And we're off.
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| Always traveling in style |
(April 4-9) End of classes begot the eagerly anticipated South Indian excursion. Mentally prepared for the heat of the weather and spicy foods, we got the heck out of dodge and hopped on an early flight to Hyderabad, city of mystery. First impression at the airport: Houston, we are not in India anymore. Hyderabad is one of the Indian cities known for its business and technology sectors which have made it incredibly wealthy. The growth is obvious; huge and modern buildings, very little visible poverty, and very fancy malls. Additionally, the architecture is very pastel. We checked into a fancy hotel and were wedded to our new tour bus, a large purple pink vehicle of comfort reminiscent of our orange chariot in North India.
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And the tour commenced. We visited the Chowmahalla Palace in a Muslim district; in Hyderabad there is a huge Muslim population and let me just say that Muslim ambiance is awesome. The architecture, the clothes, the Arabic on signs and Urdu spoken in the streets. I felt like I was in the Middle East, which to me is a most pleasing sensation. Anyway, the palace was fancy and huge and we sang Aladdin in a most politically incorrect fashion and it was wonderful.
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| You can't take us anywhere. |
However, upon finishing we learned our bus would not start. No matter, we are a patient bunch. We got off the bus as to not be suffocated by the heat and watched the cricket yard next to us. One thing led to another and there we were making friends, taking a picture or two, our boys taking questions from the young lads about girls, when a dance circle emerged. We impressed them with such synchronized classics as the Macarena and Soulja Boy, and continued to dance and sing to the delight of local families. It began to warmly rain just as evening set in, and our festivities came to a close with the arrival of thunder.
Our lives are a movie.
Day two we rode a few hours to a boat and took that boat to an island, which was hotter than blazes and absolutely rife with Buddhist ruins. We pretended some of them were time portals and jumped through them as though we were entering a different dimension and other standard study abroad hijinks. (I apologize for the uncouthness of this blog and our lives. This trip was historically spectacular, visiting ruins and temples thousands of years old. And what did we do? Fool around. Desire to return to the hotel with its soft beds and air conditioning. Collectively sing Britney Spears horribly off-key.)
One heckuva Buddha
Time travel
Back from the future
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| Just say no, kids. |
Footnote: Drew double dog dared me to walk barefoot on the side of this path for a particularly long stretch. I accepted. My feet ended up swelling with large blisters from the heated ground, which I sucked up as part of my swami training. Next goal: hot coals.
Day three we hit up the new part of Hyderabad, called Hi-Tech City! With a name like that, it's got to be good. And it was. The freeways were big and clean. The traffic police booths had "Cyberabad" written on them. We pulled up through a series of gates into the elaborate complex of the Indian School of Business. Fun fact-- ISB costs 40,000USD per year, basically the same as a private college in America. Not a huge deal, until you realize what other Indian schools cost (my college St. Xavier's, for example: 500USD a year)--ouch.
Footnote: We went to a mall to hang out while waiting for a market to open and got some lunch. We weren't the only ones eating though--conveniently tucked away in a portion of the giant food court was a little salon at which one could have fish feed on one's feet for a mere five dollars. If you ever get the opportunity to do so, take it. It is THE strangest sensation I have ever experienced.
Day four marks the grandeur of old Hyderabad. First, the Golkanda Fort--one of my favorite architectural places in India, the fort is this beastly thing constructed up the side of a mountain. We had a pleasant hike up and down that took a few hours, and the view from the top was amazing; you could see the whole city though we were a couple of miles out. It was all only enhanced by the fact that Sucharita was having knee problems so we held hands as we conquered those nasty stairs.
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| Charminar - quite charming. |
After the fort, we hit up the Charminar. This was my favorite place in Hyderabad and definitely the most Muslim. We didn't go in the Charminar itself, but we did attempt to go into the mosque just down the street. The guard was power-tripping and didn't let us, based on some standards he made up about clothing. There are basic requirements for most temples we enter, but this was bogus. Suchers was as mad as a hornet. But we didn't let it spoil our day!
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| My American hands were far too big for the average bangle |
Both the Charminar and the mosque are located on this area called Bangle Street, known for its insane amount of bracelets. We had fun bartering and letting shopkeepers load our wrists up with bangles despite constantly assuring them that we were not in fact going to purchase anything. Everything is just so glitzy on Bangle Street, even the burkas! All over India, particularly in the conservative areas, we see very few women. In Delhi,
there are virtually none visible, and in Kolkata, it depends on where we are. Usually in Muslim areas, we haven't seen very many out and about; maybe it is because of the more progressive Hyderabad attitudes, but there were tons of women around, mostly Muslim, some with their faces exposed and some with them covered.
As we were walking through the crowded area, I was straggling behind a little, and a lady with her face covered said something to me in Urdu and gestured to me with her phone--a picture. I don't mind letting women take pictures of me, so I nodded and gave her a big smile. After the first snap, three of her friends had zipped over on either side of me; they pulled down their burkas to expose their huge, beautiful smiling faces. We took another one and they all giggled and (I can only assume) thanked me while pulling their burkas back up. They did all of this with confidence; their burkas were not oppressive. I am thankful for moments and interactions like this that awaken me from my preconceived misconceptions about the lives of others.
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| You can't make beauty like this up. |
Late in the evening, a bunch of us went by taxi auto for Easter Vigil mass. Our church of choice was the Shrine of Our Lady of Health (oy), which happens to be the biggest octagonal church in Asia! A real treat for us. The vigil mass itself was outdoors, and there were a few thousand chairs set up, all of which were eventually filled and then some. It turns out we were given the wrong times, so we arrived an hour early thus picking prime front row seats. Mass itself was in a combination of (mostly) English, Telugu, and Tamil, and in true Indian fashion, everything was fourteen times more flamboyant. When midnight officially came, we lit our candles, bells rang out, and Christmas lights dazzled and danced.
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| Jesus Christ Superstar |
Day five begins with an appreciation for your endurance. Thank you for bearing with me. After wrestling with some more corrupted guards, we managed to scope out a cool Jain temple which was two thousand years old. The day proceeded with some ruins we didn't really understand, followed by a Hindu temple known as the Thousand Pillar Temple. Our guide had been talking about it today, slyly saying he'd show us why it was so titled as such when we arrived. He later revealed with great relish that it doesn't have a thousand pillars; it was all merely a hyperbolic literary device.
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| Give or take a few. |
Footnote: Due to the black granite of the temple sitting in the sun, actually getting into the temple was an ordeal for all of us. Our feet were severely burned in the process. Should have been called the Thousand Blister Temple, oh-ho! (Buh dum chhh.)
