Hey guys my name is Josh Thomas and though after reading my name you may be skeptical, I really am Indian. I was born in the southern state of Kerala and came to the United States with my parents when I was about 3, and my entire family, including extended ones in India are all Catholic. But enough about me, India is far more interesting.
I've come to India quite a few times with my parents, but that was just Kerala, which is absolutely nothing like Delhi. Though I'm dark enough to pass as a normal Indian, as soon as I open my mouth its pretty much a dead give away that I'm just another tourist. Today we've gone to a couple of places each just as interesting as the other. We started the day out by going to a tomb of one of the many Mughal Emperors and I quickly learned a few things 1. The Mughals liked showing of by building elaborate and ridiculously large compounds even for tombs 2. If a Mughal emperor likes you enough, even if you are just a barber, he will build a tomb that is unnecessarily large just for you. Though I feel like a stranger in my own motherland, simply by going to just one of the many sites visited today showed me how little I knew about my home country.
From the first site, we then moved to Humayun's tomb, which happens to be a world heritage site. Once again, I'm awed by not only the grandeur, but also how elaborate the construction of the tomb itself is. Humayun's tomb can be best described as a representation of heaven on Earth Humayun's wife actually built it for him and it is surrounded by many pools of water, shaded via lots of trees, and lots of green grass. It is easy to see that this was a Muslim tomb due to the large amount of domes.
We also wen to the Baha'i temple, which is by far one of the most simple buildings I have seen. In the hustle and bustle that is Delhi, this temple was a place of solitude and calmness. Though I typically have trouble praying while I'm in college or even occasionally at Church, for some reason I was actually able to open my mind and relax (Mom, hope you're happy). But seriously, regardless of your views on religion or level of piety, the Lotus Temple is truly something that one must come see and visit if in Delhi.
In my personal opinion the most important place we went to was Ghandiji's assassination site. Though I've seen his money and heard stories of his simplistic lifestyle it is a completely different experience being in the place that he lived his last days and understand the tragedy that not only befell the Indian people, but the world. It caused me to think of what Ghandiji would have thought of today's India, would he be happy with how far it has come since independence?
The entire world both knows and understands that India is a nation that is rapidly growing in industry, business, and of course the population; however, I believe that this growth can be best exemplified by the Akshardham Temple. Mere words would not due this temple beauty, the best way that I could possibly describe it would be to imagine Vatican City and its many buildings, except Hindu. Though this temple was built in the last 10 years, it is hard to imagine the sheer amount of effort and detail put into this, if nothing else, work of art. Each portion of the temple and the surrounding building were precisely measured, planned, and created with the highest attention to detail. Each carving, figurehead, and religious figure/icon was beautifully rendered. At first I found it extremely hard to believe that anyone or nation could ever create something of such beauty in today's modern age; however, here in Delhi one of the most chaotic cities in the world it has been done.
I feel like I've written way too much for a first blog post and much of it is a bit too serious in nature to my liking so I'll share some funny stories that have happened to me so far this trip. I guess I'll start with on the first day a group of friends and I started exploring the near by area and immediately a couple of guys came at us (in a good way) asking if they could show us around, and immediately they come over to me and start speaking in Hindi. I, being a little taken back, starts talking back in with an accent and in English and eventually I had two guys pretty much giving us a guided tour around our area of the town. Radhika, the person who actually speaks Hindi wasn't even looked at, not only that, the guys didn't actually believe that she was Indian. Apparently you have to be a certain shade of dark brown to be Indian, who knew? This same thing happened again at the Akshardham temple, except this time a group of young Indian guys came over to the group and asked if I was a tour guide, this time I accidentally (and I'm not kidding it was unintentional) pulled out the accent and told them I was a student from Kerala, they even went on to say that they saw me at India Gate just yesterday, a place I've never even visited.
Sorry for making it so long guys and thanks for reading!
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