Hi everyone. Here are a couple of attachments you might like copies of. The first is one of our newspaper articles, from the Sunday Times of India. Not sure why the article focused on accents when most of the interview dealt with us learning about Indian culture. The second is a scan of our Taj Mahal group photo. Hope you’re all glad to have your kids home again. They were fantastic – great ambassadors, every one of them! Garry
Sunday Times of India 17-03-2013
Hi everyone. I was unable to post anything last night, so here is just a very quick summary of the final full day and a few pictures. I’ve just returned from breakfast and all are well. We leave for the airport in just over 30 minutes.
Yesterday morning began with a trip to Agra Fort, where Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, spent the final years of his life imprisoned by his own son Aurangzeb. Then it was a 3 hour drive to Delhi on the 7-month old toll road, cutting the journey down from 7 hours previously. After checking in to our hotel, we managed to visit the Lotus Temple of the Bahai Faith and the India Gate, the famous war memorial in the centre of Delhi. We were all very tired, so we came back to the hotel early to get our bags packed for the flight home. We fly out at midday. It’s currently 7am, so we are well on time.
I think we’re all ready to leave at this point. India has been amazing, but with very busy days and some evenings too, we all need to rest a bit. Hopefully we can do that on the plane. Thanks for following our adventures. See you at Melbourne Airport tomorrow. Garry
Hi everyone. We had no internet access last night in Agra, so I am sending this report, written yesterday, from our hotel room in Delhi. – Garry
Our time in India is coming to an end. As I type this, all the kids have gone to their bedrooms to pack their bags and prepare for tomorrow’s long drive to Delhi – our final day of driving and tourist attractions … oh, and also of shopping! I think the last few days have worn us all out. We’ve enjoyed them immensely, but I’m sure we’re all starting to think of getting home and seeing you all again very soon.
We drove out of Jaipur about 9am this morning. It was a journey of about 250 km to Agra and we were on the road for about 5 hours. No one seems to drive very fast in India, so you tend to average about 50 kmh even on the open road. It was a well paved dual carriage highway for most of the journey, which made for a very smooth and enjoyable ride, although it was not uncommon to find a truck, car or perhaps a camel-drawn cart coming straight at you on your side of the median strip – such are the mysteries of travelling in India. We certainly passed plenty of camels, including those out in the fields with the villagers as we drove through a good deal of farmland en route to Agra. We passed a few vehicles carrying what appeared to be around 15-20 passengers, including up to half a dozen travelling on the outside of the vehicle. There was always something entertaining to look at, so the long journey passed easily.
Upon entering Agra, we once more found our vehicles weaving in and out of traffic that appeared to obey no road rules whatsoever. In some places we saw lines painted on the road, but what their purpose was is anyone’s guess.
Once more, we are in a deluxe hotel with great food and very comfortable lodgings. After a quick late lunch, we piled back into the vehicles and headed for the Taj Mahal.
We had to park some distance away as there is a one km anti-pollution zone around the landmark, so we walked the final stage of the journey and lined up in our separate male and female queues at the gate. Every one passed through a security scanner and was patted down by a security guard. There was a long list of restrictions on what could be taken inside the compound. Appleby College had their school flag confiscated at the gate. They were planning on a group photo featuring the flag with the Taj as a backdrop, so this was unfortunate for them. We managed to get our first aid kits through security but were warned not to attempt to use the scissors or chew on the lozenges as these were strictly off limits.
The Taj Mahal, of course, defies description. It literally takes your breath away and you find it difficult to take your eyes off it for even a moment. It is unlikely you will ever see another man made monument that rivals its beauty – it’s as simple as that. As you get closer, you begin to see the finer features of its craftsmanship – the floral reliefs on the surface of the marble, the precious and semi-precious stone inlay, the passages from the Koran in Arabic script surrounding its huge entrance. Here are just a few facts:
It was built by Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, almost 400 years ago as a memorial to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. She died aged 38 in childbirth with her 14th child. The monument reflected the love he felt for her. It took 22 years to build and 20,000 labourers worked on it throughout that time. The marble came from Rajasthan 40 kilometres away. The inlay stones came from further away – Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and other places. The architect came from Istanbul, heartland of some of the world’s finest Islamic architecture. The structure is actually a mausoleum, housing the marble coffin of Mumtaz. Shah Jahan’s architects began making plans to make an exact copy in black marble directly opposite on the far bank of the holy Yamuna River, but before much work had been done, his son Aurangzeb overthrew him and imprisoned him in the Agra Fort, also built by Shah Jahan. So poor Shah Jahan spent the final seven years of his life looking at the monument he built from the window of his prison cell, pondering the treachery of his own son. When he died, his son at least honoured him by allowing his remains to be placed in a second marble coffin alongside that of Mumtaz.
The crowds today were massive. Thankfully we tourists were afforded an easier entry directly into the Taj, but Indian nationals were made to line up single file in a queue that stretched right around the entire perimeter of the octagonal courtyard surrounding the building. We all had to don shoe covers to help to protect the marble floor.
We posed for a group photo in the regulation spot for all tourists and then took photos from just about every angle and distance imaginable. There is no longer any photography allowed inside the building. After an hour and a half we were still enjoying sitting and viewing it. The sun was going down so we reluctantly took one last look and headed back to the bus.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as going directly home in India. Instead, you have to call in to the tour guide’s friends’ shops – there is no avoiding it. We told him that we had had enough of clothes and jewellery shopping, and suggested that we just look at some of the marble and inlay work that the city is famous for. The standard claim is that the craftsmen are the direct descendants of the original men who built the Taj. It seems feasible – their work is quite remarkable. Anyhow, as you can imagine, we spent a bit of time and quite a few rupees there, and then, because our guide sensed we might still feel the desire to shop, we had to visit another one of his friends’ emporiums. Eventually we said we could shop no more and we arrived back here by about 8pm for dinner and sleep.
Tomorrow, it all comes to an end for us. After an early breakfast we will head to the Agra Fort for an hour, then depart for the long drive to Delhi. It’s a couple of hundred km distant, but they claim the road is even better than today’s, so it promises to be a journey to look forward to. When we get to Delhi we will have time to visit one monument, but which one is yet to be determined. The following morning we head to the airport straight after breakfast. Hopefully there will be an opportunity to post one more report tomorrow night. Bye for now. Garry
Today has been a very long day in Jaipur. Staying in a deluxe hotel was a nice change. Everyone woke up fresh after sleeping in for an 8am buffet breakfast. The beds were comfy and the general agreement was that this was a good place to stay for a couple of nights.
We have a new tour guide here, Vimal, who is very friendly and quite knowledgeable about Jaipur and its attractions. As we were to discover as the day unfolded, Vimal also has a few shopkeeper mates dotted around the town and is probably earning a nice little commission bringing cashed up tourists to their doorsteps as an unavoidable addition to a day tour.
Jaipur was founded by Maharajah Jai Singh in the 1700s. Originally it was a fortified city, and its city walls still stand today. There are multiple gates into the city, all of them big enough, for obvious reasons, for an elephant carrying a maharajah to pass through.
The city’s walls and old buildings are all painted in a particular shade of pink, and it is often referred to simply as the ‘pink city’. Jaipur is bigger than Indore, but the traffic is much more orderly, less chaotic. The cyclists and motorcyclists wear helmets here and people don’t honk their horns as much. We did pass a couple of elephants and several camels in the traffic, but essentially it was quite civilised and more relaxing to drive in.
We didn’t stop at the famous Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) because it is currently under repair and covered in scaffolding, so entry is forbidden. We did get a brief glimpse of it nevertheless as we drove past and it certainly is an impressive structure. Perhaps even more impressive was our first destination, the Jantar Mantar, an astronomical and astrological observatory built by Jai Singh and his remarkable mathematicians and architects. There are multiple large scale instruments in the observatory for telling the time, locating stars, tracking the seasons etc. We stood alongside several of these while Vimal read the scale where the shadow fell and translated that to the current time. When we checked our watches, he was always spot on. Every instrument here is accurate to about two seconds, quite remarkable, given that it was constructed prior to the European settlement of Australia.
We walked from the observatory to the City Palace, current home of the Jaipur royal family. The latest maharajah is only 14 years old and still at school. He has two older sisters, but being a male, he was next in line for the throne. The palace is open for visitors to help pay the taxes and also the wages of the many staff who work there. A visit to the palace displays the opulent life that a Rajput royal family must have enjoyed – the finest fabrics, artworks, furnishings, weaponry, etc. One of them had to visit the UK, so he had the world’s largest two water jars constructed, each of solid silver, so that he could take the water of the sacred Ganges River to England for the duration of his visit.
The first of our multiple shopping trips followed. Vimal led us into a hall of people selling crafts. To be fair, the craft work on sale was very good and in the case of the miniature Mughal paintings, a number of the artists were working in front of us. Additionally, all goods were Rajasthan cottage industries, so there was no bartering, just a fixed price, but it guaranteed that (a) the goods were of high quality, (b) the creators were being paid a fair price, and (c) the tourists were still getting the goods at bargain prices. Our group must have liked what they saw, as we left the place sometime later loaded up with parcels.
Our next tourist stop was the Albert Court Hall, a museum of all sorts of things, from Rajasthani history to ancient Egyptian mummies and other assorted paraphernalia. What was most interesting about this visit was that the building was designed by the British architect who had designed Daly College, and there was remarkable similarity between the two structures.
Lunch was interesting. We gave the kids a choice of Macca’s or a restaurant, assuming they would opt for the golden arches, but to our surprise they chose a restaurant, and even better, every one of them ordered Indian food, rather than the few western dishes on the menu. They are certainly loving the food over here.
More shopping at another cottage industries centre followed. We began by looking at block printing of fabrics and stone polishing, but were soon ushered into halls where cloths were waved around and we were appraised of the particular qualities of Rajasthani fabrics over competitors. We then had to pass through jewellery shops, shops that sold sculptures, paintings, bangles, more fabric, stoneware, etc. We spent an hour there, all part of the tour apparently. The kids must have liked it though, as many of them came out with parcels in their arms and broad grins on their faces.
A quick stop to look at the Water Palace meant avoiding camels and tackling a road crossing, but we didn’t stay too long as it was getting on in the afternoon and we still had the Amber Fort ahead of us.
Unfortunately the elephants had gone home for the day when we arrived, but we made it to the top of the hill in vehicles and entered Jaipur’s world famous fort. The fort was built by the maharajah to give him a perfect vantage point over both his city and also the neighbouring hills. Once more, his ingenious architects and engineers had worked miracles to pump water up the hillside to higher ground and some of it was eventually stored in the domes of turrets to keep the spaces beneath cool in summer.
We spent about an hour exploring the fort. Much of it was also a museum, as well as a palace, so many of the displays were well worth coming to see. An extensive weapons collection, the gilded robes worn by the maharajahs, Mughal and Hindi murals and mosaics, beautiful gardens and more were features of the fort. It’s late here, so I will finish, but you will see some of the grandeur of the fort from the photos I’ve posted.
At the foot of the hill, Vimal ushered us out of the cars and into one more shop. The poor traders could see from our weary faces that we were over shopping by now and they didn’t try to hard to make a sale – a far cry from their efforts earlier in the day. It was a good day but we were pretty tired when we returned to the hotel. Everyone had a quick swim to cool down.
Tomorrow morning we leave for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Bye for now, Garry
We had less difficulty rising at 4.30am than might have been anticipated. By 5 o’clock, most of us were packed and outside in the darkness waiting for the college bus. We made it to the station in good time, though it was a little chaotic in the street as taxis and tuk tuks jostled for position. The British criss-crossed India with railways and to this day they remain as one of the most efficient ways of getting around. The station was packed with people heading off to all corners of the country. We had to cart our heavy luggage up what seemed like endless steps, and then bump it down another set of steps to reach the platform. True to Indian tradition, a typed list of passenger names was plastered to the outside of our carriage.
We were farewelled at the station by Vijay and Sarita, our good friends from Daly College. It’s hard to put a value on the effort they have put in this week to make us feel at home, to teach us about their culture, to keep us well fed and healthy, and to ensure that the bond we have established between our schools can continue to grow in the future.
I’m typing this post en route to Jaipur. We’ve been on the train, the Ranthambore Express, for just over six hours now, with another four to go. There is a narrow passageway between sleeper berths, with two or three bunks in each. It’s a bit of a squeeze in the bunks, but the ride is smooth and you can stretch out and snooze if you want. It didn’t take too long for our kids to discover that the bunks come down and it was possible to actually sit upright in a degree of comfort.
We’ve been travelling through very dry rural areas for some hours now. There are frequent station stops. At the stations, food merchants (chai wallahs, I think they are called), come aboard. They make their way down the passage, stopping at each berth to hawk their wares. Perhaps the most unusual to date has been the man with the huge sack of popcorn. Others sell chai tea, drinks, fruits, biscuits and a range of foods I cannot describe. They get off at the next stop and presumably head back on the next train in the opposite direction.
Looking out the window, it seems that we are either in, or very near to, Rajasthan. Rajasthan is a dry, desert state in the north-west. Its people dress in distinctly recognisable garb – the men in loose, white dhotis and large, loosely wound brightly coloured turbans. Many of them have spectacular moustaches. The women wear a regional style of sari which is quite different to the dress of the women of Indore. Clearly there is a good deal of poverty here. Sadly, the dry, almost desolate countryside doesn’t give you any sense that the farmers are in for a good year. All of the river beds we have crossed in the past 2-3 hours are completely devoid of water. There are a few lone goats picking amongst the scrub.
The kids are handling the train journey well. Some are sleeping, some reading, some playing cards, and some paying visits to friends in the adjoining booths. We’ve got a few boxes of food items and drinks with us. Visits to the toilets on the train are something none of us enjoys, but we just hold our breaths and do our best to remain steady over the squat holes while the train gently rolls along.
Another hour has passed and the countryside has changed. Now there are wheat fields and the crops look good. The villages around here seem a little, just a little, more affluent. Perhaps this is an area where the people are faring well.
We’re passing some high rocky hills to the east. Rajasthan is fairly flat, but it is also dotted with high outcrops of rock. It’s not unusual to find a town at the base of the hill and a fort perched atop the outcrop, providing visibility for miles in each direction and early warning against invastion. Rajasthan is the region known for its Rajput warriors and its history is as colourful as its people.
Word has come through that the train is running over an hour late. It’s been a long day.
We eventually rolled into Jaipur station about an hour and a half late, making it a twelve hour journey. Surprisingly, no one complained about the length of the journey (other than to moan about having to make an extra visit to the stinking latrines), and a number of the kids actually commented that the trip was good fun. It certainly was relaxing and there was plenty of changing scenery to view en route. The long stops at the many stations also provided views of a society that is vastly different to our own. No one dressed like westerners here. The sights, smells, colours were all remarkable and completely foreign to us.
Our hotel is quite luxurious, a change from the relatively humble apartments we shared at Daly College. Before dinner we were treated to a puppet show, accompanied by traditional Rajasthani music. It was highly entertaining, and many of us purchased the handmade puppets at prices that seem quite reasonable from the men who made them. Dinner was a buffet and it was good. Many went back for seconds. We’re all looking forward to a big day exploring the historic sights of Jaipur in the morning. Stay tuned. Garry
At 6.30am we all headed down to the gymnasium for our final yoga session. All of us, that is, with the exception of yours truly who had decided that discretion was the better part of valour and had honourably thrown in the towel and opted to sit this one out. It’s fair to say that yoga was not everyone’s finest hour in India. A few of the kids had so much flexibility, you’d swear they could tie themselves in knots if they wanted to, while others could barely raise their chins off the ground, let alone balance on one leg for any length of time. Suffice to say, it takes practice. The yoga teacher supplied instruction sheets for those who wish to continue the sessions back home.
Straight after breakfast we stopped by for a quick look at the new Daly College library, which is not yet open for student borrowing. Quite a few of the shelves had been stocked, but none of them had Dewey cataloguing numbers on their spines and it was puzzling to work out the criteria for grouping titles in sections. Thankfully we didn’t have to search for any titles on the shelves or we would have been there all day. Many of the books were ‘well-loved’, with covers missing and well-thumbed pages, but it’s pleasing to see that the books had obviously been read over and over again. Our kids found a published history of Daly College, and when flicking through the pages, found a picture of Ivanhoe’s Principal, Mr Fraser, who assisted Daly in their entry into the Round Square schools organisation. We found our photos in some of the Indore daily papers, an outcome of yesterday’s press conference, and your correspondent also found his name in a report in a book that was published some years ago. The visit was not without incident – the floor-to-ceiling reinforced glass adjacent to the door was lucky to survive when one of our team walked straight into it, thinking it was another library exit!
The library visit felt good, as it seems rare to see such a shiny, new space in India. Much of what we have seen has echoes of better days long in the past. From the grand structures of the Mughal rulers and the British Raj to the shopfronts and railway stations, much of what we encounter over here has a sense of decay about it. It’s rare to see a fresh coat of paint on anything. It’s as if the concept of maintenance is foreign to many. Buildings go up and are painted in bright colours and adorned with religious symbols, and after that the weather and grime and pollution gradually takes its toll. For all the thousands of workers we have seen in India to date, few appear to be responsible for ongoing maintenance of buildings or public places. Thankfully, Daly College was an exception.
Our final classroom sessions were on the Mabharata, another epic of classical Indian literature. It was written in 400BC and is reputed to have more words than any other book in the world. Understanding Indian mythology is an important part of our course at Daly, as it provides a context for so much of what we encounter here each day. Our final history lesson covered the British East India Company, the British Raj and the struggle for independence, led by Gandhi. For a country with such a long history, it has been ruled by Indians for only a very short period of time. We ventured into one of the very earliest classrooms in the famous original Daly College administration building for our final lesson, this time learning a few tourist phrases in Hindi.
Following each lesson we had to answer a set of questions. Our papers were marked and graded. Thankfully, we all passed with flying colours and our host, Dr Vijay Radjopadhyay, was delighted to inform us that we had all graduated from the certificate course in Indian culture and history.
In the afternoon we headed back to the dance studio for a costume fitting and final practice session for the folk dance we had been learning. Then it was back to our rooms to pack our bags ready for an early morning departure. It’s interesting to see how well kids achieve this when Mum and Dad aren’t around to help.
Afternoon tea was our final meal in the school dining hall. The dining hall has provided us with consistently great Indian food, albeit a little too spicy for some of us from time to time. The hall is massive and seats the entire school at one sitting for each meal of the day, including morning and afternoon tea breaks as well. In addition to the spicy snacks, they usually serve up syrupy sweets and sugary chai tea for each sitting. Two or three attendants hover over us every time we eat, at times insisting that we try something they believe we will enjoy. Daly College certainly never allowed us to go hungry.
Again we returned to the dance studio and adorned traditional Gujarati folk dress for our dance. Daly College schoolgirls helped to dress us and apply makeup and jewellery. Hamish had was clothed in the costume of Lord Krishna for his important role in the dance.
We had been told we would be dancing at the Sunday evening school assembly, but what we did not realise until we arrived was that this was no ordinary assembly. It was a special cultural showcase, put on for Daly students and their parents. In addition to Ivanhoe and Appleby students, it also featured two spectacular classical Indian Orissa dances from a troop of senior students, two folk dances from the students of a visiting Russian school, a medley of Indian folk dances from students of the Junior School, and a couple of numbers from the school brass band, one of them dedicated to the students of Ivanhoe and Appleby.
Our students opened the assembly, clad in full costume, leading the entire audience in the recital of the Hindu prayer that begins such special occasions. Midway through the show they returned to the stage to perform the dance they had been learning all week. It was a traditional dance from the state of Gujarat, a celebration of the Hindu festival, Holi. You might have seen Holi celebrations in documentaries – the people throw brightly coloured powder over each other in displays of great joy and exuberance.
Our performance was definitely one of the highlights of the assembly and received loud applause from the audience. The Indian teachers and parents were unanimous in their praise of what we achieved. You really have to see it to appreciate just how good it was, and luckily for you, you will be able to do this because the entire show was recorded on video and this morning Daly presented each of us with a DVD of the assembly.
Following the dance routine we were called back on stage one at a time to each receive a certificate for completing the culture course and a book gift from the Principal, Mr Sumer Singh. Bertie, assisted by Morgan from Appleby, completed the assembly with a thank you speech to the staff and students of Daly. It was a fitting end to a memorable time at the school.
For dinner, we all joined the Principal, staff and other guests (the Orissa dancers, the Russians, the academics from Melbourne and Monash Unis, our friend Pfarelo from St Stithian’s in Johannesburg and a number of Daly College parents) for a moonlight buffet on the lawns of the Principal’s residence. Daly College is a peacock sanctuary, with over 180 birds on the campus, and the evening resounded to the peacocks’ calls from the surrounding trees. From the moment we arrived, we were treated as very special guests and it was a privilege to have a dinner such as this given to honour our presence in the school.
It was a very late night, which is my excuse for not publishing the blog, but we told our kids not to waste any time getting to sleep because there would be a 4.30am wake up call for everyone. The train to Jaipur leaves just after 6 in the morning.
Bye from Daly College. Garry
Our time at Indore is coming to a close. We returned from an overnight stay at hilltop Mandu this afternoon to an hour or slightly more of our first free time of the trip (hence I am able to find the time to write up two days). We did have to attend a press conference with multiple photographers and reporters from Indore’s five newspapers – two English and three Hindi – so once again we will make the morning editions and extend our fifteen minutes to thirty minutes of fame. In a country such as India, these sort of things can happen.
We headed down to the dining hall in the midst of a spectacular lightning storm and just after entering the building, it began to rain for the first time since we arrived – heavy drops, a brief shower only. The lightning and thunder continued for some time, meaning the air seems quite humid tonight. It was a welcome change to the weather anyway, so we spent a little time enjoying the evening by the school’s man made lake, accompanied by the school flock of geese. Daly College even has its own inter-house angling competition which takes place in this lake. Earlier in the afternoon, there was a cricket game in full swing on the main oval – hopefully a little less one-sided than the other games going on in this country as I write.
Mandu was wonderful, we all agreed. A 5.30am wake up call enabled us to get to the gates of the historic Rupmati Pavilion (or Pavalion if you read the sign place there by the Archaeological Survey of India team!) before dawn. Unfortunately the gates were locked. A man with a key arrived, but the gates remained stubbornly closed, so we traipsed around and found a side entrance further up the hill. There was too much smoky haze in the valley, somewhat akin to a bushfire haze, to see far, but still the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds were quite beautiful and made it worth our while getting up early.
There are some wonderful stories of romance between the Prince Baz Bahadur and his consort Rupmati. She did not want to leave the holy river alongside which she lived, but he wanted her so badly that he built the pavilion atop the highest hill so that every day she could go to the balcony and see her shining river winding through the distant countryside. He also managed a series of aqueducts and water systems to bring the water from the river to her pavilion so she could bathe in it. Unfortunately the haze prevented us from seeing the river, but despite the lack of evidence, it was a story we all enjoyed.
I won’t even attempt to describe the structure or the beauty of the buildings we saw today, as everyone else here has gone to bed and it would keep me up typing all night. Suffice to say that the architecture in the Mandu complex, which dates back many hundreds of years, is quite grand. Much of it is Islamic, dating from the period of the Sultans’ rule, though some sections, added a little later, were of Hindu origin. The one marble tomb at the mosque provided the inspiration for Shah Jahan’s architects to design the Taj Mahal. We almost had every place to ourselves, as the tourist season has finished for the time being, so we were able to wander here and there and soak it all in without having to fight our way through scores of people or join in any queues. The kids really enjoyed getting so close to something so old and historic. Beneath some of the arches there were huge hives swarming with bees, and green parrots and small squirrels flitted about. In some places we saw Islamic script, Parsi, I think, carved into the stone surrounding gateways and doors. Elaborately shaped swimming pools, high in the palaces, were put there for kings and queens to bathe in – the waters of the holy river were pumped there through a series of aqueducts. I won’t describe any more – you’ll see what I mean if you look at the photos.
As the Mandu temples and palaces stretched out over several kilometres, a series of echo points were constructed between them. Men would stand in these buildings and shout communication to the next one in line. The echo would carry the sound and it could be clearly heard at the next echo point, from where it was repeated, and so on until the communication reached the king in his palace. We were fortunate to see a troop of langur monkeys at one such stop. Thankfully that’s the only wildlife we saw, as we were in tiger forests as we made the hill climb to Mandu the previous day.
Mandu, of course, is just a taster for what is to come in the historic cities of Jaipur and Agra. It was our first major close-up encounter with the Islamic influences that shaped India. We all consider ourselves very fortunate to have seen it today.
Regards, Garry
As indicated, I am writing this post one day after it actually happened. We have done so much in the past two days that I am hoping I can remember everything. Firstly, I mentioned that James and Sinead were interviewed by a reporter from the Times of India. Click here for the article. James was quoted. In the print version of the paper, there is also a photo of the entire student group in their Indian costumes, plus an additional quote from James that does not appear online.
Incidentally, we have just returned from a session with reporters and photographers from the local Indore newspaper, so we are certainly enjoying our 15 minutes of fame in India. They are treating us like royalty, and so proud that we have come to their country because of our interest in their culture.
The day began again with a yoga and meditation session, then we dressed in uniform and made our way to the large auditorium for the Daly College school assembly. The Principal made a very welcoming speech and introduced Hamish and Sophie who each stood at the podium and spoke of the contrasts between the two schools and the impact that our visit to India was having on them. As a biased observer, I was very proud of the way they represented our school, but it was pleasing to be told later in the day by a visiting Melbourne Uni academic, who was born in India, that the way Hamish and Sophie spoke had just the right mix of respect and Aussie wit for the Indian student audience and he congratulated them on hitting the mark so well.
We had a classroom lesson on Indian philosophy where we explored the concept of reincarnation – if you live a good life, your soul will be reincarnated to a higher life form, ultimately as a human. Beyond that, if you have lived well your soul can achieve moksha – eternal liberation. Our kids have great affection for our host, Dr Vijay Radjopadhyay, who is the son of the royal priest to the Holkar Dynasty, and who remains a religious adviser to the royal family, so when he discusses Hindu spiritual beliefs with them they are genuinely interested and their responses have been impressive.
We toured the historic Holkar Dynasty palaces in Indore with Vijay as our guide. We passed through the gateway where the maharajah would ride on his garlanded elephant, through the massive wooden gates that would defend his palace against all marauders. The first palace, Rajwada, sustained a good deal of damage during the rioting and burning that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Some adjacent shops were set fire to and the fire spread to the wooden sections of the palace, destroying a good portion of it. It has been reconstructed in recent years. The architecture displays influences of Islam and Hinduism and the contrast between the grandeur of the palaces of the rulers of the land with the decaying structures surrounding them is stark. The second palace, the Lal Baag, is a more recent construction – much of the decoration inside is European. The marble columns are imported from Italy, the gilded rooms with painted ceilings are Parisian and there are also rooms that are classical Greek in influence. You only remember you are in India when you pass the six huge glass cases that house the glassy-eyed taxidermied adult tigers that the maharajah had shot on his hunting sorties early in the twentieth century.
We left Indore and headed toward Maheshwar, a hilltop fort on the banks of the holy Narmada River. We were given special permission to visit the home of Prince Richard Holkar, usually reserved for special guests like Mick Jagger, Sting and Demi Moore. The fort visit was a highlight. From high up on its walls we looked down upon the river, which glistened as the sun began to set. Around us we saw some of the microcosm of Indian society – holy men, street vendors, playful kids, senior citizens, beggars, touts and the obligatory cows and goats. I think we all opened our eyes and learned a little more about the world in the time we were here.
As the sun went down we drove through very poor rural villages down a largely unmade road until we reached the foot of some high hills, then we climbed to the summit, reaching it just on dark. We pulled in to the carpark of the Hotel Rupmati in Mandu and immediately noticed that the air at this elevation was decidedly cooler than the sticky heat of Indore. After a delicious dinner on the lawn and a few games under the lights, it was time for bed. It had been a big day
Today was our first 6.30am yoga lesson. It was taken by the school’s yoga teacher. He took us through a lot of positions and explained the purpose of each one. There were positions to cure snoring, allergic reactions, headaches etc, positions to improve memory and some to make you smart all your life. We followed this with breathing and meditation. Some of us were much, much more flexible than others, leading to some of us spending the rest of the day with a spring our step while others hobbled around hindered by muscle soreness for the rest of the day!
After breakfast we had a series of four lessons. The first was a lesson on the gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion, followed by a lesson on the traditional dress customs of the regions of India. After a break we had a history lesson on the ancient city of Mandu, which we will visit tomorrow, and we finished with a lesson on an epic of ancient Indian literature, the Ramayana.
We headed back to the art centre to learn some terra cotta ceramic techniques – throwing pots on a wheel, making slab pots, and free form sculpting. Our Mughal paintings were returned, looking resplendent after a few deft brushstrokes had been added by some Indian students. Our pots will be fired after drying for two days.
We returned to the dance workshop for further instruction in the folk dance we will be performing in full costume on Sunday. We finished the session on the main stage of the school’s auditorium – our final session with the dance teacher before the dance will be performed for an audience.
A reporter and photographer from the Times of India watched our rehearsal and then interviewed Sinead and James about their experiences in India. The article will be published in tomorrow morning’s edition – perhaps you might find it online.
In the late afternoon the girls were dressed in saris with the help of some of the female teachers at the school, who are always very beautifully dressed themselves. Our girls looked amazing in their saris. The boys soon joined them wearing turbans, which were tied by the art teacher from the junior school, a descendant of the Rajput warrior princes. Each turban consists of a single piece of coloured cloth 9 metres in length (the saris are 5 metres long), which is wound very tightly and rotated around the head until the cloth has all been used and the scalp completely covered. The boys had purchased Indian shirts and pajamas a couple of nights earlier. They too, looked amazing. We finished this off with a photo session on the lawn behind our units.
Dinner was another cooking class – fish tikka, paneer, vegetable biryani and more. It was another day of immersion into multiple aspects of Indian culture and also a day of great enjoyment. We are all getting along very well with the Appleby students and teachers.
Tomorrow morning we will join a school assembly and some of our students will address the assembly. Later in the day we depart for the historic ruins of Mandu, where we will stay overnight in a hotel. Internet access may not be available there, so this is possibly the last post for a couple of days. Cheers, Garry
We had an extra hour’s sleep this morning, while our Canadian friends went off to yoga at 6.30am. We probably could have joined them easily enough, as the local mosque is very close to Daly College, and at 5am we were all woken by the holy man broadcasting his call to prayer to all the Moslems in the city. This is repeated 5 times prior to 5.30, then there is another call to prayer in the late afternoon, so despite being in a school with Hindu practices, we are frequently reminded of the Islamic religion too.
After breakfast we had a lesson on the 16 rituals a Hindu participates in during a lifetime, with several before birth and the final one, the last rites, being delivered after death when the soul leaves the earthly body, which is cremated and the ashes scattered in a holy river.
We then went to the temple, removed our shoes and took our places around a small brick hearth, where we took part in a yagya, a Hindu devotional ceremony. A holy man chanted mantras, then lit a sandalwood fire. As the wood burned with a bright flame, we threw black grains into the fire every time we heard a particular word chanted – this was helping to create a better world. We had all been daubed with the red dots or lines on our foreheads, the bindi. Some other parts of the ceremony were performed and we joined in all of them, sometimes clapping loudly while a shell horn was blown and bells were rung, and sometimes circling the fire. It was all explained to us at every stage and our Hindu guests were very gracious in including us in every part of it. They explained that they too, believe in one supreme God, although they have many gods, and they believe it is the same God that Christians, Moslems and other religions all follow – just with a different name. So we were made to feel very much part of the ceremony. The priest gave everyone a sweet and then it was over.
We had another lesson, this time about Medieval India, when Islamic forces from the north conquered India and ruled, first as Delhi Sultans, then as Mughal Emperors, for several hundred years. At the end of the history lesson we were shown where the influence of Islam is still prominent in India today – architecture, fashion, art, Mughlai cuisine and more.
We had learned about the beautiful Mughal painting style during the lesson, so we then went to the art room and learned how to paint this way. We had moderate success, but fun nevertheless. We are likely to get our paintings back tomorrow looking slightly improved, because as we were leaving the room some Daly students moved to our tables and began adding fine detail to our works.
A lesson on classical and folk dancing in India followed. The dance teacher choreographed a Gujarati dance which tells a story about Lord Krishna. Our kids did very well and the performance looks very promising, though we will need another lesson to add a little polish before we are ready to perform it in public later in the week.
A brief stint in the shooting range with air pistols and air rifles provided a new experience for most, if not all, of the group. Although shooting is no longer a sport practised here, there are tiger pelts and other mounted game animal heads adorning a number of the walls. The Indians always perform well as shooters at international competitions.
The long day finished with a cooking lesson – butter chicken cooked in a tandoori, malai kofta, naan bread. It was delicious. The perfect way to end our first day of immersion in Indian culture. We’re all very tired, so it’s off to bed and hopefully a sound sleep before the imam switches on the public address and calls his people to prayer before dawn tomorrow morning.
Oh, just in case you were wondering about the Bum Club in the photo, so are we. Just another one of India’s mysteries, I think. Bye for now. Garry
Ivanhoe to India 2013 