More photos and a word about news....

The Lotus Temple in Delhi - which is a Bahai place of worship. The temple receives 8000 to 10,000 visitors each day

India's largest mosque - Jama Masjid. It caters for the large Muslim population of  old Delhi. The mosque was built by Mughal emperor Shahjahan in 1656.

India Gate in central Delhi which honours the 90,000 Indians who died in WW1 on behalf of the British

Need I say anything? The Taj Mahal is amazing!!

In terms of news, I’m quite impressed with the Hindustan Times. There’s been a sad story recently about a toll booth operator, only 22, who was shot in the chest at close range when someone in a car passing a checkpoint at Guragaon  - on the outskirts of Delhi -  refused to pay the 27 rupee fee (that’s .67 cents)!! So sad. After being shot, the toll booth operator turned and tried to make for the door of the booth but collapsed and didn’t survive the trip to hospital.

A follow up story says that police and the toll booth authority are now playing a blame game for the death and that the man may have survived if he’d been transported to hospital sooner. Police were hoping for CCTV footage but I don’t think the cameras were working at the time.

In another story, a group of men have been arrested for a scam where they would fly to Delhi from Mumbai and hypnotise people, mostly elderly women, and rob them. It’s awful that the women are being robbed but what a great story!

Also, on the front of The Times of India today there's a brief about a woman who has been sentenced to be lashed 10 times for driving  - which is in violation of a ban in Saudi Arabia where she lives. She will be the first woman to be punished for the offence. Crazy.



Television highlights from New Delhi

Now that I’m in Delhi and I have the luxury of TV again, I’ve decided to compile the top three highlights of Sky TV in India and the Bollywood channels:

1.       There’s an ad which plays frequently promoting Kelloggs All Bran Cereal. The ad starts off with a housewife who looks tired and she doesn’t have the energy to find her husband’s socks. But after a bowl full of All Bran, with the goodness of fibre, she is smiley and radiant and is now happy to chase around after her spouse! Seriously?? This is the 21^st century. Find your own socks!

2.       A hilarious programme screens on the UTV Bindass channel called Super Stud. As the name suggests, it’s a reality TV show where young Indian studs strive to impress the ladies. Last night’s stunt was pole dancing and it was very entertaining. After a practice session, the four finalist studs take turns to perform for a party full of women. A very serious judging process follows and then one super stud is voted off. Oh the drama!!

3.       Thirdly there are ads for both men and women respectively which promote “fairness creams”. After a few applications, the creams are meant to lighten the skin tone. Is it cool to be pale? What’s wrong with the lovely natural skin colour that Indian people have? Is this the flipside of self-tanning creams that Kiwis can buy to disguise their pasty skin? Why aren't people ever happy with what they've got?

Skeletons in the closet

India has some amazing history. Take this for example – which is an exhibit at the National Museum in New Delhi:

These are the remains of a middle-aged woman who was part of the Harappan culture from Rakhigarhi (a village in Hisar District in the northwest Indian state of Haryana, around 150 kilometers from Delhi). According to a plaque with the skeleton, this is one of the best preserved burials of the time and the woman was laid out in a north-south direction. She is wearing a couple of shell bangles on her left hand which is a sign of a married woman. The Harappan pots at her head are funerary objects which suggest a belief in life after death. It is believed that some artefacts from the district – which include jewellery, terecotta bangles and conch shells – are more than 5000 years old. Amazing.

A few other pics from the National Museum....

A stone statue of a popular Hindu god called Ganesha, 46cm high, created in the 10th century AD

A massive peacock made of wood and glass. Created in Tanjore, South India in the 19th century

A golden Buddha statue, date of creation unknown

The highs and lows of shopping in India

I have to say, I’m a pretty tolerant person. I can put up with a lot and not say anything. But this man today in this shop – Oh my god it was probably the worst shopping experience I’ve ever had!! En route to the guesthouse in Delhi the taxi driver kindly offered to take me to “a decent shop”. Granted, there were some amazing things there – silk pashminas, cotton dresses, amazing hand-crafted elephants, Indian antiques, jewellery boxes and plenty of unique earrings – but this man drove me nuts! He followed me around the whole time and I could practically see the dollar signs clocking up in his eyes. I tried to leave the store several times and he insisted I go and have a further look at all the things I hadn’t seen yet. He told me, not asked, to see the antique section. Sure, I’ll just buy a massive antique table – no problem getting that one home. And when I finally settled on a couple of key rings as gifts, he started with this barrage of what price I’d actually like to pay for a skirt. I’m sorry but it was a really ugly skirt. And what 25 year-old female wants a pushy middle-aged man telling her what she should be wearing? He kept jamming scarves over my neck and told me that each one really suited me. I guess he meant well but I’m sure the other shop assistants were silently apologising to me.

Phew. I feel a lot better now.

To a more positive shopping experience – on my last night in Kolkata I found the most amazing scarf shop!! It's called Sun Shine. If you’re ever in Kolkata – this is a must-see. It’s a tiny shop in an alleyway off Sudder St and near the Blue Sky café – and it's pretty much like a big walk-in wardrobe. From floor to ceiling, it is all types of scarves. They’re beautiful. They also do amazing hand-made photo albums, jewellery, dresses and pants. While we were there they owner’s friend ran off to get us chai tea and we sat on the floor of this shop, covered in all these clothes and making a mess of all the tidily folded samples. We all got a free anklet out of it and little fabric bags too plus a decent discount.

Kolkata: Likeable but not loveable

Horses on the road - as you do....

Victoria Memorial

Paper mache elephants being created in the suburb of Girish Park - to celebrate the upcoming durga puja festival

I may have been too harsh earlier when I described this city as a grand wasteland. There is a spirit of perseverance and there are glimpses of grandeur within the decay. Tiny children who are living on the street smile and wave when you walk past. Delicate shrines to the various Indian gods are built on dirty streets and are covered in flowers. The shrines are often lit up and are kept in mint condition. The laundry man who comes to my door every day is upbeat and chatty, despite the fact that he earns 1000 rupees a month ($26), works 7 days a week and told me that he fears being rejected by his family if he decides to change religion.

The other day a teenage boy ran up to me, asked to shake my hand and when I did, he insisted on kissing my hand. I don’t know why - I’m just like anyone else here except I have white skin. It does get a little unnerving to have people stare all day long.

One minus though is the beggars – it’s so heart-breaking. In some parts of the city they are incredibly persistent and yesterday I had a small boy grip onto the back of my dress for a good two blocks before I told him to go home. Sometimes I give in and hand them some money but often it just entices them to hassle you even more. The laundry man tells me that many of the beggars are tricksters and not to give them money under any circumstances. He says they earn more from foreigners giving them hand-outs than if they were to work and he says this is very lazy. There are places they can go for meals like the Mother Teresa house and this is available for mothers and babies, but they choose not to go. What are you meant to do?

Unfair, unjust and unethical

An Indian prostitute asked me today if I eat rice. Yes I do, I tell her. I have been taken for a stroll through one of India’s largest and oldest red-light districts – Sonagacchi – and it’s definitely not a place to wander alone. The women line the street in their brightly coloured saris and they all want to know my name. A local elder is accompanying me and she holds my hand the whole time. She puts herself between me and the men who are walking past. I’m shell-shocked. This street is where thousands of women end up after they’ve been sold and trafficked against their free will. They are tricked and put to work at the ages of 10, 11, 12 and 13. There is a huge link here between poverty and trafficking, I’m told. It’s so awful and I can’t believe this happens on a day-to-day basis and the world just keeps on spinning. Local madams control the girls – they own about 5 or 6 – and they share a bed. While one girl is with a client, the rest will line the street touting for work.

We stop for a cup of chai tea in tiny clay cups and when we’re done we just throw the cups on the ground. I can’t believe it! Why not wash them and reuse them?

On the bright side – I’m writing a story about a local business in this district run by Kiwis who are working to free women from the sex trade. I’ll post a link to the story on Facebook in due course.

Sorry no photos with this update – it was too dangerous to carry a bag around in Sonagacchi, let alone a camera.

A room with a view

I have to admit I felt completely ridiculous this morning as I sat in my room applying eyeliner and mascara and then straightening my hair, while a man outside my window was washing himself in the street below with dirty water. My room overlooks a series of slum houses and it seems that everywhere in Kolkata, life is played out on the streets. Privacy is a foreign concept. People brush their teeth on street corners, go about their day-to-day lives on their allocated section of footpath and mothers cradling babies demand that you buy milk for their child. The mothers will lead you miles down the road to a place that sells milk and once you've bought several bottles for them and leave, they sell it back to the shop owner. They don't approach the locals and beg, only those with white faces. Women in delicate saris sleep in doorways as motorbikes speed by and whole families can be seen stretching out to rest on the pavement.

Brightly coloured washing hangs everywhere. Outside my window, a sea of burnt orange roof tiles blend together to make one mass shelter as each house is tacked on to the neighbouring one.

When we arrived on Monday night and I got my first glimpse of Kolkata, the two words that came to mind which sum up this city of 15 million, is that it is a grand wasteland. The extreme poverty is heartbreaking and I've never seen such a dirty place. Neon lights are interspersed with half-finished construction projects, and signs demand that drivers adhere to the road rules while a continuous wave of tooting and squeezing past one another ensues between vehicles.

It is an organised chaos of sorts I suppose.  Tooting here is more a request for someone to move than an impatient or angry Auckland driver. But I did get ripped off by an autorickshaw driver (like a tuk tuk) who charged me 700 rupees ($20) for a ride around the corner and it should have cost 6 rupees. Ah well. I know for next time. And he probably needs that $20 more than me.

Goodbye NZ

Well I’m finally off. It’s a strange feeling after planning a trip for so long. I’ve been feeling pretty calm about the whole thing until I encountered a crazy hairdresser yesterday  who spent more time asking if I was nuts to be going to India on my own than cutting my hair. His comments were along the lines of “What? You’re going alone? And you have blue eyes and blonde hair? Well good luck with that.” And “you better get some more of those diahorrea tablets because, trust me, you’re going to need them.”

Apart from that I’m off to a good start. Quite looking forward to escaping New Zealand for a few weeks and if I never had to write the words Rugby World Cup again, I wouldn’t complain.  I already have a stack of library fines for taking off with the lonely planet book and a bunch of Learn Hindi CDs but hey, I figure I’ll need them.

 I also figure that, seeing as this is my first ever blog post, it might be a good idea to figure out exactly why I’m going.

·         India is a place I’ve always wanted to see and my grandmother has told me of the country’s mind-boggling diversity

·         I have a genuine desire to explore and understand how other people live

·         The media has the power to do a lot of good and so writing stories of about positive people making changes and improving the lives of others deserves coverage

·         I think this journey will also open my eyes further to the extent of NZ Aid operations and I hope to see exactly where some of the money goes

·         One of the families I plan to interview comes from Albany so I’m curious to see what motivated them to go and live in India

·         And finally, I just love travelling and I love writing!