Recently in Photos Category

I'll get something recent soon. Unless you want prom pictures : )

"Well, just go back out the front door and keep walking left around the side of the building. Once you turn past the benches, you'll notice some stairs going down. Take them. It'll be right there on your left. Have a nice day."

Besides having the entrance located in the back of the Judicial Affairs building, do please notice that it is in the basement.

This is my family? Are these your in-laws? Yet?

I didn't actually expect that anyone would guess (it doesn't take much to figure out what is going on). But, thanks for doing it. I was just in an wi-fi cafe and didn't want to write there. It wasn't so much the cafe as it was the convention that had gathered of middle-school bus drivers. "those kids!..." was not approrpriate background for ANY thought. Let alone coherent sentences. But, I was in a wi-fi cafe and that where I had to upload the pic because I was being lazy. That's also why I went ahead and published it before I bothered to write on it. Lazy.

So, the picture. I'm definitely watching a movie. That's what you see. We all pick a side and the man starts to turn a crank on top. The stand starts to wobble and swing here and there, which is why I'm holding the viewer. We get through the black and white count down (the numbers with the circles and shapes around them) and in addition to turning the wheel, this man is now singing, too. Traditional raag improvisation, Carnatic music. It was lovely. And then, the movie comes on. And it's a traditional Western movie. WIth cowboys. : ) It was great. It lasted maybe 90 seconds, but just enough to really enjoy the entire experience. It was one of my favorites in India and one of the first. When I saw the picture (it isn't mine. Srini took it on Kevin's camera? Gina's?) I had almost forgotten about it. So, I got excited and decided that I ought to share it with you, even though you can't see the wobbly stand or hear the gritty voice of our artisan.

Not the Lotus Temple:

After I had found my way to post in an internet cafe, I left shopping and headed back to the Baha'i House to pack, shower, and get ready to spend my last afternoon at the Lotus Temple. Once I had my sari on, I found that my roommate had found a lunch for me, which consisted of pomegranate and another fruit, which she called Goa. I'm assuming that Goa refers to its origins. She took a "snap" and I headed out to the temple. Upon arriving, I realized how amazingly crowded it was. People were everywhere and in the words of Mrs. Nanda, they were drunk. Not that they had had too much to drink, but they were disrespectful and generally out of control. They were noisy in the temple, didn't turn their mobiles off, and snickered, laughed and pointed at any volunteer that was white. I probably wouldn't have noticed that last group of behaviors, but I had offered to volunteer for the afternoon. I'm glad I did. Doing so exposed the frustration that all of the volunteers face. Because of it, most of the youth were ready to attack the tourists. Justly so, most of the people there, besides disrespecting the other visitors and the Temple, were insulting the volunteers and everything that the Temple represents to them (ie. their Faith). I'm assuming that this atmosphere is a result of the Lotus Temple's tourist attraction status. Buses of people are brought in daily and they are told something similar to what I was told: "Well, Tourist, we will next be at Lotus Temple. This is Baha'i Temple. Baha'i was started in 1844, Iran. Temple was built in 1986. Very beautiful from the outside, nothing to see inside. Again, nothing to see inside; don't waste time in information center." If the Lotus Temple remains a tourist attraction for most of the hours of the waking day, it will continue to be just that. Visitors will be noisy and disrespectful, and the Temple will only be a house for worship at night. I'm interested to see how the Indian Baha'is balance using the Temple as a teaching opportunity and their desires to have the Temple be a house of meditation and prayer.

Outside of this academic line of thought, I really enjoyed my time in Delhi. The Baha'i volunteers were friendly and wonderful. Everyone at the Baha'i House was amazingly accomodating as well (they loved to serve me tea; you should have been able to guess as much). All in all, my trip, in terms of my "Baha'i experience," was ideal. I had my two guardians (Misaq and Fauez) taking care of me, the Baha'i House and its staff providing a room, cleaning, and care, etc. In the past four days, I've been shown so much love and generosity that most of the rest of my 9 weeks pale in comparison.

Photos

But I plan to go some other time. Oh well.

Also for prayers.

It's cool enough today that I wanted some tea. Some hot, green tea with cinnamon etc. It is a cloudy 85* and it rained yesterday. Oh, bliss.

The picture was taken in front of the infirmary (how wonderfully appropriate) of the school that Arundhati Roy's mother founded. It was amazing. I've noticed, while going through my pictures today, that my shoulders have been slouching in. This means that I'm exhausted. Lonely. Tired of India. If anyone has any good abroad-advice, I would appreciate it. As of now, I'm just planning on a night this week for pizza and a rented movie, if I can find a good one. And I'm drinking tea. (Not chai).

There are more images within for those who have fast connections or enough interest to tolerate waiting.

Clay pots which are filled with snakes of the lethal, posionous types.