“Jai Ho”, Victory is Ours

To sum up my experience in India, I’m going to address this entry a little differently than in the past.
When you first arrive in India, you kind of go into a defensive state of shock, at least that is how it was for me. It was both scary and intimidating. But, then once you relax a little, you become more comfortable and you are then able to really take it all in. You are able to think about everything you’re seeing, smelling, heading, and tasting. Then you are truly able to experience and embrace where you are. This eventually leads you to accepting what is happening and being apart of what is going on around you.
India is a country of extreme contrasts. There are people in beautifully colored saris with flowers in their hair and there are also naked children begging on the street. I know I will be deeply affected by my experience and even just a few days after being there I find it difficult to talk about my time there. I cannot imagine explaining it to people who weren’t there with me or may never go and see it for themselves. Some of the things I saw I will NEVER forget for the rest of my life. For people who have so little, it is insane to even compare how Americans live their lives half way around the world.
I will tell you the places I visited and saw, but most of the memories I had and the images I was able to see are very different than the other countries I have been to up to this point. If you have never been to India, I highly recommend you to go. It is an amazing country of colors, life, dirt, art, culture, great food, and very welcoming people. After returning to the ship and showering I have never felt so dirty in my life. Even worse than camp and that is saying something. The reason why the entry is called Jai Ho is because our tour guide told us to say it together as to make sure we were all there, wherever we were. It’s also a song from the movie, Slumdog millionaire…which I HIGHLY recommend watching. It’s literally India in a movie.
Our first day, I ended up doing an SAS trip to Jaipur and the Taj Mahal. We flew to New Delhi (the airline food was sooo good!) After arriving we went to the oldest mosque in India which was also the same height as the Taj Mahal. We went to see a rug making wholesaler and saw how rugs were made, then continued onto our hotel. By the time we arrived at the hotel it was dinner time. The hotel was BEAUTIFUL. When you go with SAS it is first class, there were HUGE beds and a bathtub in the rooms and the hotel was very modernly decorated. It was a nice change from hostels and my ship cabin that’s for sure. We had a lovely dinner there, a whole American and international buffet on one side and then Indian gourmet food offered on the other side. Everything was delicious!
The next morning we drove to Jaipur and that took a few hours. I enjoyed looking out the window at the small villages, markets and farms we passed by. I was glad to forget my ipod on the ship. Although I quickly discovered the horns on the cars in India were ridiculous! They all sound different and are VERY loud. They don’t have turn signals; they just use horns to tell a car to move over. We saw lots of auto rickshaws and cycle-rickshaws too, little taxis in the streets either run by a motor…or a person’s legs. There were cows along the road and in the middle of the street as most of India practice Hinduism and cows are considered holy. Once arriving in Jaipur (which is known as the “the pink city” because of the colored buildings) we saw the Jantar Mantar. It is the biggest of five astronomical observatory build by Maharaja Jai Singh during the period 1727-1734 in north India. We saw the City Palace, which had both traditional Rajput and Mughal architecture and had the two largest silver vessels in the world. We even were able to see the King of Jaipur driving into the Palace! We were also able to see the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing which was very beautiful and interesting. We then saw a HUGE jewelry shop. India has a lot of diamonds and has more recently been apart of the diamond market internationally. I decided against the 10 kart diamond ring. You know, it just wasn’t the right cut. Yeah right. I had a lovely conversation about arranged marriages with one of the jewelers there which I really enjoyed. We then headed back to our hotel and had a wonderful dinner with delicious naan bread.
**If you have never tried Indian food, you need to stop what you’re doing. RIGHT NOW. Go out and buy some. I don’t care if you’re hungry or not. Go get some. It is amazing. We had the best food in India and I never got sick! That evening we watched a puppet show when came to our hotel and I had some henna done all over my hand which I loved.
The next day on our way out of Jaipur we saw the Hawa Mahal (or Palace of breeze) was built in 1799 as part of City Palace. It was an extension of the Zenana (women) chamber. Its purpose was to allow royal ladies to observe everyday life in the street below without being seen. It was five stories and had 953 windows. The breeze (or hawa in Hindi) circulates through these windows giving the palace its name. We then saw Jal Mahal or known as the water palace which was beautiful. One our way to Agra, we saw the Amber Fort, which is HUGE and was built in Hindu-Muslim style and used as the royal palace of the Kachwahas from 1600-1727. We were able to take an elephant up to the top of the fort! It was so cool! Even though it was a really neat experience and we were able to feed them fruit afterwards, I’m pretty sure the animals were not treated well by their owners. We were showed around the fort and heard more about its history then made our way down in little jeeps. We then headed to Agra and stopped at the Fatehpur Sikri, which was a beautiful palace that was built and only used for 15 years because of low water supply. The Emperor who built it had three wives who each had their own area in Palace each one came from different parts of the world and had their own architecture patterns according to where they were from. There were also beautiful gardens around the entire structure.
Afterwards we left to get to Agra and before our hotel we stopped at a block-printing factory. It was so intricate and specific in the designs and I enjoyed seeing how they made everything by hand. I bought a gorgeous tablecloth with matching napkins to hopefully use when I get older. Once arriving at the hotel, we explored some of the stores near the hotels before dinner. I bought a few pashminas (wool and silk scarves) and some postcards. We noticed a pizza hut close to our hotel and thought we would check it out just to see if the menu was different. Pizza Hut in India is like a nice sit down restaurant. They did have a take out counter but everyone had their families there eating, talking and socializing. They even had brownie sundaes. It was really cool. We talked to some of the workers there who were curious about my braids (everyone has asked about my braids in each country, its hilarious). We eventually had a wonderful dinner at the hotel with more awesomely yummy naan curry and chocolate ice cream! Such a treat! There was a little clothing store in the hotel that made Semester at Sea t-shirts with the Taj Mahal on the front, they were so cool! I bought one along with these really sweet stretchy Aladdin pants (that’s what I’m calling them). The next day we woke up early to get to Taj early to watch the marble change color.
We arrived and were haggled a lot by street sellers, who tend to attach you as soon as you get out a car, peer out the window, or even look down from riding on an elephant. They were everywhere, selling everything from miniature elephants, postcards, and bangles. We walked through the Agra Fort before approaching the Taj, which was incredible.
Once we saw the Taj Mahal, I just starred at it for at least ten minutes without saying a word. It was indescribable. Photos could not do it justice. I took so many photos and still can’t experience what I saw while I was there. It’s just beyond me. You really need to go to India. I’m really glad I saw it. The reflection in the water and the sun on the white marble is just breath-taking. We learned the history and the story of the Taj Mahal, which I highly suggest looking up, as I do not wish to explain it here. Basically men should build more beautiful buildings like the Taj for their wives in current times.
We went inside the Taj, and walked around the beautiful gardens, which was also everything I had expected and so much more. I loved it. I want to go back and stare at it all day. I hope you enjoy my photos. :-)
We saw a marble making factory afterwards and then quickly headed to New Delhi for our flight back to Chennai. It went by fast those few days. My last day I did a service visit for a disabled children’s home with helped wrap up my entire experience in this country. We were given a tour of the facility and I was in shock the state of the building and the services they provided to this children. They focused on children with mental disabilities, but some of the kids also had physical disabilities. Some of kids did not have wheelchairs, so they moved around on little flat top boards with wheels. It was shocking at first when you heard the wheels come down the hall. Then you turned to see what it was, but as soon as you see this child looking up at you, their smile and friendly wave melts your heart in a second. We helped with the garden and cleaning up the plants and re-painted and cleaned up the chalkboards. I have never been so dirty and I could have cared less. Before we were able to play with the kids, we were given a traditional South Indian vegetarian lunch.
Those Indians who practice Hinduism are vegetarians, as they do not believe in killing animals (80% of Indians are Hindus). We ate on banana leaves and had a thin bread piece (similar to a tortilla, but different than naan), with a potato mixture, lentil yellow mixture, a slice of watermelon, and some crispy chip like thing which was huge and very crackly. It was all delicious. You used your hands and used the rice with the bread to scoop some of the other things, and then added the yogurt on the side to enhance the flavor and calm down the spiciness of the food. It was really good. Northern and Southern Indian food is different; in the U.S. they mostly serve Northern. We then were able to play with the kids, which was so much fun. We played games, threw up around and distributed stickers all over their arms. They kids were so skinny and little, I loved being able to just pick them up.
One girl sat on my lap forever and pulled me wherever she went. The kids with hearing aids were so little and happy. We played leap frog and musical chairs with them which made them really happy. I have learned kids are the same everywhere it’s the little things sometimes that can make them so happy. These children lived at the school and enjoyed a day off to play with a bunch of college kids. It was hard to see them and some responded better than others but I am very glad I went. We were able to bring some of the adult men to the ship to give them a tour, which was really fun. They were even able to meet the Captain!
India was something I will never forget.

Some of these things include the streets. They have buses, cars, cycle-rickshaws, camels, elephants, cows, and monkeys in the streets. Now try driving with signals. There is so much poverty there, but the people have so much interest in telling others about their culture and country traditions. Some of the faces I saw of starvation, beautifully dressed dancers, colors, and the greenery of fields, smog, pollution, and markets are unforgettable. I hope to return to India in the future. There are so many things I was unable to see.

With a country of 1.2 billion people, the opportunities are endless in seeing all there is to see.

**Side note: That evening we celebrated Purim (Jewish holiday) on the ship and the kitchen staff accepted our request to make Hamentashens! (jelly cookies) We read the Megilah and dressed up! It took me twenty minutes to figure out how to wear my new sari. I’m pretty sure I’m going to wear it to my sorority’s formal next year. No one else will have the same dress!  I’m excited to experience Passover on the ship as well. They are picking up matzah for us in Hong Kong!