Ajanta and Ellora Caves

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I arrived in Delhi on the morning of Diwali, which is said to be as significant as Christmas in the USA. My new roommate Diwik invited me out to a Diwali Party. I had forgotten how bad the air gets on Diwali. You see Indians ignite millions of fireworks of the same kind you would see in a US city for the 4^th of July. The big difference is that every citizen can buy and ignite these professional level fireworks that shoot 10-20 stories up into the air and explode into multi-colors, just like the 4^thof July.

I had forgotten how bad the air gets when everyone can purchase and ignite their own professional grade fireworks. The air was so full of smoke; I had a splitting headache, a congested chest, and a 102 degree temperature by morning. I proceeded to sleep the next 18 hours drifting in and out of delirium as my body thought it could fight the smog with fever. 24 hours after my arrival in India, I was a wreck.

Granted, it could have been a bug I caught on the plane to India. In fact, that is more likely given I had been traveling for 24 hours, 17 of which were within enclosed aircraft and 7 hours on layovers. But even if I had caught a bug on the flight, the smoke filled air was not helping me.

The weekend was fast approaching so I decided to catch a flight out of town and find a less populated area with less smoke. I searched on the top places to visit in India and discovered there were two places in the top 10 of India that I hadn’t visited yet. One was in the south of India and too far for a weekend get-away. The other was just an hour away by air and in a low population density area of India--perfect for my low pollution needs.

I flew to Maharashtra to see the Ajanta Caves (200 BC) and the Ellora Caves (400 AD).

Upon arrival, I slept another 18 hour day, and woke feeling much better. My fever was almost gone. So I ventured out to see these famous caves.

With the exception of one castle and one temple, and all the photos taken on the road to the caves, all of these photos are caves cut into mountains. There is no construction in these caves. With hammer and chisel, generations of craftsmen, from as early as the year 200 BC, walked up to granite cliffs, and began chiseling.

Michelangelo is rumored to have said, and I am paraphrasing, he did not chisel large pieces of marble into statues, he just removed the surface marble to reveal what was already below. A modest man no doubt. Imagine walking up to a granite cliff with a chisel and hammer and spending generations to complete one of these grand caves. I am not elevating the caves to the detail found in Michelangelo’s work, but do remember that these were completed as much as 17 centuries before Michelangelo was born.

Now I head back to Delhi to start my black belt training in 6 Sigma. 6 Sigma is a process design and improvement certification course. It doesn’t teach you how to defend yourself from a physical assault. Rather, it teaches you how to gather and analyze data about a process to save time and money, and improve the quality of that process. I am excited about learning this new discipline.

Happy Diwali everyone, and good luck to my Indian friends on your respiratory recovery.

If you have further interest in the origin of these beautiful caves, I invite you to read the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanta_Caves

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