Travel Journals

We landed in Delhi at night and started right in at the enormous Jamma Mosque the next morning, where 25,000 people can worship together. We walked around Chandni Chowk, a super high-density, crazy marketplace for everything. We saw the Qutub Minar, an impressive monument to Moghul victories from the 1100s, and visited my favorite part of Delhi, the Haus Khaz Village neighborhood: a thriving area of small shops and homes. But in the middle of that vibrant area, you come upon what is in this image: the tranquil remains of an old reservoir and a Madrasa (an Islamic school pictured above) in a park where people relax, in the midst of crazy Delhi. The school was founded by a Sultan in the 1300s. It’s kind of surreal; a time tunnel.

We also visited the lush and more contemporary Akshardham Temple that lived off by itself, a spectacular, modern structure almost jarring against the rest of the ancient neighborhood: its own huge, modern work.

A night train took us to Bharatpur where Rajendra Negri—who was more like our friend than our driver from Delhi—met us and took us on to Agra and the Taj Majal. After being in the car with him in Delhi, our bonding only continued. For that whole drive, about 4 hours, he maintained a constant commentary about everything we were seeing: groups of people doing unique things, and all different sorts of worship and occupations in the area. Every colorful detail on the drive to Agra, he was sure to tell us a story about. Non-stop storytelling. I’m still in touch with Raj.

In this photo you see father and son posing before the world’s most photographed building.

Shiva’s sacred place on the Ganges: Die here and you can get off the wheel of perpetual rebirth. 1,000 people come here every day with that idea in mind. There are 88 ghats, or riverfront steps, along the most sacred section of the river.

We went on from Shiva’s place to Sarnath, Buddha’s place, the next day: an educational complex with ruins. Jeremy and I meditated together off in a quiet area, Jeremy following through with the five-step footsteps-of-the-Buddha program. Later we walked to the main ghat again, where a dozen young men were pulling a huge statue of Kali through the streets, screaming and dancing ecstatically. Jeremy joined them — this was also what he came for.

The boats in the picture took us out to view the evening’s ceremonies from the river. It was worth it. There was music and chanting, fire and colors.

Fatehpur Sikri is a beautiful red sandstone complex founded by the Emperor Akbar as the Moghul capital in 1571. The palace was really a whole community where thousands of people had lived, ranging from the wealthy to the merchants. I guess what got me the most was the understanding that these were colonizing forces of Moghuls who built a magnificent, thriving community for themselves, out of what had once been a simple village. It is now a World Historical site with lots of buildings to visit, all in a uniform architectural style. This picture shows the Jamma Masjid, one of the largest in India.

We loved Jaipur. I enjoy reading history, fiction, and historical fiction about a place before I visit. I had read all about the local royalty, and couldn’t wait to see the palace. Knowing about earlier times made the whole Rajasthan city come alive for me, from the Amber Fort of the original Rajput people to the tailor shop we visited for custom shirts and pants, delivered to us perfectly six hours later.

The Monkey Temple (Galtaji) is about five miles outside of the city. A series of temples and pools (pictured) was built into a pass in the Aravalli Hills, and it is a Hindu pilgrimage site; the idea is to take a dip in each of the pools on the way up to remove guilt for wrongdoing. Near the top, a young priest gave us a father-son blessing.

Wagah is a little town in Punjab right on the Indo-Pakistani border of northwest India, where the local government hosts a flag lowering every day. Thousands of people come to see this nationalistic ritual, done on both sides of the border. What happens is this: Beautifully uniformed guards strut and choreograph their relative national pride – Indian and Pakistani – and the crowds cheer with competitive delight. It is exactly what national competition should be: ritualized competition with peaceful pageantry.

In Amritsar, again in Punjab, we made friends with our tuk-tuk driver. He took me to his brother’s place for a haircut (he was a barber): Being a father and son, people tended to notice us. His brother offered to cut my hair for free (of course I paid him), and he brought his father and the whole family along.

We also visited the Golden Temple, where 100,000 meals are prepared and served every day for free by an all-volunteer staff, because serving others is how Sikhs worship. I made a ‘Less Than One Minute’ video of the operation of feeding that many people in one day; it went viral! This picture shows the Golden Temple, across the Holy Pool, in the main Gurdwara (or “temple” in the Sikh religion).