So a couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) [courtesy of the J&K government who was holding an expo for Kashmiri handicrafts and handilooms], India’s northern most state, which borders Pakistan to the west and China to the east. According to a documentary I watched about a month ago on the partition of India, J&K is the most militarized region in the world with over 700,000 Indian troops stationed up there (Remember there are roughly 150,000 American troops in Iraq, a much larger geographical area). Despite the minor presence of soldiers every 50 meters along the road and others standing aimlessly, gun clutched across their chest, in farm fields outside the capitol of Srinagar, Emily and I decided to take the approach that it is never as bad as people say it is.
“Some days, no. Some days, yes. I make no guarantees.”
This was the response by Bashir, our taxi driver, to Emily’s inquiry if he felt safe in Srinagar despite the violence of the 1990’s. We laughed and sarcastically said, “thanks”, quickly agreeing that we would keep that comment to ourselves and not share it with our mothers. It was just too memorable not to share though. Sorry, Mom.
Golmarg (a mountain village two hours outside of Srinagar) is home to the world’s only genetically modified cows.
Now I can’t back up this statement with any fact other than the above picture. But you tell me, someone had to of messed with that cow.
(Emily was clearly not impressed with the asking price for these Kashmiri shawls.)
While walking back across the beautiful Golmarg valley an man in his 50s drove by in front of us in a pick-up with three kids in the bench seat beside him. The truck suddenly braked and backed up so that he was eye to eye with us and then he said:
“Would you like to play golf?”
You inevitably have conversations in India with Indians that surprise you and they often ask you questions that take you by surprise, “How much do you make?” “How much do you pay for your rent?”, however this guy could have posed a thousand different questions to us before I would have guessed he’d invite us to play golf.
“Allah’s Pizza”
Who knew Allah made pizza or set up a shop in Srinagar? And it made me think why have I never seen a “Jesus Christ’s Pizza” place? If there is not, there should be. Terry T, if you are reading, there is my idea to build up your youth group in West Seattle.
Speaking of Allah, Emily and I went to Jammiah Mashid, Kashmir's largest mosque in the heart of old Srinagar. It was completely empty when we visited it and had this amazing light streaming through some of the windows.
My favorite quote of the weekend though was when my hotel doorbell rang at 7 a.m. (before my scheduled wake-up call). At first, I wasn't sure if I had heard it correctly and so I waited to see if there would be a second knock. Sure enough, about 30 seconds later, it came. I threw on the minimum amount of cloths and walked drearily to the door and opened it. Standing in front of me was a nice looking Indian man, wearing normal everyday-type clothes, so it appeared he didn't work at the hotel. He paused for a moment and then asked, "Are you Sandeep?"
After 10 months in India I know I have picked up some Indian mannerisms, but physically speaking, I still look no different than the white bread American boy I've always been. I restrained from bursting out in laughter because I thought the question was so funny, however I kept myself together and told the man I was not, in fact, "Sandeep".
Well, hi there. I found myself a new flat at the beginning of January. A new year. Felt like time to learn about a new part of the city, live in a new place with a new roommate...oh, and save some money at the same time. This place is a little less expensive than my last place. It was kind of difficult to move though to be honest. I really loved our old place in Safdarjung Enclave and it had really become my home. All that said though, I'm glad I'm now in Jungpura Extension, next to Bogel Market and Nizamuddin West.
Our mighty "service lane" next to Mathura Road. We're the top terrace, second from the right at the top of the photo.
I even found my Pants Twin to share a blanket with!
Our camel safari guides certainly took care of us. I even got a hug out of the deal :)
Back in Pushkar and with a few hours to kill before we boarded our night bus to Agra, we roamed around the city looking for interesting places. We even found a hostel I had been renting out and didn't even know it. Some foreigners were having a difficult time finding it though, so I thought I would help out.
We finally made it to Agra and the Taj Mahal to celebrate Christmas. More than once I have thought that it was really cool that we celebrated Christian's most important holiday at a famous Muslim monument in a predominently Hindu country.
Stunts straight out of a traveling circus. It was awesome.
...and greeting us in the desert:
On our first day, we were accompanied by four people, two men and two boys, 7 km to the camp where we would sleep that night. Parbu, pictured below, goes to school from 10-1 p.m. every day. Then at 4 p.m., he walks tourists like us 7 km to a desert camp, sleeps overnight in the desert, wakes up at sunrise and walks back (at least 7 km, although I don't know exactly where his school is) to town in time to go to school at 10 a.m., then he does it all over again.
(These young boys were nice enough to accompany me up the 1,000 step, 45-minute hike up to the top of Mysore's highest nearby peak, Chamundi Hill. Three of them did it in sandles, the fourth barefoot.)
(At the top, the boys took me to this nearby manmade pool. This man (who you can only see his big toe) was using the latest in fishing technology.)
(I think I caught this cow right as it was being blessed from up above or about to be zapped into space.)
(And I did do some work while in Bangalore. I met with many of my colleagues at CII's first Centre of Excellence, the Institute of Quality.)