BACK HOME IN TIME FOR SNOW…

Arriving home and settling back into a routine – going to the office at 3:30 in the morning and then to the gym at 5:00, checking Emails and answering them, then Voicemails at the office, reviewing old files, checking on offers, etc., making sure I attended my Rotary Club meeting, getting to church and then – oh, did I forget? – snow!  Did I say SNOW?  Holy cow! 

Since we returned from India, I believe we have had three snow storms, two of which were considered and termed “severe”.  Well, that was until yesterday.  We were warned this might be the STORM OF THE CENTURY!  Rather than originating on the southeast coast and working its way up to New England, THIS storm began in Denver and slammed across the country, cutting a wide swath through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and finally to Maine.  Since I had an appointment in Boston with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration scheduled for Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. and since the storm was forecast to paralyze northern New England, I decided to drive to Boston Tuesday (yesterday) afternoon, spend the night at a hotel nearby the airport, so I could have plenty of time, driving in daylight, to the airport this morning. 

Getting to the hotel should have taken about an hour and a quarter.  Rather, I was on the road for about two and a half hours.  I did not even bother to go out for dinner, but settled for a protein bar and went to bed early.  Waking up, I checked out the window to see the plow trucks had been working throughout the night to keep the parking lots cleared.  I showered, dressed, checked out and grabbed a continental breakfast before leaving for the airport.  Heading north before heading south I realized this was going to be an adventure and a challenge. 

In a half-mile, I realized that I was one of the fifty stalwarts (or total idiots) prepared to challenge Route 1, the Revere ROTARY, and the access ramps to Logan Airport.  Falling in behind a fan of plow trucks, and seeing essentially the same level of snow after each truck passed over the slush, I wondered out loud to myself, “why did you leave Maine, where they really KNOW how to plow snow?”  With an appointment scheduled for 9:00, I arrived at the parking garage well before 8:00. However, my stress level was way down.

Working my way through the maze of moving walkways and corridors and down escalators and entering the Arrival Hall at Terminal E, I had plenty of time to sit down, review my paperwork before meeting the agent(s) from Immigration.  Although the sign on the door suggested “Ring the bell once, and then sit down”, I decided I would not alert the agents behind the security door of my early arrival, so I just sat and read a magazine.  About ten minutes before my scheduled appointment, the door opened and an agent asked if i was there for an appointment.  I said I was and he invited me into the office.

While there, Agent Guilbert reviewed my application, my passport, my driver’s license, and other documents he had on his computer screen.  He then took a photo of me, and asked me to step up to a “print reader” for me to store my finger prints from both hands into the system.  After a few more questions, and a training session as to how to use my new Global Entry status, I headed out the door, back to the garage to begin my journey home.  By now, it was 36 degrees, and raining.  Just what I wanted!

After traveling about four miles, I felt this might be easier than I had anticipated.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Massachusetts was slushy, raining, but my windshield was clear.  There were sections of the Massachusetts roadways that slowed to a near stop – again with the fanned out plow trucks – this time twelve of them. Who knew?

New Hampshire was another story.  Rain changed to sleep. Temperature dropped from 36 to 20 and the gauntlet had been tossed down for me to pick up or to just cave in and stop at the closest motel and wait until tomorrow.  Wait?  Are you kidding?  I am from Maine!  Onward and upward! Tally ho!  And all that rot!  Not sure if I was truly prepared for careening down the highway at mach speed of fifteen miles an hour!  With warning lights flashing, and wipers caking up with gobs of ice, I just needed to get far enough into New Hampshire so I could find a safe place to stop to clear my windshield.  In the meanwhile, those who may have been familiar with the hymn, Immortal, Invisible were literally flying by me at 50-60 miles an hour, leaving a cloud of snow drifting behind them.  They had also re-penned the lyrics to Immortal, Invincible. What, are they crazy? Are they out of their minds?  And to top it all off, it appeared the Department of Transportation in New Hampshire had overslept or called in for a sick day.  There were ruts of icy snow at least a foot deep.  This was NOT the day to be on the road. Thankfully, the New Hampshire Liquor Store exit was only two miles further, and at least I could stop there and clear my windshield.  I exited behind a pick-up truck that dropped its blade, and one truck followed me.  Well, I guess the plow truck drivers had not slept in – they had all gathered at the parking lot of the liquor store – at least fifteen of them!  Guess the drivers saw no reason to clear the roads!  The driver of the truck that exited behind me expressed his concern and disgust, about the road Today was no exception.  The rain had changed to sleet and then to slush and then to snow. I drove onto the Maine Turnpike, entered into the Information rest stop, cleaned off my windshield and then re-entered the turnpike.  The air WAS different and the snow had stopped.  The final leg of the trip was so much easier than the first two.  After three hours, I made it home, put the car in the garage and enjoyed watching the new snow storm blanketing our deck and porch and was comforted to hear the automatic generator start, right on time, at 3:43.  All’s right with the world!

EYE OF THE TIGER

On Wednesday afternoon, following lunch at Tiger Moon Resort in Ranthambhore, we signed up for a visit and tour of Ranthambhore Fort - the second largest and probably the oldest fort in all of Rajasthan. Our guide was to have been Omi, but he had been engaged by another party, so we met Bharat. We boarded our Gypsie (open Jeep) and proceeded into the park. After passing through a security gate, we then drove to the entrance to the fort. We were told by Bharat that we had to climb "only two hundred steps" but they would be easy, because it was a step and then a bit of a walk and then another step and a bit of a walk. Since Heather had injured her left ankle in Jaipur the afternoon before, we were concerned about stressing the ankle too much, but Bharat insisted this would be no problem. (After all, it was not HIS ankle!)

We entered the beginning of the twenty-story walk, and started our ascent. Along the way were several university art students, who were perched on the walls or steps, and sitting along the walk, sketching in pencil, pastels, pen and ink, or even painting in acrylics and watercolors. They were quite accomplished and it was interesting to see the various interpretations of of the artists. We continued to climb, pausing occasionally to take photos of the surrounding landscapes or simply to give Heather a chance to rest her ankle. We passed by a number of Muslim entombments, where past rulers had been buried.

After climbing well over two hundred steps, Heather decided to sit down and rest her ankle, while J.,T. and I proceeded on with Bharat to the Ganesha Temple, located all the way at the top of the mountain. We trudged onward, like hundreds of natives who were making a daily, weekly, monthly or even an annual pilgrimage to the temple. Bharat explained that the day was considered god's day, and today, we pay special tribute to Lord Ganesha (the elephant god) because it is Wednesday." As we drew nearer to the temple, we noticed more and more black-faced monkeys, who were interested in the passers-by, and even accosted one of the ladies walking along and stole her bag of food and ran away with it! We both stayed pretty close to Bharat, and J.T. even mentioned we might have been better off if he had brought along a monkey stick to keep them away.

When we arrived at the temple, Bharat asked if we wanted to go inside and we said we did. I wanted to show J.T. how the Hindus worship their various gods, and also was hoping to receive a blessing from the priest. After removing our shoes and socks, we moved forward to the front of the queue and the priest placed a tikka on each of our foreheads. We moved along with others toward the exit and just before leaving we received another blessing and a second tikka from a second priest. When we left the temple, we put on our socks and shoes and then walked along to find Bharat. He asked if we wanted to feed the monkeys and when we said we did, he purchased a small bag of seeds and corn. J.T. and I both took some of the seeds and corn and held our hands down so the monkeys could come take some food from our hands. Just then, a big male monkey, BOSS MONKEY, actually ran up to Bharat and grabbed the whole bag of food from his hand and ran off with it!
There was no way we could retrieve the bag, so we just let him keep it.

We walked back to where Heather had been waiting, where she was watching several of the art students who were painting various scenes of the fort. We then moved on to the top gate where we began our descent. J.T. decided he was going to count the number of steps we had actually climbed. We took it slow and easy and counted two hundred steps, just between the upper and lower gates. This did not include about another hundred steps before we had reached the upper gate or from the lower gate down to the parking area. Although Bharat had not actually lied to us, he had not told us the whole truth. Once at the bottom and in the parking area, we boarded our Gypsie again and proceeded to take our leave of the park.

About halfway out of the park, our driver really sped up our Gypsie and I turned to Heather and told her, there had been a tiger spotting and to hold on to her seat and to J.T. We caught up to the other Gypsies and larger open trucks, where they were stopped, and nearly slammed into the back of one of the parked Gypsies. How all of this commotion was not going to disturb the tiger was beyond me. All passengers in all vehicles were on their feet and peering forward or pushing sideways in order to get a glimpse of this majestic feline, and majestic he was! He stood at one point and turned to face the other direction, but still with his head pointing toward our location. We learned later on, that this tiger was known as T-24. Heather asked how they knew which tiger had been seen - "Do they wear little tags around their necks, or what?" Our guide told us they are familiar with each of the forty tigers in this part of the preserve, and could recognize the jaw line from quite a distance. According to the guide, it was very special to see T-24, because he was to have been pairing with T-39 and evidently had experienced no success. A quick thought - with thousands of people screeching up in Gypsies and trucks and talking and taking photos of you, why would you possibly have any difficulties performing your husbandly duties???

We finally moved on and returned to the resort, where we fell sound asleep in our cabin - guess with all of the excitement, as well as climbing the mountain to the fort and then on to the temple, we really needed a good rest. After our nap, we wandered over to the dining building and had a bit of dinner and then went back to our cabin for the night. We really needed a good, long, uninterrupted sleep! I remember falling asleep humming the tune and remembering some of the lyrics to the theme song of ROCKY - The Eye of the Tiger...

TUESDAY - ELEPHANT DAY

After leaving the Taj Mahal and the city of Agra behind us, we proceeded to drive to Jaipur (the Pink City). About two hours along in the journey, we stopped at the Midway Hotel and Restaurant to enjoy some lunch, as well as to do some shopping in the adjacent gift shop, owned and operated by a jolly gentleman, Jagdish prasad Dhanetwal. I had met this man some ten years ago, on my first trip to India, and each successive year, when traveling between Agra and Jaipur, we have made it a point to stop here. He recognized me, and I was pleased to introduce him to Heather and J.T. Following a wonderful lunch outside in the garden and sitting in the warm sun (of which if you have no realized up until now, we had seen precious little) we returned to the shop, where J.T. was able to purchase a small gift for each of his classmates, as well as his two teachers.

We then departed for the remainder of our journey to Jaipur. We arrived at another shop, Anil Carpet and Textile Factory, and then were taken to our hotel - a Heritage Hotel, called Bissau Palace. The unbelievable fresco paintings on the walls and ceiling of our rooms and the accompanying antique furniture, made for a most pleasant stay.

Bright and early on Tuesday morning, we woke, dressed and ate breakfast and then met a new guide, who would show us the sites of the city. His name was Sabir. He first took us to Hawa Mahal - the palace of the winds, which is one of the three or four principal attractions in Jaipur. Basically, it is a facade of beautiful lattice-type work, behind which the Maharani and her women friends could remain hidden, but still view the various celebrations and parades which would occur from time to time.

We then went to Amber Fort, which was constructed centuries ago, on the top of the mountain, and maintained as a fortress and palace. The most exciting part of this attraction was the fact we were to ride elephants to travel up the mountain! J. T. had been given a Rajasthani turban by Sudhir - one of the owners of Anil Factory, and he enjoyed wearing it, as we rode up the mountain on the elephant! Many people saw him and commented on the fact that Heather and I were privileged to be riding with a Maharajah! When we reached the main courtyard and ceremonial plaza, we came down from our elephant, and met with Sabir, who began to explain the many aspects of this fort. We stopped and took lots of photos at various places within Amber Fort, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun, once again. We were pleased to see the amazing craftsmanship exhibited throughout the fort, especially the work in sandstone, as well as the beautiful fresco paintings we saw at nearly every turn. One particularly beautiful entrance gate was called Ganesha Gate and the painting at that location was really spectacular. We had our photo taken standing in an alcove, just to one side of the principal gate.

While we were standing in front of the "hall of mirrors", I thought I recognized a woman's voice. In turning to our guide, I asked him if he knew the name of the guide who was working with another couple. He said her name was Sunita. That rang a bell in my memory, and I called to her. She turned around and I called out her name, as she called out mine! The last time I saw Sunita was when she served as our guide in 2008! It was wonderful to see her again, after all these years. We also entered the Hindu temple at the fort, and received blessings and garlands from the priests inside. J.T. and Heather have both noticed how wonderfully welcoming and friendly all of the people have been toward us.

Following our visit to Amber Fort, we then departed for the City Palace, where the present Maharajah and his family still reside. There are several museums inside the City Palace, but the two favorite ones for Heather and J.T. were the textile museum and the weapons museum - bet you can guess which one held the most interest for J.T.! After lunch and a hotel called the Taj Palace, we visited another attraction - one of the world's largest astrological parks, filled with various sundials of various shapes and sizes, and which boast an accuracy of about two seconds! Very impressive.

Late in the afternoon, while doing some shopping, Heather fell into a ditch and twisted her ankle very severely, and we searched for about three quarters of an hour for ice, so she could pack her ankle and hopefully reduce the swelling. We returned to our hotel, and took some rest. That evening, since Heather felt a lot better (it may have been the ice) we ventured out to dinner at a local attraction for dinner and visiting dozens of displays from many artisans throughout all of Rajasthan. We returned to our rooms to totally crash for the evening.

Next morning, we were to leave for Ranthambhore and Tiger Moon Resort.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW???

To say that getting to Agra was a challenge, with Rakesh hardly able to see the road, would be an understatement. To say that we could see much more than the outline of the Taj Mahal, upon entering through the west gate of the outer wall, would be gross exaggeration. Fog has been a huge problem in India during the past several weeks, due primarily to the devastating cold which has enveloped the northern half of the country. Actually, school has been cancelled for several days in many different cities, due to the freezing temperatures. As you know from previous postings, we truly suffered from the extraordinary cold during the wedding celebrations, since two of the three primary events were held outside.
When we entered through the West Gate, Sameer, Heather, J.T. and I all had to go through scanning devices and if any one of us had been carrying any items which could be termed a weapon, or even a water bottle (other than those provided to us when we purchased our tickets) we would have been forced to dispose of them right then and there. From the entrance area, we then proceeded to the area just in front of the entrance to the garden, where a professional photographer sold us on the idea of taking some forty different poses of us. We agreed primarily due to the fact we felt he might be able to enhance the photos, so the end result would actually SHOW the Taj. As you can see from the previous posting, you really have to squint and use your imagination to see the Taj. I can testify, we were actually there, although it does not appear to be so.
Sameer took us through a walking tour of the various formal gardens and then over to the right side of the Taj, where we sat for a while, and looked up at the magnificent tribute Shah Jahan had built in memory of his second wife, Mum Taz. She was really his true love, and after having given birth to fourteen children, she died. He was devastated by this loss and in response to a dying wish and request from Mum Taz, he hired architects and builders and stone masons and painters and those who worked in mosaic, and after twenty-two years, this jewel in the crown of Wonders of the World, was completed.
Many people feel the Taj Mahal is a palace, but in fact, it is a Muslim tomb, both for Mum Taz, as well as Shah Jahan. On the left side of the major building, there is a mosque constructed. On the opposite side, in order to maintain symmetry, an identical building was constructed, but only served as a "guest house" when the military dignitaries of the Britishers came to visit. On the outside of the Taj Mahal, there are four identical minars - or towers, which stand at each corner of the raised platform. Symbolically, these would be used as the place where imams would call the devout to prayer. Each of them is in perfect symmetrical proportion, and furthermore, they are constructed to be just barely tilted away from the main structure. This is so that in the event of an earthquake or other disaster that would cause them to fall, they would not damage the main structure, but fall away from it. The thought and the precision of this magnificent monument is really almost beyond comprehension. It is further believed that Shah Jahan mourned his beloved Mum Taz to such a degree, that while sitting on the opposite side of the Yamuna River from the Taj, he saw the reflection of the Taj in the water and it appeared black, and he considered building an identical "negative" of the Taj, using black marble. This was never to be, due to his being imprisoned by his own children for the remainder of his life.
When we left the Taj, J.T. backed out through the gate, in order to keep the image of this place foremost in his memory.

AGRA ON A MONDAY

The three of us at the West Gate to the courtyard of the Taj Mahal

Sitting on a bench just inside the gate

Getting closer to the tomb

SUNDAY IN THE PARK

Following a long evening the night before, we slept at the guest house one last time and then were picked up by Rakesh, who drove us into Delhi. Today, it was the reception hosted by the groom's family, held at the India Habitat Centre, again in an outside garden. The decorations were again spectacular, using lots of white flowers, in urns created by covering sticks and wooden bowls with banana leaves and tea leaves, and filled to overflowing with white Casablanca lilies, as well as white carnations. These were placed around the entire garden venue. There were also pergolas spaced around the garden, complete with comfortable couches, pillows and of course, the requisite propane gas heaters. Even though it was daytime, it was still terribly cold, and people were still fashionably dressed in Indian attire, but covering themselves with one or two pashmina shawls. Heather wore one of her mother's silk Salwar Kameeze outfits which looked quite handsome and she received many compliments. J.T. and I both wore traditional kurtas with pajama bottoms, but both with stoles and I even borrowed a pashmina to keep off the chill.

The food was served, after the bride and groom finally arrived, and it was wonderful - two distinct types, one was Cantonse and the other was Kashmiri. Fantastic tastes! It was a bit strange for us, at first, when we arrived, because we entered the garden and looked around to determine if we recognized anyone - a resounding NO! We walked around a bit and nodded politely to other guests, but still did not recognize anyone. Since our involvement with the wedding, up until now, had been primarily with the bride's family, I guess it was no wonder, except for the fact that somewhere, sometime, during the past three days, we must have met some of the groom's family and friends. Again, I asked Heather and J.T. if they recognized anyone or if, perhaps we were attending the wrong reception. At last, J.T. spied someone who looked familiar. It was the photographer, who had been working throughout the weekend! So, we guessed we were in the right place after all. Little by little, members of the brides family began to arrive, and they came over to us and enjoyed drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Sanjiv and Jyotsna and Olie arrived, as well, and we learned they had not gotten home until about 5:00 in the morning! It was no wonder they arrived at about 1:00 p.m.

While I was eating my lunch, I received a telephone call from Bani, who works for Sanjiv, advising me of bad weather coming on and expressing his concern that we should depart from Delhi right away, in order to avoid having to drive in dense fog on our way to Agra. We took his advice, called Rakesh and sad our farewells to the family and to the bride and groom. Although not having time to change into less formal clothing, we boarded the van and off we sped toward the city of the Taj Mahal.

After a four hour drive, we arrived at the Howard Park Hotel

KNIGHT ON A WHITE HORSE?

Saturday evening, while so many of the wedding guests were virtually freezing at the venue for the evening's events, the groom and his school chums - about twenty young men, arrived at the outside gate of the Vista Hotel - most likely by warm cars, and then the groom mounted a beautiful white horse that was adorned by a jewel encrusted blanket and head dress and saddle. They were accompanied by a brass band with drums and a string of chandeliers in groups of three on each side of the roadway. The lights in the chandeliers were all powered by a portable generator, carried on a truck that eased its way along the entrance beside the groom's entourage.
The drummers and the brass players continued with an assaulting cacophony of rapid fire percussion and trumpeting, much as you would hear from a charging bull elephant. The intensity strengthened and then diminished and what should have taken a total of ten minutes lasted more than two hours. Even the groom's mother seemed a bit perturbed as to how long the procession was taking to reach the portico that had been beautifully decorated with cascades of stephanotis blossoms appearing like rain, as well as garlands of marigolds and roses and gerbera daisies. All of the groom's party seemed to be smoking cigars and sharing a large bottle of scotch whiskey they passed from one to another. Finally, the party arrived and processed up the portico into the venue. Those of us who were standing on either side of the processing group showered them in rose petals and marigold petals.
The festive atmosphere pervaded the entire venue, with the color scheme of purple and gold being followed throughout the tented areas outside, as well as the ballroom inside.
Upon the arrival of the groom's party, the bride and groom proceeded to the stage, where they received blessings and prayers from the priest. They then moved onto a separate tented area, where seven sets of prayers and rituals continued for about two hours. All the while, guests mingled and ate and drank. Eventually, we all entered the ballroom and were treated to a variety of native dishes, as well as Oriental cooking.
As everyone can imagine, and those especially who have seen MONSOON WEDDING, the festivities went on into the wee hours of the morning, when the bridal couple finally departed - at about 2:00 in the morning. Our driver, Rakesh, took us back to our guest house and we got to sleep at about 3:00 in the morning. After all, we had to take rest, since we were expected to be in attendance at yet another event the following morning, hosted by the groom's family, at the India Habitat Center in Delhi.
Still trying to get some photos uploaded.