Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2007
After a train ride and long bus ride past miles of wheat fields, houses with roofs made of cowdung patties, and difficult, semi-paved roads that seemed to be constantly under construction and blocked by cows, we arrived late yesterday afternoon in the small town of Khajuraho, which I think has about 35,000 people.
Religion is deeply entwined in every-day life in India, and in Khajuraho, we experienced a few more morsels from the religious smorgasboard that one encounters in India. Our first sight in Khajuraho was a religious procession of about 30 people dressed in white chanting, ringing bells, and carrying a huge picture of a naked Jain monk. The Jains are ascetics, and I learned there are two groups of Jain monks. One group of monks, the Digambaras (literally "sky clad" or naked) carry asceticism to the point of rejecting even clothing (even when they appear in public). The second group of Jain monks wear simple white robes. Jains believe all souls are equal and emphasize extreme nonviolence (even wearing masks to keep from killing insects). It wouldn't surprise me if Gandhi got some of his ideas about the abolition of castes and the use of nonviolence from
the Jains.
After leaving our hotel, a Holiday Inn that at first had brown water coming out of the taps, this morning we visited some enormous, very well preserved 10th century Hindu and Jain temples on beautifully landscaped grounds. The Hindu temples all had very intricate sandstone carvings, including large-breasted women and scenes of various types of sexual intercourse. After our visit, I bought a deluxe edition of the
Kama Sutra, which illustrates 84 different sexual positions and provides tips on the the aquisition of a wife, about wives, about the wives of other people, about courtesans, and on the means of attracting others to oneself. Now that's sex education! The irony is that there is religious opposition to sex education in the schools in India just like there is in the United States.
It strikes me that the present-day India is nothing like the past embodied in ancient buildings like the Taj Mahal and Hindu temples in Khajuraho. India supposedly has a growing middle class, but at least in the parts of north India that we have seen, the vast majority of people still appear to live in squalor and abject poverty. Many of the homes are
nothing more than blue plastic strung over a few wooden poles on the dirt or shacks with corrugated metal and tires for a roof and dirt for floors. The homes have no running water or electricity. Women dressed in colorful saris pump water from wells, then carry it home on their heads. Garbage is strewn about all over the place, and there are huge heaps of garbage that seem never to be collected. Wherever we go in India, we are swarmed by vendors desperate to sell us something so that they can survive. And cities we're not visiting like Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) or Mumbai (formerly Bombay) are supposedly even worse.
The water situation in this part of India also seems pretty dire. We keep running into lakes with no water and dry rivers. This afternoon we went to see a waterfall in an area with that reminded me a lot of Great Falls in Virginia/Maryland, but the falls didn't have any water. This is the first time in 70 years the falls have been dry. I also met a bright little Muslim boy about 11 years old named Ahmed, who wanted to practice his English so he could become
a tour guide. His father is a farmer whose crops have failed because the monsoons didn't provide enough water this past year. It seems that the people in north India are already suffering from the effects of global warming.
Well, I guess I'd better get some rest. Tomorrow we're flying to the holy city of Varanasi, where many Hindus go to die. I suspect that what we've experienced so far in India may pale in comparison to what is to come.
Love,
Kerry
Advertisement
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0875s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ann
non-member comment
Devouring your descriptions!
Hi, Kerry! I am hanging on your every word and observation and so wishing I were there with you. (Fate knew I was to stay in the states this month, however, as the house of our dreams suddenly fell into ourl aps and we are CA homeowners!) I have read so many, many novels of India over the years and what you describe of living conditions is exactly what I have read. It is stunning to think it is still that way in 2007! Can't wait to see you and your pictures! Love, Ann