Category: 2015 – India
Delicious Delhi
The first four and a half weeks of my trip all had one purpose. To be in Delhi to meet The Sheila when she arrived from the US. We then get to spend a couple of weeks travelling together before heading home,
My timing had been perfect, I managed to arrive in Delhi on the 12th, determined that the hotel was of adequate standard for entry into India and re-entry into relationship, I even booked a car and driver to get to and from the airport. The incredibleness of Google technology* – did you know you can just type a flight number into search and it will give you the arrival time? – informed me that the plane was 30 minutes early and I arrived at the airport and was in position at the arrivals barrier just after the plane landed . *Conditions apply, as you will see^.
Why is it that India (and other places) try to make life so hard for people. Planes full of passengers are arriving and everyone needs to go through customs and immigration and then out to the world, usually with someone waiting to meet them. Instead of a single exit door where it is impossible to miss the arrivee, adding to the excitement of welcoming your loved one there is the tension of three exit doors and a desperate hope that you are standing at the right one. After watching for a few minutes I notice that 80% of people come out of one door so I find myself a spot and wait. And wait. And wait. After an hour of waiting I am not the slightest bit anxious (kidding), after 90 minutes I ask someone who comes out how long it takes to get through and he said about 30 minutes. I keep reminding myself “India time” but am going through scenarios of what to do next.
Of course, there is more than one happy ending that night and eventually, having had to deal with a malfunctioning fingerprint scanner, The Sheila emerged to something rare in India, a public display of affection. The ride home wasn’t too crazy (it was 2300hrs), the hotel was deemed perfect. Off to a great start.
Next day it was time to be tourists, in a different way for me a) I am not alone any more and b) where I am happy to rough it and be adventurous, The Sheila is likely to not be quite the same. I have a day planned, show her the baoli I have discovered and a temple I have heard about. I have used Google maps to work out the buses to catch, what can possibly go wrong~? There is sufficient awe at architecture, fear at getting on and off buses that don’t quite come to a full stop and admonishment for walking along the road like the rest of the population, but fun is being had.
Off to the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib Sikh shrine (not quite the right word) I heard about from a couple of Americans the previous day. I have the bus stop name, we are approaching and the vagueness of whether the conductor and people meant “this stop” or “next stop” meant we miss the stop. Meh, not far to walk back. Serendipity time #1 for The Sheila.
We get off the bus and there is a line of people being handed a plate of food. I suggest we get some, “no it is for poor people” Sheila has already figured out. Some people notice our reluctance and invite us to have some food. A plate of curry and a couple of too hot to hold puris and we are ushered to the only two chairs (they kick a couple of guys off) and while I am kind of used to Honoured Guest status, Sheila gets initiated.
Honoured guest after less than 24hrs.
Best I could figure out was this was something to do with a current festival Navratri and the food was not for the poor, it was for everyone and it was really tasty. Again there is a request for a posing for photos, lots of laughter and we walk off shaking our heads in disbelief at our good fortune missing our bus stop.
HOT! puris, straight from oil to hand.
The yummy curry and a bloke who doesn’t mind being in a photo.
There are lots of temples and shrines in India. I mean LOTS. Just about every block will have a temple of some sort and there are smaller shrines all over the place. Approaching we can hear chanting and we take off our shoes a long way from the doors because no one else is wearing shoes. Up the stairs, I cover my head with provided ‘bandana’ and into a not huge space where the floor is covered by a soft carpet. No words are adequate and like most of these places, the photos don’t do justice. A steady stream of pilgrims come in and kneels before the shrine (you read the links above, right?) to do devotion. Meanwhile there is this small group of musicians alternating with a preacher every five minutes. We sat for quite a while, I found the place mesmerising, trying to work out the subtleties of the rituals (I didn’t), people watching and observing the protocols of the “guards”, bit they weren’t really guarding, it appeared more ceremonial.
Dammit, if someone can figure an easy way to upload videos I will add it here…grrr…
On the way out of the grounds there was quite a bit of coming and going from a hall. We asked what was going on, a wedding! If you ask to go in and look is it technically gate-crashing? We were invited to have our photo taken with the bride and groom and it seemed so bizarre we said no. I now regret breaking my “say yes” rule.
She looked soooo excited by what can only be described as an ordeal, a photo shoot with hundreds of people.
Again I am a few days behind and am considering declaring blog bankruptcy i.e. just skip a few days to catch up. But so much happens. I will instead use more photos than words.
Don’t know the story, they were outside the temple. Maybe associated with the wedding…to remain a mystery
^ We had spent the day hopping around on buses and crossed town, heading back a bus that Google maps and the sign at the bus stop said existed didn’t. Beware the mythical 536! We were a bit stuck, people tried to help us, a storm came through, we caught a bus in the wrong direction at a big intersection, got caught in Delhi rush hour traffic (why is it called rush hour when it is so slow?) and after taking 3 hours to complete a 45min trip we collapsed in our hotel.
Chandni Chowk spice market Delhi
While Sheila relaxed in a warm bath, I did a food run for Rs50 ($1) of street momos that was almost too much for us both to eat. Am I a good husband or what?
Not finished. More to write. 7℅ battery left. Publish!
6 score pachyderms
Played the tourist again, hired an auto and did the major haunts. It is the best way to get around a big unfamiliar city where the sights are spread out. Welcome to Jaipur.
It was a nice slow auto ride, not part of the plan, but, when the throttle cable breaks, it is part of the adventure. Poor Yash had to hold the end of the cable with a rag until he could make temporary repairs, then later we stopped at the auto repair workshop…actually it was just a spot by the side of the road more than any sort of workshop, but it was fixed.
There is a weird gene in the Indian population where some people have grey/green eyes, it is a very attractive look…seriously. This guard was a photo favourite
First stop was Amber Fort. I hate to sound blasé, but it is your pretty standard Indian Fort meaning it is big, spectacular, beautiful and quite amazing. This one is also crowded, I am now in the golden tourist triangle – Delhi, Jaipur, Agra – and there were lots of groups of European tourists.
More amazing carved sandstone screens so that people could discreetly watch the goings on below.
But as usual there are surprises. In a corner of a crowded square is a sign explaining about underground water tanks. Nearby is a bored looking guard next to an iron gate. I go to peer through the bars on the gate and bored guard is suddenly as animated as the guards get (not very) and opens the gate for me. Down down down, all alone to the underground water tank, too dark for a photo.
I love this shot looking down onto the main path up from the top of the Fort.
Later I see a half hidden sign pointing to the secret tunnel. The tour guides lead the packs past a doorway, I venture in and alone again I head down down down to a tunnel that was an escape route from the castle if the hordes were attacking…or paparazzi are waiting at the front gate.
All this is great, but no one told me about the elephants. There are 120 of them carrying people in a steady procession up the mountain to the main courtyard past hordes of touts selling textiles, carvings, umbrellas and photos – maybe they should use the tunnel.
I can imagine the same scene in Australia. People would be wearing seatbelts and helmets, the elephants would walk behind a big fence, everything would be so safe. But this is India and you walk with the elephants, mahouts will shout at you if you get in the way.
You really walk with the elephants, close enough to touch them (if they aren’t moving). It was so awesome being so close to an elephant, but being surrounded by so many of them was indescribable.
All this and more during the day plus the fun of tracking down another baoli (stepwell). Not as big or spectacular as the one in Jodhpur, but still remarkable. I have found 3 to visit in Delhi.
Meena ka kund Baoli near the Amber Fort Jaipur
In Pushkar a couple from Argentina had told me about the Hotel Hathroi Palace in Jaipur. A couple of young guys took over the lease in mid 2015 and are turning it into what will be a cool and popular hangout. They already have a great chill space on the roof, are decorating and renovating and if you toss in great personalities it will rock in a year or so. This is an unashamed plug for the place that will hopefully increase their internet profile.
One of the residents around the Monkey Temple
I asked about a concert of some sort, I hadn’t seen any music yet. Yes, there is something on tomorrow night I am vaguely told. Yash to the rescue in his auto, we head off to somewhere, I have no idea where or what.
Turns out to be the very flash Hotel Diggi Palace, very flash indeed. Hmmm…. I am directed down a side street to the servants entrance and a sign announces that on a beautifully warm Jaipur night, the very flash back courtyard has been taken over by the Sufi Music Festival. I can’t believe my luck…again.
I got to see four vastly different performances. The first, with only about 10 other people was very devotional and everyone had to have their heads covered. The words to the “songs” were displayed using PowerPoint – good to see PP is just as bad everywhere in the world. The tabla player was incredible.
Crappy photo but I missed my opportunities, this guy was what I guessed is some sort of poet or performance artist. He certainly dresses well.
One great thing about the event that puzzled me was that all the announcements and banter by musicians was bilingual. First in Hindi, then in English. I was delighted, but being the only westerner there I wondered who the English was for.
The woman was the lead of this trio and had an extraordinary voice. The instrument, I have no idea of the name, rests on her shoulder as you see and is essentially a drone, it is strummed without any work on the neck at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnSk_YnxIjQ
I didn’t want to mid another photo op, so I went down the front, in the VIP area, having earlier expressed my dismay at being turned back when I boldly tried to walk in at the beginning of the night. “But I am a VIP” I huffed and puffed to much laughter. This time I simply went to the other end of the fence where it was completely open. Down to the front, I sit on an empty VIP couch in row two, but is effectively the front row at this spot, a couple of photos, perfect. Great music, I make myself comfortable. I have the whole couch to myself, a bit further down some real VIPs including government ministers are being fawned over and photographed.
I am very comfortable now and regret leaving my bag and sandles back in the cheap seats. I consider going and getting them and making the move permanent, but have learned in the past that when you are scamming, it is good to not draw attention to yourself. Eventually a group of real VIPs join me on my couch, completely spoiling my premium experience by talking, using their phones, not clapping and just being on my couch. I think I may appear in a photo in a newspaper and have half of India speculating about who I am.
The headliner was great. An apparently well known young woman who performed contemporary rock Sufi music and the crowd went off…in an Indian way. I can’t speak for where you live, but had this been in Australia the audience would have been on their feet about half way through the set, dancing, clapping, singing. Not in India.
The video is early in her show, I got caught up in the event and as well as crowd watching forgot to shoot more video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1WglOOM5uo
Despite bursting with joy and excitement cheering and singing, people would jump up, dance for about 5 seconds then reluctantly sit down again. This was happening all over the audience. Despite all the fantastic energy, there weren’t even people dancing around the sides or back of the crowd. I was truly hoping she would invite everyone to get up so it would really go off. Unfortunately I didn’t think to video towards the end, so this will have to do.
Eventually as the final song built to the usual concert crescendo they couldn’t hold back and for the last 30 seconds the place erupted. At every other similar concert you and I have been to there are then screams and claps and whoops for an encore and of course the act obliges with their 3 pre planned encore songs.
But this is India, we just went home.
Footnote: never buy a tablet if you plan on producing content, they are for consumption. This post has been particularly painful to edit and has taken 2 days to (hopefully) get right.
Prayer by donation
There is no railway station in Pushkar, getting there involves a 1 hour, Rs14 (30¢ – no kidding) bus trip from Ajmer. Being very mindful of dates, needing to meet Sheila in Delhi on the 13th, I decided I could spend the night in Ajmer and check out Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the shrine (Dargah) of sufi saint, Moinuddin Chishti.
Entrance to the Daragh
My trip seems to have unintentionally evolved into visiting the holiest places of most of the religions. But it is easy to do because they are spectacular and usually the major “attraction” in a city.
If not for the Dargah, I wouldn’t recommend Ajmer, crowded with pilgrims, way more beggars than I have seen anywhere, a bit grotty and because Hinduism doesn’t seem to dominate, not many veg restaurants.
The Dargah was 5 minute walk from my hotel, so it was really crazy in the streets, pilgrims heading to the shrine. At the entrance I balked, it was quite intimidating, there are jostling people, security – it wasn’t at all welcoming. But I was there so I approached a guard and asked if it was OK to go in. He indicated another bloke and I was put into the hands of the beautiful Ajmed.
Fabulous passionate volunteer guide
Ajmed speaks excellent English and showed me around the complex, including into the inner sanctum, where I would never have ventured by myself. We had a long discussion as we walked and he seems a bit jaded with some aspect of his job or the people or the place and is quite open about it – I suggested his views were quite provocative, he agreed.
It was the end of school time and he likes to be home for his daughters, so I was invited to join him for tea, another serendipitous moment. You know those movies where people head down a maze of narrow alleys in a foreign city? The walk to his house was like that, no way would I be able to find my way back unaided.
I forget the daughter’s names I only know they beat me easily playing ludo on a phone. Both gorgeous, good English speakers, getting an education and with a vision for their future. I had only known him for an hour, but Ajmed’s influence was obvious. Oh, also he is an artist and his house walls are covered in his work.
Next morning to Pushkar, famous for a camel fair that is not until the end of November unfortunately. This was the first tricky “find the bus” mission I have had. By asking numerous people I work out where the bus goes from…sort of. I ask the conductor (every bus has one) “Pushkar?” and he kind of signs to let me know to catch his bus to the bus station for the real bus.
The real bus* is essentially a local bus with no English destination board or anything luxurious like that. But it is the right bus and in another reenactment of a movie scene, we are speeding along a winding road through (admittedly not very high) mountains with cars overtaking on the wrong side of the road approaching blind corners.
* not actual bus, for illustration purposes only
Pushkar is a tourist trap, but in a nice sense. It is the Byron Bay of Rajasthan. The town surrounds another holy place, a lake believed to have formed at the beginning of the world. The lake is surrounded by ghats where there is a non stop stream of people praying and bathing. This is all facilitated by many donation boxes and booths. Reminder, while it is a tourist attraction for us westerners, for most people it is a serious pilgrimage.
At dusk prayer time this incredible machine was going.
I wonder if there are Indian musicians bemoaning the fact that they have been replaced by a machine.
Like Byron, there are loads of Western tourists in Pushkar, for some reason many from Israel, but last night on the hotel rooftop Australia, UK, Norway, Argentina, Germany and Israel were all represented.
It is worth mentioning that as I got off the bus there was the usual “Please, my hotel” mob and the offer of a free two wheeler ride to a place near the lake with WiFi and Rs400 ($9) rooms got me. Another great hotel, good food, close to everywhere.
Nearby is yet another holy place, a rare Brahmin temple where I had a whistle blown at me for taking a photo. Hey, I had seen someone else so assumed it was OK.
The temple is covered in inscriptions memorialising family members.
Now in Jaipur, into Delhi tomorrow. I keep hearing stories about how crowded Delhi is, but they all come from people who flew into there. Hopefully after having been here for 4 weeks it will just seem like India.
Some random photos to finish and (shock horror) be more or less up to date.
Jaipur hotel at night. Some young guys took it over 2 months ago. In a year, when they have finished renovating and decorating, this place is going to seriously rock.
I’m sure this water is a legit Fosters product. Tastes better than the beer.
3 tier sleeper on an Indian train. It is actually not that bad, but you would need to experience why.
There are always kids happy to pose for a photo. But to get fun shots like this you play first, then ask for a photo ;o)
Deep fort
Despite my policy of saying Yes, there is a time I tend to say No. Getting off a train and being confronted by auto drivers and various other touts and hasslers. I brush past them saying No, acting like I know what I am doing and where I am going even though I usually have absolutely no idea.
Similarly in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Out of the station and headed off in an arbitrary direction to find a hotel. I didn’t do very well and had walked for about half an hour when an auto driver approached me. Being away from the hustle of the station I asked if he knew a hotel and of course he did.
Rooftop next door to hotel, I think these were Papadams drying
Perhaps it is owned by his uncle, who cares, if it is a decent place that is all that matters. We head off down the main road, turn down a smaller road, into a dusty laneway and into a smaller dustier laneway if that is possible. I am not optimistic that this will turn out well…but based on my past experiences you already have an idea of the outcome.
Clock Tower Jodhpur
He leads me into the Discovery Hotel, a hole in the wall, the foyer is nothing special. Raj the manager is a good doppelganger for my friend Giri, a big smile, friendly, welcoming. He leads me 3 floors up a narrow, steep flight of stairs, 2 days after my Palitana climb this is torture.
But it is well worth the pain. The quaintest, cutest, best maintained hotel I have seen and just outside my room, a stunning view of Jodhpur Fort, just Rs500 ($10). I say I will take it.
It was small, but it was beautifully decorated, and that view…
Raj is a smart bastard. In a classic “would you like fries with that?” manoeuvre he says “let me show you another room”, we go up a couple more painful steps, around a corner and the room is more or less the same until he throws open a window and there, looming over the hotel is the fort. For an extra Rs300 I am a sucker and upgrade before I have even signed in.
View from my window
To cap it, there is a roof top restaurant that has 360° views over the Blue City and all the major tourist points Jodhpur has to offer. Not that I have been doing it tough, but this is bliss.
There is something about Jodhpur that elevated it to Favourite City So Far status. The local bazaar is crazy busy, the city is relatively clean, the architecture visually compelling, incredible historical stuff. Bliss.
Tour guide whose services I declined, despite taking his photo (with permission of course)
My first tourist indulgence I hire an auto for a few hours at 1/3 the price quoted on the street the previous day. He takes me to Meheganar Palace,
The Maharajah’s palace, I wasn’t invited upstairs for tea
Maharajahs’ cremation place and tombs
Tombs of the Maharajahs
and of course the Meheganar Fort where as usual, foreign tourists pay 10x the entry fee of locals.
But it does included an audio guide, exactly the sort of thing I usually resist and in another surprise, it turns out to be pretty good. Some great background and pointing out features that the average punter would have missed e.g. at the approach to the huge iron main gate there is a right angle turn so that attacking elephants couldn’t get a good run at it, they wouldn’t have wanted to anyway, at elephant head height it was studded with very nasty looking spikes.
This is all carved sandstone in Meheganar Fort
On the way back to the hotel my attention was caught by an open space that I couldn’t see into because of a low wall. Open space is pretty unusual in india and I was a bit intrigued by whether it might be a baoli or stepwell. See this post for background. I still don’t understand what made me curious, some sort of intuition? There was nothing at all to indicate anything special. I kept track of the route the auto took and it was effectively one straight street and not far.
A 10 minute walk back, as I approached I noticed a couple of tourists and a guide leaving, now I was very curious. Up 2 or 3 steps and my breath was taken away by the first full on baoli I have seen.
Jodhpur baoli or stepwell
Read the article linked to in the last post for more about these incredible structures. This was just awesome and now I am more determined to hunt them down, I have heard of one in Jaipur, where I am heading tomorrow.
Tricky to photograph and capture properly
Off to Pushkar on a 0700 train meant being vigilant about getting enough sleep and waking early enough. I had just dozed off when there was some thumping music in the street below and a peek out the window showed a crowd forming.
I’m sure this happens at 10PM every night on every street
That’s enough for me, clothes on, grab camera and into the throng. I had no idea, but it wasn’t hard to work out that this rather wooden looking guy was getting married.
My bucks night was never this much fun.
The procession continued, I tried to get back to sleep.
And the post title? A hat tip to HHGTTG (no spoilers in comments!)
3,300 steps to heaven
I am so far behind on this blog, but I have so lost track of time I can’t tell. There are going to be things out of order, but that doesn’t matter does it? For now I think I will just jump to Palitana.
It’s a relatively small place, about 15,000 people but the one thing it does have going for it, apart from a wonderful couch surfing (CS) host, is the most important temple complex in the Jain religion.
It is a long way up, it is hot. Don’t attempt this if you can’t start by 0800 😛
Sorry, you are going to have to do you’re own research on where Jainism fits, best I can tell is that it is sort of related to Hinduism. The most obvious thing about Jainism is their diet. As well as vegetarian, they eat nothing that grows below the ground – onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes. It has to do with valuing all life, including microbes in the soil. However they do eat peanuts because they were in their shell. I did say you would have to do your own research
Dashiki and good family are Jain’s and suggested Palitana and the. temple complex. This place is not for the weak of body or spirit. It is at the top of a mountain and there are 3,300 steps leading up there.
This is one way to get to the top
Of course if you are weak of body or spirit you can hire either a two man or four man team of porters to carry you up and many people do because this is an important pilgrimage, so they will do what it takes to get to the top.
It is a long climb, it took me about 90 minutes going slowly but steadily, zig zagging up the steps at a 45° angle to make it a little easier. Also it is hot, I started at 0730 in the cool of the morning, I don’t think you’d want to get going much later than that and expect to survive.
2,700 down, 600 to go
A couple of months ago I discovered step wells via this story. I contacted Victoria and she sent me some info about them in big cities. So it was cool to discover several step wells on the way up the mountain.
A very basic stepwell, maybe it is technically a tank, watch future posts for spectacular versions of this
I think I mentioned that 3,300 steps is a long way, and to paraphrase my Indian friend Ashok “Travelling India is an exercise in endurance, but the rewards are worth it”.
This is not a temple, it is a complex of around 1,300 temples according to my CS host who also happens to be a tour guide – but was unavailable the day I went up. Did you read my way of relating the Ganesh festival to any festival you have been to? Do something similar for any Indian temple you have seen, multiply it by a very big number to get the awesomeness level of this place.
More than once I was on the verge of tears I was so moved by the vastness and beauty of the carvings. Because I was playing tourist rather than pilgrim I had more “freedom” to wander, so after seeing the very crowded temples and people doing their devotions, I went into the quiet areas where I could sit away from the hustle and just look.
Most areas photography is not allowed unfortunately.
The biggest temple, Sonji Tuk was actually the quietest. The importance of a deity doesn’t seem to relate to the size of the temple. But this one had something special, the most beautiful painted dinner ceiling. I asked and was allowed to lie on my back and just look at it for a long time. A priest thought I was sleeping and wanted to move me along, but a guard explained and all was good. I could have laid there for hours and can’t share photos because it is prohibited.
Barat suggested an hour would be enough, 3 hours later I decided to head back down. By this time it is 1200 and really hot.
[Update] this was another draft, in an effort to catch up I will finish here with a few annotated photos.
One of Bharat’s friends owns a gym. Though not much by western standards, it could still turn out boys who like to strut their stuff
Mava (pron. Mawa) is a beetle nut mixture that when combined with limestone gives the user a buzz. I tried the non-limestone version, Pan, and didn’t last long with the intense flavours. Bharat’s father used to own this Pan stand, it was pretty funny when a customer walked up and started ordering in Hindi.
Me sitting in on one of Bharat’s English classes. Needles to say, once more I was honoured guest.
Always moving forward
Do you know what Couch Surfing (CS) is? Essentially people who have a spare bed or some couch space will accept guests for a night or 3. International travellers are the most popular guests for obvious reasons.
You contact potential hosts in your destination via the CS app and request to stay. Based on your profile, your request and past references plus their availability, they will either decline or if you are lucky, they will accept. In Maroli my CS hosts have been Darshil and Dhruvi and their extended family. In a pair of large adjoining houses 13 people from 4 generations interweave their lives in a way that is very different to family life as most of us would know it.
Darshil’s family – the women, anyway – with the delightful Nani
Describing the lifestyle and seeing it from my cultural context it is conflicting on how to write about it without appearing critical or insensitive. So any Indians reading this, please understand that I am just trying to explain how it is to my family and friends.
This woman has worked in Darshil’s family Ayurvedic pharmaceutical business for 32 years. She would also do jobs around the family home.
No matter where I am staying, I do my best to be a good guest. For me that means helping out where possible, cleaning up after myself, maybe cooking a meal, washing dishes, whatever…it is about contributing to the household rather than being a burden.
That is really tricky here. In the Indian culture is a strong delineation between women’s roles and men’s. To put it bluntly the men are pretty much waited on hand and foot by the women…I find it a bit uncomfortable. It is a battle to take my used plates to the kitchen, Indian culture expects me to just leave them on the table – but that is really hard for me to do. The women have served us men at the table and when we are done, then they all sit on the kitchen floor and eat. Indian culture, I remind myself.
It doesn’t show so well in a photo, but these were decidedly creepy. Nice outfits though 😛
But what a wonderful family. Darshil is the head of the house, his father died 3 years ago. Also living in the house are his wife Dhruvi, his sister-in-law and her two children, his mother and his grand mother. There is also assorted staff that seem to come and go.
Just like with my children, I am not averse to picking a favourite and my clear favourite is Nani-Ji, grand mother. She is gorgeous to look at, has an obvious sweet and gentle nature, is as playful as you can be without speaking English and is an amazing cook.
You know that there are hundreds of varieties of rice, right? I could see the differences, but no idea what you would use each type for.
Oh how I could go on about the food. Every meal is a different set of delights, all home made (by the women of course) and the food just keeps coming in a seemingly endless supply (while we men sit and eat).
Without making a big deal of it, Darhsil and his family run a very successful Ayurdevic pharmaceutical business and have homes and lifestyles that are good by any standard and luxurious by Indian standards. We spent a bit of time at the Nahar Phrmaceuticals factory that produces over 500 different tablets, pills, potions and no doubt poultices. It is interesting to see how the production process ranges from automatic pill press machines to a group of women sitting on the floor hand checking thousands of pills for faulty ones.
Maybe there isn’t a lot of choice, but for me, someone who lives in the middle of very quiet bush, the location of the houses is a little odd. The front doors are less than 50 metres from a busy railway line that has either a local or express train pass every 10 minutes or so, and they all blow their whistles because there is a crossing 100m down the track.
Perhaps the location is for the amusement value of the AM and PM commuter trains, I have finally seen a real life “people on the roof of a train”. They were hanging out the doors, standing between carriages on the couplings, crazy stuff. I have a video but am not ready to risk my luck uploading it, just happy to have internet for now.
I am leaving Maroli this evening for Palitana, I will save the information about Palitana for a future post, you can spoiler via Google if you like.
Earthenware water pots for sale
And the title of this post? Darshil is very superstitious, every time he starts his car and is going to reverse out of the house, first he drives forward a bit. It made me laugh every time.
[Update] the draft of this was written about a week ago, it has taken that long to be able to upload images.
Ganesh Chaturthi 2015 – the video post
Every city has its big event. Sydney does a huge New Years Eve, Brisbane had just held Riverfire, New York does a Thanksgiving parade (I think). Imagine the biggest of these events, covering a whole city that we shall call Mumbai, a city with a population that is greater than the whole of Australia.
Every parade I have ever participated in has been pretty tightly marshalled, there is a starting point, a specific ending point and a limited number of floats. So imagine a fun alternative where instead every community group, business association, church or organisation that wants to decides they will build a float and it will be on display for 10 days in a street that is convenient to them. Blocking entire streets is OK, blocking multiple lanes of major roads is just fine, I am not sure whether getting permission is required or is optional.
On a certain day each of these floats is then transported through the streets to one of a number of destinations where they are dumped into the ocean. The float that has been on display is really just the core of each individual procession. The transportation component is a logistical feat that may involve a combination of one or more of: a mobile generator truck, a flat bed semi trailer with a crowd of people and the main part of your float, more people following it (mostly women) throwing rice at the truck, random onlookers wandering up to do puja, more random onlookers taking photos and trying to not get in the way, a truck with a HUGE sound system blaring music, a minimum of 10 drummers, people dancing and other assorted vehicles. Some groups have all of the above.
The music ranges from traditional Indian music to Gangnam Style doof to someone playing a Casio keyboard using the corniest sounding preset. All of it accompanied by the drummers, all of it loud!!!
Did I mention that you will find one of these floats about every 200 metres or so along every road in the city? Sorry, my oversight.
Every group will have their own style, some will be quite modest (I didn’t say quiet) and traditional, others will be modern and louder and more brash. Some of them delight in performance by their drummers, others seem to have an endless supply of lethal fireworks…truly lethal. In Australia fireworks for the public were banned about 30 years ago, the stuff these people were setting off was never ever legal in Australia and was genuinely scary.
The empty skyrocket box
In this video, a guy had placed a box in the middle of a really busy intersection, it contained by my count 250 skyrockets that went off at about 1 every second for about 5 minutes. It actually didn’t cause any traffic problems, but that is only because traffic was already paralysed.
This one started off cool, a big idol, some coloured smoke, note teh size of the sound system and my timing was perfect as I moved around for a different angle.
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Sorry, distracted. So this parade of thousands of colourful noisy floats that you are imagining has started at random times from thousands of locations and they are all converging on a handful of destinations. Add to it millions of people out on the streets to join in the fun. Subtract from it any semblance of traffic control by the police. Add to it vehicles not in the parade seeming not noticing the parade or the millions of people and continuing to drive at top speed. Subtract any effective crowd control – some groups hold a rope up alongside their float, that’s about as good as it gets.
It is the first time have seen a God caused gridlock as all these floats tried to merge onto the main road to the beach.
Are you starting to get the idea of what the end of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival is like? It was extraordinary in the extreme. I set out at about 1100hrs and lasted until about 2230hrs when like most events, it started getting just too crowded and crazy for me.
I could rave about this for days, there can’t be many events like this in the world, much less that happen every year. I heard of Ganesh Chaturthi somewhere along the research way and it is the only reason I came to Mumbai, I am so glad I did. And if you or anyone you know is heading here, this is a must.
As an addendum, here is my list of very real ways you could die at the end of Ganesh Chaturthi:
- Drown during immersion
- Crushed by one of the vehicles
- Blown to bits by some of the
fireworksexplosives - Run down by a motorist seemingly oblivious to millions of people and thousands of floats on the streets
- Dance yourself to death
- Dehydration
Holy Parvati!
This post is stale before I even got to publish it. Read it maybe for background, but the next one is the real story here.
The title loosely translates to Holy Mother Of God, in this case the God is Ganesha.
Like the music surrounding this festival, I might have been banging on a bit about Ganesh Chaturthi. Once I discovered it and that the festival was happening while I am here it has been a constant theme, from the day I arrived.
Down every other street and lane there is a brightly decorated statue of Ganesh, some big, some small, some like the main ones here in Mumbai are huge!!! The festival ends today with the statues being taken and immersed in water to dissolve, here it is at the beach and I am hoping to get there.
That I am able to cope with the crowds and lack of respect of personal space is nothing short of miraculous in itself. I tend to avoid crowds, I don’t like the jostling much. But here I have managed to mentally detach a bit and remind myself I am on an adventure and that makes it mostly bearable.
A Rs50 ($1) taxi ride to a wall of people and traffic saw me take pity on the driver and jump out before we actually got to Laulbag Raja. There is nothing I can think of to compare this to so you will get a sense of the volume and visuals of this place. People everywhere, 2 of the 3 road lanes are closed for pedestrians making the traffic even worse. There are strings of flashing lights leading to all Ganesha, but they have exceeded themselves in this area. The area is floodlit, there is live TV showing the festivities, hawkers everywhere, police and army just hanging around, barricades to funnel people in a general direction. There is obviously some sort of order in the chaos as it all seems to flow, but it is madness.
I hadn’t come all this way to not go in boots and all so I stood in a not too long line (30 mins) to get in to one of the Ganesh idols. I took the easy line where I just passed through the room caught a glimpse and then ended up in sideshow alley.
While I am making a bit light of my experience, this is also an intensely spiritual time and experience for every other person there – I seem to be the only westerner. The other line would have been a couple of hours long and funnelled people to the feet of Ganesha to touch them and have their wishes granted. There is a lot of puja happening and given the situation people are remarkably patient.
One thing I am good at is getting the most out of a situation and when we were being pushed through quickly I did a mix of ignorance/bold tourist/curious onlooker/friendly short guy/try to be inconspicuous and managed to spend a fair bit of time watching and videoing. I am sure I wasn’t supposed to wander into this area but no one stopped me so you get to see what was involved. Of course video never does reality justice.
In fact the whole experience was quite amazing. The idol is huge and georgeous despote being garishly decorated (they all are), the atmosphere is electric, and although there is conflict between keeping moving and wanting to stop, people are in a generally good mood.
I am not 100% certain of the setup but I think there is a number of big Ganesha in the area. I wandered into another fast moving line that went into a big room that was your theme park nightmare. You know how you see a ride and there is about 50 people in line so you get on the end and make your way forward and then you realise that around the corner is that sneaky hidden snakey line with about 200 people? Well around this corner was that sneaky hidden snakey line that I guess would have held at least 2,000 people…no kidding! But it was empty right now and it led to this gauntlet…note the queue on the right.
When I got to the main body of people I just couldn’t do it. There was just too many people too jammed together, but like Ikea there is no obvious exit. Going with the flow of people was one thing, imagine going against it. By the ti!e i got out I was in overwhelm, I turned my hearing aids off, had a sugar hit and walked the few Km back to my hotel where a cold shower was such a relief – and I hate cold showers.
The hotel has let me use a computer and finally I have fast internet [update: ‘faster’ internet]. Meanwhile this is random Mumbai.
Beautifully adorned woman sitting waiting for a train. It was OK to take a photo of her foot, as long as I also took a photo of the whole family :o)
The Gateway Of India monument
The India Railways building at Central Station
I don’t even want to know…
Beach culture
Today I lied, a lot. Likely not as much as our former PM but it was for the same reason, survival.
Hark back to the last post and the image of the woman working with the fish, I said I don’t know her story. I do now. He name is “Sally” and she is one member of a group of 5 very persistent young women who wanted to give me a henna tattoo and sell me some jewellery.
Multi skilled: Henna altitude, jewellery seller, fish stuffer
I wasn’t particularly harassed by them and was enjoying the banter. When they told me their names were Sally, Amy and Nikita I was having none of that and laughing demanded their real names. Not to be outdone, variously I was from Australia, Britain or Japan and my name was Bruce, James or Tomato. I managed to avoid a tattoo by saying my wife would love one but she is asleep. But they were persistent and I had to “promise” with a handshake to not talk to any of the other girls (despite them working together) and when I said “no promise” and shook there was much laughter and the claim that by shaking hands I had promised.
There was a temptation to take their photo as they were gorgeous and had great energy, but these women were skilled and persistent and it would have cost me a small fortune no doubt.
I made it very clear that I wasn’t going to buy anything but we were all laughing so they hung around me for a while. Perhaps they were still hopeful, perhaps they were enjoying the game.
I saw them make quite a few sales and watched them apply some tattoos and as I was leaving the beach I bumped into them also leaving, “Did you sell much?” I asked “nothing” was the reply :o)
Some shore birds I think we’re taking a migratory break on the Goan coast
The beach at sunset is an event that makes it worthwhile for the girls to work the crowd. It is the off season but still hundreds of people gather to take selfies as the sun sets.
Not your average Aussie beach mob
I was trying to put my finger on what was odd. Was it that, according to someone I spoke to, swimming is forbidden? Paddling is fine but that wasn’t what was niggling me. Then I realised that it looked like a scene from a 1900’s beach. Even in the water women were all fully clothed, men mostly wore a singlet and long pants. Hardly anyone was showing any skin.
This is me not taking a sunset selfie
There was no sun worshipping, sitting on a towel, just relaxing or anything like that. Everyone was standing, or if they were in the water, sitting in the shallows. They seemed to be having fun, but it was vastly removed from the Aussie beach experience.
A few days ago, when we stopped for tea on the ferry trip, there was a bunch of men standing around watching 4 guys playing what looked like gin rummy. They all said hello and I thought it was time for a bit of risky fun. I took this photo of one guy’s hand and then went and showed the photo to one of the other players.
When they realised what I was up to they all laughed hard, except the cards holder, he was puzzled, but ended up laughing. I hope it wasn’t the state championship or something, why else would 10 blokes be watching 4 others play cards?
Coming up to 2 weeks here I though I would share some lessons learned.
- I brought one pair of shoes too many. I brought one pair of shoes. Sandals are more than enough.
- Despite dire warnings, I didn’t need the UV water purifier. Filtered water is available everywhere for about 40c a litre, this is because most Indians won’t drink the tap water either. Just a shame it is all in plastic bottles.
- Google maps is the best thing on the internet after porn. I have a local SIM and hardly use the phone, but those maps are fantastic.
- Allow plenty of time for everything. This is a holiday so I refuse to be in a hurry, but I allow 2 hours for something I expect to take 30 minutes e.g. get to the train station
- In addition to saying “yes” saying “hello” is good too. It leads to unexpected surprises.
- Your data management strategy (photos) will be modified as you go. It will be painful, it still may not be ideal.
- Tablets are good for consuming content, e.g reading emails or viewing web pages, but are pretty horrible if you want to create content or run a business.
- You won’t have all the electronic connectors and bits you need e.g. a USB card reader to upload photos, just buy them.
- Maybe it’s just me and is likely too much information, but you really don’t need to bring your own toilet paper. If most of the world can live without, so can you. There is a well established system already in place.
And of course, what would an Indian beach be without cricket.
They didn’t believe I am Ricky Ponting