My Tehran Visit

This week I am visiting Iran for the first time in twelve years. It's a great time to be here because a lot of people are out of town. My aunt heard on the radio that 20 million Iranians are traveling right now because it's Persian New Years holiday. The result of the exodus is that we have no traffic, pollution, and a cleaner city to romp around in. Tehran has also developed in the last 12 years as most major cities have around the world. I am really enjoying my Tehran time because of all this and just being with my family. Since most of the "kids" in the family are now living abroad, I get to be the benefactor of their absence and get extra spoiled by my relatives.

The Venice of India

Jen, Carla and I went on our last trip in India this last weekend with Ruthu and Gina. We went to the Venice of India – Kerala. This was the perfect trip to end our journey in India. After flying down to Cochin and staying there for a night we spent a relaxing 24 hours on the Vipalsa house boat. We read, watched movies, played cards, had good food and caught up on random things in our lives. Despite our moments of difference, I have really enjoyed all our trips. You learn and share a lot when you travel with people. We shared many firsts times, like river-rafting, and shared and created a lot of memories. I will miss everyone I came to India with and everyone that I have met.

Is the joke on us?

On Monday after work Jen and I made our way through Delhi traffic to go the Jama Masjid mosque. Walking through the long parkway, which was packed with vendors, to the mosque entrance was just as challenging as the Delhi traffic. At the entrance of the mosque some man greeted us and said that we had to wear these ridiculous blue frocks that looked like something you get at a hair salon.  They were bright blue plastic with some paisley design. Jen and I were suspicious at first and pushed back. Our friends had been here a couple weeks ago and they didn't have to wear a frock. We were not about to be duped like newbie tourists! We told the guy that we were not going to wear it. We pointed to all the other women walking around without having to wear blue mumus. He insisted that the other women were Muslims and didn’t have to wear it but we had to. It didn’t make sense because how did he know what their religion was or ours for that matter.

After some going back and forth we just put it on because this is this biggest mosque in India and we didn’t want to not see it. When we walked in, I just saw more Indian ladies in their normal attire not wearing a ridiculous frock. I was getting annoyed because Saris show more skin then the long pants and sleeved clothes we were wearing under this huge, plastic sheet. Then I started looking around the plaza and saw pockets of blue Smurfs like women fidgeting with their attire while scrambling around. All the foreign women were wearing them too. This relaxed us a bit and we let the guy who gave us the frock be our unofficial guide. He walked us around and tried to tell us about the mosque but his tour was just as silly as the frocks we were wearing.

The "guide" didn't know anything about the mosque history. So now again, I was back to thinking that this was a scam. The guide who called himself the guide didn’t even know what year the mosque was built! He was more obsessed with making sure the frock was in place. Several times he adjusted my frock. At the end of “the tour” he insisted he walk us out even though we wanted to take more pictures. We ended up taking some pictures but I would never frame them or anything because you can’t see the mosque! The frocks are covering everything including the mosque. Finally he walked us out and got our frocks and asked for 20 rupees each to wash them! We only gave him 20 rupees instead of 40 but I am still not sure if this was a scam. I told people at the office and some people said it was legit some people just laughed. Maybe one of these days, someone will see Jen and I on an episode of Candid Camera. If you do, please let me know.

Haridware

On the way back from Rishikesh we stopped at Hardiware. Hardiware is a holy city. A lot of people there to give blessing to the river. We each bought one of the little boats of flowers with incense and candle and send our little boats in the Ganga river carrying our wishes.

We Survived The Wall

We went to Rishikesh on Friday for a weekend of bonding with the Ganga river. Rishikesh is a big hippie town by the Ganga river. The Beatles spent a month in an Ashram there so it's famous for that as well. Saturday we went river rafting on the Ganga. This was my first time and I didn’t know what to expect. Eddie, our guide, was very cautious. We had to go through all these safety precautions before we got in the raft. I was a bit worried about tipping over especially because the water was really cold. The first rapid we went on was a 4 on a scale where 6 is the most challenging. Before we got to “The Wall,” Eddie gave us a pep talk on what to expect. He said that there was a possibility that we tip over and give us detailed instructions on what to do when we tipped over. All the precaution talk made me think that we really were gonna tip over. We went through it and we didn’t tip. I think he was just trying to get us psyched about the wall to have a little fun. It wasn’t that bad at all.

Holi Mubharak Ho!

We celebrated Holi in Delhi today. Holi, also known as Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is the a celebration of Spring. We celebrated by throwing colored powder and colored water at each other.

My Taj Mahal Story

It feels like I have been waiting to see the Taj Mahal forever. The moment I heard its story, I fell in love with it and was immediately envious of the heroine. I heard that it was built by a Shah for his beloved wife who passed away. I always thought how romantic men were back then. They built honored their wives with alluring shrines. These days you hardly hear love stories like that. I wanted to learn more about the Queen. I wondered what was her secret appeal that made the Shah devote his life offering her memory such a tribute.

After a 5 hour drive from Delhi we got to Agra where the Taj is. The car service provided us a free guide, Shams. Shams was an amazing guide/photographer/comedian. He has lived in Agra all his life and is as much in love with the Taj Mahal as the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan was when he built it in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

As we started the tour Shams told us the story about Shah Jahan and his favorite wife who actually turned out to be of Persian decent. Her real name was Arjumand Banu Begum. When I heard she was Persian, this perked up my ear and everyone could tell that it also inflated my head. I was proud that my ancestors had some role in this magnificient site that has attracked thousands and thousands of people to it from all over the world for hundreds of years. It is truely breathtaking. Shams sensed my rejoice in tidbits of information relating to Persian contribution so he took great pleasure in teasing me with other Persian contributions to the Taj. This was our joke of the day, all the great contributions of Persians to the Taj Mahal. I told them if we kept it up there wouldn't be enough room in the photo of my head and the Taj.

I think I am no longer envious of Banu. Shams told us that Banu died giving birth to her 14th child. Being pregnant for 14 years doesn't sound very romantic. I guess it was common back then but when I heard this I envied her less. Shah Jahan was so grief stricken that he spent the next 22 years of his life creating this mausoleum. During that time poor Banu was in some regular coffin and her body was moved around twice to different grave sites until finally he finished the Taj and she got to rest. When I heard this part, I really stopped being envious of Banu. The poor lady was pregnant for the majority of their marriage and then even after her death her body didn't get any rest until 22 years later when he finally buried her in final restig place. I mentioned to Shams how sad Shah Jahan must have been after the death but then he pointed out that Shah Jahan had at least 3 other wives and 500 concubines! This is when I decided Banu could keep her Taj.

The Taj Mahal

It took 22 years to build the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan, a Mogul emperor, built it for his second wife.

The Taj Mahal Crowd

I am going to be in Delhi for the next week and a half so it provide a great opportunity to see the sites close to here. I thought that Agra where the Taj is relatively close. We got up at 5am to leave the apartment by 6am but didn't get there til 11am. I slept most of the way but woke up to something thumbing on the window. I was startled to see a monkey pressing its face to the window. I thought at first it's a bad dream. Side-effects of the monkey attack I had in Mumbia but it turned out to be real. We were at the toll about to cross the state line and there was a guy with a monkey on the leash doing tricks.. the monkey was doing tricks. There was another guy with a rattle snake and flute next to him trying to entertain us with the snake dance. Then vendors started flocking our windows to sell stuff..I wanted to go back to sleep and close the curtain on this freak show but couldn't tell what was triggering all this. Then I noticed a nice black car parked in front of us and a naive tourist giving money to one of the monkey guys.. Ah silly tourists have to always ruin it for the rest of us. He slowly learned his lesson as more and more people started lining outside his window for change. Although the Taj is amazing it does bring out all these tourists and in turn vendors. I felt like I was haggled more around the Taj than anywhere else in India.