I guess its been awhile since I've updated. The last few weeks have been pretty action packed, so there hasn't been very much down time recently!
Work however has been a bit slower since everyone has mostly been wrapping things up in preparation for DIWALI. We have a week and a day off for Diwali, which is crazy to me. Its like Christmas, but bigger. I'll be celebrating at my friend Priyanka's house on Sunday, which is the actual Diwali day. Over the past week there have been plenty of fireworks going off though. Kind of like it was during Ganesh festival, but even more so. This morning at 6:00AM, I was woken up to what sounded like a bomb going off next door. No bombs, just insanely loud fire works. And by fireworks, I don't really mean pretty, fourth of July, light up the sky fireworks, but super loud street popper fireworks. I haven't actually seen any of them, I've just heard all of them.
Last weekend I traveled to the city of Aurangabad with my friends Eve and Kim. We went there to see the nearby Ellora and Ajanta caves. This was actually the most amazing thing I've seen in India so far. The Ajanta caves have these Buddhist carvings and paintings in them, with the earliest ones dating to the 2nd Century B.C.E. I think that's the oldest piece of history I've ever seen in my life. The Ellora caves include some Buddhist caves, but are more known for the Hindu and Jain caves. The main Hindu cave you see when you enter the the cave area has the most elaborate carvings, and the cave space is huge too! The carvings and statues are incredibly detailed. Here's an example:
While the Ellora caves were much more intricate in their detail, I think I may have been more blown away by the Ajanta caves. Most of them are very similar - a dark space with a Buddha in the back, some with paintings on the walls, some with pillars in the caves - but something about it was more appealing to me. You can't take pictures with flash in the caves in order to preserve the paintings on the wall, so everything is lit with very low lights. Here's a sleeping Buddha:
The only thing that was not enjoyable about our weekend trip was the amount of harassment we received from vendors trying to hawk their souvenirs on us. I didn't even ask this one guy about the small statues he was trying to sell, but he bargained the statue from 250 rupees down to 50. The conversation went something like this:
"Madam! Statue, 250!"
"Sorry, not interested."
"Ok, 200."
"I don't want a statue."
"Ok fine fine, 150"
"Really, I'm not looking for a statue."
"Ok Madam, 50 Rupees!"
Despite the fact that 50 rupees is than a dollar, I actually wasn't trying to buy a Buddha figurine, especially not from someone who is harassing me by bargaining for me. In the bus station the next day, I tried a new tactic - pretending like I don't know English. "No habla English" seems to confuse people, so some of them stopped talking to me after that.
While this kind of thing is annoying in the moment, I am sympathetic to the fact that someone must come from a level of poverty unknown to me in order to harass people like that. Its hard to see that at the time of these instances though. All I can think or feel in the moment is something like "Uggghhhhh I miss America," which makes me sound insensitive, but its hard to get beyond that feeling in the middle running away from someone who won't stop hawking their trinkets on you.
I'll be out of town for about 10 days beginning Monday. After spending Diwali with Priyanka, she and I are traveling to Kerala to meet up with Kim and Eve to travel around the state. Indians refer to Kerala as "God's Own Country," so I guess it must be good! I'll update again after my return.
And just because they're cute, here is a mommy and baby monkey snuggling at the Ellora caves.
Work however has been a bit slower since everyone has mostly been wrapping things up in preparation for DIWALI. We have a week and a day off for Diwali, which is crazy to me. Its like Christmas, but bigger. I'll be celebrating at my friend Priyanka's house on Sunday, which is the actual Diwali day. Over the past week there have been plenty of fireworks going off though. Kind of like it was during Ganesh festival, but even more so. This morning at 6:00AM, I was woken up to what sounded like a bomb going off next door. No bombs, just insanely loud fire works. And by fireworks, I don't really mean pretty, fourth of July, light up the sky fireworks, but super loud street popper fireworks. I haven't actually seen any of them, I've just heard all of them.
Last weekend I traveled to the city of Aurangabad with my friends Eve and Kim. We went there to see the nearby Ellora and Ajanta caves. This was actually the most amazing thing I've seen in India so far. The Ajanta caves have these Buddhist carvings and paintings in them, with the earliest ones dating to the 2nd Century B.C.E. I think that's the oldest piece of history I've ever seen in my life. The Ellora caves include some Buddhist caves, but are more known for the Hindu and Jain caves. The main Hindu cave you see when you enter the the cave area has the most elaborate carvings, and the cave space is huge too! The carvings and statues are incredibly detailed. Here's an example:
While the Ellora caves were much more intricate in their detail, I think I may have been more blown away by the Ajanta caves. Most of them are very similar - a dark space with a Buddha in the back, some with paintings on the walls, some with pillars in the caves - but something about it was more appealing to me. You can't take pictures with flash in the caves in order to preserve the paintings on the wall, so everything is lit with very low lights. Here's a sleeping Buddha:
The only thing that was not enjoyable about our weekend trip was the amount of harassment we received from vendors trying to hawk their souvenirs on us. I didn't even ask this one guy about the small statues he was trying to sell, but he bargained the statue from 250 rupees down to 50. The conversation went something like this:
"Madam! Statue, 250!"
"Sorry, not interested."
"Ok, 200."
"I don't want a statue."
"Ok fine fine, 150"
"Really, I'm not looking for a statue."
"Ok Madam, 50 Rupees!"
Despite the fact that 50 rupees is than a dollar, I actually wasn't trying to buy a Buddha figurine, especially not from someone who is harassing me by bargaining for me. In the bus station the next day, I tried a new tactic - pretending like I don't know English. "No habla English" seems to confuse people, so some of them stopped talking to me after that.
While this kind of thing is annoying in the moment, I am sympathetic to the fact that someone must come from a level of poverty unknown to me in order to harass people like that. Its hard to see that at the time of these instances though. All I can think or feel in the moment is something like "Uggghhhhh I miss America," which makes me sound insensitive, but its hard to get beyond that feeling in the middle running away from someone who won't stop hawking their trinkets on you.
I'll be out of town for about 10 days beginning Monday. After spending Diwali with Priyanka, she and I are traveling to Kerala to meet up with Kim and Eve to travel around the state. Indians refer to Kerala as "God's Own Country," so I guess it must be good! I'll update again after my return.
And just because they're cute, here is a mommy and baby monkey snuggling at the Ellora caves.
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