India: Wrapping It Up

There is so much more I want to tell my readers about our experience in India, and I am going to try to do it in one final "India" post. As I look through the hundreds (actually thousands!) of images I captured, my memory is jogged over and over again, and I realize I will probably never be able to completely paint the picture that is India, but I will do my best! (Click on photos to enlarge.)

In large cities we did see modern housing, but when we were out in the desert there were mostly primitive dwellings, such as the thatched roof compound pictured below. Although made of mud and straw, many are very neat and clean, and proudly decorated.

Some families in the desert have electricity, as evidenced by the meter mounted on this mud structure in the next photo.

In larger villages, we saw a lot of simple, concrete houses, often in bright colors with decorative touches and words like "Welcome" painted on them. 

I imagine that many (maybe most) homes do not have a regular bathroom, so this family's toothbrushes are kept outside near the door, along with the key to lock up when they leave the house!

In cities, homeless people often set up tents wherever they can find a space, as these so called "gypsies" have done, living in tents along the road and selling their wares to passersby.

To help house the millions who move to the cities for work, suburban communities of modern, high-rise apartments are being built, like this one, seen in the distance from our bus while driving on a brand new super highway. I believe they are mostly inhabited by young tech industry types.

Cities definitely have shopping malls, but it seems that most Indians do their shopping at open air markets and small shops.

The produce always looked very good, but of course, we had been warned not to eat anything that couldn't be peeled, so bananas and tangelos were the only things we purchased and ate from the street vendors. 

Small shops were filled with the colorful clothing and accessories we saw women wearing everywhere we went.

Bicycles play a major role in transportation in India, so a bike parts and repair shop is a good business to operate!

Speaking of transportation… sometimes a two-wheeled vehicle is all you need to transport the whole family!

But if you're moving furniture, or making a trip to the recycling center, at least three wheels are necessary for the job!

I found this vehicle to be particularly interesting. Unable to peddle with his feet, this physically disabled gentleman has a tricycle rigged to be peddled by hand and steered like a rudder on a boat. Indians are nothing if not clever and resourceful!

People get around in and on all sorts of vehicles, and they always squeeze in more people than there are seats!

Our guide told us that if you can hang onto the back or ride on the top, the fare is reduced!

In places like Delhi, the traffic can be crazy. Add cows and camels to the mix, and it is absolutely nuts! We were told that all of the horn honking is India's national anthem!

Missed your stop on the divided highway? No problem! Just go back the way you came – even if it means driving on the wrong side of the street! The scariest thing in the photo below is not the cows on the highway, but the guy on the scooter ahead of them – coming back towards us! This happened all the time, and sometimes it was a truck coming at us, not just a scooter!

As one can imagine, with a population of over 1.2 BILLION and a GDP similar to that of California, good-paying jobs are hard to come by in India. The poverty is obvious and widespread, but as I said before, the Indian people are highly enterprising and industrious. They work hard at what they do to support their families, whether it's dyeing fabrics...

selling street food from a cart...

setting up an open-air barber shop...

spinning yarn, weaving, or trimming beautiful rugs.

And of course many join the scores of hawkers trying to sell souvenirs to tourists. Our guide, Jayanta, had a system at busy tourist sites for getting them to wait until we were all back on board the bus. He would then show us the objects one at a time, and if we wished to, we could then make a purchase, with Jay confirming the correct change. On an amusing note, Jay had a code to let us know he thought the price was too high, without insulting the seller. He would hold the item up, tell us the price, and then say, "Oh, it's getting hot in here!"

Art of all forms can be found everywhere in India, including public art installations at highway interchanges, and ornamentation on buildings, which often includes interesting graffiti.   

We were told that sometimes murals are painted on buildings with depictions of Hindu gods to keep people from urinating in that area!

And of course, there's lots of art for sale, but it's hard to get some things into a suitcase or carry-on bag! These were some of my favorites.

We did, however, purchase a small bronze sculpture of Lord Ganesha (the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and science, and the deva [god] of intellect and wisdom) to hang on our front door, as is the custom in India.

It was much easier to pack than this massive Ganesha that would have looked great in our garden!

One of our excursions included riding on a regional passenger train in Rajasthan. We were taken to the station by jeep, bought our tickets (cost was a couple cents), and when the train arrived, we climbed onboard with the locals traveling to the next town.

The interior was very spartan, all surfaces where metal or wood, not very comfortable for a long ride. Luckily for us, we weren't going far and the temperature outside was fairly cool. The open windows let in plenty of fresh air, but I can imagine that in the heat of the summer, and with many more passengers, it could be unbearably hot and unpleasant. For us though, it was an opportunity to see some of the countryside from a different perspective, and a lot of the scenery was gorgeous!

Clothing and customs in India are, of course, very different from what we are used to at home. Women dress in yards and yards of colorful fabrics, whether going to a wedding, or just to work.

And many of the men wear as many yards of fabric, but on their heads – twisted and wrapped round and round, forming turbans.

We saw lots of wedding processions, like this group of women following a bride-to-be.

Also, it is common for the groom to arrive at the ceremony on a white horse like this one being unloaded from a truck.

Another typical wedding preparation is decorating hands and other body parts with beautiful temporary tattoos created with henna dyes. 

But one thing Indian culture has in common with ours is their love of the movies, especially Bollywood hits like this "cuckin frazy" one we saw advertised on billboards.

Well, although I have barely scratched the surface of my India photo cache, this post has become quite long. If you've made it this far, congratulations, and I hope you have enjoyed having a glimpse into our Indian travels. If you would like to see more of my photos, check out my Flickr page, and if you'd like to watch a few videos Sam has put together of our trip, go to his Vimeo page and watch Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. Perhaps later, I will add another post or two about the tour and some of our accommodations, but for now I will close with this another beautiful Indian sunset. 

Namasté!