Since our last post, Kathy and I have made a loop from Delhi up to Amritsar and back. It is outside of Amritsar, in Betala, that Mr. Sekhri has his college.
Mr. Sekhri was an outstanding host. When he couldn't take care of us himself, he had his drivers taking us around. His mother, probably in her 70s, was also very gracious. She kept us very well fed. :-) (Tim: Kathy will do a posting all about food.) Here is a short synopsis of our trip North.
We took the express train, about 6 hours in each direction. It again arrived late in the evening, but again, Mr Sekhri had a driver meet us and deliver us to our hotel.
Our first day in Amritsar was dedicated to site seeing. We visited the Golden Temple, one of the most holy shrines of the Sikh religion. It is set in the middle of a lake, with only one path out to it. It really is completely covered with gold, thanks to the Maharaja Singh in the early 19h century. You will again have to wait until I find a computer with a USB port to upload pictures.
We also visited Jallianwala Bagh, the site where the British opened fire on thousands of unarmed, peacefully demonstrating Indians. Hundreds were killed. It is now a Peace Park.
In the evening, we visitied the India/Pakistan border, for the flag lowering ceremony. Typically, large crowds sit on both sides of the border and try to out yell each other in chants for their own country. Because it is Ramadan, the muslim month of fasting, very few people were on the Pakistani side. It was still a lot of fun.
The next day, I think we are talking Sept 27 was one of those days I am still processing. Mr. Sekhri is very involved in Indian politics. He said he would take us to a political event. That was about all we really knew about it. The event was the dedication of a new coin to freedom fighter Bhagat Singh at his ancestral village Khatkar Kalan. He had fought the British and is considered a martyr.
We were still staying in the hotel, so Mr. Sekhri's driver picked us up and we met Mr. Sekhri on the road. We are now a convoy of two, with us and Mr. Sekhri in one car and his driver and a security guard following in the other. He told us that we would be picking up a few other people on the road. The first was the head of Mr. Sekhri's party for the Punjab state. The second was a senator for the state. (For you Wisconsinites, we are now riding with the likes of Jim Doyle and Russ Feingold in our car.) Our convoy has grown to 4-6 vehicles, at least one of them a jeep full of uniformed security types carrying submachine guns. We have sirens going and everybody getting out of our way.
We pull off the road into a field that looks like a grass landing strip. Mr. Sekhi suggested we wait in the car, so we did. It was 90 + degrees inside and outside, so we opened the doors to let in some breeze. Soon afterward, a security guard closed the doors and about 30 seconds later a helicopter lands so close in front of us that the entire car is shaking from the whir of the blades. Out come some dignitaries from Delhi, including the Minister of Tourism.
The next part, the official part, was kind of boring for us. We went to an outdoor auditorium and listened to a couple of hours of speeches in Hindi, none of which we understood. The coin was revealed and everyone clapped.
We spent the next few nights at Mr. Sekhri's home in Betala. The 28th we did virtually nothing. It was the weekend and Mr. Sekhri was tired from the day before.
The 29th we had a function at the school, VMS Institutes. The function turned out to be a 4.5 hour talent show in our honor. It is an annual event, but they scheduled it to overlap with our presence and had a big sign on stage, saying "Welcome Prof. Stuart Hansen, Dean of Computer Science, University of Wisconsin". I was pleased with the promotion. :-) The talent show was very impressive. Students sang and danced in both traditional and modern styles. Again, we will upload pictures in the near future.
That evening, I had an outstanding dinner with Mr. Sekhri and a friend of his, Mr. Rakesh Goel. Kathy begged off, as she was very tired. I also tried Indian wine, which is very tasty and does contain alcohol.
So know we are off to the South. Last January, I had sent a card to Satya Kumar in Hyderabad, a friend from grad school. I never heard back, although the way SPAM is, I may have accidently deleted an email from him. Anyway, last week, he tracked down another friend from grad school, Dinesh, got my cell phone number and gave me a call. It was like talking with a close friend, even though we haven't seen each other in 20 years. So we are hopping a train today for Hyderabad. If we find a better computer, I may post pictures before we go.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Kathy's Rebuttal
(Stu told me how to spell rebuttal.) Really, I only mentioned strangling our driver a couple of times. When we arrived in India we were told you need 3 things to drive in India; good brakes, a good horn, and good luck. To help you get an idea of the traffic in India, imagine playing a video game. One that tests your reaction time with objects passing you and flying at you from every direction. Objects like monkeys, elephants, camels, trucks, tracters, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, rickshaws and other cars. They pass you, cross your path or approach you head on (in your traffic lane) as though engaging you in a serious game of chicken. Each driver uses their horn to tell the objects ahead where they are positioned at that partiular moment in time. So of course they need to make you aware of their new position a moment later. And the next moment. (You get the idea.) Along with good luck symbols, every truck has "BLOW HORN" painted on the back of their vehicle, as though someone might forget. Amazingly (or unfortunately), it works really well. But sincerely, India is truly incredible.
The First Four Days
Well, we made it. It is Wednesday evening, September 24, Delhi time. The computer I'm at does not have any USB connections, so photos will have to wait. Here is a quick summary of the trip so far:
The flight over was long, but uneventful. Actually, there was a close call in Paris. We had about 1.5 hours for our connection, but they landed us way out at some peripheral gate. It took two busses for us to get to our departure gate. The plane was loading when we arrived, but all was okay.
We were met at the airport by Mr. Sekhri's chauffer, Ramesh. This was a real blessing. It was 11:30pm in a foreign city. It was just very nice to have someone there to greet us and take us to our hotel.
Ramesh picked us up the next day about 1pm. He was bound and determined to get us on a tour of the Golden Triangle = Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. After a bit of discussion, we ended up with a private car taking us.
After signing up for the tour, Ramesh took us around Delhi. We visited the Ba'Hai lotus temple and the India Gate dedicated to the fallen war dead. The lotus temple was well worth the visit.
From what we have seen, Delhi is a very big (about 12 million) very noisy city. No one uses rear view mirrors her, the vehicle behind toots their horn. It's an amazing system, but seems to work. In Delhi and on the highways, the roads are shared by water buffalo, tractors, camels, semis and private cars. Sometimes a cow even just lies down in the middle of the road. There are amazingly few accidents, however. The constant honking really gets to Kathy.
The next morning we left on our tour. Agra is home to the Taj Mahal. It really is one of the wonders of the world. Wait for the pictures.
After spending the night in Agra, we visited an old fort and a bird sanctuary the next morning. The visit to the fort was pretty much a bust, as we were perpetually surrounded by hawkers of trinkets. This was also a real problem at the Taj Mahal, until we ot past the point where we had to pay admission. Both Kathy and I currently feel that this is a big enough problem that we will avoid the tourist sites for the rest of the trip. There were times when there were 3 or 4 people hawking goods at us, simultaneously. We were also repeatedly warned that the hawkers work in groups, one getting in our faces while another picks our pockets. Fortunately, this didn't happen. Okay, enough whining.
The bird sanctuary was the highlight of the trip so far. First, it was a quiet retreat, much appreciated, but also there were dozens of different type of birds there, sometimes flocking to be in the hundreds. Again, wait for the pictures.
We spend last night in Jaipur. We were the ONLY guests in the hotel we stayed at. It was a bit off the beaten path. They treated us royally. This morning we visited a few shops and then drove past both the Palace of the Wind and the Amber fort. Both were probably worth stopping at, but we really didn't want to deal with the hawkers. We took photos from the road and called it good.
So now we are back in Delhi. I have not met with Mr. Sekhri yet, as Rahul Gandhi, an important figure in the Indian government has been in the Punjab and Mr. Sekhri's time has been all tied up. We will take the afternoon train to Amritsar. It is the fastest train in India, I am told and will get us there in only 6 hours. Amritsar is home to the Sikh's golden temple and very close to Mr. Sekhri's college. He has arranged a reception for us on September 29, so we will probably return to Delhi on the 30th. We are actually looking forward to spending four days at the same place.
Stu
The flight over was long, but uneventful. Actually, there was a close call in Paris. We had about 1.5 hours for our connection, but they landed us way out at some peripheral gate. It took two busses for us to get to our departure gate. The plane was loading when we arrived, but all was okay.
We were met at the airport by Mr. Sekhri's chauffer, Ramesh. This was a real blessing. It was 11:30pm in a foreign city. It was just very nice to have someone there to greet us and take us to our hotel.
Ramesh picked us up the next day about 1pm. He was bound and determined to get us on a tour of the Golden Triangle = Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. After a bit of discussion, we ended up with a private car taking us.
After signing up for the tour, Ramesh took us around Delhi. We visited the Ba'Hai lotus temple and the India Gate dedicated to the fallen war dead. The lotus temple was well worth the visit.
From what we have seen, Delhi is a very big (about 12 million) very noisy city. No one uses rear view mirrors her, the vehicle behind toots their horn. It's an amazing system, but seems to work. In Delhi and on the highways, the roads are shared by water buffalo, tractors, camels, semis and private cars. Sometimes a cow even just lies down in the middle of the road. There are amazingly few accidents, however. The constant honking really gets to Kathy.
The next morning we left on our tour. Agra is home to the Taj Mahal. It really is one of the wonders of the world. Wait for the pictures.
After spending the night in Agra, we visited an old fort and a bird sanctuary the next morning. The visit to the fort was pretty much a bust, as we were perpetually surrounded by hawkers of trinkets. This was also a real problem at the Taj Mahal, until we ot past the point where we had to pay admission. Both Kathy and I currently feel that this is a big enough problem that we will avoid the tourist sites for the rest of the trip. There were times when there were 3 or 4 people hawking goods at us, simultaneously. We were also repeatedly warned that the hawkers work in groups, one getting in our faces while another picks our pockets. Fortunately, this didn't happen. Okay, enough whining.
The bird sanctuary was the highlight of the trip so far. First, it was a quiet retreat, much appreciated, but also there were dozens of different type of birds there, sometimes flocking to be in the hundreds. Again, wait for the pictures.
We spend last night in Jaipur. We were the ONLY guests in the hotel we stayed at. It was a bit off the beaten path. They treated us royally. This morning we visited a few shops and then drove past both the Palace of the Wind and the Amber fort. Both were probably worth stopping at, but we really didn't want to deal with the hawkers. We took photos from the road and called it good.
So now we are back in Delhi. I have not met with Mr. Sekhri yet, as Rahul Gandhi, an important figure in the Indian government has been in the Punjab and Mr. Sekhri's time has been all tied up. We will take the afternoon train to Amritsar. It is the fastest train in India, I am told and will get us there in only 6 hours. Amritsar is home to the Sikh's golden temple and very close to Mr. Sekhri's college. He has arranged a reception for us on September 29, so we will probably return to Delhi on the 30th. We are actually looking forward to spending four days at the same place.
Stu
Friday, September 12, 2008
So It Begins ...
Kathy Guess and I will be spending 6 weeks travelling around and exploring India. We have set up this blog in order to let family and friends share in our adventure. We fly out a week from today, September 19, and arrive in India late on September 20. We will start posting shortly after we arrive.
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