Only in India

Smile
Originally uploaded by taraksharvari.

Well, 6 months have flown by..here we are, our last day in India. It has been a changing, exciting and unforgettable experience. This country, as massive and beautiful as it is, has a huge dichotomy. I mean, to see the extreme spectrums of health, wealth and way of life was at times extremely difficult to accept. But to see the people who were at the rough end, always smiling, giving and living life one day at a time put our lives back home into perspective. That happiness is not measured by how much we make, how many gadgets we accumulate or the lifestyles we lead, but through the bonds of relationships with friends and family, the sincerity in our hearts, and truly giving without expectation for any sort of return. It’s amazing how very easy it is to take for granted the opportunities we simply get placed in front of us, and to lose sight of what is really important.
As we have already shared our volunteering, our sightseeing and our family stories, we thought we'd end on "only in India" blog. Besides the incredible food, sites, hospitality, culture and our roots, there are some things that words and blogs cannot capture about this country. Many times in the past 6 months, we've seen, heard and done things that we swear ONLY happen here. On our flickr link, we've posted some of those pics, that I'm sure some of you will very much relate to....so, as we head off to Southeast Asia..with Singapore and Malaysia as our first stop..we leave with a top ten list...
Random things to love about India:
10. Having to look both ways not only for oncoming crazy cars and rickshaws, but camels, oxcarts, cows, and elephants (which are usually close behind some crazy $200,000 phat car).
9. Eating the best chinese food, fresh juices, and almost any type of cuisine on the side of the road(and then potentially paying for it a day later).
8. Not knowing the meaning of full, and feeling like you are going to explode after eating at someone's house, and literally having your plate refilled 4 times because they think you don't look "healthy" enough.
7. Having random people thrust their entire medical file in front of you, and describing their "loose motions" the instant they find out you are a doctor.
6. Having every and any possible piece of land, whether schoolyard, gutter or rooftop be adequate grounds for cricket playing.
5. To go into any small village town, run down street, or extremely impoverished area and still have kids smiling and dancing along to the latest Bollywood remix song.
4. Just when you think there is NO way 1 additional person could fit onto the local train, 18 more people leap on and ride with random appendages hanging off.
3. No matter how nice of an area you might be visiting, shopping around or just admiring, there will definitely be someone either peeing next to you or sticking some random object in their ear (usually their freakin' pinky finger) vigorously cleaning it.
2. Making sure your windows and doors are locked not for robbers but for monkeys that like to wander in and raid the kitchen.
1. Being truly accepted and treated like family, and being given such sincere hospitality by people who you might have literally just met.

Golden Triangle

We have finished our last travel expedition in India…so sad!! Anyway, we did the classic “golden triangle” route that is much talked about and traveled by tourists. We figured since we spent 6 months in India, we should at least check out the Taj Mahal before heading out. Anyway, we flew into the capital (first point of the triangle) and visited the amazing Swaminarayan temple, known as Akshardham, in Delhi. It was just inaugurated in Nov. 2005, and it is beautifully hand crafted with intricate designs in marble. (picture above from outside-we couldn’t take a camera inside)
Anyway, after catching a few of the highlights in Delhi- Bahai Lotus Temple, Purana Qila (old fort) and of course, the eatery, we headed out the next day for the famous city of Agra (2nd point of the triangle). On the way, we checked out the city of Mathura, which is the birthplace of the Lord Krishna, during the period where his parents were held captive in a prison, and later (very similar to the story of Moses) was rescued and transported safely in a basket down the river. Afterwards, we finally hit the Taj!! As awesome as Tarak takes picture, there was no way to capture the perfect beauty of the Taj. For those of you who don’t know the story, (although most people I’m sure are aware), but it was built in 1631 by the emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his 2nd wife after giving birth to their 14th child (I think I would have been dead by child #5). Anyway, it is said, that he was so heartbroken by the death of his wife that the construction began immediately, and 20,000 people from India and Central Asia worked on it for 2 years before it was completed. According to estimates it is believed to have cost $3 million rupees at that time…today equivalent to 70 million dollars!!
Next, we went 40km west of Agra, to visit the ghost fort city of Fatehpur Sikri, which was the short-lived capital of the Mughal Empire between 1571 and 1585, during the reign of Emperor Akbar. Next to complete the triangle; we (re) visited one of our favorite cities in India..Jaipur. Although we had been there earlier for a friends wedding in Dec., the trip was pretty hectic and we wanted to come back and chill out. It is such a cool city..although it’s a capital and a pretty large city..the ambience and the old traditional architecture is definitely worth spending some time. We were lucky enough to be with our friends Rishi and Sonia, who were our Golden Triangle buddies, and whose families hospitality was extremely generous. Man, we ate some damn good food…authentic Punjabi dhabas, onion kachoris, (pyaaz ka kachori), ghajak and our personal favorite, hands down, was Lassiwala’s lassi. (I swear, I wish I could buy stock in that stuff). Besides eating, we visited Nahagarh (a beautiful fort built in 1734 which has an amazing view of the city), Jaigarh, Rambagh Palace, Rani ka Baag, and Jantar Mantar (an observatory begun by Jai Singh in 1728 which has a multitude of huge instruments including a sundial, zodiac constellation tracker and so forth). After packing as much as we could in 4 days, we headed back with our friends to Delhi, amazed at the ease and hassle-free our trip was…as soon as we reflected upon that..there was a massive employee strike in the Delhi airport (they were protesting the privatization of the airports),so we walked to the airports with our bags from some distance away. I swear, this is yet another thing, that as Tarak and I like to say “only happens in India”.