Amiram Hayardeny's My China Experience

India Trip – Day nine: Fatehpur Sikri and Agra

Today was breathtaking on so many levels.  At one time during the day, we looked at each other and understood that we will need time to adjust today, and this trip in general.  Guy, the almost five year old said it in a few words.  “No more palaces”.  He couldn't take it anymore, in fact, he was ready to go home.  From the behavior of children one can learn a lot.  Since we have arrived here, the children are wide-eyed, asking many questions, making very interesting observations.  But most of all, when we arrive at the hotel at night, when we even start heading in the general direction of the hotel, the kids collapse.  They fall asleep and they sleep in a way they never do at home.  The reason is simple.  The senses here, all of them, are fully employed all the time.  Everywhere you look, there's something to record, to observe, to hear, smell or touch.  It is intense, and it is exhausting.

Fatehpur Sikri was a palace built by Akbar, a Mughal ruler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar) in the sixteenth century.  It is a world heritage site, and its beauty is difficult to describe.

Our next stop was the crown jewel.  The Taj Mahal, or the Crown Palace.  Many know the story of the Taj Mahal, but describing it in words may be just way to difficult.  I will let pictures do it for me.  For scientists, mathematicians, symmetry is a very important characteristic of almost everything.  The tendency to have things organized in a symmetric way, comes probably from the fact that symmetry depicts perfect.  Humans are (at least externally) symmetric.  To many, and I admit that to me as well, things that are asymmetric are not pretty.  The Taj Mahal is a temple for symmetry.  It is an uneven octagon, with four towers on the side.  From everywhere you look, you would see a similar picture right next to it, as if some lunatic architect has built a half a building, and place a colossal mirror next to it.  Another valued characteristic is attention to detail.  The Taj Mahal has versus of the Qur'an in front (all four fronts).  The lower letter (closer to the floor) are small.  The higher you go, the larger the letters are.  When you look at it, all letters look to be the same size.  I thought it was spectacular.

The building itself is made from India white marble.  Stronger, harder to carve, non-porous, light-absorbing material.  It looks as if it was built last year.  In fact, no building built last year looks as new as the Taj Mahal.  The marble work looks so delicate, yet so pretty.  Little flowers and other shapes made of onyx, coral and other semi-precious stones seem to be an integral part of the marble.  But they aren't.  The flower shape (or any other) was carved out of the marble at three millimeters depth, the shape would be glued to the marble with special glue, and the result would be washed and soaped to make it look as if it is part of the marble.

A mosque was built to the right of the Taj Mahal to serve practicing Muslims.  For the sake of symmetry, another mosque, exactly the same was built on the left side.  It isn't active, but it is as beautiful.

It is a breathtaking experience.  All you need is to throw in the fact that it is a world heritage site (Fatehpur Sikri and the Red Fort are as well), the fact that people come in from every corner of the world to see it, and that it is a great monument for love and symmetry, and I can say with abslute certainty: I left the Taj Mahal feeling fortunate to have been able to visit, and to have been able to take my family along.

I can't ignore one thing though.  Agra is the dirtiest city we've seen in India.  I'm not implying anything, since obviously I have been to only very little part of India.  Yet, taking into account that every visitor pays about Rupee 750.00 for entering Taj Mahal, you would think that the local government would invest more in preserving the surrounding area.  This is an open question.  

We went to the Red Fort.  A beautiful place still used as military barracks by the India Army.  From the Red Fort, there's a beautiful view of the Taj Mahal.  But it certainly has merit on its own.

Peddlers will follow you everywhere you go.  The best advice we have received, which turned to be working well, is to ignore them completely.  Same things goes for beggars.  Let me just make this statement.  I love giving to charity.  Usually of the kind that ends up at the needing parties hands, and not at fancy dinners and limousines.  Begging here is a profession.  Children are sent to beg, handicapped, elderly, and pretty much people from all ages and shapes.  It's difficult to look at beggars and not to give.  Particularly difficult looking at begging children.  Yet, I understood clearly, that giving to one may bring a half neighborhood to your car door or yourself.  Two, the money is most likely collected by others.  And three, to my complete disappointment, is that I had to lose my sense of pity, or lose my wallet, and then my sense of pity.  I chose the former.  Same goes for manners.  If you take the time to explain to every peddler why you don't need/want whatever it is that they are selling, you would spend the rest of your life here.  Hence, ignoring is best.
Day nine: spectacular, amazing, fortunate.

Enlightenment of the day: actually I have a cliche: don't take anything for granted.  Being here, appreciating it, appreciating the life we have.  I'm not taking it for granted.

Posted at 08:38PM Feb 11, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[2]

India Trip – Day Eight: Bharatpur

We left Jaipur at 9:00 after a great stay at the Clarks Amer Hotel.  The ride was amazing.  Being the mathematician that I am, I was trying to find order in things.  After a couple of hours I started leaning towards chaos theory and entropy.  The general scenery is a four lane highway with separation.  But the resemblance to what you think is a four lane highway with separation is non existent.  In parts of the way the “other” side was closed and traffic in both directions shared the remaining two lanes.  In other parts, both sides were working as a two lane no separation highways independent of each other.  The usual vehicles were present today, camels were particularly strong, but donkeys weren't too far behind.  Cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, cows, monkeys, dogs, sheep, pigs, all were nicely represented.  But today I was introduced to a new type of vehicle.  The build-it-yourself vehicle.  Particularly attractive since it requires no license, registration, taxes or insurance, and therefore is particularly common in the rural areas.  It comes in all colors and three engine sizes.  Just kidding.  Each vehicle is unique.  Anyway, we have seem quite a few, and on average, each small vehicle was populated with ten passengers.  At least.

Our driver, Kishan, showed skill and presented such mastery of driving I've never seem before.  Navigating his way through the livestock, vehicles, pedestrians and really bad roads, he brought us to Laxmi Villas in Bahratpur safely.

After lunch we went to the bird sanctuary.  A beautiful place, not to be missed by bird lovers, but for families it's a nice, relaxed break from an otherwise intense trip.  Recommended.  Our tour guide, Didi, who turned out to be almost exactly my age, was nice, good with children, and an expert on wildlife.  We had a choice of horse and carriage or a bicycle rickshaw for the visit to the bird sanctuary.  We chose the horse.  This was, the four of us were together, and we could all listen to the explanations given by Didi.  Lovely place.

Back to the hotel, we went to dinner.  Then to the room.  Let me explain a little about the room.  The Laxmi Villas Hotel is an official palace.  Occupied in the past, and surprisingly in the present by a local Maharaja, who lives upstairs from where we do.  The rooms are spacious, magnificent with marble floors, the traditional arcs and a few paintings depicting the Maharaja, his family and his activities – hunting and cricket.

Tomorrow, we are going to Agra, to see the great Taj Mahal.  Need I say more?

Enlightenment of the day: It is easy to forget your manners here.  Put them aside, as you will need them in the future.

Posted at 08:35PM Feb 11, 2008 by Amiram Hayardeny in Personal  |  Comments[1]