Qutb Minar is a World Heritage site, the first mosque built in India. It’s also one of few mosques that combine India and Islamic styles of ornamentation. The Muslims were, basically, a conquering army and came without a staff of craftsmen. They hired local craftsmen who were Hindus and used to ornamenting everything with living signs of life. Thus, the phrases from the Koran are entwined with vines and punctuated with flowers. (I have a lovely photo of Cheshire Kitten’s book perched on a column in the courtyard. I couldn’t resist.)
The minaret itself was never used to call anyone to prayer. It is too tall to make climbing up and down five times a day practical. Instead, the tower stands as a symbol of the power of the conqueror. The British played around a little with it in their day, in particular, they constructed gardens around the buildings. Everything is in flower here at the moment, so we saw orange and yellow flowering trees. Above us flew one of India’s most common hawks, enormous, green parakeets and common mynahs. The mynahs sound just like Texas’s grackles.)
Tourists from all over India were looking at Qutb’s Minar along with us. May is the time of school holidays because it is the hottest time of year here. A man from Gujurat posed us along with his family for photos. His little girl was wearing the brightest orange flouncy skirt. The man said he works for an American company, which I suppose made us particularly interesting to him. We were also the object of many long looks from a group of tourists from the Western coastal state where the main industry is ship demolition and resale of parts. It seems fitting that we become part of the spectacle as objects of interest.
Judy and I are both consumed by sari envy. The women’s clothes are bright and beautiful, whether saris or kameezes with a variety of pants styles. My favorites are orange and gold and the red one with blue six-pointed stars.
I would post pictures, but the wireless network is weak and barely able to carry data long enough to upload a text post, so the images will have to wait until later. I’m hoping for Internet access in Leh too, but I’m not sure of it.
Judy just saw a fist fight out our hotel window. We think it was a group of taxi drivers, definitely the combatants were both white-haired men. The man who was trying to make peace was considerably younger.
The taxis are little green and yellow vehicles powered by compressed natural gas. Buses use the same fuel. We are wondering how much more haze Delhi would have if it didn’t use this cleaner-burning fuel.
India is in the midst of an election. Voting takes place in different areas on different days and the results will come in while we are in Ladakh. Our guide Martin is happy that we will be in a remote area when people in Delhi find out about the results. He expects that we still won’t know what the government will look like because more than a handful of parties are running candidates and it’s likely that some of the victorious parties will have to form a coalition. We are watching “Election Alerts” on CNN-IBN as voting comes to a close in Bihar (I think). The election coverage is headlined “A Billion Votes,” but it seems to me that some of the billion Indians are children. The politicians all have harsh words for each other, or CNN-IBN is just picking the harsh parts. After they have all slammed each other it must be hard to come together in coalition.
Tomorrow we have to leave at 3:45 to get to the airport for our flight to Leh. It’s pretty early, but when one isn’t used to one’s current time zone, how much does that matter?
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1 comment:
Glad it went smoothly on the way in. I'm glad you included the bit about the apple juice. Excellent descriptions. Nothing beats typing it as you experience it. Very immediate. The comment "we are settling in," hit a nice note with me. Enjoy!
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