India Part 3: Hyderabad! How I almost met the Chief Minister (not really)

Hello, from the top bunk of a sleeper overnight express train (which I am currently sharing with Pujitha because this train got overbooked). We are on our way from Hyderabad to Nellore. It is a 10 hour journey and I should probably be sleeping. Since I am notoriously incapable of sleeping on things that move, I have decided to start this post.

Today, my last day in Hyderabad, was rather exciting because we got a private tour of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh's personal office! Including the room where he holds press conferences, meetings, and even his personal nap room! If you have seen the telugu movie Leader, it actually looks something like that. It was very, very cool.

How on earth did we get access? As it turns out, my dad went to Veterinary School with someone who ended up as an IAS officer in Hyderabad and has an office in the Secretariat (which is like the white house, except for Andhra Pradesh). Also, the CM himself was out of state today so his office was empty and available for touring. I wish I could have taken pictures, but our camera was locked up as soon as we entered the building for the sake of security.

This is the outside. It was hard even getting a picture of this.

In Hyderabad, we moved into my other uncle's home (he is my mom's older brother and Raghava's father). On Monday morning, my uncle took me to his hospital. He is a dermatologist, but spends the first half of his day working as an internist at a Railway Hospital in Hyderabad. As I learned, government owned and operated hospitals such as these are truly a world apart from hospitals in the US. Nobody gets private rooms. Instead, there is a gigantic ward with rows of beds right next to each other. Everything is also kind of dirty and smells of phenol cleaner. But hospital costs are probably considerably lower (which makes sense, since I doubt many patients have health insurance to cover their bills).

Because of the diversity of cases you see in such hospitals, they're generally really good for learning. I however didn't see any standout cases except for one woman with stroke of the right internal capsule and resulting left hemiparesis. I had to perform a neurological exam on her and missed a few cranial nerves :/

On Tuesday, we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 (which was awesome!) in IMAX 3D at Prasad's Mall Complex and on Wednesday, Raghava, Pujitha, Vishnu and I did a bit of sightseeing at Golconda Fort and the Seven Tombs of Qutub Shahi. I only recently realized how many Telugu movie songs are filmed at Golkonda (or are they all sets??).

The four of us went a fancy restaurant afterwards, where we partook in the most ridiculous buffet ever.

Now we are off to Nellore, which is the closest I have to a hometown, to visit my dad's side of the family. Back to the coast! I shall greatly miss this non-humid weather.

Continued in India Part 4

India part 2: more temples, beaches, and KITTENS!

Sri Ramanatha Swamy Temple, Rameshwaram

This one is also, clearly, massive. 

According to mythology, Lord Rama prayed to Shiva at this location for absolution of his sins after the war against Ravana. Thus, the temple's main deity, Lord Shiva, is called Ramanatha Swamy. This temple is considered very holy, and one of the four Char Dham shrines that many Hindus visit at least once in their lifetime, and so we saw lots of people from all over India making their pilgrimage here.

The whole gang minus Raghava. 

Former Indian President Abdul Kalam grew up in a small fishing village near Rameswaram. We drove over to his house and bought some seashells and other trinkets at a store owned by his family. How touristy.

I'm pretty sure it didn't look like this when he was growing up. 

 Finally, we set off to the last locale on our trip: Thanjavur, a.k.a. Tanjore, an ancient and awesome city with a rich history.


Brihadeeswara Temple, Tanjore

We set off to the temple that evening to take some beautiful nighttime pictures while it was all lit up! Truly spectacular, as you can see.

The entrance. 

This picture makes it seem way smaller than it actually is. 

After much persuasion, I got everybody to sit like this. 

The Great Living Chola Temples (UNESCO World Heritage Site) are temples that were built by the Chola dynasty's most famous king: Rajaraja Chola I. The foremost of these temples is the Brihadeeswara Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. Its center piece is a massive 6 foot Shiva Lingam, possibly the largest ever. Also, the temple is thought to be the world's first complete granite temple. The large structure at the apex of the main tower is believed by some to be made of a single block of stone (though this is controversial), meaning that some sort of ramp-like mechanism would have been needed to transport it all the way to the top.

Daytime. You can appreciate it's size. 

About to enter the inside of the tower!

Inside, hundreds of sculptures of classical dancers

Some were left unfinished!

The ancient script that to this day, is indecipherable. 

Wall fresco of Rajaraja I himself!

Can you imagine what it took to build temples of this size in the 11th century?

We toured the temple inside and out the next morning, encountering sculptures, archaic forms of writing, and bat droppings. Three or four hours later, we were finally ready to leave and drove back to Chennai. The next day was spent mainly relaxing and playing badminton outside (heat permitting). Oh, and we ate mangoes. Lots and lots of mangoes.

Group of Monuments, Mahabalipuram

An hour's drive from Chennai is Mahabalipuram, a small coastal town. It is famous for its beautiful monolithic monuments built by kings of the Pallava dynasty in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. My dad and uncle took me and the boys (Vishnu, Naveen, and Raghava) to tour these monuments the next day. It was HOTTT

During the annual festival, classical dancers dance against the backdrop of this sculpture. 

Stone chariots!

We earned a few cuts and scrapes climbing and performing stunts on the rocks. We visited the beach again and then went to a restaurant where we ordered chow mein, Indian style. Quite tasty!

KITTIES!!
In Chennai, we found a few tiny kittens on the street. They seemed aimless and motherless, so we cared for them for the next two days until finally giving them up to Blue Cross India (animal rescue) after their mother never showed up. In the meantime, we enjoyed watching them interact with the dog, Jimmy, and sneaking them bits of curry from our plates.

Don't be fooled. Jimmy was more scared of the kittens than they were of Jimmy. 

Brothers

They explore the house

Get a bit thirsty

Yes, he FELL ASLEEP in my hands. How is this not the most adorable thing you have ever seen??

Continued in India Part 3

India part 1: Chennai, beautiful temples, and the sad fact that I still don't know any Tamil

I always remember my first day in India. It is marked by certain things that happen in a certain order:
1. I step off the plane and am greeted by the smell of smoke/pollution/whatever the heck that is.
2. I start sweating.
3. We pace nervously, waiting for the last of our many suitcases to show up at the baggage claim, hoping to god that none of them show up in Africa this time.
4. We finally spot my uncle in the crowd of people mobbing the new arrivals outside the airport.
5. We ride home, swerving and honking, feeling weird not wearing a seatbelt.
6. My aunt forces hot beverages on us (yes, it is 104 degrees outside).

This time, my first day was distinctly memorable as in addition to all of the above, the power went out for six hours (and with it, the AC and fan) upon our arrival. We sat and sweated until 3 PM, when I fell asleep (or passed out from exhaustion/heat stroke).

If you have ever been on vacation with my family, then you know that we don't believe in leisure time. I was woken up at the crack of dawn and given 8 minutes to shower and get dressed before we were all packed into a van that would take us on our temple tour of South India. A gang of seven tourists were we: me, my brother, my dad, my grandparents (dad's parents), and my cousins Raghava and Pujitha who luckily also had holidays.

Our van. 

"Why are you taking pictures" ~ Vishnu. We stopped to eat somewhere.

Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple, Srirangam, Trichy

The temple from the front. 

This was our first stop. Sri Rangathaswamy is a reclining form of Lord Vishnu, and this is the temple's main deity. We stood in line for about an hour and half before finally getting to see the deity. 0.5 milliseconds later, we were pushed forward by the people behind us (this is normal and to be expected).

This is probably what it looks like. I wouldn't really know. 

This temple is probably the most important temple of all for Vaishnavites (devotees of Vishnu) and is said to be the largest temple in India, at 156 acres, and the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. Believe me, it's big. I experienced this firsthand while trying to walk around the temple's inner courtyard at midday. I was able to walk about a fifth of the way before blisters started to develop on the bottoms of my feet.

I tried to take a picture of a map. You can vaguely see that the temple is massive.

So biggggggg

That afternoon, we bid farewell to Srirangam and drove even deeper south to Madurai, where we retired into a couple of hotel rooms. Raghava, Pujitha, and I spent the evening exploring Madurai and buying pirated dvds to watch in the van.

Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai

The next morning, we were up bright and early to avoid a huge darshan line. This temple is special in that it is one of the few (maybe the only) super massive temples that has a female main deity: Goddess Meenakshi, a distinct form of Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva. There is also an additional shrine for Lord Sundareshwar, a form of Lord Shiva.

So many colors

You should click on this picture to see it in full detail. 

"Whoaaaa"

So freaking BIG

Outside. Luckily it wasn't hot yet. 

Arjun!

This is a very beautiful temple, with four gopurams (towers, basically) that are very tall and colorfully painted. Inside, there are tons of sculptures, including a huge statue of Nataraja made of pure silver. Everything is beautifully lit and you just want to take photographs of all of it even though there are people yelling at you not to. And of course, there is an elephant that gives you its blessings in exchange for a rupee or a banana.

Didn't expect to see the elephant's butt, did you? 

KITTAAAAAAAAAY!!!

That afternoon, we set off to Rameswaram, a small island off the east coast of Tamil Nadu, located partway between India and Sri Lanka . We stopped for a bit on the bridge connecting Rameswaram to a skinny peninsula off the mainland, which is surrounded on either side by the Indian Ocean. It was very windy and as we were right up against the coast, it was extremely humid.

That evening, we also visited the beach, though our grandparents forbade us to go swimming since it was full moon and we probably would have gotten swept away by the tide. So we whiled away the time eating biscuits, collecting seashells, and making strange sand sculptures.

Continued in India part 2