Last weekend (June 28th-30th) Melanie's dad came to India. He also works for UOP so while he was here during the week he went on a customer visit. During the week we went to the Hard Rock Cafe!
This sequence of photos describes mine and Marisa's relationship pretty well...
During the week we also went back to Kingdom of Dreams with the other interns to see the largest Bollywood musical ever, Zangora! It was absolutely amazing! I wish we could have taken photos during it. There were so many colors and sounds. The stagecraft was absolutely amazing. This show seriously threw in all the stops. People were flying and floating through the air, there was fire onstage..and I can't mention all the different colors enough...and I know color...I was the assistant director for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for goodness sakes. Here are some pictures we snuck of the theatre.
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There were screens on the sides that contributed to a
full surrounding set feel! |
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| So excited for the show! |
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The crazy monkey that insisted on throwing up the deuces. He
taught us how to play an Indian drum! |
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| All of us! |
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| Cherry and I |
That weekend the three of us went into Old Delhi for the first time.
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| Jama Masjd! The largest mosque in India |
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| Trying to capture the crazy |
Our first stop was Jama Masjd. Jama Masjd is the largest mosque in India. When we pulled up near the mosque I think it was the most stereotypical Indian street I've seen. There was a market going occurring when we arrived. Pictures cannot describe what I saw. Honestly, I don't think you could take a picture and really understand the crazy hustle and bustle and all the smells and sounds. Immediately when we stepped out of the van there was a man butchering live chickens. One guy was picking chickens up out of a truck (five at a time!) and putting them in cages while another man whacked the head off of them and plucked feathers. I hadn't seen anything like that since my friend Erica from Knox took me to see chickens and a turkey get butchered when I was in fourth grade. This experience was slightly more graphic though. Goats were being paraded down the street. Hundreds and hundreds of fishing and mosquito nets were cast in the trees waiting for a customer to bite. The street was lined with dates. I've never seen so many dates and fruit flies in my entire life. There were many shops will various textiles, and the streets were filled with people, scooters, and autos (autorickshaws) all trying to reach their various destinations.
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| Entrance |
Before we walked into Jama Masjd's courtyard we removed our shoes. In mosques and temples shoes are not allowed to be worn. It was so hot! The red sandstone was fire on my feet. They had some thin carpet rugs making certain paths throughout the courtyard. The courtyard surrounding Jama Masjd can hold 25,000 people. The mosque itself is constructed of red stand stone and white marble. Shah Jahan ordered its construction in 1644 (the same guy who built the Taj Mahal and The Red Fort!). It was the last architectural project Shah Jahan ordered before being imprisoned by his son. There are three entry gates into the mosque and four towers surround it. An ablution pool lies in the middle of the courtyard. Before Muslims can read the Quran or worship in a mosque, they must be in a pure state. Ablution is the ritual they perform to again reach this pure state before reading the Quran or worshiping in a mosque. To read more about ablution and the rules governing what makes you become impure click here:
http://sufism.org/foundations/salaat/wudu-islamic-ritual-ablution-2 I had never been to a mosque before so it was a very interesting experience.
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| Ablution pool |
They didn't allow pictures in the mosque, so I'll try to explain it. When we walked in there were elegant carpet runners made from wood lining the mosque. If you look at the below picture you will see the entry ways within the entry ways. The entry ways within stopped at a large wall. This is where people would pray. The women praying were covered head to toe and continually stood up and knelt down bending forward so their torsos were completely bent to the floor. There baskets with books to the sides of the main walls. I saw several men reading the Quran, and multiple people chanting. It was such a calm and peaceful place. To the sides of the main wall people were lying down. There were other tourists inside as well. This was such an interesting experience for me since I'd never witness this religions way of worship. It was definitely a learning experience for me.
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| Me at Jama Masjd. You can see the carpet runners to my left and your right. |
After Jama Masjd we headed off to the Red Fort. They were right next to each other which was very convenient. It made perfect sense though since Shah Jahan also commissioned the building of the Red Fort in 1638. His intention was to move his governing capital from Agra (click the link for the Agra Fort post:
http://workhardplayhardsequoiainindiauop.blogspot.in/2013/06/agra-eternal-love-isnt-real.html) to Delhi creating the 7th city of Delhi . When his son imprisoned him he made a lot of additions to the fort. After his son's rein however, the Mughal empire began to fizzle out. In 1857 the Mughal rein ended when the king was exiled by the British government. The Red Fort was so much bigger and much more spread out than the Agra Fort in order to incorporate a previous for that had been on the premise but abandoned.
Below are some pictures
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| Many more green and open spaces here! |
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| So similar to the Taj and the Agra Fort! |
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| I was so hot and sweaty! |
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| Where water would enter the fort |
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| A Temple |
Afterwards we went to eat at Bikanervala, and then we spent a few hours walking around the mango festival at Dilli Haat and shopping at all the stalls. On Sunday, we spent the day lounging around the Leela pool with Melanie's dad. He works in sales support for UOP and is the lead recruiter for UOP at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was really great to speak with him about work and get his insights on the company. He has worked for the company for a long time and also went through the FOS (field operating services) program.
I'm super duper behind on blogging, so forgive me that this one isn't as chalk full of good old history factoids as the other ones.
Another blog post will be posted soon!
Love,
Sequoia
They didn't allow pictures in the mosque, so I'll try to explain it. When we walked in there were elegant carpet runners made from wood lining the mosque. If you look at the below picture you will see the entry ways within the entry ways. The entry ways within stopped at a large wall. This is where people would pray. The women praying were covered head to toe and continually stood up and knelt down bending forward so their torsos were completely bent to the floor. There baskets with books to the sides of the main walls. I saw several men reading the Quran, and multiple people chanting. It was such a calm and peaceful place. To the sides of the main wall people were lying down. There were other tourists inside as well. This was such an interesting experience for me since I'd never witness this religions way of worship. It was definitely a learning experience for me. 
