, the views from the train were absolutely incredible. The cool breeze and the sights of the tea plantations, forests and waterfalls were probably the highlight of the day.
Next, we headed to Kalpetta (some quick geography: we started in the state of Karnataka (Mysore) then we went to Tamil Nadu (Ooty) and now Kerala). We came here especially to see the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctionary and to see the incredible wildlife and hopefully catch a glimpse of some endangered tigers. However, as our luck would have it, all we saw, as my mom so very eloquently put it, “We paid all of these rupees just to see 2 deer and the asses of 2 elephants?”. (She didn’t actually say ass, but the closest Gujarati equivalent). After being disappointed from the sanctionary, we headed to Pookote Lake and took a hike around the outskirts. That also would have been fun, if I had not been attacked by 3 leeches. There we were, the Parghis (my parents), Tarak and myself walking..and we noticed these 4 young guys behind us, who seemed to be picking things off their feet. We kneeled in to see, small little leeches (nothing like Stand By Me style or size)..anyway, so we all checked our feet and didn’t see anything. Of course, 10 minutes later, my feet were BURNING..and I found 3 blood-sucking leeches stuck in between my toes..SICK!! Needless to say, my mom rushed to put some ayurvedic ointment on my feet.
Well, I should mention that it is quite an experience traveling with the 4 of us..no one understands us down here..it’s crazy, they definitely don’t speak Hindi and their English is dangerous (just enough to confuse the hell out of us) and then my God, we just stare at them when they start rambling off in either Tamil, Kannada or Malayalam…but, we did learn a few phrases, we’ve absolutely mastered the sideways head nod (used as the preferred method of absolute confusion to mean either yes, no, or I have no freakin’ idea) and to add the syllable “eh” onto to every word. For example, when we are looking for a particular road..we ask “Aray Hellooo cheta (which means brother), Road-Eh” and then they will do this pointing gesture with waving arms, do the sideways head nod, and hopefully say “straight-eh”..and at which point, we return the headnod and usually Tarak says “thank you-eh”. We next headed further south into Kerala to Cochin where our adventure continues.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Navratri in Baroda




Over the past week we have been in Vadodara (Baroda) spending Navratri at Sharvari’s masi’s (maternal aunt) house. For those of you who don’t know, Navratri is an important Hindu holiday. Gujaratis celebrate the events occurring in the Ramayan through prayers and traditional dancing for 9 days. For the past week, we leave the house by 9:30pm and fight through the traffic of a ton of scooters/motorcycles and cars all with everyone decked out ready to dance. So then, we spend the next few hours dancing in this huge massive open outdoor field with 8 – 10,000 people, dancing in large concentric circles to the beat of live Indian garba music. By the time we arrived home, we would be ravished and pig out and then crash hardcore. For many years now, Sharvari and I have wanted to experience Navratri in India and finally witnessed this important event. The garba (traditional dance) in Baroda is famous all over India. The crowds are mind blowing who dress up to the max to impress and show off their dancing skills and eye potential suitors. If you’re single, it’s a huge matchmaking and checking out scene. Since the conservative environment usually limits young females from going out at night except during this time of year, you can imagine the crowd. The events are so big that it is televised live throughout the night. We were given strict orders to seek out the camera so our family could see us on TV. As Tarak, who on average is a head taller than most Indian men, was an easy search target and was easily spotted by our relatives on screen. The other most visible people were those came dressed in crazy outfits…huge peacock hats, carrying decorated umbrellas, and even a horse costume.
With all the festivities being over, we take the night train to Mumbai followed by a flight to Bangalore to start our trip to the south with Sharvari’s parents. . Hopefully, history doesn’t repeat itself and we don't miss our connecting flight…

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Sikkim








From one Himalayan land to the next, we have just spent 6 days in Sikkim (state in Northwest India). Just to give you some facts about Sikkim…apparently it was regarded as one of the last Himalayan Shangri-las because of it’s remoteness and spectacular mountain terrain. Tibetan lamas (priests) first introduced Buddism in the 15th century in Sikkim, and for this reason, the hills are filled with ancient monasteries. Sikkim borders Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. In fact, Mahayana Buddhism is the state religion and Sikkim remained a princely state until 1975, where it then joined Indian rule.
Enough factoids…so, we basically from Bhutan went to Siliguri (West Bengal) and from there, caught a shared jeep (this basically means, as many people that can fit into a Tata Sumo jeep and you can bet someone will be definitely sitting on your thigh) to the capital city of Gangtok. In Gangtok, we toured and visited the Rumtek monastery, the flower gardens and the Namgyal Institute of Technology (apparently it contains one of the world’s largest collections of Buddhist books and manuscripts). The next day, we took a day trip to Tsomgo (pronounced Changu) Lake, which is at a height of 3780m and is 18 km from the Chinese border at Nathula. It was absolutely beautiful and cold!! We rode a yak (yes an actual yak) around the lake and ate some more mo-mo’s and veg. Chowmein. The next day, we did a trip to North Sikkim to Yunthang Valley and then spent a couple of days in West Sikkim in the city of Pelling. Here we caught a glimpse of the magnificent Khangchendzonga mountain range-it is 8598m..the third highest in the world (that’s the snow covered mountain in the picture above). It was pretty amazing! And it was actually pretty damn cold..I know my tolerance is rather pathetic..but even Tarak was freezing in our hotel room..of course there was no heat.
Anyway, it was crazy because even though we were in India, Sikkim seemed more like Bhutan in that it was less populated, cleaner and it was extremely tourist friendly. There were travel/tourist agencies everywhere and a bunch of Europeans..especially Germans (man, they go everywhere..first Croatia and now Sikkim). There were also all of these environmental friendly signs..promoting to keep the roads clean, not to spit (tobacco, as many people do) and all of these super cheesy road signs like “if you are married, divorce speed”….and “be gentle on my curves” (they meant the road) and “slow driver, long life” and my favorite “good driver seldom hurt” (I swear to God that is exactly what the sign said). We wished we had more time in Sikkim to do a 10-14 day trek, but we wanted to get back to Gujarat for Navratri…can’t miss dandia/raas!!. Maybe we will come back to do a trek???

Land of the Thunder Dragon











This title should really be: Tarak goes to Bhutan. For the last 2 years, that is ALL I heard about…you know Sharvari, “Bhutan isn’t a country, it’s a kingdom”…”they only opened it to tourists in 1974 to minimize Western influence”…”it’s like Nepal 65 years ago”..and so we finally went with a local explorers group from India to the amazing Himalayan country. It is quite remarkable in that it still is considered a kingdom, and it tries to limit western influence, by limiting the number of foreign tourists annually. Some small facts: Population: 1 million, Language: Dzongka, Nepali & Religion: Buddhist 75%; Hindu 25%. In fact, as a foreigner, to visit Bhutan, you must spend at least $250 a day…we of course, went as Indians…how you ask? Let’s just say, we looked as “fob-like” as possible and Tarak was not allowed to speak…
Anyway, we first flew from Mumbai to Calcutta and then took an overnight train to Jalpaiguri (West Bengal) and from there a bus to the border town of Phoolsuling. Before we talk about Bhutan...let us tell you a typical India story.. After missing our overnight train (which of course are the only things that occasionally run on time in India) due to a delayed flight, we stayed a night in Calcutta and then made it to Siliguri. While in Siliguri, we went to a national park in hopes of seeing a wild Indian Rhino but missed the elephant safari by 30 minutes..Driving on these roads can be presumed to be similar to those of Iraq shortly after being heavily bombed. Well, as we headed back to Siliguri we were stopped by a road block.. The locals were striking due to the lack of no running water for 3 days..They wouldn't let anyone through..After Sharvari yelled at few people and almost threw down with an Indian Auntie, we used our doctor card to get through. We made it back to join the group after THREE hours..If you didn't know this fact West Bengal is a communist state so they strike for any and every reason possible. Now back to Bhutan..It was crazy, just to walk across the gate from Jaigon (India side) to Phoolsuling, we already experienced a drastic different culture. There were way fewer people, the streets much cleaner and a very simple way of life with Buddhist monks in robes freely roaming the streets. We went on to the town of Paro, which is known for the Tatkshang Goempa (monastery). It was amazing to see how well preserved and beautiful these monasteries were with prayer flags tied to trees all over the country. In all of these monasteries, there were rows and rows of what are called prayer wheels. It basically is a wheel, inside which scriptures are written, and by turning the wheel, it is like chanting the mantras. Pretty cool, huh? It was amazing in the monasteries, to see these schools of young boys in their monk robes living a completely simple, unmaterialistic life. We visited the markets and tried some of the local food, momo’s (basically like dumplings). Next, we went to the capital of Thimphu, where we went on a short hike to a monastery that was perched on the cliffs and then visited the national museum. We should mention (as Tarak loves adding random facts) that Thimphu is the only capital in the world to not have any traffic lights...it was crazy, no traffic lights, just police officers in funny uniforms, dancing, waving their arms to guide the flow of the cars.
We definitely could have spent a month in Bhutan, but we had limited time as we had come with a group. The group we went with, is another entirely different story. We went with 44 nineteen year old girls from Patna Women’s College (can we say raging hormones)…let’s just say there was a lot of dancing to Bollywood music in the aisles of the bus and a WHOLE lot of giggling at the two of us. Well, we left the "kingdom" and are now back into the realm of Western influence!!
We hope you like the pictures..we also put some more pics under links in the right column in the section my trip photos.