2005
May 30-31 Travel
June 1 India (at last)
June 2 Touring in
June 3 More touring in
June 4 By train to
June 5 “Rest” day and travel to Chennai
June 6 First day in Chennai
June 7 Visiting the Working Women’s Forum (WWF)
June 8 Kanchipuram-Rural Institute
for Development Education (RIDE)
June 9 Kanchipuram to Mahabalipuram
June 10 Rest day at the Ideal Beach Resort
June 11 To
June 12
June 13 Last day in
Bangalore traffic—I spent the day shopping. At one point the car I was riding in took 20
minutes to go around the block!
Lal Bagh
botanical garden
View of Bangalore from Lal Bagh
Hibiscus—there was a temporary display of 100 different hibiscus
varieties at the garden.
Nandi (Bull)
Gangadhareswara (Cave) Temple Mandala—the rest of this temple
was under renovation so there wasn’t much to see
Vishnu and Lakshmi getting married—apparently, this is a ceremony that is part of
religious rites. A worshiper can pay
the priests to do the ceremony, or is this a tourist thing?? The Hindu pantheon was a bit overwhelming to
this monotheist.
Tipu Sultan’s summer
palace
Arches—the columns supporting these arches were solid teak
wood.
A banana leaf shop—food in southern
Call center lobby—we ended our day with a tour of a call center—an example
of work “off-shored” to
Nrityagram dance village
temple
Nrityagram dance village
temple relief
More about Nrityagram dance
village: http://www.nrityagram.org/
Dining at Ideal Beach Resort Hotel
Kanchipuram
temples
Devasthanam
temple images
Devasthanam
temple tank—temple tanks like these
are being rehabilitated for water storage in some areas.
Mahabalipuram temples
The Rathas—found buried in the sand, these unfinished temples were
carved from single granite outcroppings
Shore temple—this temple is right on the beach and has suffered from
the elements
A previously unknown
temple uncovered by the Dec. tsunami
Scenes
from the “Descent to the
Drive
to Kanchipuram
Sprawling industrial
development
Rajiv Ghandi assassination
memorial
Stone relief
memorial to Rajiv Ghandi’s
life—note how this stone carving
style, common in old temples, is used to display India’s ancient and modern
life
Lots of bullock carts on the
way and everywhere
Visit
to RIDE
Women’s self help group meeting
Silk sari loom—RIDE works to break the cycle of child labor—many
children work on looms such as these
Break for a “banana leaf
lunch”
Self help group federation
meeting
RIDE “bridge” school in
session—this school helps child who
have been child laborers transition into the public school system
Part of another self help group
meeting—it was almost dark as we were
late to this meeting in a more remote village.
About 100 women meet with us—they were less disciplined than the
previous group but much more enthusiastic
Homestay
hosts—some of us did overnights in
villages with staff members from RIDE. Lakshmi, along with her husband, was the host for my
group. I had left my camera on the bus,
but when we were picked up in the morning, I got the camera out for a
photo. The camera was cold from the air
conditioned bus, so it fogged up a bit.
Chennai Beach fishing boats—this community was hard hit by the tsunami.
Housing destroyed by the December tsunami
It’s hot on the beach (aka Chennai hot dog)!
These fish vendors take part in a WWF microloan program—some of these women
had to abandon their fish and run when the tsunami struck.
We are given royal treatment by WWF members
The WWF “bank”—the women make their loan payments and deposit their
savings here.
The Kapiliswarar
(Mylapore) Hindu temple
Chennai Beach—this, the second
longest beach in the world, was struck by the December tsunami.
Visit to the Sisters of Charity orphanage
Child at the
orphanage—most children who stay
long term at the orphanage are mentally or physically handicapped.
Very nice example of an Enfield
motorcycle—probably a
collector’s item in
Lajpat Nagar
market alley (near hotel)
CNG Auto Rickshaw—busses and auto rickshaws in
Heads must be covered in the Sikh Temple
Inside Sikh Temple—the constant movement of worshipers around their holy
book made it hard to get good photograph of the shrine.
Swastika in Buddhist temple—swastikas are common religious symbol in
Fatehpur Sikri—“temporary”
Diwan Khana-I-Am where Akbar sat to hear
petitions
Panch Mahal—an evening porch
Taj Mahal
Marble inlay work like that done in the Taj Mahal
Rani Sahay’s
presentation on water harvesting
potential in the south of
Black water on Yamuna—Major amounts of untreated sewage enter this river in
water-starved
A “washyard”
with drying clothes
Cow and temple during
morning walk
Inside the Jama Masjid--large mosque in old
Cremation site of Gandhi—known as Raj Ghat, the
cremation site for kings
Close-up of cremation memorial
June 1
Our
plane on the ground in Delhi
Group
photo in the Hotel Vikram lobby, Delhi
Qutb
Minar—our first tour stop
Example of recycled
Hindu temple material—at the site of Qutb Minar was a complex of ruins
that included the Quwwatal-Islam Mosque. Much of the construction had been done from
stone taken from Hindu temples destroyed by the Muslim invaders. In this example, the “graven” image had been
defaced to make is acceptable to Muslims
Stone monument at Gandhi
assassination site
Hey, Audrey and Halla—this stone
grill is like those described in Shadow Spinner
Another tomb near Humayan’s tomb
Kay,
Robin and Jeff ready to go in O’Hare departure lounge
Miko, Jan and Eileen playing out an extra 4 hour (10 hour
total) layover in Frankfurt