Day 8 (Mumbai)

This was our first day with the Global Youth Leadership Institute, a program from which we learnt quite a bit about multiculturalism, though not entirely in the way the program leaders had intended.

Gathered into a room with delegations from four other schools (two each from the U.S. and India), we began the day with introductory games, the College Prep group made a presentation on our trip so far and then a leadership-style quiz divided us up into groups to come up with an event to encourage awareness of, and activism against, hunger. The latter was probably the most interesting activity, with many different ideas being thrown around and everyone getting a chance to realize the positives and drawbacks of their leadership style.

Some people commented on a couple minor issues. First, the program was completely confined to the room within the hotel; the brief walk we took seemed solely for exercise, not for interest in the neighborhood. In addition, some of the other students were difficult to talk to; it was very difficult for College Prep girls to start a conversation with the Indian boys as cross-gender socializing was obviously something they were not very used to!

Day 7 (Mumbai)

After hearing him talked up by a proud cousin-in-law (Salil!) it was slightly jarring that Luke Kenney made such an informal entrance, hopping onto the bus with his girlfriend, Deviki (Salil's cousin), from the side of the road where we had appeared to have stopped for no reason. With fair skin and shaggy brown hair, Luke's European blood is obvious, but he speaks English with a Mumbai accent. Though he had a lot of interesting things to say, it was Luke's background that was maybe the most fascinating. Born to an Irish father and an Italian mother, he grew up in Mumbai without the typical expat crutches of international schools and foreign neighborhoods and thus, in upbringing, is a normal Indian guy, most comfortable in the local dialect and habits.

As Luke narrated this story, he directed the bus into what appeared to be a nature reserve on the outskirts of Mumbai, but actually turned out to be a Bollywood studios. We were shown a set under construction for an upcoming airline commercial, the village set for a soon-to-be aired tv show, and even got to see (from a distance) the filming of a temple scene for a movie. We weren't close enough to figure out what was going on, but Salil laughed heartily at us stumbling across the most stereotypical scene in the Indian film industry! Our Bollywood tour ended with a visit to a relatively new film academy, where we got a better sense of the different steps of movie-making (such as sound processing) and India's developing academies for this industry. To no one's surprise, as we stepped out of the building, the rain was coming down in sheets. Hello, monsoon!

Despite the rain, we stopped at the beach; unfortunately, without the sun to distract us, most of us came away with negative impressions after noticing the massive amount of garbage strewn everywhere. But we had a fairly amusing communication failure with a woman peddling henna. After holding a stamp to Sasha's nose and declaring, "10 rupees," she proceeded to cover Sasha and Grace's hands (including each individual finger) with the stamp at lightning speed. When she was done she demanded, to our horror, 150 rupees. We were much more careful about what we were getting ourselves into after that!

But the fun wasn't over. We paid a nighttime visit to a corner of the Mumbai slum to see a leather-working factory. It was a visit of contrasts, both of expectation and situation. Some of us were terrified, while others didn't notice anything scary. The entrance to the slum was a 20 ft. strip of garbage, but the tiny street was relatively uncluttered. We peered into single-room houses, but contrary to popular image the homes were real structures rather than makeshift shacks. Someone claimed to even have seen a laundry machine; there were definitely a few tvs. The leather-working factory in the middle of this slum produces material for top European designers, but in the corner there's a high stack of rejected strips. Less than a hundred yards further down what appeared to be a quiet alley, we burst onto a busy street crowded with bicycles and people. It was interesting to see more Muslims in this neighborhood, particularly women in burkhas, than we had seen in other parts of the city...more diversity in lower-income areas.

Day 6 (Mumbai)

In the morning we flew from scorching Rajasthan to rainy Mumbai. Though we were all relieved to escape the heat, we soon discovered that the monsoon season had its own drawbacks, most importantly the ever-present mildew and sense of dampness.

Our first impression of Mumbai was the swathe of slum that stretched across the city, with structures even between runways at the airport! We were amazed to learn that the entire mass is the largest slum in Asia, and has a GDP in the millions!

It was quite an ordeal getting our bus through the narrow alleys to our hostel, but finally we arrived at the Anjuli Inn. In contrast to our earlier residences, the A.I. is a large apartment, with bunkbed-filled rooms for both the boys and girls.

We headed out to see the sites of Mumbai, stopping first at the famous Taj Hotel, the site of the 2008 bombings. Though the building was immaculate, showing no trace of damage or repairs, the intensive security by the entrance confirmed we had the right place. The hotel was just as beautiful as its New Delhi counterpart, but as there is little to occupy oneself in an expensive hotel when one doesn't want to pay for anything, we soon headed out to the India Gate, 50 yards away. This large structure, which bears a certain resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, looks out at the main harbor of Mumbai, and was historically the ceremonial entrance for members of the British Raj.

Our final sight-seeing stop of the day was essentially a massive laundry lot: rows of massive cement tubs where all the laundrymen came to wash their clothes (though in this weather, simply hanging the clothes outside would have been sufficient to wash them!) The most exciting part of this visit was the man below (we were standing on a bridge above the lot), clad only in his underwear, who caught sight of us and started showing off, posing and smacking a shirt into the water. When he looked like he was trying to come over and say hi, we beat a hasty retreat.

After finishing the movie Rock On, starring Luke Kenney, whom we were scheduled to see tomorrow, the girls found their sleeping arrangements had not gone quite according to plan. First, we discovered that a strange man had already taken one of the bunks in our room. After he was relocated, we then realized that the kitchen staff's nighttime hangout, where they chatted and listened to the radio, was only accessible through our room. It was not a good night for light sleepers!

Day 5 (Rajasthan)

Jaipur is the stunning capital of Rajasthan, which used to be one of the strongest states in India. The big architectural theme seemed to be pink/orange buildings (we're guessing it was paint?) with beautiful carvings, and some painting, on the exterior walls. The old city is still contained within 50 ft. walls, with the 3-story structure for the marketplaces intact for over 300 years. Rajasthan is also a state with very little rainfall, so the color of the buildings blends with the dust in a rather picturesque way.

We began our day with a drive through the old city on our way out to see the Amber Fort. This fortress-cum-palace was the traditional home of the King of Rajasthan. The current king now lives in an adjacent fort, that looks less grand from the outside but probably has furniture and modern bathrooms!

To our delight, we rode up the path to the fort on elephants, whose trunks were beautifully painted with multicolored flowers. Alex even bargained for a hat while on top of the elephant, though on her first try she was given one that would comfortably fit a toddler. After dismounting in the outer courtyard, we entered the fort at the main receiving area. Within this courtyard, was a covered open-air pavilion, with richly carved columns. The other beautiful part of the receiving area was the stunning 70ft. tall gateway to get into the rest of the palace, whose inlay designs were still gorgeous and intact. The top part of the gateway was a carved wooden screen, from behind which the women of the harem could look down on the receiving area.

We entered what we assumed is part of the palace center, which was dominated by a large veranda, whose walls and ceiling were covered in carved glass designs embedded in the sand-colored stone. Though there was some colored glass, most of the designs were perfume-bottle shapes formed out of the mirror, which had a beautiful sparkle. Less beautiful were the red and gold "turbans" worn by the middle-aged Swedish men in an adjacent tour....

Most of the palace is a rabbit warren of branching hallways and small nooks, but we made our way onto the roof, which had more than one open-air chamber with the same carved screen...the site of illicit night-time activities (the room could hold more than two people...)! There was also a great view of the surrounding area, which was mostly parched, but rolling hills. The palace is surrounded by a massive pit, which in wetter days was a moat. That day, all we could see was a small figure in a bright orange sari walking around a fire. We also saw the courtyard where the king's wives would dance for him. The king's viewing area has secret passages to each of the wives' rooms, which were off this courtyard, so he could sneak off to his mate of choice after watching the dancing!

On our way out, Dean broke his own cardinal rule of the trip and bought something from a vendor, causing 10 others to surround him and follow us all the way back to the bus....

Returning from the palace, we stopped by a jewelry store and got to see how the workers polished the stones. We spent a long time in the store, browsing the beautiful, but expensive, jewelry. Thankfully for our wallets, we were loaded back onto the bus and taken to a (cheaper) marketplace! Today was one of our heaviest shopping days, haggling for brightly-colored scarves and genie pants (store-keepers are nice to the blondes!). We were all steered to take a look at the Palace of the Winds, which has an eye-popping four-story facade.

Our day ended with a trip to see Raajneeti, a new political movie from the non-musical side of Bollywood. The theater experience itself was a trip; the giant inside resembled a giant cream puff and Indian movie-goers think nothing of answering their cell phones mid-movie. Strangest of all, half the cinema got up 15 minutes before the end and left to avoid the crush of people! Raajneeti, though quite a fascinating film, was "interesting" for a few reasons: one, there were no subtitles (the one English phrase in the film was the random, "19th century Victorian poetry"!), two, it was extremely violent, and three, there was much more sex than we'd expected (though very discreetly filmed). However, there was only 2 kisses in the whole film (compared to 15 violent deaths). The story was dominated by car bombs, assassins, bludgeonings, shootings, and love triangles. Apparently, the ideal Indian film!

Day 4 (Agra/Jaipur)

We all struggled out of bed at the crack of dawn to drive to the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, the site didn't open early enough for us to see the sunrise, but it turned out that going early was a blessing as the day was a scorcher.

First drama of the day was getting past the overzealous security guards, who wouldn't let TJ take in his camera tripod, removed all food, and even tried to stop Alex bringing in books (none of which were even related to the Taj Mahal).

The approach to the Taj Mahal is beautifully set up. You first have to walk along a path perpendicular to the entry, then go through a massive set of intricately carved gates. As you walk through the Taj appears before you at the other end of the gardens, filled with trees and a massive reflecting pool.

As Dean and Salil were sorting out some kinks, the group was left to enjoy the scenery. We were interrupted by a man who approached us, claiming he had been sent by Salil and trying to drag us off on a tour. After 10 minutes of back-and-forth and finally locating Dean (who had no idea who this man was), Salil finally returned after his trek back to the lockers to confirm that this man was indeed our tour guide.

During this wait period, we were all thoroughly amused by the antics of a dramatic European woman. Swathed in bright purple material (we assumed it had been a sari at some point, but she had taken a lot of artistic license...), with a massive ohm pendant and a leather band hippie-style around her forehead. She picked up three different would-be tour guides, but only used them to carry her bags and take pictures of her making stupid poses (holding up the Taj, anyone?)

Before entering the Taj, we walked around the deck that forms its base, admiring the temples on either side, watching the communal bath in the river below and examining the intricate carvings around the outside of the building. We finally entered a small room and passed into the shadowy, echoing central chamber. The actual tomb, housed below, is closed to visitors, but is replicated in full (though with semi-precious stones rather than jewels) in this ground floor hall. The walls were beautifully decorated but the fake tomb was the centerpiece, with the coffin surrounded by intricately-carved marble studded with "jewels". It turned out that the small room we had entered was one of 6 that wrapped around the central chamber. Walking through these rooms, we discovered that the wooden door blocking off the last room was covered in English graffiti. Though this was disappointing, it was a relief that the actual stone had not been defiled.

Like many historical places of beauty, it would have been nice to have seen the Taj in its original splendor. Though the white structure was beautiful, we got the impression that originally it also sparkled in the sunlight with countless jewels/stones that have since been removed. Nevertheless, it was very special to see in person such a beautiful site.

On our way out, we were all lured into a store selling beautiful but heavily overpriced inlaid carvings, boxes and plates. As this was our earliest shopping experience, a few of us spent a bit more money than we should have and regretted it later! On the bright side, we learned our lesson.

By the time we had returned to the hotel and loaded up the bus, the sun was in full force. The heat was so scorching that we ended up having to scrap our plans to visit the Agra Fort. Though the fort is a stunning structure and is tied in to the Taj Mahal, its size meant that we would have to have spent 2 hours walking around in temperatures that reached 120 degrees! To compensate, we pulled over at the side of the road and got some distant, but clear photographs. As soon as we climbed out of the bus, we understood why the tour had been cancelled. The heat was so oppressive it felt like we were walking around in an oven. Forget frying an egg on the sidewalk, we could have done it in the air!

On the bright side, the four-hour bus ride was a rare stretch of down-time after the first few hectic days. Thus we were all a bit more awake when we arrived at the beautiful city of Jaipur. We ended our day with a night-time roof-top dinner. It turned out that Monday is the most popular day for weddings in Jaipur, so our dinner was decorated by a steady stream of fireworks and we ran into multiple brightly-colored wedding parties on the streets, with the groom astride a red-decorated horse surrounded by gold-swathed attendants.

Day 3 (New Delhi/Agra)

Our final tourist stop in Delhi was a large mosque in the center of the city. Getting in proved to be a bit of a hassle as we had to remove our shoes, thus exposing our feet to baking hot stone, and anyone who wasn't covered to ankles and wrists had to don a "beautiful" luridly patterned poncho-like circus tent. Our mixed-gender multi-colored group proved to be the main attraction at the mosque (some boys even got a little "handsy" with Sasha during a photo shoot). The best part of the mosque visit was climbing up to the top of the minaret (where the imam calls everyone to prayer). The men relaxing at the top were quite surprised to find 15 Westerners charging into the small space....From this vantage point we could see the whole of Delhi, even though a 360 degree view required edging along a narrow ledge above the stairwell! This excursion finally enabled us to understand how large Delhi is (it was also interesting to see how few tall buildings there were). We even spotted a funeral procession entering the mosque before we descended down the very narrow and dark stairs. Though Dean (temporarily) left his shoes behind, we otherwise made a smooth getaway (and even took some very attractive slipper souvenirs).

The rest of our day was dominated by the four-hour slog to Agra, the town near the Taj Mahal. The most exciting moment of the drive was when we all realized a desperate Nick Spears had peed into a water bottle while no one was looking and left it on the back seat (Salil was particularly delighted).

The entire group was overjoyed to discover that our hotel rooms in Agra housed marble floors and beautiful bedsteads...which almost made up for the near-useless air conditioning! We didn't have long to enjoy our spacious rooms as we quickly went to bed to prepare for our early start the next day.

Day 2 (New Delhi) - Part 2

After our palace excursion we headed to a Delhi public school (private, for us Americans) to have a discussion with the students. We were paired off in groups of 5-6 with some of the top students from the school and compared notes on music, school, dating, politics, etc (the sex discussion was pretty hilarious, and also toured part of the school. Some other students also put on a varied and very entertaining dance display. The students were very friendly and willing to compare perspectives. We had an extremely good time chatting with our new friends and were very reluctant to leave!

We got an opportunity to hit the market, where a few of us purchased some gorgeous salwar kameez sets (and were very late for the bus...)

Our final excursion of the day was to the Live India news station headquarters, where our contact, Kumar, is a journalist. We toured the studios, watched a show being recorded, and discussed the television news industry with Kumar, who was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. For many of us, this was the first time seeing how a broadcast is put together. One method combines live presenters with a green screen (in this case, resulting in a background of bananas and a floating skull...) The conventional "big-desk-studio" set-up requires a very fancy articulated camera. It was very interesting to discuss with Kumar the history of broadcast media in India and the government's hand in the news.

Our day finished off with dinner at Salil's parents' house, where we also met his cousin and her two daughters. The food was delicious and we had a good time talking to the girls, who were our age, even though most of us found it impossible to stay awake!

Day 2 (New Delhi) - Part 1

Indian democracy sat upon the British Raj at the Presidential Palace, our destination Saturday morning. We instantly branded ourselves as stupid tourists when we arrived at the gates at the same time as the guard of soldiers arriving to take their defense shift at the palace. Only when we noticed that an irate be-turbaned man brandishing spear atop a horse was impatiently waiting behind our bus did we realize that we were blocking the entrance! As we let the guard pass by, we all pressed up against the windows to take pictures of the soldiers who couldn't decide whether to ignore us or laugh their heads off. We watched the Changing of the Guard ceremony in the full sun, baking at 7 am (today was one of the hottest days of the year!) The splendor was interesting but the procedure was long and opaque. This ceremony combined with the gallery filled with portraits of the British aristocracy created a much stronger British presence than we had expected. The paintings were beautiful, but didn't seem very Indian. However, the palace was absolutely stunning. The state dining room seats 104, while the swearing in chamber is a converted ballroom with a massive Persian carpet and an ornate Persian ceiling painting. We briefly considered trying to sneak into the President's apartments (she had just returned the day before), but decided that might be a bad idea....As we left, more than one person commented on the strong contrast between the palace and the situation we had glimpsed at Prayas.

Media update

We are writing these posts from Rajasthan "International" Airport, so are thus unable to upload pictures and video. They will come later!

Day 1 (New Delhi)

After 36 hours of traveling and a 1:00 am arrival, we kicked off our India tour with a visit to the Red Fort. We got there by driving through Delhi in a 50-seater tour bus (air conditioning!) with dangerously unhinged seats. This was our first experience with Indian weather...and Indian tourists, who followed our group around the entire fort. The fort was also our introduction to Mughal architecture, which our guide declared "simple" but actually seemed very intricate. Also, the harem building had a stream running through it and once served as barracks for the British army...who trashed it (pat on the back for Western culture).

Onto another phase of Indian history, with a visit to the site of Gandhi's cremation and the house where he spent his final days. We had to take our shoes off to visit the cremation site and thus lost the first five layers of skin thanks to the burning hot stone! The house is now a museum and memorial to Gandhi, with his bedroom intact and biographical billboards throughout the house. Upstairs houses interactive artwork. A path of bronze footprints leads from Gandhi's bedroom door through the garden to the site where he was shot (a path apparently captured well in the movie).

For lunch we stopped at a massive mall that, to our dismay, was actually more Western and up-market than the shopping centers we have at home (Sasha sadly forced herself not to go into Dior as she was not properly dressed). However, the food court had some amazing Indian food (even though we were all a little daunted by the spice level...lassis are very useful!)

We finished this jam-packed day with a visit to Prayas, a rehabilitation center for abandoned, runaway and abused children (which now has branches throughout the country). The administrators work with the police to rescue children (mostly ages 6-8) in terrible situations such as working in the sex trade or forced to beg. These children then live at Prayas up to 18 years of age, where they are educated and taught useful trades (such as sewing and printing). The children put on an adorable dance display, even coercing some of us to join (videos to come later!) Though few spoke any English, many were excited to interact with us. We also got to stick our heads into the dorms, each room of which houses 35 children in bunk beds. We finished on a tenser note with a slightly heated discussion with the head of the Prayas center, who claimed that America did not have these levels of poverty and exploitation, which we found difficult to both accept or contradict. We were defended by our contact Kumar, a TV journalist and family friend of Salil's, who urged this man to take more pride in India and not to seek pity. All in all, this visit was one of our most powerful experiences.

Blog for the trip...

Hey everyone,

I thought it would be fun to set up a blog for our trip to India. It would be a fun way to record what we do and to share pictures and stories with everyone back home. I'm still trying to figure out how to add everyone...more on that later.

-Alexandra