Beautiful faces of India - Part I

The Golden Triangle Tour - Part 1

This past December on our trip to India, to attend my cousin's wedding along with my entire family, we decided to go visit some other cities in India besides Mumbai.

My sister in law made the arrangements through a tour company and we started our 5 day trip to go visit the many sites on "The Golden Triangle Tour". 

We started our tour in Delhi, where we visited Jama Masjid and Humayun's Tomb.

 We also drove by the Red Fort and other important political sites.

We were assigned a van all to our selves with a driver who drove us from city to city where a tour guide would meet us for the day. 

Our next stop was Fatehpur Sikhri and Agra to go see the Taj Mahal.

 On our way there, we took a detour to stop for a bit in the town of Mathura where Lord Krishna was born. 

We visited the local temple there and even tasted some of the world famous Mathura pedas.

After seeing the magnificent Taj Mahal, we drove to Jaipur where we saw some amazing places, forts, palaces, etc and even took an elephant ride. More on that later...

We then drove back to Delhi to catch our flight back to Mumbai.

Our trip to India was INCREDIBLE but as mentioned in earlier posts, quite draining.

 Eight months later, I am finally ready to share more on our trip.

 I have so much more to share and Inshallah (God Wiling), I'll be sharing the many images, impressions and experiences in due time.

For now, let me begin by sharing the beginning of our trip at Delhi Airport...

Delhi Airport is beautiful.
There are many diverse works of art throughout the airport.
Check out this wall of sculptors with various yoga hand postures.

So these are the public restrooms/ toilets/ washrooms.
I just thought it was so neat to have these gorgeous images to inform people of the ladies and gents toilets instead of a simple sign.
India has many creative ways of informing people of the different ladies and gents toilets.
I'll be sharing them as we visit the various places around India.

Here is painted mural in the baggage claim area. Isn't that just beautiful?

Another public restroom at Delhi Airport.

This was just sooo funny...we planned this picture to demonstrate what "tourists" we looked and acted like.
Here is a picture of my younger son Zayn with his camera, my sister in law, Zeenat with her camera and my eldest, Aly with his IPhone camera all taking pictures of each other...My brother, Karim looks on.
And of course, me taking a picture of all of them.

There are two types of toilets in India and most parts of the third world. 

They are the "Desi" toilet and the "English" toilet. 

The "Desi" toilet is essentially a hole in the ground with a normal flush system. 

The water tank usually sits higher up on the wall but in this case is built into the wall. 

This is an extremely CLEAN and NICE desi toilet. 

They are usually not this nice and clean.

Desi toilet.

Check out the hand held bidet.
99.9% of Indians don't use toilet paper.
They consider it yucky since it doesn't completely clean as well as water does. 

The "English" toilet introduced to India by the British when they came as guest and stayed on uninvited for much longer than necessary before they finally left in 1947.
Although they left India, they left behind a few good things, one of which is the "English" toilet.

So this young man from the tour company, Heritage Tours, was waiting to greet us as soon as we walked out of the airport after collecting our bags.
We followed him to this white van and he asked us to wait.
He reached into the van and started to place garlands of marigold around our necks.
This was a fun experience.

My brother Karim gets a garland.

Here is Aly with all of our garlands and a cup of coffee.

Here we are on the van off to go check into our hotel.


More to come...

Love and Light,
From one sufi to another,
Anita

Dharavee - The Slums of Mumbai (Part II)

The view from our car.

The kids who live there

So after we rushed to the safety of our cars and started to drive through the streets around Dharavee, we saw this empty shell of what used to be a parcel of storefronts. I asked Ganesh, our driver, to pull over so that I could get a closer look.

As I stepped out of my car with my camera around my neck, Aly followed me. The children who just moments ago were absorbed in their play, were now excited that a car had stopped by their "home

  and that people actually were there to see their space. 

At first, they looked at us kinda shy and curious but once they decided that we were "safe" they opened their streets-side home to us and proudly gave us a tour.

This is their front porch, old cigarettes butts, cow and dog poop, dirt, dust, garbage...not to mention the crazy traffic and smog and sounds of the cars and the honking and strangers walking by their open home.

Just imagine, this is his front yard, back yard, play area, etc...

These old sheets covered the floors determining their home vs the street just steps away.

Their kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and even their bathroom was all in the area under the roof and just on the street in front.There were piles of garbage just lying around in heaps while these large sacks with something in them were stacked against the back wall.

They showed us their pet rabbits and the newborn rabbit babies.

Aly told me not to touch the rabbits or get too close since they had rabies. But these kids proudly held the rabbits up long enough for me to take a few pictures.

Their kitchen just off the street where a makeshift stove made with putting together a few large stones and burning some wood held the pot containing lunch.

These 2 adults were in the middle of preparing lunch. The person in the blue is in fact a man dressed in a saree and obviously living as a woman. He/she was very skeptical of us and never made eye contact. I stayed clear of him and was extremely respectful of them and their home.

So this is a larger picture to put things in perspective. Check out the stove and then the busy traffic on the street just steps away.

Newborn pigs.

The children proudly show off their pet dogs taking an afternoon name under the wooden cart. These are obviously street dogs. Check out the rabbi on top of the cart.

Check out the plastic sheets covering the walls and the bags of stuff (maybe garbage, maybe clothes).

More garbage.

This is one of my favorite pictures from this trip. 

Another favorite...Look at the possibilities in their eyes.

More garbage...

The other side of the space...clothes hanging off a makeshift clothesline

These guys were just kinda hanging around the monkey.

And these kids are barefoot in this filth. 

Almost didn't see this young mother rocking her baby to sleep in a swing made of old sarees.

What will he grow up to be?

There were piles of shreds of colored cloth...

The young men around the pet monkey.

And there was a puppy...

I love animals, especially dogs..but I was conflicted between feeling sorry for the children and /or the puppy...or should I be like the rest of the locals and not feel sorry for either of them...I could just pretend they don't exist.

The little boy proudly shows off the puppy.

Another one of my fav pics.

Aly, my eldest standing between this scene. He's the reason we were even visiting the slums.

And there is a rooster....or a chicken...another pet...

These dishes are just thrown on the dirty ground.

And this woman takes a nap using the large bags as a pillow.

Aly posing with the kids.

More of them join in.

A man selling glass bangles walking by. These bangles are one of the cheapest kinds you can get...Usually less than a dollar for a dozen.

There are some more incredible pics that I will share in another post but these are it for now.

So...

After just the two hours of driving around in Dharavee, 

talking to the street kids,

 taking hundreds of snapshots of life there,

 I was empty inside. 

I remember going to a luncheon right after with about 50 family members 

and sitting there with all my loved ones feeling so sad.

 I just wanted to scream and cry with agony for all that I had just witnessed 

and yet I forced a smile as I swallowed the tears 

and joined the small talk between a buffet of delicious, mouth watering food and freshly made naan and yummy deserts.

Love and Light,
From one sufi to another,
anita