India, Part 1

During the last half of March, Husband and I journeyed to India for a service project on behalf of my university.  I had been to India once before, as a child.  Here's a picture I've posted before on this blog, of my brother and me by one of the pools in the gardens of the Taj Mahal.

I remember India from that childhood trip as very hot, dusty, full of people, and somewhat threatening. Case in point:  note my baleful glare turned on the kids lurking behind us as my mother was snapping the picture.  I wanted them to stop staring at us and go away.  They did not.

I would still characterize India as hot, dusty and full of people. But I couldn't say that I felt threatened or stared at, at any time.  Perhaps the absence of staring is due to the fact that my formerly platinum blonde hair has gone an uninteresting muddy grey-brown.  Or perhaps it's because India has seen so many tourists and cameras pointed at them by now, that we "outsiders" are no longer an oddity.

This time it wasn't the Indians staring at us, but we were staring at them. And there is so much to see--color, beauty, architecture that wowed my adult eyes when it had not done so with my child's eyes, ever-changing landscape, and customs that were unfamiliar to us.

We spent the first day of our visit getting accustomed to a 180-degree twist in our time clocks.  It was the perfect time to pay a visit to the Taj Mahal, a five-hour drive from where we were situated in Delhi.  As we watched the locals visiting this amazing structure, we observed their custom when having their picture taken in front of the building, and decided to imitate them.  Here's Husband, doing what we saw the Indians doing.

Seriously, the Taj Mahal was stunning, much more heart-stoppingly beautiful and thrilling than when I was a child visiting there.  The structure seemed to float in mid-air against it's sky-blue background like a Persian palace in fairy tales.  Built by a Moghul ruler for his favorite wife, it's a symbol of love.  But even if I didn't know the story, I would stand in awe simply at the art and architecture of it.

Let me fall silent and let you look at some details of the building.  Be edified by the colors and designs, the amazing craftsmanship evident in the inlay, the flow of lines and shapes.