Day 8 - The Taj Mahal experience

After the wedding our little group separated for the second week. Three couples went to GOA to the summer residence of the Bantwal family, most of the others flew back home and I made my way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Preeti helped setting up my trip via the “Odyssey Tours & Travel” agency. They booked me two packages, a two day trip to Agra returning in Pune and a 3 day package from Pune to Aurangabad ending in Mumbai so I could fly home from there.

I woke up on time and made my way to the living room just in time for my scheduled 4:30 AM pick up. My flight was scheduled for 6:15 in the morning. I packed my smaller rucksack with little stuff for two days (mainly my camera) and waited in the living room for the driver to call me. There was no call as agreed. So I called the driver. The phone rang and then there were sounds of a phone falling and hitting ground. Emptiness. I called again 5 minutes later – this time the phone was answered and then the person on the other end hung up. I started to get nervous – the two days cost me about 250 Euros with the flight and the hotel and I had little hope to get any money back if I missed my flight. So I called again. The phone was switched off!!! I thought a little about my alternatives and ran out the door towards the city. As Pune started to wake up, I ran down to the big crossing and jumped at the first rickshaw I saw. “Can you take me to the airport please?” were the first words leaving my mouth on this chilly morning in Pune (the cursing in the living room didn’t count as the words didn’t actually leave my mouth …)

Now if there is one thing the rickshaw drivers can do, is ripping off tourists. And honestly I can’t blame the guy – I mean if you saw a hysterical tourist with a big backpack at 5 in the morning asking you to take him to the airport – would you take him there for the normal fare? I don’t think so. So he said, yes, sure. That will be 500 Rupees (about €10). I will never forget the road to the airport as I sat in the back of the rickshaw freezing in my Bermuda shorts and flip-flops. First I thought, thank god I will make my flight, but then the rickshaw driver started to follow signs opposite the ones pointing to the airport. I started mentally to prepare defending my life as he would stop at a dead-end asking for my earthy possessions when he suddenly stopped and asked some people on the side of the road - I couldn’t fully understand what he was talking about. Then he turned back and asked some more people. That is when I realized, he had no idea where the airport was!!! Oh, the luxury of Schwalbach, where you tell the Taxi to go to Procter & Gamble and they know where to go! Well, anyway – in the end we arrived at the airport just on time, I paid him the 500 Rupees and ran into the terminal.

Fyling King Fisher is the coolest thing on the world. They are a supposedly cheap airline – a bit similar to the Virgin Experience I assume as I never flew Virgin – you really feel like a King. They give you presents, you get a kind of console to play with, their staff is very nice too. It was fantastic to fly with them – especially after the Al Italia misery a week earlier. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy so I did not see anything interesting on the flight – maybe I was sleeping, I actually don’t remember.

We arrived on time in Delhi where I got picked up by my driver at the airport who would bring me to Agra. He was very nice and he had the coolest car in the world. Very comfy – Indias own Ambassador!

The trip from Delhi to Agra (200 kms) took in total around five and a half hours, the first two leaving Delhi. It was an experience on its own. Basically you could see any means of transport from bicycles to Jeeps, cows, people walking, buses, rickshaws turned over in an accident, self-made wooden cars held together only by dirt and magic. All in all it was a pretty adventurous drive with only one stop on the way, where my driver would drink a coffee and I was supposedly buy some stuff from a very cheap touristy place. Unfortunately for them I was prepared for this and didn’t buy anything. We actually almost had a frontal accident with a bus as my driver kind of didn’t really pay attention when overtaking a car.

We arrived in Agra shortly after one in the afternoon. I checked in at the hotel and arranged for my driver to pick me up an hour later. I showered, changed into some fresh clothes and we were on our way to the Taj Mahal!

I am not going to tell you the story of the Taj Mahal, because I cannot tell it as well as on Wikipedia – but the short version would be something like this: Akbar built it to commemorate his third wife when she died, as he loved symmetry, he built the whole thing absolutely symmetrical. There were even two Moshees – one of them of course a mock one as they all have to face east. Again, check Wikipedia for the full story.

Having experienced India for over a week I should have been prepared for what was to come, but Preeti, Paritosh and Sujal were such nice guides, that the whole thing only hit me here. I was a tourist on my own and somehow I got the feeling that there was a big sign over my head (slightly on the left, yellow with a thick black line at the edge with big flashlights in form of a big arrow pointing down towards me) that said “Tourist = Idiot = please milk me = I have money”.

So my driver supposedly told me that the Taj is actually not in a good shape. All the dirt and pollution in the area is starting to affect it so they introduced a new rule, that no cars shall get close enough to it. So we will have to take the last couple of hundred meters by rickshaw (not the motored one). According to him this was an absolute necessity, not possible to walk as it is too far. Ok, so we get out of the car, my guide comes over, introduces himself and brings me to the rickshaws. One of the rickshaw guys comes over and they do the secret handshake. He takes 150 Rupees off me and off we go. I am thinking – he will carry the two of us for such a long ride, this will be interesting. Then the road is over after 150 meters. 150 meters for 150 Rupees!!! You can do the math – but my best guess would be that this was the most expensive part of my travels. So as you can imagine the trust level climbed to a record high between my guide and myself at this point …

Anyway – entry to the Taj was 750 Rupees including a bottle of water – my guide started telling me the story of the Taj and we entered. He told me I would need an hour and then we should meet at the entrance but I told him that there is no way I will be out of this place in an hour so I told him to meet me three hours later. So I went inside the place.

It was truly a sight. I can honestly say that you feel the history of that place. It has an extremely large garden and the buildings are really all symmetrical. You see people from everywhere on earth – Indians, non-Indians, families, lonely tourists like myself, etc. The stupid thing was, that after a fantastic week with friends this was the first time that I was really on my own and so I got into a kind of melancholic mood. The Taj Mahal is one of those places that you need to share with someone, don’t visit it on your own if you can!

This was my very first photo of the place – really nothing compared to the rest, but at the time I felt I had to keep pushing the bottoms like crazy.

This is the main entrance into the gardens. You can see the white marble building in the centre already.

One more picture before entering

Here we are – POSTCARD ALARM!!!

But wait – can it be that the sign over my head is gone? I don’t think so – and so almost immediately after burning away 10 shots on my digital card I am being approached by a professional photographer (secret handshake and all) who offers to take 20 photos of me for a measly 1400 rupees. Development included! I tell him that makes no sense – he should use my camera instead as it is digital and that I will give him 200 – he says, not to worry about the price. He is smiling, I trust him. I give him my camera and here we go ...

Looking back I can’t believe that I did that – but it sure was fun. He directed me to go to all the places, do this, do that, lay down, stand up, smile. I felt like some supermodel – too bad I am not one. Here is my favourite photo – I guess I could have a lot of success with this one on an Indian matchmaking website. I would call it “me and my garden”. Shame on me!!!

So after my 15 photos of fame I wanted my camera back. Of course he would not give it back to me without me paying 1400 rupees!!! I mean he had no costs whatsoever; he used my camera, my SD card, no development needed, and so on, so why should I pay him so much money for 15 minutes of work? Well, because he would smash my camera if I didn’t. After a short heated discussion and an exchange of 700 rupees I got my camera back and was still in a kind of good mood when I made my way towards to the center of the garden.

I spent the next two hours walking around, inside the gardens and looking at the buildings including the main tomb of course. The Taj Mahal is actually situated next to a river – it must be quite a sight from the other side, wich I didn’t go to this time (mental note – do it next time!!!). Also next time I would like to come here with someone and possibly experience it at a full moon during the night. It must be quite a sight they say.

Click the picture above to see all my photos of the Taj Mahal.

Three hours later I met my guide, we WALKED back – passing the rickshaw drivers and I could see a little anger in the eye of my guide. I guess the arrow over my head was fading away…

After the Taj Mahal we went to an internet place – of course not the one I chose from the Lonely Planet of course as my driver couldn’t find it, but – surprise!!! – He knew a much better one where he knew the owner. It was not the cheapest internet station in India but it was the first time I had access to my email and so I was actually pretty happy about it. I checked Slashdot and the usual gossip websites and I went back to the hotel. I slept like a baby.

Here are all the photos of this day.

Day 7 - The Wedding Ceremony

The final day arrived and we had to get out of bed pretty early - which was not ver easy after the night before. But we mastered it well - as you can see on this picture - this is how we arrived at the scene of the wedding.

How embarrassing - Estelle and Nat wearing the same designer dress. Thank god the Cosmo people were not around, otherwise this would have made the news. Anyway, after a short posing session on the red carpet for the local press and camels the guys headed down to the tent to get the turbans attached to our hot heads. Actually now that the whole thing is over, I can tell a little secret. Basically the turban not only looked cool but it contained a miniature cooling device so that the felt temperature sank below the official 35 degrees to a mere 34.9 degrees of Celsius.

This is how the turban looked like a the locals - here is a pic of some guy with a cute little boy that got a lot of attention not only from the girls of Europe but I guess also from some of the matchmakers I guess.

Here is Paritosh's cousin Niranjan wearing a turban groovy style. He would loose it later in the fight for the shoes ...

Now that you saw how the locals looked with the turbans, here is an impression of Christian, Eugenio and myself trying to look cool with the turbans - I think you all agree with me that we failed miserably. I for myself will not try to pose with a rose ever again - I don't see how this can look anything but gay...

At least the girls looked good. Preeti wearing the family jewels, Blanca, Estelle and Simone the beaming trophies of their endless hours spent shopping in the city the days before...

The prince - I mean Paritosh - in the meantime was put on a horse and rode to the wedding carpet. There is a nice tradition around the arrival of the groom to the wedding ceremony. In older times the family of the groom would travel from far away to the wedding, so in modern times this is represented by the groom sitting on a horse and riding towards the entry of the main hall of the ceremony. It was basically a 100 meter ride, where people danced around the white horse with Paritosh, surrounded by some local musicians and everybody that felt like dancing.

Here is a nice shot from inside the tent when Paritosh arrives at the end of his long and tiring travel on the white horse. The carpet was made entirely of flowers!

He was lifted from the horse (well, you don't want any grooms flying off the horse at a wedding) and then we waited for Kasturi to arrive. She arrived with her friends supporting her, protecting her from the sunlight. She looked very beautiful. A WOW went through the people waiting when she appeared. That is her father in next to her by the way.

They were standing there for a while and then made their way into the shades in the tent. Kasturi and Paritosh made their way into the middle of the tent and a cloth was held between them.

At this point Paritosh had to take off his shoes, which were given to Niranjan to protect with this life. The shoes are an important part of the wedding. We were told that there is a small game going on between the groom's and the bride's friends. The friends of the bride need to take the shoes of the groom from the friends. Should they succeed to get the shoes, they can demand anything after the ceremony and the married couple has to give them whatever they demand.

And so, needless to say, a fight broke out for the shoes that got everybody's attention and only when some of the elderly folks told us (yes, Eugenio and myself also rushed to fight) to stop it because we disturbed the wedding, did the fight stop. That was the moment, when the friends of Kasturi snapped the shoes in the end. Bastards!

Kasturi looked at us for the first time on this day. She looks very beautiful on this photo - her smile even nicer when you consider the 9 kilos of Sari and jewelry she was wearing. Especially that thing pinched in her nose must have hurt I guess. These are the moments I am glad I am not a woman ...

I wonder what Blanca was thinking during these moments. Something along the line of "I am sooooo going to get married next year" probably. We will never know ...

After the cloth separating Kasturi and Paritosh was there no more, they sat down for a while and people went to take some pictures of them before the ceremony commenced on the stage.

I am not exactly sure about what exactly happened next but I remember being told by an old friend of Paritosh's that this was the saying goodbye to Kasturi from her friends and family and welcoming them as a couple ceremony. The stage was filled with Kasturis friends and family on one side, and some of us on the other side. This involved some strings around all the people on stage.

You can see that Kasturis sister Amruta is not very happy on this picture. Some of the friends were fighting with their tears actually. In older times this was a real saying goodbye for the bride's family as she moved in with her new family right after the wedding - sometimes on the opposite side of the country.

After several more or less short ceremonies which involved family members, fruits, spices, rice, fire and some water Kasturi and Paritosh made their way around the fire seven times and the wedding was official. The below photo was shot during their 4. round - as you can see, Kasturi has overtaken Paritosh, who was leading the first three rounds. Actually there is a nice story behind this tradition, as every round corresponds to a phase of life. The first three are lead by the groom, the later by the bride. There you go - we knew it all along, didn't we?

Here is a photo taken after the seven rounds - everybody is happy now that the tiring ceremony is over - I guess Kasturi's friends are happy about the enormous amounts of money they are going to get for the dirty shoes of Paritosh ...

Shortly after the wedding we all went home to relax and get out of the traditional clothing. In the evening there was a final reception, with the now married couple on stage and everybody congratulating them. For me this was the last evening with everybody in Pune as the next morning at 5 AM I would be picked up by a Taxi to fly to Delhi and spend the second week alone as a tourist. Thanks everybody for all the fun and all the things we experienced during this very short but very enriching week!

Click here for all the pics shot during this day ...

Day 6 - twenty minutes - pfff!

On Saturday we split up into a sophisticated India – lovers part who signed up for a city tour of Pune and a hippie part who wanted to see the Osha Ashram - a modern meditation centre using rather exotic methods of meditation.

Needless to say I signed up for the tourist tour of Pune city together with Blanca, Simone and Estelle. Preeti dropped us at the air-conditioned (ha!) bus in the morning where we got onboarded in perfect Hindu.

Our tour guide was very funny. He got his first laughs when he told us the tour would include 20 sites on one day. Unfortunately this was not a joke as it turned out. The bus started, stopped, he said a couple of words like “Indians 10 rupees - foreigners 200 rupees - 10 minutes – no” and similar phrases, jumped off the bus and ran away. Ten minutes later you could hear him blowing his little whistle at the bus door. He had my complete sympathies – there was no way we could have managed the 20 sites in one day without a whistle or a whiplash. So I guess we should be happy he had only a whistle …

Anyway – we started at a museum of a local superhero who saved 1000s of babies and did other exciting things that we did not have the time to read due to our beloved whistle-mastering tourists guide … Here is a photo of him (I mean the local hero, not the guide) – if you know who he was, please leave a comment!



We saw the Shaniwarwada – the Pune castle where it is forbidden to wash your clothes (read the rules!!!!)



We saw one more of those “Sun Shoppe” posters in town



Blanca gave 5 to a marble figure in the local heritage museum – yes, photography was not allowed, but we didn’t “realize” until they warned us ...



We visited a monument commemorating a big fire where locals burned their clothes from the English (similar to the one in the Ghandi movie).



We climbed the stairs to a temple near Paritosh’s place where he used to run up and down once per day in the morning, he told us. No wonder he is in shape!



Further on the list were an animal farm, some more temples and a local restaurant where we had lunch – this time we stuck to rule number one: do not drink water that is not coming out of a bottle.

A visit to the black pyramids of the Osho Ashram was supposedly part of the tour. However visiting times are only between 14:00 and 15:30 so we were getting nervous at around 15:00 and talked to our hasty tour guide. He explained that we would only see it from outside the park anyway – which came to us as an utter shock. We skipped the snake farm and went back home as the girls had a hairdresser appointment. Here is a picture of the loser team of our little rickshaw race home. Team Estelle and Gabor won by an inch against Team Blanca and Simone! Speed does matter!



Anyway – we ended up at a coffee place on FC road. Due to the power outage the only cold drink was some kind of ice coffee – was very yummy! Especially with this beautiful waitress popping out miraculously from the air-conditioning machine.



Cooling down to a comforting 36.5 C° we went back home to prepare for a big party for Paritosh’s nephew in the evening. Here is a group photo of us meeting there. Paritosh told us he did not want to steal the show of his nephew so he would dress in non-traditional less flashy clothes (means no gold basically)



We also met some ex-colleagues / friends of Paritosh.



On this picture you can see Paritoshs brother, his wife and the main attraction of the evening – the little one (Unfortunately I forgot the name). Paritoshs brother lives in the US with his family and I bet he was secretly working for some fashion magazine by the looks of this clothes. He was wearing the coolest clothing of all the guys during the many events.



The evening went on with some cool food, a lot of chatting, children – lifting, candy giving and gossiping.



After the reception we met up with Sujal and went to the "SCREAM - The Club Le Meriden" to check out the posh scene of the city. I found this description of the place on the net:

Nearly 35 to 40 couples can dance on the tune of DJ Zubeer on the dance floor. Stags are not allowed in the club where as ladies have free entry. Happy hours are from 9.00 pm to 10.30 pm where if you buy a bottle of Indian beer you get the other free. Saturday & Wednesday are the most happening days of the week. During the off day commercial parties can also be arranged if you like to do so. The rates are very reasonable inside the bar.

It was a really nice place - the stags that were not allowed in were waiting at the entry and asking our single ladies to join up so they could enter anyway. We said no and went in - it felt quite strange actually. Once itside, they were playing the coolest bollywood music - there was the famous Jhalak Dikhlaja among others. And the hands were in the air and it was a big happy disco.

We went to bed very late this evening.

Day 5 – showtime!

The girls left early to get their hands dirty – with henna!!!! Christian and I went to the city to shop for a cool outfit for him so he didn’t have to go naked to the wedding. Needless to say, Christian found something fitting in the first shop we went to – as it had to be slightly changed, we got half an hour to spend in the area while they promised to do all necessary changes. We have revisited the market place near Laxmi road – which was an island of calmness at this hour. If someone asked me for the most spiritual place in Pune, I would certainly send them here – although this was not spiritual in the sense of a temple; still it oozed calmness nowhere present in the area.



Having only bought 2.75 GB of Memory capacity with me for my camera for two weeks was not a good plan. After 5 days my 256MB memory card started to get more valuable for me than information about my name and profession to any street merchant in Pune. You think, Laxmi road would be a good place to buy any electronic equipment? Think again!!! Christian and I gave up the hunt for more memory pretty quickly at the sight of one clothes shop after the other.

We met the girls at home after their henna session – especially Blanca was excited due to the fact that she got diagnosed a very fertile woman using a deeply scientific Indian method. Go Blanca Go!!!



Here you see us fully dressed for the big night out – the night where we would perform our dance routine and would become famous for all eternity. This picture was taken at the gates of the venue – we just bumped into Preetis family. Notice the coolness factor on Mr. Bantwals face – well maybe there was a llama walking by behind me:



Needless to say, I lost myself amongst all the colours, the scent of spices and people of immense beauty and fame and went off hunting for the picture of the day. After some mingling with Bollywood personalities like Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta it was time for the happy couple to come out of hiding and present themselves to the people (and the paparazzi)! Kasturi made a stylish entrance accompanied by her mum and dad, who is extremely fond of dancing. All night long whenever there was even a hint of music he would take off his jacket and dance. By the way, rumour says Kasturi was wearing a Sari and jewellery of about 5 kilos.



After the arrival of Paritosh, they sat down and let the paparazzi photo orgy take place. Paritosh sowed us how to wear those weird trousers that came with our Kurtas. Eugenio and I called them the MC Hammer trousers for obvious reasons …



In the meantime somebody took my seat but was not really happy about it by the looks on his face. Anyway, here is a nice picture of father and daughter.



Drum roll – let the show begin! As a starter a picture was painted while some music was played. This was to capture the atmosphere of the evening. The painting was given to Kasturi and Paritosh later on so they can always remember this event.



Afterwards there was a dance performance by a traditional north India performer. If you move your head quickly from the left to the right and back you can see her dance ...



The highlight of the evening followed – the life of Kasturi and Paritosh performed by the sister of Kasturi (Amruta) and her friends. An amazing performance that set the dancing standards pretty high just before our sensational dance performance. We went backstage for a final practice and so missed Kasturi’s dance for Paritosh. Luckily Thorsten took some pictures with my camera.



Finally it was our turn. Let’s just say that it was worse than we thought and still the people loved it. So in the end we were happy.



Afterwards Kasturis German friends hijacked the ceremony and showed some traditional German wedding games for the next 5 hours.



After the playful part a kind of spiritual leader popped out of thin air and was lead to the stage by Kasturis mother. I can only guess that he emphasised the seriousness of a lifelong connection between the love birds as he did not get any laughs. He had an impressive charisma though from where I was standing.



This concluded the show on the stage and it was time to fill our boots with some serious Indian food while the crowd kept dancing. Did I mention Kasturis dad likes to dance? I did? Oh, what the heck? You can see him in the middle of this photo – slightly out of focus because of the speed of the dance …



Here is a photo of a classic beauty and her Prince of Persia. He seems to be very happy ;-)



This is what happens when you trust your camera with someone else so you can be on the group photo. Well, at least I am on the photo – unlike Blancas left hand …



Talking about hands – notice the fine henna on Kasturis arm? Paritoshs name is hidden in it letter by letter. It is tradition that during the wedding night He has to look for his name on her arms. I can tell you this sounds easier than it is.



Here are some pics of Day 5 – where I managed to shoot an immense number of pictures thereby forcing myself to buying more memory the next day ...