Ramsingh Pura

We spent the morning in a village near the preserve. Here we observed everyday life in a small village: making cow pies for fuel, washing dishes using ash for soap, making chapatti bread, etc. We visited a private grade school K-8 with 120 boys and 80 girls. The day starts with prayer to the Hindu God for Knowledge, Saraswati, followed by singing the National Anthem, and a general lecture from the principal. Today's lecture was about the importance of using iodized salt. We had a chance to see the students practice their lessons - learning English, Hindu and science. Some of the teachers in our group helped with the English lessons. I talked to 2-3 boys, but had trouble understanding their English after "My name is ...." The accent was difficult for me. We then visited a one acre farm growing vegetables and guava. The farmer had two sons and three daughters, none of the daughters had any schooling. He supplements his income as a parking lot attendant for the tiger preserve. His eldest daughter had moved back with her husband because she had troubles with his family. The son-in-law owns a tractor and hires out to the other farmers. One son recently spent $3000 to become a computer technician, but has been unable to find a job in the field. 
We then visited a coop selling shirts and other cloth items. They employ 22 people, who previously had cut firewood or grazed their animals in the preserve before such practices were outlawed. We then had a simple lunch at the coop before leaving on our four hour bus ride.

Girl cleaning dish with ash

Topic: Indian Economy In the seventeenth century, India was one of the world's major economies, but when the British took over they wanted raw material for their factories. Farmers were encouraged to grow indigo and cotton, but, of course, the British controlled the prices. In turn, they sold back cheap factory goods, which put many of the hand-crafted artisans out of business. India became poor. After independence, Nehru believed in socialism and created many state-owned businesses. Some say he combined the worst features of socialism and capitalism. Given their experience with the East India Company, they avoided foreign investment. The only large private industries were those given licenses by corrupt officials. After 1991, India started to embrace a free market economy, allowing many more private firms. A fine example is telecommunications, where there is a lot of competition (calls cost 1/4 cent). Similarly construction, computers, autos and manufacturing have many private and even foreign firms. From 1995-2005 India's GDP grew 8-9% per year. Since 2005, it has slowed to 5-6%. Today, India has the 10th largest economy in the world. But government corruption still is rampant, especially to set up a private business.

Mary getting up on her camel

 We arrived at our camp in the country at about 4 PM. This is where our adventure was to ride a camel. They showed us how to get on, which actually was pretty easy once you got your body set for the camel rising up from his knees. We rode around for half an hour. My problem was getting off. All was okay until the camel rolled onto his side by accident, trapping my ankle underneath him. The driver quickly got him upright and I'm okay. We had a brief cooking lesson about using Indian spices and making two types of bread. Then it was time for music and dancing, by the end of the evening everyone had beat the base drum and danced with our male dancers. Quite a day for interaction!

Ranthambhore Tiger Preserve

White Breasted Kingfisher

Today we had two jeep trips into the park looking for animals. Some animals are quite plentiful: we watched a lot of Grey Langur monkeys with babies, eating together, jumping through the trees or just staring at us. We also saw a lot of Sambar, India's largest deer, some of the males were quite imposing - they look a lot like elk. Late today, many were grazing in the water, when a Spotted Deer let out a warning call and they all headed to shore. Yes, we saw lots of Spotted Deer, many of them fawns. We saw a few Blue Bulls, an antelope. The males are bluish grey in color, the females more brown. There are over 450 bird species here, some of the more colorful ones we saw were the White-Breasted Kingfisher, the Rufous Treepie, the Ruddy Shelduck, the Red Wattled Lapwing, and a Little Ring Plover.

There are about 25-30 tigers and about 30 cubs in the preserve. In the morning, we spotted female paw prints twice, but no tiger. In the afternoon, we spotted male tracks and heard the warning calls of the Sambar. So we knew there was a tiger just south of us. About 7-8 vehicles waited patiently in the general direction that the tiger was headed, but darkness came before any sighting.

Spotted Deer

Road to Ranthambore

Topic: Women in India On our drive, Prashant talked about the status of women in India. Girls can suffer early, particularly in the city, they may be aborted after an ultrasound to determine gender. In the rural areas, they may be drowned right after birth. Why? A girl is a liability - you raise them, only to marry them off; when they become part of the husband's family, they require a dowry; and might dishonor the family via premarital sex. For this reason, many girls don't go to school, even though the government subsidizes girl's education with books, a uniform, and a bike. Though the practice is declining, some marriages are arranged at age 5 or 6, even though the girl won't move out of the family until puberty. If a boy and girl fall in love, but the family doesn't approve, both may be killed (such an incident was in the papers a few weeks ago). Today, laws are in place that assumes the husband's family is responsible for an unnatural death of the wife during the first seven years of marriage. There had been many cases where a wife dies in a kitchen fire because they determined she wasn't suitable, the dowry hasn't been paid, or she couldn't get pregnant.While many women work today in India, we didn't see any in the hotels or restaurants or very many shopkeepers, we did see them in the fields, as street sweepers, or in construction, always dressed in their saris. Yet at the same time, there are more Indian women who become doctors, scholars, or scientists than in the U.S.

Women harvesters

While traveling today, we stopped to observe the harvesting of peanuts. The farmer has about ten acres, he plants peanuts in the summer and then a second crop will be mustard, both used for their oil.
We made it to the Nahargarh hotel in time for lunch. We were all shocked - this hotel is built like a modern Indian palace with ornate courtyards and huge rooms with marble floors. We felt like royalty as tea and coffee were served in the courtyards.

View from our hotel window

 In the afternoon, we hiked up to Ranthambore fort. Built in 944 at the top of a rocky butte, this place is impregnable. There is only one entrance with multiple gates exposed to the archer's arrows. All other approaches are up sheer cliffs. The fort is located along a key route to the Ganges. On the way there and back we saw Sambar Deer, a white-breasted kingfisher, and lots of Gray Langur monkeys. On top was a beautiful Hindu memorial, several mosques, crop land, and a Hindu temple.

Grey Langur

Balloon ride, observatory, and city palace, Jaipur

Our day started at 5 AM so that we could be air born in a balloon at sunrise (6:30 AM). Mary passed the toughest test, getting in the basket. It was a smooth flight thereafter. We rose to catch a view of the Amber Fort, the town, and the wall surrounding it. And as we rose further we got a view of other towns and lakes in the distance. We descended close to a ridge to look for animals, but only got a glimpse of an antelope. Drifting further along we went over a sanctuary for injured tigers - we didn't see any, but we could hear their roar. After an hour, we came to a gentle landing in a field.

After breakfast, we visited Jantar Mantor, an astronomical observatory created when the the city was built in 1727. Here is the largest sundial in the world, at 27 meters tall and is capable of telling the time with an accuracy of 2 seconds. A huge triangle made of stone casts it shadow on a pair of marble-faced curving quadrants to tell the time. Because the quadrants are curved the hours are spaced equally apart. This sundial also works at night, by positioning a star from one of the quandrants so that it just touches the top of the triangle. Another instrument is the Mirror of Heavens. During the night an observer can find a star through the hole in the plate suspended above the instrument and read the position of the start from the interior of the bowl. There are other instruments to calculate the Hindu calendar, to locate the 12 signs of the Zodiac, to find the angle of any celestial body relative to the equator, and to observe heavenly bodies that are transiting the local meridian.

Curvlinear Sundial at Jantar Mantor

Next door is the City Palace, which took up 1/7th of the old walled city. The palace has three courtyards. In the first courtyard was a 19th century building to house foreign guests. The King's guru had warned against foreigners, thus they must live separately within the palace. This was emphasized again in the next courtyard which displayed two of thirty 900 gallon sterling silver pots used to hold Ganges water. These went with the king on his voyage to England for the coronation of George V to avoid being contaminated by foreign water. The third courtyard is known for it's doors - especially the "Peacock" doors. The palace today houses several small museums: armaments, portraits of the historic line of Rajahs in their reception room, traditional garments, and an artisan section where they demonstrated how traditional water colors were created. The colors were produced by scraping stones on a surface with water.

Peacock door at City Palace

After a shopping stop for block prints and woolen carpets (one couple bought two carpets for their new home), we went to a Hindu temple built in 1985, popularly known as the Birla Temple. It was gleaming white with statues of Vishnu and Pavarotti, his wife. More interesting was the outside columns where saints from many religions were depicted (except Muslims) including Jesus Christ, the Madonna, St. Anthony, Confusius, etc.
Topic: India's contribution to math and science While we call it the Arabic number system, the decimal system as well as the notion of zero, all came from India. In the fifth century, a mathematician  named Aryabhata calculated Pi at 3.1416, and discussed subjects such as square and cube roots, sines, and spherical geometry. India also has some of the most ancient text on Medicine in the world, including surgical procedures from the 4th century A.D.  The ancient language of Sanskrit, forms the basis for most languages in the world. We also owe to Indians: weaving of cotton in cloth, the domestication of chickens, the game of chess, gambling with dice and yoga.

Amber Fort, Jaipur

Palace of the Wind

Our day started with a photo stop for the Palace of the Winds, a five story facade, which is the symbol of Jaipur. It and the rest of the old town are painted the color that led to the nickname "the pink city"
The town of Jaipur was founded later in 1727 as a planned city, which include wide streets at right angles, water wells spaced every block and a underground sewer system.

Amber Fort

The Amber Fort was established about 800 years ago along an ancient trading route. Through many invasions, the founding family continued to rule by paying tribute to the conquerors rather than fighting them.  The Amber Fort itself was the most spectacular sight we've seen so far. It is up on a hill within a huge wall surrounding the area. The Fort is more of a palace than an actual fort, but with two gates with a steep rise between them as well as fortified walls, it would be easy to defend. We got to ride up in jeeps from the town.
After passing the moon (western) gate, we were in the first large courtyard which was a reception area for visiting dignitaries. After climbing stairs or a ramp, we were at the Hall of Public Audience. Here the king would hold his audience while seated under a canopy. The entrance gate here is a 17th century fresco. Above you you can also see lattice screens where the women could observe the public affairs while remaining hidden. Here too is a small window from which the queen could call, then drop flower petals as the king walked through the next gate to the private quarters. The third level had the Hall of Private audience which had elaborate mogul designs fashioned in silver mirrors on marbles walls. Here too is a formal Mogul garden, which would look like a Persian carpet when the flowers were in bloom. From the upper most level, we had great views of the walls, other forts, the town below and the gardens along the lake. Finally we went to the women's quarters. Man Sing, who built the harem, had twelve wives, each had their own room around the interior courtyard and the king had a private entrance to each of their rooms from his own bedroom.

Entrance to Private Hall

In the afternoon, we had a brief visit to the bazaar. Afterwards, we had our home-hosted dinner with Punkaj and Vanvida. He was a catastrophe manager in charge of training first response teams. She was a housewife with a son and daughter as well as caring for her in-laws. Being a middle-class family, they also had a servant to help prepare dinner tonight. We had a wide-ranging conversation from Miss Universe to raising children as well as discussion on both Indian and American politics (the 2012 election is a few days away). An interesting observation from Punkaj was that most of his visitors have been democrats (all six of us were tonight). The food was traditional Indian food, quite tasty. This was one of our best home-hosted dinners because our hosts encouraged interesting topics of conversation. Most interesting quote: "India has been a conquered nation for over a thousand years, now our elite, rich politicians are now the conquerors over a vast, relatively poor country."

Road to Jaipur

Delhi to Jaipur is only about 150 miles, but with traffic and rest stops it will take all day to get there (7:30 till 5:00). On the road, Prashant shared some of the controversial topics about India.
Topic: Corruption Corruption is rampant, there are stories everyday in the papers of some official or another being prosecuted for corruptions and bribes. This started when the British allowed many small kingdoms to exist if they would be swear allegiance to the British, who then would provide military protection. This allowed the local raj to accumulate great wealth from their kingdoms and spend it as they pleased typically on palaces and parties. Today, it seems to take bribes to get anything done through the government offices (62% of Indians have paid such a bribe) and many businesses in order to avoid taxes or get the proper licenses from the government, end up paying bribes. In the news recently is a story about accusing Walmart of bribery in order to get permission to operate in India.
Topic: Caste System The caste system is over 3000 years old. Originally the castes were based on occupations:

• The top caste, Brahmins, were priests, doctors and teachers
• The warrior class, Kshatriyas, who earned protection money
• The money-wise, Vaishyas, who were traders and land owners
• The laborers, Shudras
• And finally, those who weren't any any caste, the untouchables, who were garbage collectors and labored in other unclean tasks. 

Since fathers would typically share their knowledge only within their family, the higher professions would be be passed between generations. Eventually caste was determined by birth, not by profession. Since independence, there have been laws to try and break the system, including an affirmative action program for the lower castes which reserves a percentage of government jobs for these castes. But, of course, even the lowest government jobs require a high school degree. Many from the lower castes don't complete their schooling, even if it is free.
Prashant, whose name was only Prashant for 28 years experienced discrimination himself. After passing all the tests for a defense department job, he was interviewed by a colonel for final selection. As part of the interview, he was asked for his full name - Prashant was not a sufficient answer, so he gave his last name which indicates his caste (a bookkeeper, a subcaste of Shudras).  He was not selected. Caste is still part of the social fabric, most marry within their caste and vote for candidates from their caste.

Wedding couple in formal attire

Topic: Arranged marriages 80-85% of city dwellers and 95% of rural people have arranged marriages. Usually arranged by the parents based on families they know. This is because in India's culture, a marriage is not just a marriage of two people, it is a marriage between two families. Sometimes, if they can't find a suitable partner, they will advertise for a marriage partner, by caste and by age. Looking at the marriage ads in the Sunday paper, there were a profusion of ads for men and women who lived in foreign countries. Today, even with most arranged marriages the boy and girl do have the right of refusal and typically will meet several times before they marry. Generally, the bride's family is expected to provide a dowry. Historically, this was used by the bride to provide security should her husband die. But generally, the dowry becomes part of the husband's family household accounts. After the couple are married, the wife becomes part of the husband's family and typically will live with that extended family. They can visit their birth family on occasion and there is a tradition that the birth of their first child will occur at the bride's family home. In India, there is virtually no divorce, (1% or so) largely because it is culturally unacceptable. A divorced woman is held in disgrace and probably will never marry again. In fact a widow, typically stays with the husband's family and will not marry again.
Lunch was a surprise, we had it in a 19th century palace in the village of Chomu. Entering town we saw a funeral procession. Women aren't allowed, so the procession was entirely men following the covered body on its way to be cremated. Then we encountered a Hindu procession marking the start of a scripture reading. Usually a businessman is following his Guru's suggestion to have a reading of the Hindu scriptures. At the start of the reading they have a procession. What made it extremely special was that the women are dressed the same carrying a pot with a pineapple inside (for prosperity).

Temples in Delhi

New Delhi Government Buildings

Delhi has been the capital of an empire for over five hundred years. But when the British took over in 1857, they moved the capital to Calcutta, where the East India Company was headquartered. In 1911, plans were made to build New Delhi as the capital, but World War I delayed the building until 1920-31. Meanwhile the old Mogul capital was renamed Old Delhi. The entire government area is laid out in a symmetrical pattern with wide streets with the exception of the circular parliament building which was an afterthought. We walked up to the Presidential Palace which was home to quite a few monkeys.
Next we went to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, built in 1650, it can hold 20,000 in its open air courtyard. Compared to others mosques we've seen, this one is very simple. From the mosque, we could see a large carnival area from the 9 day festival that had ended yesterday. From here we took a rickshaw ride through the Chadni Chowk Bazaar. We felt sorry for the rickshaw driver with the streets narrow, crowded and pot holed. He often lost his momentum and had to push hard to get us moving again. In one portion, he ended up walking us. Many of the merchants here are wholesalers for the country's other markets.

Jama Masjid

We then stopped at a Kashmir cooperative to see their hand-tied carpets. These are silk carpets, that aren't hand-weaved, but hand-tied in a figure 8 pattern, so that every point of color is another thread. After the carpet is completed; it is sheared close to bring out the color. These carpets actually improve as you walk on them, polishing the threads. As you can tell, we decided to buy one - we've been to 5-6 of these carpet sales rooms, these Kashmir carpets were more ornate, higher quality, and at a lower price then we've seen before.
In the afternoon, we visited a Sikh temple, Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak Dev in the 15th century. The Guru was well traveled and founded this philosophy after seeing the discrimination and injustice of the times. It has three principles:

1. Work hard
2. Pray and remember God
3. Care for the poor

He also preached equality between castes, creeds, and  gender. Nine teachers completed the philosophy and their teachings are written in their holy book. The temple has a copy of the book surrounded by gold and marble with a priest passing a horse hair fly swatter over it. Of course, Sikh men are easily recognized by their turbans covering their uncut hair. We also visited their kitchen which feeds 10,000-15,000 people every day, an example of practicing what they preach.

Stirring soup in the kitchen

Dehli, India

If you would rather view a video of this trip, instead of reading a blog, it is available on youtube. 

Before we started this trip, we were asked many a time, "Why are you going to India?" Here are the primary reasons: First, we like to explore different cultures. India is the second most populous country as well as the largest democracy, it is also the birthplace of three of the world's major religions: Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism, the latter two older than Christianity. That qualifies as an interesting culture. Second, people who have been  to India, told us how interesting the country was and that it would assault our senses. That stimulated our curiosity. Finally, we like to visit places with ancient history and wildlife. The culture of the Indian subcontinent is about as old as Egypt's, everyone should see the Taj Mahal in their lifetime, and we included a trip to a tiger reserve to possibly see a tiger in the wild. All good reasons for "why go to India".
Our trip started with an early rising to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Chicago. From there we caught a 13 hour flight direct to Delhi. It was a comfortable 777 with lots of leg room and a wide screen monitor, but 13 hours takes a toll on anyone. Upon arrival we were greeted by our bags (yeah!), our guide, then a dust storm and rain with hail. (This turned out to be the only bad weather of the entire trip.) Prashant, our guide gave us a quick tour of the neighborhood market and the opportunity to go the last day of the festival of Durga Purja. We declined out of exhaustion.
In the morning, Prashant set our expectations for the trip.

1. While Indians keep their indoors clean, outdoors is a no-man's land - junk piles, dirt, ruts
2. While we may be wary of Indian's because of outsourced jobs, they generally are a friendly people, for instance, they may want a picture with you to show their friends. (Indeed this happened quite often during the trip.)
3. Communication may be difficult, while 20-30% speak English, you'll only understand 10% of them and only 5% will understand you.
4. Vendors are everywhere, children will hang on to you, you will encounter beggars and extreme poverty. At the same time, the rich will have many servants and even the middle class may employ part-time servants.

Qutab Minar

In the afternoon, we did our first touring. Delhi is a state (one of 27 in India) of 17 million people with New Delhi as the country's capital. The city is about 1200 years old, originally the capital of a Hindu kingdom. Muslims from Afghanistan have invaded the city many times, destroying many of the original Hindu temples. 
Our first stop is Qutab Minar, home of an ancient mosque and tower built in the 12th century by qutub-ud-din Aibak , a Muslim govenor. The original mosque was built from the stones of a former Hindu temple. Built by local labor, who didn't understand that Muslim art shouldn't depict living things. They violated these rules resulting in a mixture of Arabic letters and designs as well as Hindu vines, flowers, and figurines.
The tower, built from 1199-1212, from sandstone has passages from the Koran written in Arabic girding the tower as well as five picturesque balconies. At the top, marble was used to repair the tower after a lightning strike. The tower was built to symbolize that the Muslim religion was powerful than the Hindu religion. In the courtyard of the mosque is an iron pillar at least 1500 years old, which is a testament to the metallurgy of ancient India, since it resists corrosion. These pillars are often found outside Hindu temples.

Memorial to Mahatma Gandhi

 Our next stop was a large park of Raj Ghat (the state funeral ground) where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. Gandhi was well know for his version of non-violent, non-cooperation as a way to further his cause. He used this to gain freedom from British rule as well as to protest the caste system. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by Hindus because he allowed the separation of Pakistan and India., leading to over one million deaths between the factions. Our final stop just after sunset was the India Gate, a memorial to Indian soldiers in World War I and the British Afghan War.
Throughout the day, we were surrounded by families, since today is a Hindu holiday, Vijavadashami, which celebrates the victory of Rama over the ten-headed demon king Ravana. The families were taking as many pictures as the tourists were. And, of course, many women were dressed in their colorful saris. 
The day ended with a delicious India dinner - naan, the traditional bread, several vegetarian dishes as well as chicken dishes. Prashant  pointed our that the vegetables, chicken, and bread will constitue most of our meals. The vegetables will be what is fresh for the season and each restaurant will try to provide uniqueness to the meal by the spices and sauces they use.

Headed home

We spent our last two days doing about 450 miles each day to get back to Fort Collins with a stop overnight in Albuquerque. So what were the highlights? Revisiting Yosemite Park was spectacular, we really enjoyed the two musical museums, San Juan Capistrano was the best of our six missions, and of course, spending time with friends: Bill and Flo in San Diego, and the Stadele’s and Dierschow’s in Phoenix.