On Being a Westerner/White in India or Almost Famous

A group of guys at the Taj Mahal who wanted a photo for their social networking site

I have never experienced what it is like to be a minority until travelling here. Being a Westerner in this country is almost like being famous. I am amazed at how often people come up to us and ask to have their picture taken with us. A lot of people even try to take our picture surreptitiously. We get more than our fair share of stares as well. I have been riding in a cab or car and seen people in vehicles next to me pratically getting whiplash so they can look. I generally like to remain anonymous or unnoticed so this is hard sometimes.

A rather large group of guys and me. Where's Waldo?

Sometimes I am surprised at how quickly I am surrounded. In the photo above, Jon had walked in the opposite direction and I turned around to take a photo of a shrine and was quickly surrounded by all of these guys asking for a photo. They were a little overwhelming, but they liked that I asked to have them take a picture for me too. It is pretty forward for them to ask to take a photo with an unknown woman, but I will deal with that in a post on being a woman here. I always laugh when they take turns to have a photo with me and take turns using the sunglasses. Young men are more likely to ask us for a photo, but we have had families with kids who want to take pictures with us too.

A nice family that wanted to take a photo with us. The boy was a little unsure though.

Another random group of guys wanting a photo.

Kids taking a picture of me.

I have been trying to understand why we are so interesting to the people of this country. This country of more than a billion people does not have a big tourist industry. Only 2.5 million people come here every year to tour and a lot of the tourists are from other Asian countries. We are probably the first Westerners encountered by people from some of the smaller villages. I even notice other Westerners and we usually exchange a smile and nod.

Jon being surrounded by guys who want to take a photo with him.

I was surrounded by this group of guys who wanted a photo in this market in KodaiKanal.
It was one of those times when I felt overwhelmed so I called for Jon, who came and took a photo.

I think that money also has something to do with the curiosity people have about us. Most Westerners are perceived as having a lot of money. Whenever we go to buy something or take a tuk-tuk ride, the price quadruples. Most items in tourist markets are not marked which makes it easy for the seller to raise the price on Westerners. I have learned to walk away if I think the price is outrageous; it is amazing how quickly it comes down then. All of the paying museums and sites charge higher prices for foreigners. We generally do not have a problem with this since we can afford to pay more than the locals.

Another aspect is that Indians desire fair skin. There are numerous commercials advertising products to make one's skin fairer. Indians are such a handsome people that I find this hard to comprehend. Most of the famous actors, Amitabh Bachchan being the most famous, are lighter skinned. I am not sure that they are impressed with the paleness of our skin since we are probably too white and maybe even a little sickly looking to some.

A cute boy Jon met in a village who wanted a photo

While I think Indians may admire the wealth of Westerners and are curious about us, I do not think they admire us. When we strike up a conversation they most often ask if we speak Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or the local dialect. When we say no you can see them thinking, "poor fool." Also, I think they think Western women dress like peasants, which is true compared to the way Indian women dress.

A group of women who wanted a photo, a rarer event

Generally, Jon and I are accommodating and take pictures with people when they ask. If I see someone taking a photo on the sly, I will sometimes give an exaggerated smile or a thumbs up. We feel that since we are visitors and observers in this country, it is a fair exchange; however, sometimes it is overwhelming and I find myself looking for a quiet out of the way spot. When I go to the store there are thousands of people there, but I rarely see another Westerner. We stick out wherever we go and I have to accept that I will probably be attracting attention if I strike out. In this country of over a billion people, it is hard for a Westerner to be inconspicuous.

Ajanta and Ellora caves

 At Ajanta Caves

Ellora Caves with waterfall in the background

Over the weekend of August 12th, Jon and I traveled to Aurangabad, Maharashtra with Srikanth Kondaveti, Abe Dorr, Ravi Chandra, Rajanikanta Sahoo and Mehar Chaitanya to see the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. These guys were great company and gentlemen. I felt as though I was with brothers all weekend. They went out of their way to look after us and it was nice having "fixers" as Jon would say. If a hawker was too persistent, one of our Indian friends was usually able to dissuade them.

The Ajanta caves date from 200 B.C.E.  to 650 C.E. and are a World heritage site. There are 5 temples and 25 monasteries cut into the rock gorge. Use of the caves ended with the decline of Buddhism in India and they were lost until British hunters discovered them in the 19th century. The caves are in a beautiful setting which I tried to capture in the pictures above. This was probably the greenest and cleanest area of India that we have experienced so far.

In the early caves the Buddha was not represented as a man but as a symbol as a stupa as shown above. It is a rather large and uninteresting blob like structure.

The Ajanta caves are most famous for the paintings which are well preserved. Non-polluting buses take visitors to the cave site in order to preserve them. The paintings tell stories of Buddha. It is clear that these paintings must have been very bright and beautiful when new. I could understand how monks would feel like worshiping in a place like this.

My favorite part of the caves was the depictions of Buddha. In the last cave there was a giant sleeping Buddha which was really cool, as well as the sculpture above. This was a great place to visit and it is probably one of my favorite places in India now.

On Sunday we went to see the Ellora Caves with 34 caves dedicated to the Jain, Buddhist and Hindu religions. Although this is also a World Heritage site, the caves at Ajanta were better cared for since there was less trash and destruction. The view in some areas was nice with a waterfall, but not as spectacular as Ajanta. The cave above is a Hindu Temple which took 200 years to complete.

The most impressive thing about these caves was the sculptures. The sculptures were numerous and detailed. In the 3rd photo Jon is standing next to Siddhaika, the Goddess of generosity seated on a lion and under a mango tree. In the 4th photo he is next to Shiva-Parvati with Ravana trying to lift Mount Kailash.

We also went to the Daulatabad Fort. It was impressive, but I have seen enough forts so that I did not take as many pictures here. I did, however, get good shots of monkeys and even some bats.

We ended the day by going to see the Taj Mahal replica known as Bibi-Ka-Maqbara. Having seen the real thing, this was not impressive but interesting. I did not take a picture of it, I guess I was that unimpressed, or out of batteries.

The Weekend - Never a Dull Moment

On Friday night we went to a sports bar with about 15 of Jon's co-workers; in other words, I was out partying with 15 guys. We drank a few beers, bowled and the guys sang Karaoke to "Hotel California." Unfortunately, the video did not come out so I can't post it. Needless to say, it was awful. My bowling game was pretty good so I think I did a good job representing the female gender.

On  Sunday afternoon we went to Shilpa Raman which is an arts and craft village with rock sculptures gardens, waterfalls, and historical exhibits. Most of the rocks were in their natural state and were labelled according to what they resembled. There were many throughout the park that were sculptured into forms as well. People were lined up to take a ride in this ball. It looked like they were having fun, but the ride was very short; up and down the carpet once. I think we had more fun watching than the riders had riding.

There was a large group of adults who were playing what looked like a version of duck, duck, goose. The set up seemed complicated and the guy in red was directing it. There was a long pause between rounds. They were having a grand time and we watched them for a while.

There were several exhibits featuring mannequins in historical reenactments. What doesn't show up is the trash scattered around. Even in this park, which has the potential for being a very nice retreat, there is litter everywhere.

There were plenty of arts and crafts. Now I know where Pier One get its imports. There were many beautiful pieces, but a lot of it is too big for us to consider. Once again, we were hounded by the retailers as we walked through the market. I guess I should say I was hounded because they were mostly hollering "Madam, Madam, come look." This market is pretty accessible and I will be making another one or two trips back there alone. I have actually been given a directive by Jon to shop.

Delhi

Delhi was a nice change of pace for us. It felt more familiar than the other cities we visited. It still had pollution, tarp homes and crazy traffic, but it seemed more like a modern city. We went to an Italian restaurant run by an expatriate that had good food that was more authentic Italian than the Indian versions we have experienced. We spent very enjoyable afternoons with Chris and Laurie in a restaurant and club. Most of our time there was spent visiting various temples.

Our first stop was at the Lotus Temple. It was far more interesting on the outside than in. This is one of seven houses of worship in the world for the Baha'i religion. All Baha'i Houses of Worship are nine sided since nine is the highest digit and "symbolizes comprehensiveness, oneness and unity" according to Baha'i literature. I do like the principles of this faith especially equality of men and women, universal peace and compulsory education.

This is the India Gate which is a national war monument to World War I Indian solders who lost their lives in World War I and the Third Afghan War. We were very hot here and it wasn't really that interesting up close.

Because it was so hot in Delhi we tried to do activities that involved air conditioning. The national Museum seemed like a good idea, but there were only a couple of rooms that were cool. 

The museum had a lot of Indian artifacts and art, but the museum is in need of some upkeep. We were a little appalled to see that some of the stone artifacts were placed on pedestals that were painted and the bottoms of the artifacts had some paint on them. In the above picture Jon is standing in front of an exhibit which claims to contain some of Buddha's remains.

This temple was like going to a carnival funhouse. It is a 108 foot Hanuman statue next to the highway. The gods inside are very colorful and there are tunnels and a lot of rooms to explore. Jon and I had a puja blessing inside (for a fee of course). 

The last temple we visited was the Akshardham temple. We could not take pictures there but did take an interesting boat ride that was like Disneyland's "Its a Small World" ride. It provided riders with a little of India's history; however, I question some of the claims made.

Varanasi

A view of the Ganges from the train

Tarp dwellings next to the Ganges

A rice paddy with women working viewed from the train

We took an overnight train from Khajuraho to get to Varanasi. That was an experience since we were on the train for about 14 hours. The sleeping berths were 3 tall and 6 beds to a compartment. It proved to be a good way to see the countryside. It is amazing how people are present all along the countryside. Sometimes we would see a guy standing out in the middle of a field and wonder what he was doing there since he was obviously not working. The people seen working most often were the women. I saw many groups of women huddled in a circle, probably eating. The landscape was littered with litter, rice paddies and other crops such as sugar cane and corn, and slum dwellings.

Jon and I took a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise and sunset to see the worshipers going to the ghats to bath in the Ganges. The night was much busier since it was the beginning of another festival. After the ride in the morning, Jon and I took a walk through town near the ghats with our guide. We walked up to one of the two cremation sites where a couple of bodies were burning. Even at a place where one would think there is respect for the dead there were con artists. A couple of men approached us to ask for money to buy wood for the poor who came there to be cremated. We were suckered since it seemed like they were official. Our guide took us to the silk factory owned by his family after the tour. Indians are great entrepreneurs. They come up with many angles in order to sell things. I think our guide was pretty effective since we bought a few things and we liked him.

Hindus believe that to die in Varanasi means to end the cycle of rebirth and death, and bathing in the Ganges washes away sin. We saw people washing clothes, taking baths, filling containers of water, holy men sitting under umbrellas praying, tourists gawking (me included), a few sadhus (men who have renounced all of the pleasures of life to focus on spirituality), and people there for the festival dressed in orange. There are homes or hotels where old people come to die so they can be cremated and their remains put into the Ganges. Jon's Indian colleagues gave him a bit of a hard time saying that he was probably going to Varanasi for that reason.

Eega

Eega is a movie we went to see last night. It was in Telugu but we were able to understand most of it. It was very entertaining and well done. The basic story line was guy meets girl and falls in love. Bad guy also wanted the girl so he killed the good guy to get him out of the way. The good guy was reincarnated as a fly and he went after the bad guy. It was appropriately billed as the ultimate revenge story. Although there was violence, there wasn't anything sexually explicit. The couple in love never kissed and I am not sure that they even touched. The bad guy was naked at one point and he was covered with a blur so nothing showed, but it was done so that the audience could tell he was naked. There is another movie in Telugu coming out soon called Jism 2 (not kidding). It is billed as very sexually explicit, but I seriously doubt it would get a PG13 rating in the U.S. I think we might have to go see what that one is all about too.