India

We arrived in Bombay, India on Mary 27, 1970 at 1500 hours.

Bombay was renamed Mumbai in 1995. India is one of the largest countries in the world. Its population is only exceeded by China. Christopher Columbus discovered America while he was looking for a new route to India and the Far East. The name India comes from Sindhu, a name given to the river Indus. From Sindhu came the word Hind and Ind, meaning the land beyond the Indus. The people of India later became known as Hindus. There are about 845 different languages and major dialects. In our pre-port meeting aboard ship, it was difficult to grasp even how to say please and thank you because it varied so much depending on where you were going. We were going to be in India for 5 days only so we had to plan carefully what we needed to experience. I absolutely wanted to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, one of the 7 Wonders of the World. I had prepaid for a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

This is the Gateway of India. It has a central hall with great archways.

There are pillars everywhere with ornate carvings on them. They allow people to learn from them since illiteracy is so huge. Indians can tell the stories from their history from the carvings.

There’s a beautiful Children’s Park in Bombay, but poor children can’t go there.

Most Indians live in grass huts with thatched roofs. There’s no electricity or running water. You must share your space with lizards inside and iguanas outside.

Families ACTUALLY LIVED in this house!

This was something I liked!!! Laundry day and mostly done by MEN! My dad and my brothers would not know where to start!

Fort Agra – close by.

These are the stairs going up to the top of the hill where the city inside exists. It just looks like a huge hill.

Kailasa Temple in Elora

This town had oxcarts with wooden wheels. They didn’t even have metal ones. There were no cars at all. Somewhere I kicked a strange looking rock on the side of the road. When it rolled over, I saw there were amethyst. crystals sticking out of the purple inside. I picked it up and brought it back to the ship. It was about 10 - 12 inches high. I thought it would look pretty on a shelf at home.

We saw many more temples, ancient ruins and shrines, but they all start to look the same. They’re incredible, but so is the poverty!!! We saw many vendors on the sides of the road. You TRADE; you don’t use money of any sort. I bought a sitar for a partial roll of toilet paper and an old t-shirt. Indian music has a different scale than European music or American music, so it sounds very different. It’s inlaid with mother of pearl and very beautiful.

It’s time to get back on the S S Ryndam for the next stop.

We sailed from Bombay, India on April 1, 1970 at 1900 hours.

“When we’d disembarked in Bombay and started to walk around, I was overwhelmed by the extreme poverty.”

Over 1,000,000 people have no place to go so at night, they just lay down wherever they can and go to sleep. In the morning, a huge wooden wagon goes through the streets to pick up the dead. It’s usually 100 – 200 people. You can see the malnutrition of the people. At first, we thought these might all be “untouchables” but they’re not. Life expectancy in 1970 in India was 40 years.

We saw kids who were all diseased roaming in groups. We were advised not to let them touch us. At one point, I threw a handful of pennies at them, and they backed up to pick up the coins. It was awful!!!

This poor disabled child was considered a freak and they wanted money donated. It was horrifying to me. Can you imagine!!! It’s how these kids live and get money to eat.

This big shoe in the park reminded me of “There once was a woman, Who lived in a shoe, She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.”

Indian traders use elephants to get around with their goods.

In 1970 there were still five main castes in Hinduism.

Brahmin – priests

Kshastriyas – rulers

Vaisyas – shopkeepers

Sudras – farmers and laborers

Untouchables – most menial task laborers.

You cannot tell from looking at someone what caste they belong to. It reminded me not to ASSUME you know anything about somebody by what you see. You can’t “know” anything from their clothes, their possessions, the color of their skin, or anything superficial. Understanding – not judging – comes from learning beliefs, values, norms or rules of living, and assumptions of their culture. Culture is taught at an early age to all human beings.

The University students whom we met said they would take a group of us around Bombay. We had heard of a section of Bombay called the Cages. There were women there in CAGES – anywhere from 7 to 70 years old. For 25 cents, you could have your pick of VD!!! We were told NOT to get out of the car and NOT to open the car door!! We did not!!! These women live there always. If they have a child, the child is raised here.

Then it was time to hit the road and leave Bombay to see other parts of India.

We flew to Agra which is south of Delhi. Agra is the city of the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. We needed a place to stay that was safe and we wouldn’t get sick. Not me, nor anyone else, could afford a hotel. – about 30 flew together on the little plane.

SO…we chose one girl who went into a nice hotel (with a WESTERN bathroom) and reserved a room. She got her key. Slowly, but surely, 25 climbed outside stairs and snuck into her room for the night. We were VERY QUIET. We only whispered so no one would know we were all there. There was a double bed in the room. 4 people got it. 1 guy got the tub to sleep in. The rest of us, me included, were body to body on the floor. We turned off the lights and took down the drapes to cover up. No blankets for us. Believe it or not, we slept. In the morning, we rehung the drapes on the windows. There was actually a shower in the bathroom and ONE towel. I don’t remember how many kids, but MANY took a shower, and all used the same towel. We hung the soggy towel back on the rack, sort of made the bed, and in ones or twos snuck back out and down the outside stairs. The gal who’d booked the room checked out and paid for it, and off we went!!! We had all pitched in to pay for the cost of one hotel room and were proud that we didn’t get caught.

We went to a place by the Taj Mahal. I wanted to secure a cable to make a call home to my family for Easter. I was exactly half way around the globe from Minnesota. Sitting in a chair, I waited up all night to see if an opening would come for me to get a call through. I remember watching lizards on the wall. Bored to death! I did not get an open cable to make the call, but in the morning….it was off to actually see the Taj Mahal.

We wanted to be there at sunrise because we’d heard that the marble changed color as the sun came up. I wanted to see if that was true. IT IS!!!!

The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan who was a king at the Imperial Palace at the Red Fort, built 300 years ago.

The Taj Mahal is a monument of love that Mughal Emperor Shal Jahan gave to the world. He built it in 631 in memory of his third but most favorite wife, Muntaz Mahal, a Muslim Persian princess. She died after giving birth to their 13th child. The death so crushed the emperor that all his hair and beard were said to have grown snow white in a few months.

The rectangular base of the Taj is symbolic of the different sides from which to view a beautiful woman. The main gate represents a veil to her face which should be lifted carefully on the wedding night. The tomb is set against a plain across the river and this is what makes the colors of the marble change at different hours of the day and during different seasons. It’s pink in the morning, white in the evening, and gold when the moon shines on it. The Shah wanted to build a black Taj across the river for himself, but his son thought he was spending too much money, so he had him arrested and imprisoned until he died. It allowed his son to inherit the money that would have been spent.

One of the pillars at the Taj Mahal.

This is the Litle Taj in Aurangabad. It’s sure not the same!!!!!!!!

Off to Ajanta and Ellora – 3 kinds of caves: Buddhis, Jain, and Brahmin. There are 33 caves.

This was built in 2 BC to 7 AD. It’s hard to really grab on to that much history for me. This is one of the entrances to the Ajanta caves.

This is a ceiling design inside.

This is now Ellora caves build 4 – 12 A.D. You may think you’re looking at a hill with caves going in, but that’s not always the case. At the time, there was a decline in Buddhism. Monks needed to go into hiding. At the top of a normal looking hill is a city inside.

I am at the entrance,

Ellora goes down 3 stories. It’s an entire city built into the ground!!!

One of the pillars between the floors is an elephant carved out of stone.

This is Thuparama Dagba to enshrine Buddha’s collar bone.