Feb 2, from Khajuraho

Sunday Feb 2, from Khajuraho, home of the erotic carvings.  (Pics of this next time!) Pics below out of order!

January 29-30 in wonderful Orcha. The last few mornings have been cloudy or foggy until almost noon and then again in the evening, making sleeping damp and cold. Yes, we really do sympathize with the snow overload in Peterborough and cold temperatures across the country. However, we didn’t plan on cold and most of us wear everything we have much of the time.

Orcha has a population of 8,000 with almost as many temples, mausoleums, palaces….a slight exaggeration.  On Thursday, we went to a cookingclass with V(w)andana in her house. She gave us recipes and then cooked the dishes for our lunch. A special paneer (‘cottage cheese’) dish was extra because her oldest daughter turned 8 that day. Kathy left stickers and a pen from all of us.  Vandana’s story was long, sad, but ultimately victorious. She and her husband have survived and have just built a new house where she can give these classes. She is already ensuring her girls learn English (another 5 year old) and says that she and her husband prefer arranged marriages but are prepared to allow a love marriage if her girls want it.  This is modern India at its best.  We have met few women with the support and determination to make decisions like this.  Food, by-the-by, was delicious.

Attended evening prayers at the Raj Rama (King Rama) temple with chanting from the Ramayama….very moving.  Walked in the market which had no vehicular traffic making it wonderful.  Linda under the weather with a cold, stayed home that night and most of the next day.  Antibiotics fixed her. 

January 30^th

Dushyant’s (our guide) 28^th birthday.  Linda wrote a birthday song which everyone sang at breakfast. He really appreciated it. We gave him 4 of Bill Slavin’s books for his nieces and nephews. Kathy gave him a colour sketch of him talking with several of us.

Saw Chaturbhaj Temple decorated with live green parakeets and vultures. Visited the Chhatris Cenotaphs/mausoleums dedicated to Orcha rulers dating from 1600. Another palace mix of Muslim and Hindu architecture, turquoise tiles, mosaic ceiling with a great view of  a landscape dotted with monuments.

January 31, Allipura

Rosemary remarked about this place that it wasn’t on google or our travel guides but she was going there anyway! We all enjoyed the drive – flat countryside with lots of mustard and wheat.  Visited a cloth-to-paper factory providing jobs for over 100 people.

Stayed at Allipura Palace Hotel, owned by the King of the region who showed up that night for a session with his visiting Guru. Chanting in the courtyard for an hour with about 50 others while we sat in another small courtyard around a fire….it was cold! The chanting gets into your soul the way the drumbeat does at a powwow.  We were introduced to the king and queen and his sister, who literally got the red carpet treatment when they first arrived (photo).

Walked through town, attracting a crowd who followed us.  Played a bit of badminton + a game of cannonball (photo), a cross between crokinole and pool.  Beautiful images: babies in arms, pigs, kids, roosters, a boy net-fishing from an inner tube, ox carts. 

Women pilgrims, Orchha

Graham playing cannonball

Aunt and baby

Children interested in strangers

Bangles at country fair

Alan sharing math homework

Rosemary with grandfather father of present king, Alipura

Orchha market and cattle gate

Women going to work, Orchha

Kathy & Graham, red carpet at Alipura palace hotel

Mausoleum, Orchha

Vandana's cooking class, Orchha

Men in Orchha market

Landscape dotted with temples

Paper making ngo

Chaturbhaj temple, Orchha

Feb 1, Visited a village whose inhabitants rarely see whites: followed by more crowds.  Housing mostly like the temples: plaster over brick core. Invited into a house where the courtyard was paved with cow dung and straw which is very hard, cool in summer and warm in winter and repels mosquitoes without smelling to us.  Visited a country fair with a human-powered ferris wheel and more curious crowds.  Processing our interaction with the crowds is hard—when we engage in conversation it becomes more human.