The Lotus Temple

The Baha'i faith is a slightly strange one. They are new in the world of religion just getting their start in the middle of the 1800s. Since then, however, they have become the second most widely spread religion after christianity (depending on how you count).

Nonetheless, because of some funny rules about how they allow themselves to build and their 9-sided numerological obsession they take quite some time to construct their temples. Currently there are only 7 existing temples (one in Turkmenistan was leveled by an earthquake) with plans for many more in the works. I have now visiting two of their temples, one in Wilmette, IL and one in Delhi, India. The others are in Uganda, Panama, Australia, Germany, and Samoa. (More info here Baha'i House of Worship)

The Lotus temple is somehow an image of India in full. My friend mentioned to me that India is like a Lotus. The Lotus is a beautiful flower that grows in a pond of muck. This is India. Beauty and filth are never far removed from each other. This is the Lotus temple. The grounds controlled by the Baha'i are gorgeous and kept in nearly perfect condition. The area immediately surrounding the temple is full of slums and beggars and filth and trash... Let some pictures demonstrate:



Trying to stay warm
This dog was just looking for a nice napping spot, but it was cold that day and foggy without sun. So he just took up shop in the warm ashes of a newspaper fire used by some slum dwellers for warmth just minutes before.

Slums
Some slums just outside the temple grounds.

Temple


Walkway


Temple

Unless you really get close to the temple it's hard to tell that it's 9 sided. It is also quite large and shockingly gorgeous. The 9-sided business revolves around the fact that the Persian numerology for Baha'u'llah (glory of god) is 9. The architecture is also amazing. One is not allowed to take pictures inside, but it's impressive from the inside as well.

While inside talking and prohibited. I thought that seemed unnecessary, but while inside it was such a relief. The noise and chaos that is Delhi mostly disappears for as long as you want it to.

In the end, I don't agree with all the tenets of the Baha'i faith, but it's one religion that I don't have any real problems with. The Baha'i are incredibly peaceful, advocates of education, and don't ask for money. They really just don't cause anyone any problems. In the end, it was a really great experience to see the Lotus temple in person.

My weather situation(s)

While I was in Delhi this weekend the temperature reached a 7 year low. Dense fog covered the city for nearly 4 solid days. The temperature reached 12.1 C (54 F). This isn't cold to any of us who've lived in America (north of say, Miami, FL) but I'll tell you it feels cold with the wind and lack of heavy clothing. The sunshine isn't available for warming your face either. So all in all, it was a rather cold weekend in Delhi which I assure you is quite unusual. I got to thinking that I've had several unusual weather experiences with traveling. In short they are these

3 of 4 days raining in Denver, CO
3 of 5 days raining in San Diego, CA
75 and sunny for a week in London in early April
1 day of rain in the mountains in Lebanon in the summer
Beautiful weather in december in the mountains of lebanon
4 days of cold in Delhi.

I've had refulgent and repugnant weather. I guess I'll wait and see what the future travels bring....

India's Ladyboys

My first night in New Delhi I was walking along a street and three persons who were very obviously men dressed as women walked by me. They all sort of stared at me in the usual prescribed manner for Indians. My friend interjected that they were eunuchs. I sort of let it go at that, but was intrigued. I have seen cross dressing men in Chennai, but I assumed they were doing it for kicks as they have facial hair and air hair and really seem to make no pretense that they aren't men. Perhaps I was wrong about that. Yesterday after visiting Old Delhi for a second time I walked past another eunuch. When we returned to my friend's house there was a documentary about India's Ladyboys. Apparently this is a more widespread phenomenon than I would have believed in this part of the world. These are boys who usually begin working at public bath houses as servants who wash wealthy persons and those who have in one way or another entered the sex trade. After living for a year in female guise they are castrated. Penis and Testicles are removed by a "certified doctor" and only a small hole is left for urination. It is a sad state of affairs usually because the families of these ladyboys disown them, but it's worse still. The government of India does not officially recognize them as people. They give up a lot to become ladies. Most of them can only get jobs working in the sex trade after that.

However, what surprised me the most wsa that there is a competition called Miss Koovagam. On the documentary I was watching there was a band of 200 ladyboys traveling from Bangalore to Villapuram for a beauty pageant. This was big news and a well publicized event. Villapuram, it should be noted is in Tamil Nadu which is amongst the most socially conservative states in India. Villapuram however, is only 35 km from Pondicherry which is not quite as conservative. It's one of the strange in between places within India. I only had a clue where they were because I sw Tamil writing on all the buses and newspapers in the documentary. Finally they mentioned where it was. I am returning to Chennai soon and will look more closely at the cross dressers in Chennai. Perhaps they are so-called ladyboys, and perhaps they are just cross dressing for laughs. Again, I don't know anything about India.

New Delhi/Old Delhi

Yesterday was perhaps over eventful. I went around Delhi to see several big things. Amongst them was Old Delhi and the Jama Masjid Neighborhood. Jama Masjid, it should be noted, is the largest mosque in India. Just around it is a heavily Muslim part of town, and some exceptionally busy streets. Standing at the Entrance gate to the mosque elevated from the street some 20 ft and looking south into the surrounding neighborhood, one gets a true vision of India. It is the most crowded I have ever seen a street. This includes my visits to the Bazaar in Damascus as well. There are shops which sell every variety of thing and restaurants which have been in continuous operation well over 100 years.

My friend and his brother decided to take me to Karim restaurant which has been listed as "Best of Asia" by Time Magazine. It's an amalgam of three hole in the wall restaurants tucked away in a corner that I wouldn't have explored had they not known its location. They make loads of naans and other north indian classics right in the tandoor (Clay oven in the ground). We ate some kebabs and tandoori chicken. Both very good. I wouldn't say the best of Asia, but at the price they were certainly hard to beat.

A little further down and around is a section of the neighborhood where it seems there are many shops devoted to selling single items. These items seems to come together to resemble a car repair area. Many chop shops all working together. Delhi by the way has more motor vehicles than any other city in the world. Amongst the shops are a shop selling nothing but springs. Springs for shock absorbers, springs for watches, all kinds of springs, huge ones, miniature ones, everything in between. It's nearly literally a hole in the wall and contains more springs than I have ever seen in one place. To mimic this there are at least two "ball-bearing" shops, several tire shops, a shop selling only car doors (I'm not kidding). These doors may or may not contain windows, are from all makes and models of cars and may or may not be painted. Walking the streets around Jama Masjid was a task. I had to work extra hard to avoid being run over for the 3rd time. Much more crowded than my usual Indian outings. Somehow I think one could spend an entire month there of 8 hour days before one can confidently say (s)he knows what's in Old Delhi. It is overwhelming to say the least.

A good street fight

Walkning around in the intensely foggy Delhi evening I saw up ahead of me a car go a little out of control and suddenly, BANG! He'd had an accident. My friend ran up to see if he was ok. I didn't look bad from where I was, and so I took my time. When I showed up to the scene 15 seconds behind my friend I examined the car, and noticed that he'd basically hit a small wall and dented his front bumper and probably flattened a tire. All in all not a bad accident at all. That however, was not the surprising part.

When I arrived to see what was happening, one man (probably early 20's) was kicking the crap out of another. My friend was brave and went in to try and stop this man from raging. What had happened apparently is that the dense fog obscurred the driver's vision and the driver himself was probably a teenager just learning. He was going a little too fast (in a construction area) and ran into something. The man who was throwing punches and kicking was yelling that the driver had nearly killed him. I saw him knee the driver who was on the ground, and the driver apologize profusely and retreat into his car. The angry man went and opened the door and pulled the driver back out of the car and leveled him once more with a few punches and then the gathering crowd moved in and stopped him from swinging. Another young man who was apparently riding with the driver stepped in to protect his friend and the angry man slapped him in the face. However, this was a real slap. Ouch! I heard it from a few meters back. I wasn't about to get involved in the situation because I couldn't understand who'd done what and I don't know any words in Hindi except "Thank you" and "let's go." I didn't think either of those would be appropriate in the situation...

My friend stepped in after the slap and said to the guy, I know you're angry, but call the police, report the accident whatever, but don't aggress this young man. At that point tensions has cleared just a touch. We left the scene and apparently there was a little more yelling. What I really got out of the situation was that people are very much the same everywhere. In India however, men will take to violence much more quickly after an accident rather than huffing and puffing and displaying their chests as one would see in America. Teenagers are generally bad drivers. Fog makes them worse. People who feel like they got run over are angry. I think the last two times I've been run over the drivers must have felt fortunate. As I've mentioned before, I'm quite big (physically) in this country and I don't think small irresponsible drivers who know they're at fault want to tango with me especially when I'm the one expected to be throwing punches... Maybe next time I'll puff my chest in an American way and see what happens. Maybe next time I can do the Indian thing and appeal to the crowd of bystanders and passersby and have them kick the crap out of the driver. We'll see. Hopefully I won't have to deal with it again.

In New Delhi

A friend of mine invited me to come to New Delhi for the weekend, so I jumped at the chance. So far I can see why he's always bragging on his city in comparison with Chennai. The weather here is cool (mid 50s) and yesterday the fog was so heavy I could barely see 50 ft ahead. Not exactly what I expected of India. Although, I guess I've come to realize I shouldn't expect or (not expect) anything from India. We spent some time walking around Lodhi Gardens which has been dubbed a national historical monument. It's also a big park sort of full of a who's who of Delhi. There are amazing tombs for a kingdom (The Lodhi Sultans) that began in the year A.D. 1207 as well as a jogging track and a swan pond. It reminded me in a small way of Central Park in New York, in the way the public space was laid out. The city of New Delhi itself was designed by a Frenchman, and so has some resemblance of Paris. There is in fact an Arc de Triumphe near the presidential palace.

AFter the Lodhi Gardens we walked around an area now known as Khan Market which has been converted from slums into an big market place full of outdoor kebab stands and posh restaruants and bars and book stores. Khan Market happens to be near Embassy Row and so while walking around I noticed a lot more foreign faces than I am accustomed to seeing in India. I also heard probably 30 different languages being spoken on a little sidewalk in front of the market.

Finally we went to a conert by a woman named Dobet Gnahore. Supposedly this is her first concert ever in India. The Alliance Francais in India is putting on a big festival (in India's huge cities) called BonJour India. So this lady is from the Ivory Coast and now lives in Paris. She (I'm told) sings in six languages. I don't really care about that, but she was decent. It was to me, like seeing Ani DiFrance, except family friendly. My friend, who speaks french, told me most of her songs are about revolution, and changing the old ways. Well, Ani Difrance, I thought. I guess the difference was that the Condulate General of th Ivory Coast was in attendance and dancing. I also saw many different religious garmets displayed (Christian, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and others I couldn't identify). But then again, I guess this is India and I should know better than to actually expect to see something.

I'm hoping to see the Lotus Temple while here It is one of the Bahaii's 8 existing temples, and also according to some the world's most beautiful building (I'm sure some arabs in dubai with their newly christened tallest building might contest this). Apparently I'm also going to watch rugby practice... Who knew. Many more adventures to come and I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Two Random Events

I'm flying to Delhi today to visit a friend so I had to get up early and come into the office to take care of a few last minute things. I had forgotten all the oddities one can see early in the morning. This very morning for example I saw two rather peculiar things, both of which I think merit comment more than usual.

The first was at first sight not so out of place. It was a man driving a motorcycle with a female passenger. The oddity came from the fact that the woman was a police officer. Somehow in Chennai I've seen many female police officers. Perhaps this is what they do to further prevent dating around these parts. If your date doesn't like you, you'll have to pay the baksheesh. I suppose that would be the worst way to have a date end. Of course, you'd have to live with the fact that the date would be over at 10PM in the first place... I think this goes to prove even further that although men have it bad here, women simply have it worse, when a police woman can't drive herself to work because her husband must be the driver. It is entirely possible that this is just one odd case out of 1000, but it still hit me wrong.

The second was just a beautiful irony. I live in a little alley. That is to say an unnamed street right next to a big road. On this street are ministers are all sorts, high court judges and the rest. This morning I was walking past a house and standing around were probably 25 men dressed identically. There were wearing all white and clearly without transportation. What struck me as ironic is that they were standing in front of the minister of transport's house. No one had any transportation. In the United States this would be seen as a form of protest. Here, somehow these were the minister's "team" of body guards and dudes who apparently just hang around with the minister.

Just a thought....