Memory Lane

*posted by Abhrajeet

Before heading out to Baroda, we hit up our old flat in Noida, where I spent much of my infant/toddler days here in India. The flat is just minutes away from Toby and Tiya's place, and we all used to chill around these parts pretty much every day back then. We'd shoot off fireworks in front of the house during religious festivals, and there's a small park nearby that we always played in. Sadly, we sold off the flat several years ago after my uncle passed away, but it still hasn't lost its old school Noida charm. Maybe one day when I'm rich I can buy it back...

Cafe Coffee Day

Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) is an awesome coffee chain in India which is far better than any Starbucks or Caribou. Not to mention the branding is amazing!

We met up with Sajal Uncle, Baby Mashi, and Bubul there in Noida before our train to Baroda. Thanks for a great time!

Real Indian Values

So we've been in India for a while now and we've been hearing a lot about "respecting your elders," but what does this rule really entail in Indian culture? After several extremely irritating and offensive incidences, we decided to find out for ourselves.

First off, as we've come to see, in India, everything revolves around hierarchies. You won't find another country in the world with more red tape and/or ridiculous societal BS. The family structure is all about respecting those elder to you. Basically, the youngest kids are at the bottom of the totem pole, while the oldest grandpas are at the top. However, the problem with this rule is that it makes it extremely difficult for you to disagree with or act against anybody in a generation that's above yours, even if they are completely out of line.

Example 1: A certain family member (who will remain unnamed because we respect our elders) repeatedly patronized the three of us. This family member seemed to think that we were all toddlers, simply because the last time he saw us, we were in fact toddlers. He also was extremely awkward towards Kayd, telling her "in India men don't usually shake hands with women," and also had the tenacity to ask her if she knew what a communist was. All these minor bullshits aside, this same family member seemed to think that, because we were toddlers, we were incapable of transporting ourselves around, and even showed up in our driveway one night when we refused to follow him home, so that he could lead us to our home...yeah...didn't really make sense to us either. Oh yeah, he also almost tried to drive the three of us and our friends around drunk.

Obviously our encounter with this chap was pretty damn stressful and annoying. While we didn't want to abrasively and openly offend or go against him (due to our vigilant respecting of elders and adherence to Indian values) we had to make some independent moves which probably pissed him off. Whatever - drunk driving is drunk driving, no matter what country you're in or how old you are. Luckily, every single adult we told this story to completely agreed with our decision to resist this family member's absurd patronizing and irresponsible tactics. True Indians always place rationale over bullshit - no matter what the official rules are, that's what we've been taught and that's what our friends we were with during this incident had told us.

Oh, but wait, there's more! Let's move on to Example 2, which shows that even the people you think you can trust most can suddenly turn hilariously hypocritical. After an evening of relaxation and drinks with some friends (the same friends who had resisted the drunk driving attempts with us in Example 1) it was time to go home. Now, the three of us Americans wouldn't dare drive in India, so we put all our trust into others to keep us safe during our automobile endeavors. However, following this jolly night of chilling and drinking, we once again found ourselves in a ridiculous situation where we were trying to prevent somebody from driving us home under the influence of alcohol. Keep in mind this individual hadn't eaten all day and chugged a final drink on the way to the car. When we asked for the keys to be handed over to a sober driver we were told to take a taxi home, which would have been a suitable alternative, had we known where the hell we were and where the hell we were supposed to go.

Regardless, after a lot of begging and pleading, the sober individual took the keys and we all drove home in silence. On the way back we saw a man lying motionless on the road. He was about ten feet away from his motorcycle and appeared to be dead after being thrown off of his bike. Alcohol related or not, Indian roads have no rules and alcohol effects your judgment and reflexes which are especially crucial when driving in India. It's a no-brainer - obviously we needed a sober driver.

What killed us the most is that when we finally got home we were yelled at by the SOBER DRIVER!?!?!?!!!!? We were told that although we were right on principle (drunk driving = BAD!) but that while in India we needed to "respect our elders."

This was pretty bizarre. For one thing, there were no elders in the vicinity - all of us were around the same age and in the same family generation (read: the "elders" rule did not apply here, ask ANY ADULT IN INDIA - we did!)

Not only this, but if we were right on principle, why the hell would we apologize for anything?! The hypocrisy was overwhelming and insulting - it was all a bit too much to take in.

To sum it up, we'll leave you with the opinion of our family's most respected of elders after we told his about these incidences. While we can't fully transcribe the Bangla our Dadu spoke, here's the gist of it. He laughed a bit, told us we were completely right in our actions, and told us not to worry about fools such as these.

Now that's what I call Indian values.

Dilli Haat

*posted by Kayd

If you're a fan of shopping than you'll love Dilli Haat. Dilli Haat is known for its hand goods and great food from all over India. It's atmosphere is very similar to that of the Festival of Nations in Minneapolis. We met up with a bunch of Abhrajeet's family members in the Haat on our last evening in Delhi to get in some last minute shopping.

What is absolutely awesome about India is that most things don't have a fixed price. Sadly, every time I showed my Western Face, all the prices jumped up... Thank goodness that Priya was there to help me barter - she was truly a master. We picked up a lot of awesome items, including some clothes, jewelry, hookahs, and even Indian ice cream.

Thanks to Rono Mamu, Priya, Runa Pishi, and Ravi Uncle for an excellent time!

Akshardham: Government Sponsored Religion

*posted by Jeet

“…any attempt to bring all humanity to one method of thinking in spiritual things has been a failure and always will be a failure.” – Swami Vivekananda

Today we visited what was arguably the strangest religious institution I have ever been inside: Akshardham. The project was orchestrated by the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) movement, a collective of Hindus who donate a certain portion of their income to the movement in order to preserve its cultural heritage. Akshardham is a massive mandir, one of the largest in the world, and was completed in 2004 after an incredible effort put out by thousands of Indian craftsmen, artisans, and laborers. The architectural work is absolutely insane – every square inch of the mandir deserves praise and attention. Thousands of images of gods, sages, and animals are etched into the massive walls and domes of Akshardham. In addition, the sprawling mandir grounds are host to beautiful gardens, filled with fountains and various sculptural tributes to the history of India.

However, despite all the material beauty of Akshardham, I couldn’t help but feel like something was off – this place seemed to lack…well…soul. In the central and most ornate portion of the mandir stood a massive golden statue of a man who I could not recognize, despite my fairly decent knowledge of Hindu mythology and religion. Furthermore, after our self guided tour of the mandir we were given an animatronic history of this mysterious golden man, who we soon learned was the esteemed Swami Narayan, the man who this entire temple was a tribute to. No bullshit with the animatronics either, it was like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, except with more subtle religious brainwashing. After the animatronic history lessons we were lucky enough to have a short boat ride (yes, boat ride, what the hell!?) through Vedic India and learned more about the greatness of ancient India. Despite the weird Disney feel of things up till this point, I was still pretty excited about the whole experience – after all I do love India and I do love Hinduism…so what was the big deal, right?

Anyways, following these history lessons came the most bizarre portion of the mandir visit: a 50 minute movie narrating the life of Swami Narayan which emphasized his values and divinity. Even weirder was the constant reassurance that Swami Narayan’s immaculate teachings had been passed down “through an unbroken lineage of spiritual masters!” The last time I checked there is no central Hindu “Pope” - hundreds of thousands of spiritual guides and teachers have existed throughout Indian history. At this point this shit just didn’t feel right – it was like the entire Akshardham experience was trying to create an entirely new Hindu godhead for the next millennium of Indians, an immaculate example for all to follow (Praise Jesus!). It seemed that there was some sort of hidden agenda in this towering new place of worship.

Overall, the entire experience was devoted to teaching the visitor about this Swami Narayan character. Everything elevated him to the highest level, and we were repeatedly told that his values can guide the world to a better tomorrow. Frankly, I agreed with every single value that was being purported, but it didn’t change the fact that Akshardham was trying to turn a man into an all-knowing godhead – something which doesn’t really sit well with most of the religious traditions of India.

My biggest concern about Akshardham is the fact that, although it technically preaches what I would consider universal values (non-violence, devotion, spirituality), it does so in an overbearing manner which threatens to alienate millions of Indians of all religions, both within the country and abroad. I can only hope this alienation has no physical backlash - the Akshardham in the state of Gujurat has already been a victim of terrorist attacks by extremist Muslims, attacks which became highly exploited by the BJP party of India, a Hindu nationalist party that has caused quite a stir in Indian government in recent decades.

Also, one final thing to note, before I end this massive post: none of my grandparents, including my 94 year old, all-knowing history buff Dadu, had too much to say about Swami Narayan besides the fact that he was a popular spiritual teacher among certain groups of Hindus. Interesting, right?

Regardless, I bought a few books about the godhead's teachings - hopefully the true essence of Swami Narayan is easier to swallow than the in-your-face religious fervor we endured during our trek to Akshardham...

“Believe nothing until you find it out for yourself; that is what Raja-Yoga teaches us. Truth requires no prop to make it stand.” – Swami Vivekananda

Nerula's

Today we hit up the best ice cream chain in Delhi: Nerula's. This spot was a favorite of Abhrajeet's when he was a baby, and he got the same exact thing he got back in the day, some sort of lime ice cream soda or something. Regardless, it was delicious.

Somerville

*posted by Kayd

 

Mithu Auntie is a kindergarten teacher at a school which is a few miles away from her home in Noida. The school has received many awards for theater, dance and singing. Obviously this school was right up our alley!

I was amazed by all the students! Not only do the kids speak Hindi, but they are also learning English in school (interesting to note that English is the national language of India). In addition, many of the kids speak a third regional language which is used only at home, depending on where their family originates from in India.

During my visit I also watched the kids practice writing in cursive and heard them all count down like rocket ships! They even sang a few songs for me (including Do Your Ears Hang Low) and one little talkative girl explained what one of the kids’ Hindi song meant in English (so cute!). I taught the kindergarteners how to disco dance and how to play Simon Says. They are just beginning to learn body parts so it ended up being more like follow the leader.

Then we visited some music classes (it reminded me of School of Rock). We were AMAZED by the talent and were thrilled when the students began singing songs by The Beatles and Queen. Students can choose either to sing or play an instrument. Not only are they devoted to their studies but they are also passionate about their music. With all these talents in one room it was like being at a live concert! It was GREAT to say the very least. 

The dance classroom was next. The girls showed us the routine they were learning and I taught them a simple routine in Step. I was so excited to be dancing again!

If I were to rank all of my experiences so far on the trip, traveling to the school was easily one of the best. I loved the students! 

Street Food in Noida

Toby took us around the block for some delicious Noida street food - kabobs and jillibee. Yum.

Anyone who tells you not to eat the street food in India is missing out on some good grub!

aka: I didn't get sick