Underwater in the Andaman Islands

From Delhi, it was two hours to Kolkata, two hours to Port Blair, with only the hum of airplane noise, and then two and a half hours by ferry to Havelock, where Justin was going to take in some underwater safaris. He was looking forward to learning how to scuba dive and with the help of Rajtik and Rahul, he earned his advance certification through SSI.

Upon arriving at Island Vinnie's, the guys at Dive India had Justin watching some videos and begin reading the SSI manual to prepare him for his first day of scuba diving. At 7:30 the next morning, he was kitting up, i.e. assembling his scuba gear, and was in the water by 8:20. By the time I got back from my two dives, which consisted of an hour and a half boat ride each way in four to six foot seas in a 30 foot long wooden boat, he was already hooked.

The next morning, even before he opened his eyes, he had a smile on his face and said, "I'm going diving today." I couldn't have been happier. And to make things even better, he'd checked his emails, and was being asked to do a phone interview for an internship while we were in the Andamans. He figured out how, where and when to make the phone call in between his diving, passed his written exam, and then had to wait for a response to the interview, but only for a day. Now he was a certified open water diver with a three-month internship with Level Up, a company that provides incentives when you pay with your cell phone. Now he could relax and enjoy diving. We dove together, Justin dolphin kicking along the way as I pointed out all the small stuff I enjoy--juvenile fishes, starfish and coral citings, though the coral has been bleached out horribly here. 100 degree temps will do that. The fish life is good though, with many juveniles, and emerging coral regrowth so that was encouraging.

But I couldn't let Justin relax too much. I encouraged him to get his advanced certification. He was going to dive anyway, and this way he's now certified to go as deep as 130 feet. He did his navigation dive in not-so-great visibility. He thought he needed to do it over, until Rahul told him he did right. Apparently Rahul had moved, so wasn't where Justin correctly ended his navigation exercise. Justin might not have done the night dive had it not been one of the five advanced dives, and that was one of his favorites--marching sea urchins, lobsters, scorpion fish, an electric clam--like a thin flashing neon light, and bio-luminescence on our safety stop. He learned about underwater photography and took my picture, and listened to Rahul, a marine biologist, talk about the various fishes Justin had already been identifying from the fish books.

On our last day of diving, we went to Johnny's Gorge, with founder Johnny. Justin saw his first shark, sea snake, schools of barracuda, his favorite blue fin travaley, tuna, an electric ray to add to his sightings of humphead parrot fish, bumphead wrasse, clown triggerfish, anenomefish, nudibranches, potato cods, giant groupers, striped sweetlips and more. At least the Titan triggerfish left him alone on this dive. He'd had to fend one off the day before. Guess they are in nesting season now.

I don't know if Justin will favor diving as much as golf, but he says this is a lifetime sport for him. Maybe he'll agree to be my dive buddy once in a while!!!

Hunting Tigers

Our week with the street kids went by way too fast. I'd arranged with Sager for a weekend excursion to Ranthambhore National Park, a four hour drive south of Jaipur, known for its tigers. This wouldn't be like an African safari, but when in Rome . . .

The six passenger gypsy ride through the national park proved a much better choice than the noisy 30-some passenger caravans for our Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning safaris. The landscape was more forested than the Serengeti, so we searched through the trees to see antelope and spotted deer with some good sized antlers, springbok and gazelles. We saw huge alligators at the water's edges, and clusters of baby alligators sunning themselves as well as they could through the ever hazy India skies. Though there are said to be 45 tigers in the park, our search for the big cat was in vain. In its place, we relished the sight of a dark slough bear as we made our way out of the park on Sunday morning.

Was our trip to the park worthwhile? Yes. Even though we didn't see a tiger Justin got a taste of a safari, and I'll not be surprised to hear him planning a trip to Africa at some point.

The trip to and from the park gave us more exposure to life in India. My eyes were drawn to watching people as they lived their daily lives--working in the fields of yellow flowered mustard and the rich green of basmati rice, selling their yellow apple-like fruit along the "highway", barbers shaving men in what seemed to be every fourth shop, men using blow torches in their repair shops, restaurant patrons lazing away their day in the dusty open restaurants, and the backs of men as they urinated on the sides of the roads. We were already used to the honking horns, and laughed at the painted instructions on the back of trucks: "blow horn please", "dip lights at night", " wait for side" and "stop". People here didn't use their horns because they were irritated, it's simply a way of life and courtesy to let others know where you are. Maybe they just don't like to use their rear view mirrors. Despite the chaos on the roads, we saw few accidents, probably because their roads don't allow them to go fast. Many trucks also had signs of "40 km" which lead me to believe their maximum speed was 40. That could be because of the number of "speed breaks" along the various roads.

We passed through Jaipur on the way to Delhi, seeing the more modern side of town. A Marriott, their convention center and more streamlined road system, though this didn't mean the sound of horns honking diminished, or the weaving between lanes. On the five hours to Delhi, our driver circumvented the construction of overpasses in some phase of construction. It seemed like the materials for all the overpasses were delivered, no matter how soon the construction was going to start. Just imagine a three hour traffic jam along dusty roads. I'm not sure that faster highways will be an asset here, because the habits they use the slower speeds, e.g. weaving in and out of lanes in proximity to other cars that we'd use for parallel parking made me very uneasy the few times we were able to travel at a faster speed. We did make it to Delhi safely, where the driver dropped us at a hotel close to the airport in preparation for our early departure the next morning for the Andaman Islands.

Working with Street Kids in Jaipur

Elephants announced our arrival in Jaipur, a city of 3 million people southwest of Dehli. My nephew, Justin, and I are volunteering with an organization called Sankelp, meaning "take the pledge". We're teaching street kids English and Math from 10 to 1 each day. Justin has the youngest kids, and I've never seen him smiling so much. His eyes twinkle as he goes through the alphabet with them, helps them with their numbers and plays with them during recess. They love to climb on his back, hang on his amrs as he hold them straight out, and play cricket with him, though they have to run into the next lot to get the balls he hits. They applaud as he catches their hits one-handed.

I joined Leah, another volunteer, to teach the next older kids. They know the alphabet and many words, can do addition, subtraction, some mulitplication tables. It's funny to watch them add and subtract. They use hash marks for each number then start counting them from one for addition. For subtraction they'll do hash marks for the higher number, then slash through them for the lower number, then count what's remaining. Two digit numbers are even harder to add or subtract but at least I think I got them to do it more simply rather than doing 22 hash marks and adding or subtracting eleven. Now they'll do two and one, and two and one. Carrying is another matter.

In the afternoons we tour Jaipur. Yesterday we climbed a minaret to see the layout of the well-planned city. It's surrounded on three sides by hills, making it an ideal place to see an approaching army. There are numerous forts in the hills. We saw Amber Fort, much like other forts, meaning we're getting overdosed on seeing forts. Yesterday we climbed to the sun temple amids dozens of monkeys which are fed apples and bananas by the locals. The day before we went to the cinema to see a ballywood movie, complete with assigned seats and intermission, and popcorn for a mere 10 cents. Afterwards, believe it or not, we went to Pizza Hut. Today we intended to see one more fort, and have chai as we viewed the sunset, but by the time we got out of the textile shop where I commissioned an Indian tunic and pants, and Justin almost had a summer suit made, it was too late to get to the Tiger Fort, plus, the sun continues to be obscured much of the time by what the locals call "fog", and we call smog.

Viewing everyday life in India is still intriguing. Sitting in the back of the auto rickshaw on the way home today gave me a better idea of the maze the rickshaws, bikes, motorcycles, cars and buses negoiate on these crowded and inadequate roads. Yet it was fun to wave back at the smiling people in the approaching traffic as there aren't as many Caucasians here as I might have expected. Nor would I have expected to meet a Brazilian woman at the textile shop today. She's looking for a "pray" experience here to change her life as in "Eat, Pray, Love". Maybe I'll find that yet while I'm here. My real hope is that this will be a profound experience for Justin.

The Wonder of the Taj Mahal

The final day of the 2011, traveling from Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and other sites within what is known as the Golden Triangle. Streets are passable at 8am, with traffic building all the way to Agra, some five hours and 240 kilometers away, and home to the Taj. We saw fields of yellow mustard and basmati rice, an oil refinery, and much (tame/working) animal life: water buffalo, goats, sheep, camels, elephants, snakes, monkeys and pigs.

First in Agra though, we explored the fort built by Akbar of red sandstone, much more impressive than the Red Fort in Delhi, or so we were told. We only drove around Delhi's Red Fort because it was being used as practice grounds by the Indian military for an upcoming parade. We could venture into the various courtyards and rooms of Agra's fortified fort, seeing where the public and private courts were held by Akbar, with his wives behind screens on either side of him to overhear his rulings so they could make decisions in his absence; seeing the library, the bedrooms, the corridors used by the concubines, and the fountains. Very elaborate carvings, many representing Hindu, Muslin and Christian faiths as Akbar wanted to show him being open to different religions.

We've learned a great deal about the Mughal Empire which ruled here for 400 years, of which Akbar was the third, father to Shah Jahan, who commissioned the Taj Mahal in honor of his second and most beloved Hindu wife, Mumtaz. The Taj is as spectacular as any picture you've seen, even with thousands of Indian tourists lined up to see the tombs of Mumtaz and her husband. No one sees their actual tombs as they are out of sight in the basement. Shah Jahan built it based on his love for Mumtaz fulfilling a promise he made to her on her deathbed. (She died of blood loss following the birth of her fourteenth child, having followed Shah Jahan against his wishes to the camp he was using as he was trying to repel a revolt. He promised never to remarry, though he spent time with concubines; to raise their children, and to build something for which to remember her. At that he royally succeeded.

Fountains front the tomb, but are rarely used because of the beautiful reflection in the pools tourists want to see in their photos. White marble is everywhere, except on the right side of the roof line, which is of a dark marble to ward off evil spirits. The monument is adorned with precious and semi-precious stones, marble inlaid with translucent stones in lotus and jasmine flowers and Hindu calligraphy. Archways were designed on the sides with wonderful acoustics. You can clearly hear whispers from some on the other side of the arch.

Though its foundation consists of teak and ebony, there is concern that the Taj is sinking as the river on which it is built is drying out. From what we've heard, the current prime minister filled in some of the river in hopes of building a huge hotel to take in the views of the Taj and the Red Fort. Luckily the courts overruled this because it would have interfered with the views between them.

During the war between Pakistan and Bangladesh, India was concerned about this masterpiece being bombed. To prevent this, the dome was covered in black, with the evidence being huge hooks onto which the drape was attached. Today these hooks are used by those cleaning the dome.

A short distance away across the Yamuna River is Agra Fort, built by Emperor Akbar, where Shah Jahan was held prisoner by his son the last eight years of his life, preventing Shah Jahan from spending any more of his forthcoming inheritance. Shah Jahan had already spent Rs45 million on the Taj, and has started building a smaller black marble Taj for himself. At least Shah Jahan had a view of the Taj. His eldest daughter took care of him from one of the two Golden Palaces built for his daughters. In addition, there was a palace for each of Akbar's three wives. Though the fort was built in the mid-1700's, their baths were luxuriously scented with rose and jasmine.

Fatehpur Sikri, 40 kilometers west of Agra is famous for the spiritual deeds of Shaikh Salin Chishti, who sacrificed his six month old son so that his son's spirit would transfer itself to Akbar's wife's womb and bear him a son and successor to the throne. Though mute, his son told Shaikh Salin Chishti it was Allah’s wish.

Akbar had a public and private hall, from which some people were sentenced to death by being crushed by elephants. Akbar was said to have a favorite execution elephant for which Akbar had a special tomb built upon the elephant's death. When he was attending to this business, he listened to melodies played by an orchestra seated on a platform in the center of a huge reflection pool or played Parcheesi with sixteen concubines as human players. One room was enhanced with real diamonds, making it a very bright spot at night with the use of a single candle.