Breach Candy revisited

A short story:

They spent a relaxing Saturday wandering through a few art galleries, including a photography show at a nice restaurant where they had lunch.  There were three of them that day - the couple and their good friend the art teacher. After the last gallery, the art teacher invited the two of them to have a drink with her at her club, Breach Candy.  They gratefully accepted and asked the driver to head through the thick traffic in that direction. On the way, the man mentioned that he had something to say about Breach Candy - a story from when he was here as a child.
They entered the club, where the art teacher signed the two in as guests, and then they stepped into the inside pool area.
"Yes, this is the place - very much as I remembered"
She took a picture of him standing by the pool, then they walked through to the outdoor pool and around to the restaurant area.

Old guy by the pool -55 years later

They took a seat on the balcony with a view of the Indian Ocean in front of them and the large outdoor pool to their right. After ordering drinks and appetizers they relaxed and continued their conversation. The man began to tell his story about Breach Candy..

"We used to travel through Bombay on the way to and from boarding school in Kodaikanal. The trip took 3 days and we would spend the night here in Bombay. There was always a group of us - all the missionary kids from the Arabian Missions in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. If we were lucky, Air India would put us up at the Taj Mahal hotel. Can you imagine a large group of rambunctious American kids running around the quiet restaurants and lounges?
Anyway, when I was four or five - four I think, though it's possible I was five or six now that I think about it - my mom travelled with us.  We had some time in the morning before our flight to Madras and we got on the Air India bus and come over here to Breach Candy to swim before heading to the airport. I think there must have been about 16 or 17 of us kids of all ages from my youngest brother Steve who was a baby to high school juniors and seniors.
It became time to go to the airport and my mom told all of us to get out and get changed and hustle out to the bus. I stayed in the pool a little longer because there was something I just had to do. After playing some more, I got out and headed to the little changing rooms to get dressed. When I found no others around, I panicked, started crying and took of out of the club and ran down the street looking for everybody.
In the meantime, all the others had gotten dressed and climbed on the bus. The bus started off for the airport and my mom started counting noses. She counted several times before she realized that not only was she short one person, but that person was her little Timmy. She too panicked, stopped the bus and ran back to the club where they told her that a little boy had run down the street. As she went people pointed her along where the boy had gone. 'Little boy? White hair? went that way !'
She found me after a shopkeeper had stopped me and given me some candy and kept me in his shop until someone came along."
The man stopped talking for a few seconds. "So that's the story. What do you think?"
"Wow, you're lucky you were found."
"Actually, I wasn't - they swapped me for another little boy. The real me is still wandering around old Bombay somewhere begging." He laughed at his own joke, thinking it quite clever.
They finished their drinks while watching the rain shower come in over the ocean and descend on the club. After it was over they walked back out to the street and called their driver to head home.

India 101. Part 3 Agra and the Taj Mahal

Agra.
From Jaipur we traveled the third leg of the "Golden Triangle", taking the road towards Agra, the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658 and the site of the fabled Taj Mahal.

One of the Palaces at Fatehpur Sikir

Along the way we stopped at the historical city of Fatehpur Sikri, a planned city constructed by the Emperor Akbar to celebrated the victories that consolidated most of Northern and Central India under his rule. Another amazing place built mostly of red sandstone with several palaces, a mosque of course,  and the marble tomb of Sufi saint.

Entrance to the Agra Fort

We arrived in Agra late in the afternoon, with just enough time for a quick tour of the Agra fort. The fort itself reminded me quit a bit of the Red Fort in Delhi, with red sandstone walls enclosing palaces and buildings erected over the course of hundreds of years.  The Agra Fort also played a major role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but is perhaps most famous for being the residence, during his last years, of Shah Jahan, imprisoned by his son in the fort where, he could see in the hazy distance glimpses of white marble of the tomb he built for his beloved wife - the Taj Mahal.

View from the Agra Fort

After touring the Red Fort we headed to our hotel and dinner, eager to get up early to experience the Taj Mahal early the next morning.

I knew this when I married her ;-)

After waiting in line briefly, we lead through the outer courtyard and then walked toward the gate.

One of the Gates

First view through the gate

no caption needed

It was stunning.  The beauty and grace of the building glowing in the early morning light filled us with a sense of wonder and awe. Even with hundreds of people around, the grounds and gardens are big enough that we did not feel crowded and everyone seemed to be struck by the place.

Delighted Duo

It was magical.  It if were not for the fact that we still live here in India and there are so many more places to go and see both here in India and around the world, we might almost call it the trip of a lifetime. That evening, as we had dinner with our group and reflected on the day, we were somewhat taken aback as the discussion turned to "Now that you've seen the Taj, where do you want to go next?" We needed just a little more time to savor it, which we've been doing for several months now. Part of the reason this blog post took so long to write is that it is just so hard to express how magnificent an experience it was and pictures, though giving a sense of the beauty, do not capture that feeling.

Intrepid travelers

 

India 101. Part 2

Jaipur.
After leaving Delhi, we headed west and south, into Rajasthan, to the area around Jaipur, the second leg in our "Golden Triangle" tour.  It felt good to me to be traveling through the countryside, past the rich fields and small villages, the vistas punctuated by the narrow towers of the brick making kilns. Recognizing some of the crops made me want to know more about those that I did not know. What are they growing?

Amber Fort - on the way in.

The Amber fort, was our first stop in the Jaipur. It is not named for the color, but rather for the town of Amer, and so is also known as the Amer fort.  We had the opportunity to ride an elephant up to the fort, but choose not to wait the hour or two. I think most of us felt a little sorry for the elephants as well, though we were assured that they were limited to two or three trips each.

Part of the fort - note the screen area above .

The fort itself is a great example of Rajput architecture, engineering, and artistry. The marble and red sandstone courtyards and the fine craftsmanship really are stunning, and the clever uses of water to cool and refresh are amazing.

Garden and hall of mirrors within the fort - elaborated channels to water the garden.

In the town of Jaipur itself (also known as the pink city), we saw two more significant places: the City Palace, and the astronomical observatory or Jantar Mantar.
Like many of the forts and palaces in Rajastan, the City Palace is really a complex of palaces and courtyards, elaborately decorated. It was (and is) the residence of the Maharajas of Jaipur, the first part built between 1729 and 1732. Lots of interesting things in the museum and incredible details in the ornamentation of the gates.

Detail from one of four main gates to City Palace courtyard

The Jantar Mantar was a neat combination of science and architecture. The massive sundials and observational structures are pretty impressive. From the wikipedia article: "The observatory consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars' location as the earth orbits around the sun, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes and related ephemerides."

The largest Sundial in the world - shadow on the curve tells time in 15 second increments.

Very worthwhile visit, enhanced by good company and food - we even did a little shopping.

Learning how carpets are made. A look of concentration.

India 101. Part I

A week of break from work
"India 101" Nancy calls it with
A trip to the classic sites
described as must sees by all the guide books:
Delhi, Jaipur, Agra

First Stop: Delhi
A great day shared with brother Steve, laughing and enjoying each other's company and seeing the grand mosque, the Red Fort, Gandhi memorial, and Birla Temple.

Red Fort - Built by the Moghuls, taken by the British and then the site of where the flag of the new India was raised on August 15, 1947

One of the Palaces within the Red Fort.

Raj Ghat - memorial to Mahatma (Great Soul) Gandhi. An eternal flame marks where his body last rested before his cremation.

Birla Temple. Built in the 1930's by a major Indian Industrialist (think Rockefeller or Carnegie). He was a friend of Ganhi's and built the first caste-free temple in India. Gandhi attended the opening.  Nancy has a Birla descendent in her class.

More coming as we find time to reflect on the trip... Part II and Part III

Jodhpur

We had a long weekend as Gandhi's birthday fell on Tuesday, so we had both Monday and Tuesday off. We took that opportunity for our first escape from "the Maximum City" of Mumbai and flew to Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
Nancy had been fighting a bad cough for a week and we were looking forward to seeing a different part of India as well as taking a break from big city life.  One of our colleagues had suggested a quaint hotel to us as a great place to stay and we were excited about a new adventure.
The flight went well, and we chatted with the three other friends from ASB who were also going to Jodhpur for the long weekend, and agreed we would try to meet up for dinner one night, as our hotel was said to have a nice rooftop restaurant with a good view of the fort ( the fort is great - more about that later).

Near the hotel - note the sign ;-)

We were met at the airport by the driver from our hotel, and we bundled ourselves into the car along with a South African couple who spoke glowingly of the hotel, having stayed there several times in the last year.
We arrived at the hotel and felt like we were thrust into the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". (If you haven't seen it yet, I would strongly recommend it!). The hotel is located in an old "Haveli" - or private mansion, often owned by a nobleman for stays in town to visit court.
After a day of waking around the narrow alleys of the old city, watching carefully where we stepped, and doing a little shopping, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice dinner at the rooftop restaurant in the hotel. 

View from rooftop restaurant.

Yes, the view was great, but the prospect of a good night's rest for Nancy was threatened not only by her weariness and the hard Indian bed, but by the realization that it was the last night of the Ganesha festival and the drums would be going by our window. The combination of all those factors was the last straw, and Nancy called the cavalry in for assistance.  They soon arrived in the form of a couple of our ASB friends who took me over to see there nice 5 star hotel just around the corner. After one night in the original hotel, we ended up moving to the new one, where we were much better taken care of, relaxing in a quiet garden with green grass, near a pool and with a luxurious bed that was much more restful. Good move.

Mehrangarh Fort from the back - see the link for more

Mehrangarh Fort is great.  We spent a morning up there, listening to an informative and entertaining audio tour that guided us through the museum while giving us historical and personal background.  We were struck not only by the beauty and size of the place, but also how similar were the feudal societies around the world. The rulers of this land depended on support from their nobles and retainers and in the final analysis on the hard working peasants of the land in the same way that was true all over Europe and one could easily imagine this fort, decorated slightly differently, located in Germany or France or Ireland.  Life was good if you were one of the privileged few (noble, upper class male), but hard for most folks. 

Inside the fort, one of the palace areas.

I was also able to wander some more through the back streets of the city, known as both the sun city and the blue city, while Nancy spent some time resting and trying to recover from her sickness.

I've attempted to include some pictures in a slide show below ...

History and Culture

Nancy and I are really enjoying exploring the extremely varied culture and history of Mumbai.  I don't think we were aware how rich and complex the story of this city is.  Yesterday we had another good day delving into some of that history.
We began with coffee at Karen's house.  Karen is an art teacher, originally from Australia, who has been teaching internationally for a couple of decades and consequently has traveled extensively, especially here in Asia.  After coffee, we headed down to the ChurchGate / High Court area around the former Prince of Wales Museum (now known as Chhatrapati Shivahi Maharaj Vasto Sangrahalaya - though most still call it the Prince of Wales Museum) where there are a number of art galleries and other cultural and historic sites.  We had actually been down to this museum last weekend and enjoyed it's Indian inspired architecture, artifacts, sculptures, and miniature paintings.  This weekend we had planned to be on the prowl for more contemporary Indian art.
We started with a small photographic gallery that Karen had heard about that was exhibiting the work of several of the better photographers. Good stuff. Then we stopped by another gallery where the work was, to be kind, fairly elementary. (Please keep your day job, professor!)  Happily, lunch at a small cafe hidden in a back alley was much more enjoyable, and we walked by an old synagogue.

After lunch, we wandered a little more and stood across the street from the David Sassoon Library and Reading Room.  Founded in 1847 by a group of mechanics and dockyard workers, it still functions as a both a repository of books and a quiet place where members and sit and read or work.  Great atmosphere and architecture. The high-ceilinged main room, lined with glass enclosed book cases reaching up twelve or fifteen feet and furnished with solid wood tables and sturdy caned bottomed chairs took us back years into the past.

By Vaikoovery (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Finally, we wandered down the street to the Bombay High Court, where there was a historical exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the court.  Another great building with both architectural and historical significance.  It was humbling to walk up the worn stairs, realizing how many people, famous and unknown had done the same.  Among other things, on display within the exhibition was both Ghandhi's application letter where he requested admission to the bar as an advocate from the 1890's before he went to South Africa, and the letter signed by all the high court judges some twenty plus years later , removing him from practice because of his arrests for political activities. 

The [[w:Bombay High Court|Bombay High Court]] in [[Mumbai]].

Image taken by  [[User:Nichalp|Nichalp]] via Wikimedia Commons