Taru's Engaged!

Taru, my friend and colleague, got engaged in Rohtak, Haryana on Sunday.  Austin and I headed out fairly early from Delhi, all decked out in our India gear - kurta pyjama for Austin; salwar kameez for me.  The banquet was intimate, with just family and close friends in attendance to witness the ring ceremony and exchange of gifts between the families.   Taru looked beautimous in a hot pink saree; Karun was handsome in a grey suit and lilac shirt.  It was an honor to be included with their family and friends on such an auspicious occasion. Mubarak ho.

Paradise, By Way of Dubai

Oscar, Heather and I took advantage of the long Diwali weekend to head out of India for the sandy beaches, sunshine, and tourquoise waters of the Maldives.  Since we booked everything the week of, our choices of travel times and prices were limited, but we didn't let that put a damper on things.  We ended up flying Emirates, via Dubai, and so were able to acquire two sets of passport stamps in one four-day weekend.

In the Maldives, we stayed at Chaaya Island Dhonveli, and enjoyed our all-inclusive little butts off.  There was truly nothing to do but 'eat, drink, and be merry' . . . Oh yeah. And sunbathe.  We all read a bunch; Oscar developed a gym habit; Heather went surfing with a bunch of Australians, and I went snorkeling in the lagoon. Very relaxing and much needed in the midst of start-of-quarter, performance-review madness.  I saw several sting rays and two of what I think were moray eels.  In addition there were tons of trigger fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, and at least three kinds of blowfish, one of which was about three feet long and wearing and awesome set of camouflage.  The other remarkable wildlife were the bats - not just nocturnal, we saw them out and about during the day much more often than we saw birds, and I'm pretty sure we also saw them fishing.  Very cool.  There were also tons of hermit crabs of all sizes.  On our first day there, Oscar and I were escorted through the bar by a hermit crab about the size of my fist.  Almost every time I went to pick up a shell, it would scuttle away into the underbrush.

After three days of swimming around the atoll, three buffets a day, and cocktails at sunset, we were forced to head back to the real world.  On our way home, we had a seven hour layover in Dubai, so we headed out of the airport and decided to poke around in the Mall of the Emirates.  We found ourselves a seat at the bottom of the ski run in the Kempinzki's Sezzam restaurant and I ponied up to a glass of Shiraz and the biggest (200 g), baddest burger that I have had in months.  Fantastico.  After puttering through the mall for an hour or so, we headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Delhi.  I soothed my nostalgia for home with a Starbuck's run...mmmm, decaf Caramel Machiato with soy milk. Yum, yum, yum.  A

Arriving in Delhi at 3am bites the big one, no matter which way you cut it, but we were able to get home, get some rest and, well, Oscar and I made it into work by 9am or so.  None too shabby.

Tantra and Temple Dust

This weekend, Oscar, Jody and I headed out for Orchha and Khajuraho to see the temple carvings and get away from it all a bit.  The rest of the Essel Towers posse went on prior trips, so I was fortunate to find two fairly new folks who wanted to go with me.  We took an evening train from Delhi's Nizamuddin station to Jhansi, and then headed into Orchha in a cab.  Our hotel turned out to be pretty nice, even though it wasn't the room in the palace that we were hoping for (seriously).  Since there were three of us, I booked the Heritage Suite at the Betwa Retreat, which ended up being a Mughal-style bungalow with a couple of rooms and a marble bathroom - none too shabby.  After a dinner of butter chicken, naan and Sand Piper beer (believe it or not, there's something other than Kingfisher in India?!), we hit the sack to get some sleep for our big trip to Khajuraho in the morning.

On Saturday, our "roll out of bed early" plans fell a bit flat, but we rallied and were on the road by around eleven.  Manoj, our driver from the night before, was our guide for the four-hour road trip to Khajuraho to see the temple carvings.  Khajuraho is most famous for it's 11th century Jain and Hindu temples with erotic carvings.  Of the original 85 temples, only 23 remain, but they're glorious.  The overall effect is not so much erotic as intricate, though many of the carvings drew as much warmth from their subject matter as they did from the setting sun.  We were fortunate to see the temples in the last three hours of daylight, which made the golden stones glow.  There were a few tour groups of Europeans, and several Indian families, but on the whole, the temples were pleasantly underpopulated.  Jody, Oscar and I sat on the plinth of one of the temples and watched the sunset over the Western temple group - absolutely amazing.  After the sun went down, Jody and I did some touristy shopping while Oscar tried not to get his pockets picked by the nine-year-olds hanging around the plaza.  For dinner, we headed to Mediterraneo and had pizza, red wine and apple pie a la mode in their rooftop restaurant, which was so good - even the cricket that took a nose dive down my shirt didn't put a damper on things.  After dinner, while Oscar and Jody went in search of an apertif, I had a very interesting tri-lingual conversation with some of the local guys who were studying to be government guides; trying to make my brain switch over into Spanish without mixing in any Hindi or English was pretty tricky, but it made for an interesting discussion.  Armed with mango juice and a bit of vodka, we started on the four-hour trip back to Orchha. Open container laws, what open container laws?  After one drink, I realized that I was outclassed in the beverage department and stuck to dj-ing with my iPod and portable speakers.  Our ride home was pretty fun, but not uneventful.  We got no less than two flat tires and finally had to stop to get both tires repaired at one of those Punjabi truck stops that are scattered along the highways in India.  We rolled into Orchha at about 1am and hit the hay, some of us harder than others.

Sunday morning came bright and early, but we didn't see it until about 9am.  After breakfast and lots of beverages - tea for some of us, water for others - we packed up our bags and set off to see Orchha.  Home of the Bundela kings, Orchha like Khajuraho, dates from the 11th century or so.  The town is quite small and mostly devoted to small shops that cater to tourists, but it is settled at the feet to two large palaces, a group of cenotaphs, and several stately temples.  Given that we had a half day, we probably didn't do Orchha justice, but we still saw a lot.  We started by climbing the cenotaphs for a view out over the river.   After wending our way up and down teeny, winding staircases for a while, we headed back into town to see the Raj Mahal and Jengahir Palace.  All were amazing.  The palaces were like a child's fantasy fort come to life and without a safety harness.  You can climb in, around, over, under, across and through a warren of royal apartments, hammams, and audience halls.  In typical India fashion, it's user beware.  We traipsed across scaffolding and eventually found ourselves edging along the battlements to sit in a cupola on the exterior walls.  Throughout the palaces, there are fragments of azure, lapis and deep tourquoise tile work, and delicately carved balconies with screens that go just past your head so that the ladies of the palace could look out on the town, unobserved.  Everything is simultaneously in a state of decline and undergoing repairs, but the beauty of the buildings is striking.

After literally climbing all over the palace for an hour or more, we stopped into the restaurant at the Sheesh Mahal hotel, which is located in a wing of Jengahir palace.  This is where Austin, Mollie, et. al. stayed in Orchha, and where I'd tried to get us a room to no avail.  Jody went and inspected the rooms and declared them to be the equal of our room at Betwa Retreat, but no more, so I guess it all came out all right in the end.  By the time we finished lunch, and Jody had fed the mamma dog with a litter of puppies outside, it was time to head for Jhansi to catch our train.  Manoj got us there safely and we even had a spare half hour to check out Jhansi fort, before we caught the Shatabdi back to Delhi.  

I loved Khajuraho and Orchha.  I highly recommend going, if ever you have the chance.  I found myself sitting on the ramparts of this 11th century palace, looking out over the river and scattered temples with the wind eddying around me, and thinking, "I love India."  I cannot imagine having missed this opportunity.  Had I not come here for work, I probably never would have figured out how to get to India, and just think what I would have missed.  Amazing.

Lattes & Singing Bowls

A week or so ago, Heather and I took a quick trip to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.  Dharamsala is the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, as well as being a hill station perched in the Himalayan foothills.  We flew up mid-afternoon on Friday and landed at Kangra airport, which is in the valley below Dharamsala.  Kangra was in the midst of a lazy summer afternoon, but as we wended our way up the mountain to Dharamsala, the fog laced cool fingers through the trees and coaxed the temperature down a bit.  Himachal Pradesh has made me feel right at home each time I've visited.  It's the home of morning fog, cool evenings, crisp apples and woodsmoke, which are all the more disconcerting for being found just beyond the sweltering plains around Delhi.

The Tibetan government resides in McLeod Ganj, which is aerie to Dharamsala's peak, and high enough to have it's own micro-climate.  We stayed at Chonor House, which overlooks the Dalai Lama's temple and residence. Chonor House is the top of the line in Dharamsala - it is very nice, but that fact argues for the whole scale having shifted a bit.  The hotel is run by the Norbulinka Institute, which is chartered with safeguarding and sustaining Tibetan culture.  There are beautiful Tibetan woodwork, applique, and paintings scattered throughout the hotel and each room has a particular theme.  The hotel shop and a store in town sell the beautiful clothes and handicrafts produced at the Institute; Heather got some lovely things and I was sorely tempted, but stuck to a silver ring and a book about Norbulinka.

Once we stowed our gear at Chonor House, we wandered into town to grab an early dinner and see what McLeod Ganj was all about.  The town itself is quite small, just 2-3 km of road wrapped around the hillside.  We walked to what appeared to be the end of the line, and then turned back to have dinner at J.J.I. Restaurant.  Apparently, it was one of the proprietors' birthdays and the staff, consisting of 4-5 members of a Tibetan boy-band, had been drinking all afternoon.  Needless to say, I don't really want to know what went into our food before we got it and things were a little shaky on the way to the table.  Probably the best response is to just say that the thentuk (Tibetan noodles) and hot honey ginger lemon tea tasted great and didn't make us sick - though we were on the lookout for trouble.  

On our second day in Dharamsala, we met up with the brother of a Tibetan doctor that Heather's aunt works with.  He was supposed to be a great English-speaker, married with kids, and very handsome...I think we hit 1 for three - not married, English a leetle bit shaky.  Kaldup met us midday at our hotel and treated us to a cup of tea at his apartment.  While we were chatting, it started to rain cats and dogs outside.  We hung out for a while waiting for it to pass before deciding to go boldly forth and strike out for the Dalai Lama's temple.  Kaldup took us on a path through the back alleys of his neighborhood that landed us smartly at the temple gates.  Along the way, the deluge continued until I had water running over the tops of my feet - no, Mom, no leptospirosis so far.

The Dalai Lama's temple complex has a small but evocative museum covering the Tibetan exodus and all that the Chinese have done to eradicate Tibetan culture.  You begin to understand Richard Gere's passion for the subject, however incredible the vessel.  I kept thinking, "someone needs to stand up for these people...why hasn't someone done something."  As a country that prides ourselves on resistance of the oppressor and fervently carries the standard of democracy, I think we may be missing a golden opportunity.  The temple itself is very simple, and very well attended.  Most of the community seems to come here for morning prayers, which made the people watching along Temple Road pretty spectacular over our lovely lattes.  I have to pause here and give a huge shout-out to Coffee Talk on Temple Road - best latte in India, hands down.  Heather and I were in heaven.  And the breakfast of omelettes and Tibetan toast was amazing too.  We liked it so much we ate there twice... yum, yum, yum.  After we finished touring the temple complex, the rain had slackened off a bit, allowing us to make it back to Chonor House and part ways with Kaldup without getting inundated.  After a cup of tea, a snack and an afternoon nap, we headed into town to do some serious singing-bowl shopping...whooo-aahhh.  We also ducked in to Jimmy's Italian Restaurant for a good dinner and a local jam session, which was a fantastic way to end the day.  I highly recommend it.  The only regrettable part of the day was hearing about the Delhi bomb blasts over dinner, and the mad scramble of text messaging and calls to make sure that everyone on our teams was ok.  We fell asleep to Blackberry vibrations as people checked in on one another - all present and accounted for, thank God.

On Sunday, our last day in Dharamsala, we headed down to the Norbulinka Institute itself with Kaldup, our local volunteer tour guide.  The Institute was beautiful; the temple there has some of the nicest paintings I've seen, and it was nice to be able to see the work the organization is doing to preserve Tibetan culture.  After the Institute, we visited a modern Tibetan temple down the road, complete with monk dormitories and light-up lotus lamps.  Back up the mountain to McLeod Ganj, another latte and some cake, and we were on the road again.  Wings up over Dharamsala and the Kangra valley....

Safe and Sound

This evening five bomb blasts went off in Delhi killing at least 10 people. They were placed in crowded public places with the clear intent to harm as many people as possible. They were placed in locations that I regularly go. If there ever was an illusion of safety here, it's pretty thin today.

Heather and I are safe and sound in Dharamsala, or MacLeod Ganj specifically, just down the street from the Dalai Llama's house. We've been madly text messaging people at home in Delhi and have managed to confirm that our roommates, drivers and most of our teams are safe as well. Please keep your fingers crossed that this remains the case.