Strange picture of the week

This is a picture we took in Delhi. Some of the street lights actually have messages which appear when lit up. This one has "relax" written in English which is rather useless as you sit in the oppressive heat, sucking in the clouds of exhaust fumes and listening to the blaring horns, radios, street vendors, diesel motors, barking dogs, etc. Remember..."relax".

Lal Qila (Red Fort)

Last week when we were in Delhi, I (Aaron) went to see Lal Qila more commonly known as the Red Fort. This was also the day that I visited Jama Masjid.

The Red Fort was the palace for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's new capital, Shahjahanabad, the seventh Muslim city in the Delhi site. He moved his capital from Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) in a move designed to bring prestige to his reign, and to provide ample opportunity to apply his ambitious building schemes and interests. The Red Fort gets its name from the massive wall of red sandstone that defines its four sides. The wall is 1.5 miles (2.5 km) long, and varies in height from 60ft (16m) on the river side to 110 ft (33 m) towards the city. Measurements have shown that the plan was generated using a square grid of 82 m.

The fort lies along the Yamuna River, which fed the moats that surround most of the wall. The Yamuna no longer flows near the fort and the moats are now empty. Construction on the Red Fort began in 1638 and was complete by 1648.

The Red Fort was conceived as a whole, and subsequent modifications have not taken away from the overall unity of the scheme. In the 18th century, however, occupiers and looters damaged some sections of the palace.

After the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (the first of the great Indian mutinees), when the Fort was used as a headquarters, the British Army occupied and destroyed many of its pavilions and gardens. A program for restoring the surviving parts of the fort began in 1903.

The Red Fort is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Delhi, attracting millions of visitors every year. The fort is also the site from which the Prime Minister of India addresses the nation on August 15, the day India achieved independence from the United Kingdom (1947).

At one point of time, more than 3000 people lived within the premises of the Delhi Fort complex. But after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the fort was captured by Britain and was made the headquarters of the British Indian Army. After India was given independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the Indian Army took control over the fort. In December 2003 the Indian Army handed the fort over to the Indian tourist authorities.

View of the front of the fort. In the front is the large outer wall topped with green grass. In front of this wall was the moat which surrounded the fort. Behind the wall is one of the gates, topped by the fluttering flag of India; this is now the entrance for the general public.



This is a view looking from left to right of the wall shown in the picture above, the area which is covered in green grass is what remains of the moat.



One thing that is hard to get used to is the military presence in the fort. I was walking and bumped something, I looked and it was a fully automatic rifle mounted on a platform similar to this one. I could see through the clear magazine that the weapon was loaded. There are soldiers with weapons roaming the entire premises. This particular Sikh gaurd with his weapon was near the entrance.



There were many buildings in the fort although not all of them are open to the general public. These are three of the original building and were all very interesting. I tried to imagine what they looked like when they were richly decorated and painted. Shah Jahan sitting on his royal throne and entertaining guests. The opulence would have truly been something to behold.



This is a picture of the inside of the Rang Mahal (Palace of Color). The outside of this building can be seen in the picture above; it is the building on the right. This palace was also called the Palace of Distinction during the time of Shah Jahan. Originally it would have been richly painted and there were small pieces of mirror embedded in the walls and especially the ceiling, when the light hit them it would glitter and present an awesome sight. I have been in some palaces here decorated the same way; it would be dark within and then someone would light a single candle- the entire room would light up. Through the center of this room there is a trough-like channel running through the building. This was called the Stream of Paradise because it once was filled with running water. This was not only for visual affect. The flowing water would have the breeze blow over it and would act like an air cooler; it was quite affective.

Jama Masjid

Last week I (Aaron) went to see Masjid-i-Jahan Numa in Old Delhi. This is the largest mosque in India and one of the largest in the world. I took a couple of pictures from outside as well as the bazaar in front of the mosque. The admission is free but I could not bring myself to pay the 200 Rupee (US $5) camera fee so I do not have any pictures of the inside of the Mosque. One of these days I may find the strength to pry the rupees from my tight fist, just not that day.

Masjid-i-Jahan Numa means "the mosque commanding a view of the world" it is commonly called Jama Masjid of Delhi. It was completed by Shah Jahan (the builder of the Taj Mahal) in 1656. The courtyard within the walls is so large that it can hold 25,000 people. For more information and pictures on Jama Masjid you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama_Masjid,_Delhi.



View of the entrance with the mosque behind. Just below the entrance are the high and wide steps from the bazaar that lead up to the mosque.



Gate at the top of the steps, by going through this gate you enter the large courtyard which lies in front of the mosque.



This picture is taken from the gate at the top of the steps with my back toward the mosque. As far as can be seen in this picure is a bazaar with people selling everything from water to toys.

Help In Suffering (HIS)- Village Clinic

Just over one week ago I (Aaron) had the opportunity to accompany approximately 30 veterinarians and assistants to a local village for a one day clinic sponsored by Help In Suffering. The village clinics are held approximately every three months and are usually held in one of the areas where the HIS employees are from; this makes coordination and setup much easier and aids in a good understanding of the village and its needs.

The village was about one and a half hours from our home and involved some very rough single lane roads. The site of the clinic was at the base of a fort which was several hundred years old. The surrounding area where we set up was a battlefield which saw violent fighting for three days in May 1787 between the Kachhawaha Rajputs and the Marathas

This was a wonderful opportunity for me to practice my language with the workers and the villagers. It was also a good opportunity for me to observe the lives of the local villagers. It was particularly interesting to watch the goat herders and see how simple sounds that they made with their mouth could change the direction of the entire flock, make them stop or go and even change their speed.

Since we were in a village that was mainly shepherds there were not many camels (there were only about 12 in the entire village). Most of the animals were cows, Indian buffalo and oxen; there were a few camels, horses and dogs.

The village clinic was an experience that I will never forget; it was exciting to be a part of helping to treat the animals which are the villagers' livelihood. I look forward to helping again in the near future.



Setting up the tables which were piled high with treatments for the villagers' animals. All of the services and medications were provided free of charge by HIS and their sponsors.



Villagers bringing their cows and Indian buffalo can be seen in this picture. In the center of the picture there is a buffalo in a metal enclosure; this is what the buffalo, cows and oxen would be put in for treatment. These animals are very strong and without this enclosure it is difficult and dangerous to treat the animals. There were times when six to eight of us would try to get a buffalo into the enclosure and we could not budge them; they are amazingly strong.

The dogs were treated in front of the tent. The goats were treated to the left of the trees visible in the picture. The camels were treated in this general area although there were none present when this picture was taken.



A camel being treated; it was not eating and was not in very good shape. It took four adults to hold the camel in order to give him the necessary shots.



Here is a shepherd family taking their goats to the clinic in order to be dewormed and receive a checkup. Goats eat almost anything and one of the doctors removed a thorn several inches long from the mouth of one of the goats.

Here some of the staff of HIS gives deworming treatment (oral) to the goats. There were dozens that would come in at once and about fifteen of us would team up into pairs in order to catch and treat the goats. One person would need to hold the animal while the other would squirt the medication into the goats mouth.

Ranbanka Palace

While we were in Jodhpur we took a few days to relax and celebrate our 5th anniversary (June 1st). Aaron made all the arrangements and found a beautiful palace (built for the Maharajah's younger brother) for us to stay for 2 days and 2 nights. I have to start by saying that when you live in a place like India, you learn to have very low - if any - expectations...ESPECIALLY when it comes to a hotel. The pictures on the website are almost NEVER what the place really looks like, so don't be fooled. With this in mind, Aaron and I arrived skeptically. The lobby was beautiful and reminded us of a castle. As we entered our room, I was amazed to see that it actually looked like the pictures on the website. The room was beautiful and the service was amazing. The restaurant offered some of the best food we've had in India. We were pleasantly surprised with the whole experience.

Our favorite memories:

1. Aaron bought me a body massage, which was wonderful!
2. Romantic candlelight dinners on the lawn.
3. Fried ice cream!! That's right...just like we used to get at the Mexican restaurants at home.
4. Swimming in the pool.
5. Drinking chai in the traditional Rajasthani sitting area.

It was the best anniversary we've had yet. We both had a great time of relaxation - it almost felt like we weren't in India anymore.

View of our room from the sitting area.


Our room was decorated nicely.


Where we spent quite a bit of time...the pool!


This is the beautiful lawn where we had our candlelight dinners.


This is the traditional Rajasthani sitting area where we had our chai every afternoon.

Adventure?

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."
- Lao Tzu (Philosopher)

This blog is appropriately titled, but I admit that sometimes I become tired of the adventure! We left on Wednesday (May 23rd) for Jodhpur and were planning to return the following Wednesday (May 30th). The first five days were spent with work, Aaron went out to the villages and did some research. Two days were spent relaxing in a beautiful palace for our anniversary and then we were supposed to go home. We arrived at the train station on Wednesday (May 30th) at 9 AM to catch our train but we were told that due to rioting between Jodhpur and our home city, the train was running late and would not arrive until 1:00PM. We checked back later and the train wasn't coming until sometime in the evening and then the train was canceled. We checked into a fairly nice hotel that we had stayed in before and arranged for a car and driver to pick us up Thursday morning and drive us home. We got in the car on Thursday morning and made it to a city about two and a half hours from our home but were stopped by police and men with guns and sticks and told that we couldn't go any further. The road we were traveling was too dangerous and people were torching cars and trucks that tried to pass. So we found a hotel and settled in for the rest of the day and night. The hotel we stayed in was an adventure in itself, but we'll talk about that in another post. The next morning we heard that the road was opened and so we arranged for another car and driver to take us home. The train tracks had been ripped up and no buses were running to our city, so this was our only chance to make it home. Thankfully, we finally made it home Friday afternoon. There is still a lot of unrest in our city and I don't think we've seen the last of this rioting, but at least we're home!

We'll be posting about our trip for the next few days so be sure to check back soon.