India - Incredibly Fascinating

To balance the ledger from my last post, I began thinking about what is amazing about India.  Why do we keep going back despite the shocks?

1.
The food - there are more than enough pics already!  Indian food in India has a variety and a subtlety that you just do not get in Australia - or Singapore.  We ate in not-elaborate restaurants, which were not pricey by our standards.  A big lunch often meant all we wanted for dinner was a clear soup.  Breakfasts had a wonderful array of breads - naan, poori, dosa, roti.  It was hard to choose.  The accompanying sambar was inevitably lovely.

2.
The roads.  Yes they can be chaotic, and there is often traffic gridlock in the towns.  But they are not unsafe! Traffic is so slow, there are no big prangs.  If a horn beeps, it is a warning that someone is behind you, and the good news is that he has seen you!  If they have seen you, they are unlikely to hit you.  The beeps mean that both you and the car/trishaw/tuktuk will have to move.   No chance of dozing off on these roads!  And you would be unlikely to lose a car-full of speeding teenagers here.

It isn't (quite) as bad as it looks for pedestrians.

Some of the highways are becoming quite modern and traffic moves faster, so the above rules don't always apply.

4.
History.  India has a long history, some of which overlapped with our trip to Iran last year.  You can see the influences in the architecture and the language of food for example.  And the British history is also fascinating.  There does not seem to be any great bitterness in India about it, unless people were holding their fire in front of us.  It is worthwhile reflecting on how one country can begin to wield power over another, as the British did in India, moving to full governance and displays of imperial grandeur.  And likewise, to see how quickly it all fell apart.  India gives you a window into the huge extent of British influence and power in the nineteenth century.  Singapore and Australia were bit players in it all.

British designed and no doubt built with local labour - the High Court in Calcutta.

5.
Optimistic people.  Despite the poverty, people just keep on keeping on.  For example, there are chai sellers in the most grubby looking stalls, with no reticulated water I am sure. Thank goodness for boiling water!

A different stall.  Coffee making.

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6.
Politics - they have a leader who is admired!  That is a long distant dream in Australia.  Everyone we asked (except one who was lukewarm) admired Modi and said he was good for the country.  We did not ask Muslims (none knowingly crossed our path), but Modi's previous anti-Muslim stance did not seem to be their reason.  They admired his crackdown on corruption, or on rubbish, or his building toilets.

One person commented that people were too impatient for his changes to work.  Time will tell on this one.  Let's hope their optimism is rewarded.

And where else would you get not just one Communist party but several!

India - Incredibly Shocking

Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful trip to India, we saw so much and learned a lot.  But as always with India, there are things that come out of the blue and are shocking to our eyes.  I have heard it said of India that you "love it and hate it, all at once".  There is some truth in that.

Here are some of those things...
  
1.
I thought rickshaws had long gone, but not in Calcutta.  I was shocked to see them.  Then I noted the big wheels and thought to myself "Oh, that's no so bad then" and was shocked again at how readily I had absorbed the world around me.

I read that rickshaws were one of the best ways of getting through floods.  Best for passenger I suppose.  Not too good for the driver.

2.
Walking down to one of the ghats in Varanasi, there were several dogs barking their heads off.  I stopped to look - they were agitated by a dog who was staggering uncontrollably and had some sort of dreadful wound on its face. Rabies?   No pic of that. I didn't hang around.

3.
The flower market was full of masses of flowers.  But you could see the areas above and below the stalls where people slept.  This city had, according to our guide, the poorest of the poor.  Many were refugees from Bangladesh, and some were Rohinga.  Goodness, if Calcutta is their refuge, what have they left behind them.

4.
We also saw a shop marked "Blue Print" and discovered it was  pharmacy, the blueprint being the prescription.  That was ok, but the shop was pretty disorganised.

5.
I saw a cat with a missing eye - literally.  It just looked at me with its one eye and empty eye socket.

6.
The travel agency representative apparently stealing our driver's tip from him.  A similar thing happened on our 2012 trip where the guide stole the tip we wanted to give to the trishaw rider.  Lesson?  Give tips privately, out of sight of other employees.

7.
The trains we hear so much about.  But no-one on the roof at least.

8.
And just as shocking, this is where we were staying.  Poverty demeans all of us.  Social welfare and universal health schemes are the price of not having this level of misery.

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India - Bits & Pieces

In no particular order.....

Ambassador taxi.

Not just for money!  This one is public drinking water.

Watch out Defaluters....

To park or not to park?

To relieve or to cause pain?!

Both go the same way.

Not Thredbo....  This was taken during our walk outside Shimla.

Jesus in a sari?  Wood inlay at Imperial Hotel.

Still in India

Today we went to Little India in Singapore to buy a cooking pot. It is a much easier shopping environment than India for this sort of thing.   I was paying the young Indian man for it, when he leaned over and whispered to me "Can I get a job in Australia?"  I wasn't sure just what he was asking, but it was not what I expected to hear.  He said he was from Chennai in India.  At least he is in Singapore.   I didn't get to ask his qualifications.

Last experience in India.

The driver picked us up at our hotel at 5:30 am.  The sight of the travel agency representative at the airport demanding our driver hand over (some or all?) the tip we gave him left a sour taste in my mouth. He (the driver) had looked after us well for several days and we were happy to give him something.  The rep was a johnny-come-lately.  I hope the driver also knew the system and was able to look after himself.    Such is India.  Normally tourists don't see this side, so its being blatantly on show was a shock.

Friday was Holi-day, so I got colours on my face, and we were offered sweets during check-in.

We are now safely in Singapore, back to "comfort zone".  The thing I appreciate most is being able to drink the water straight from the tap - saves a lot of bottles!  And we don't have to watch for cow dung on the road - aka "land-mines" as our Delhi guide called them.

Back to Sydney Monday night.





  

The Red Fort

The Red Fort is one of Delhi's icons.  Last visit, we were not able to go inside.  But today we could.

It was the home of the last mughal of Delhi - the one now buried in Yangon where he was exiled.  After he left, the Brits moved in.  They tore down a lot of the internal structures, but kept some. 

Here are the pics.

Red Fort from the outside.

Entrance.  Decor is very reminiscent of what we saw in Iran, except it was painted (here) and not tiled.

Mughal era building.

Audience chamber.

Shah's seat.

Coronation Park UPDATED

After 1857, the Brits ruled India.  They couldn't help themselves with pageantry and statues.  After independence, the statues were removed and put in a park miles away on the north of the city.  Talk about exile!  At least they weren't smashed up.

The most famous occupant of the park is King George V.  His statue used to be like this, between India gate and the Vice Regal Residence in New Delhi. (Thanks to Google).

To day it is like this.  The canopy for the statue is empty.(Also thanks to Google).


This is the statue today, in Coronation Park.  No canopy.

 Back-side - as they say in India and backside.

Lovely detail.

There are other statues, all un-named.  Here are some - mainly viceroys, I think.

Coronation Park was where the Mughals used to have their durbars (court gatherings).  The Brits could understand this, so they too had durbars.  They had to be as grand to impress upon the locals that they really were in charge.  The first was in 1877 to proclaim Victoria Empress of India.  There were two others, with the last in 1911 to celebrate the coronation of King George V, announce the move of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi and to authorise the building of new Delhi.  This is the memorial to that durbar.

As it was!





With today's eyes, it is hard to imagine isn't it.  Like crossing the world to play dress-ups.   This is Imperialism at its most obvious, and ludicrous.

And as they say, the rest is history. 

Delhi - Ashoka Pillar, Mutiny Memoral, Flagstaff Tower - and smoko! UPDATED

We have been to Delhi before, so what we wanted to see today was a bit off the usual tourist track.  Our guide hadn't seen some of them, but using his knowledge of history and Google, willingly came along.

The oldest thing we saw was Ashoka's Pillar, aka Delhi-Meerut Pillar.  Ashoka had many pillars across India, including one at Sarnatah whose capital (top bit) forms the Indian national symbol.  This one was not much to look at, missing its top bit, and previously broken but put back together, but it dates from 250BC, so that makes it old.

Fast Forward to the time of the  British East India Company. It began in the 1600s as a trading company, and had its own army to maintain security (as someone said, think Microsoft with guns).  It gradually took over ruling functions, first in Bengal and then further afield.  When resentment against the company reached boiling point in 1857, there was a major outbreak of violence, called the Indian Mutiny or First Indian War of independence, depending on your point of view.

Europeans and Indian Christians were attacked (mind you there was huge violence on both sides) and victims fled to Flagstaff Tower for refuge.  This tower is now in the grounds of Delhi University.

Kin Mun and our guide.  He (Sanjeev) knew about the tower because he had studied (and courted his wife) at Delhi Uni.

When the battle was over, and the English regained control of Delhi, they built a memorial to celebrate the victory.  It is beautiful, architecturally.

And it is possible to climb to the top, via a circular staircase.  But the door was locked - whew!  I note the Brits gave this one a rail - why didn't they do that when they built bell-towers?

In 1972, the Indian Government renamed the memorial Ajitgarh, to celebrate all those who died during the Indian War of independence.

Just to keep to the violent theme, the caretaker told our guide that it had been a bad area and murders had occurred around the memorial.

By then we were hungry, so Sanjeev took us to a university canteen where he used to meet with his now wife to eat sweet samosas.  Sentimental for him, a new experience for us!

 

Arrival in Delhi

We went from Shimla to Chandigarh by car, and caught the 3.20pm flight to Delhi.  All went well, we continued to marvel at the driver's skills and have begun to pick up tips on how to drive in India.  Even if you are (correctly) on the left hand side, you beep your horn as you approach a blind corner to warn anyone who is on the wrong side of the road.  Driving is a cooperative venture!

Tomorrow is a visit to Coronation Park where the huge imperial durbars were held (on the style of the mughal durbars - or gatherings).  After 1947, the Indians removed many of the colonial statues there. So expecting to see a field of statues, in various states of disrepair!  Not sure how many cows will be wandering around as well.

This is our last stop before going back to Singapore on Friday.