Monthly Archives: October 2011

Daily Life, India

These are the (boring) days of our lives

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This post is for those of you who keep insisting that Tony and I are SO brave to live overseas and SO adventurous to immerse ourselves in a different culture.

It’s true, every day really IS an adventure, full of small but interesting experiences. Our morning taxi ride to school, for example, is a bumpy, swervy, death-defying experience full of cow-dodging, speed-bump-soaring, pothole-pounding, horn-honking lunacy that we hardly even notice anymore. And it’s true that we have interesting cultural opportunities on the weekends and over school breaks. However, our days are generally filled with mundane tasks and routines, not unlike those of teachers in the States.

Here’s a typical “day in the life” of Sharon and Tony …
6:32 a.m. – Kapoor pulls up in his taxi to drive us to school.
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6:46 a.m. – We greet the American Embassy School gate guards and walk to our respective buildings.
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8:30 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. – Tony sometimes gets breakfast (and frequently gets snacks) at Open Hand Café, which is just inside the gate on campus. He teaches grades 9 and 12 on alternate days, attends meetings, works in the English Office and meets with students during his breaks and lunch.
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I work with third-grade English learners in three different grade-level classrooms every day, teach World Language English to eight third-graders every other day, attend lots of meetings, and try to eat lunch outside whenever possible.
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One thing I DON’T have for the first time in my teaching career is playground supervision responsibilities! It IS a nice playground, though.
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After school – Tony often has more meetings and/or piles of papers to grade after school, but he occasionally drags himself to the fitness room for a jog on the treadmill. I go to Hot Yoga on Mondays, play rehearsals for “Beauty and the Beast” on Wednesdays, and technology workshops followed by Zumba on Thursdays. Because the work day includes little down time and because many after-school activities take place on campus or at the American Embassy across the street, I often stay late at school to catch up on emails and plan lessons.

If there’s nothing going on after school, we catch a taxi outside the school gate for the 20-minute ride home. The longer we stay at school, the worse the traffic gets.

Evenings – Thanks god our housekeeper, Raji, makes dinner most nights because it’s not unusual for us to stumble through the door after 8 p.m. Our evening excitement typically includes watching TV till about 9 and then heading to bed.

So that’s it. Jealous? Ha!

Daily Life, India

Mehrauli Archaeological Park – an urban oasis

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Although a 5000-year-old Indian scripture refers to a city located in modern-day Delhi, archaeologists will have to keep digging to find proof. Sites unearthed so far have found signs of Delhi’s urban dwellers in seven successive ancient cities dating to around 1060. New Delhi, as we know it, is considered the eighth. Yesterday, we visited the ruins of Delhi’s first ancient city – Qila Rai Pithora, which extended the citadel of Lal Kot, constructing a walled city with 13 gates.

I had heard the name “Surekha” from several sources, so I got in touch with the founder of Delhi Metro Walks and signed up a group of 11 teachers to join her Saturday tour. We all met at a busy street corner and walked to the Mehrauli Archaeological Park with a brief stop at a square domed tomb, which recently underwent renovation. We veered off the sidewalk onto a dirt path that wound up a hill. No wonder British soldiers used to picnic at this spot; even today the view is lovely. Back then, the forest and hunting lodge must have been a welcome refuge from city life. Inside the mausoleum, intricate finials and traditional patterns decorated the walls. According to an article in The Hindu (India’s national newspaper), the resident of the tomb is up for debate. The tomb’s caretakers migrated to Karachi after Partition forced Pakistani nationals to leave India (and vice versa). “No one remains to help unravel the mystery of the mausoleum,” the article says.

Climbing up to the tomb.

Isaac checks out the view.

Inside the mausoleum.

After back-tracking to the sidewalk, crossing a busy street, and cutting through the debris of a recently relocated flower market, we entered the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. Suddenly the honking and shouting faded, and we found ourselves amidst sun-dappled trees, rolling lawns and a newly planted rose garden. We exchanged curious looks with this little group.

Starting in 1997, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), with funding from the Delhi Tourism Development Corporation (DTDC), has been identifying, excavating, renovating and conserving 42 of the buildings (which represent nearly every era in Delhi’s history) in this 100-acre park. In addition, According to the INTACH website:

50 trail markers, 40 monument description boards, 150 benches and project description boards, together with 2 km of heritage trails were laid down. Both signage and pathways have been built of natural materials such as sandstone and the local quartzite stone employing traditional workmanship thereby contributing to the unique natural and historic character of the area.

Here are some highlights of our tour.
Sir Thomas Metcalfe, who was the East India Company’s resident at the Mughal Court, constructed his 19th-century country house right over the 17th-century mausoleum of Muhammad Quli Khan (an attendant to the Mughal emperor Akbar and stepson of Akbar’s wet nurse). Metcalfe’s dining room was apparently directly over Khan’s tomb, and he further embellished the area with pavilions, a dovecote and a waterway to bring visitors to the estate by boat.

The motorbikes are parked in what would have been the canal. The building was a boathouse, and we walked up the steep steps to the site of the former tomb/country estate.

Work is underway to restore the building to its original state – as a mausoleum, not as a weekend get-away.

The Rajon Ki Baoli is a three-storey stepwell built in 1516.

Many walls, gates, foundations and buildings remain unidentified and overgrown with weeds and trees. The sign marking this one just said “wall” or something like that.

Surekha walks through an archway.

Near the entrance of another tomb.

Inside the mausoleum of Shahid Kahn (son of Sultan Balban, see below), Surekha pointed out the “scrafitti” on the ceiling. I had never heard that word before!

The sun was setting as we approached the tomb of Ghiyas-ud-din Balban, who reigned from 1265-87. Surekha explained that this building is believed to be the first in India constructed with “true” arches. The Speaking Arch is an interesting article that clarifies architectural significance of that arch.

Surekha saved the best for last, but it was pitch black by the time a caretaker unlocked the gate to the Jamali-Kamali mausoleum. Inside the tiny building, we used the flashes on our cameras to light up the colorful, ornate space.

It was so dark, I couldn’t see what I was shooting. When I opened up the pictures on my computer, I decided not to crop out the heads in the interest of perspective.

The tomb of Dervish Shaikh Jamali, a Sufi saint who died in 1536, lies next to that of Kamali, who is assumed to be an associate of the saint’s family.

The mihrab is a nook that indicates the direction of Mecca.

After leaving the Jamali-Kamali tomb, we walked in darkness back to the starting point and – with some help from Surekha – rounded up some tuktuks for a short ride to dinner. We invited our wonderful tour guide to join us, but she had another busy day planned for Sunday and needed to rest.

Our group met up at Thai High restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner on the rooftop terrace.