Next Stop: Walchandnagar

Written May 19th:

Today we spend most of the day traveling. We took a flight from Delhi to Pune in the morning, then we were picked up by a bus to go to Walchandnagar. This week we will be working on an educational outreach project with the secondary school in Walchandnagar, so the blog posts in the next few days will be centered on the different activities we do with the children.

Walchandnagar Industries Limited is an engineering company located in Walchandnagar, which is about a 3 hour bus ride from Pune. The company is run by a family with strong ties to the University of Michigan, which is how we connected with them to do this outreach project. From Monday through Thursday we will be doing two hands-on science and engineering activities each morning.

We learned yesterday that we definitely do not want to be out and about in the afternoon heat, so we are very thankful we’ll be working mainly in the mornings. All eleven of us have been working hard over the past semester to plan these outreach activities, so we are very excited to get to Walchandnagar and get started on putting our work into action! We’re also pretty excited to use the supplies in our “outreach bag” – a bag full of scissors, tape, glue, wires, tiny motors, and other items we’ll be using in the activities this week. Explaining to security why we have a bag full of strange items is getting a little old.

We will have a blog post for each day this week explaining the activities we did, but we aren’t sure how internet will work while we’re in the Walchandnagar community, so please don’t worry if we’re a little off schedule on posting each day.

PS. Sorry there are no pictures today! Girls tend not to like being photographed in their travel clothes…There will be more exciting pictures to come this week!

-Beth

Agra

Today was perhaps one of our most exciting days, so far. We started off early in the morning (7 am) from our hotel in Agra, and our very first destination was the one we had all been waiting for – the Taj Mahal. We met our tour guide, Mr. Jolly (who was actually very jolly, and a great tour guide) on the bus and then headed towards the Taj, which was only a short 10 minute ride away. We then stopped and boarded another small bus (a battery bus, to limit the Taj’s exposure to pollution) and made our way to the Great Gate (Darwaza-i-Rauza).

The Great Gate

The Great Gate is a magnificent preview to the Taj. And like Mr. Jolly explained, it is like a veil to the beautiful architecture of the Taj Mahal within. (If you look carefully, you can see a glimpse of the white marble of the Taj peeping out from the entry of the Gate in the picture above). Mr. Jolly then explained the history of the Taj: The Taj Mahal was built by the 5^th Mughal emperor – Shah Jahan – for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal (originally Arjumand Bano – Mughal empresses were given new names by their husbands) passed away during the birth of their 14^th child. Shah Jahan, distraught by his wife’s death, decided to build a mausoleum for her that would last forever. The Taj took 22 years and more than 20,000 workers/artisans to be completed.

We walked through the Great Gate, as Mr. Jolly explained many of the optical illusions of the Taj Mahal (For example: as you walk towards it, it seems as though it is moving away from you). As soon as you pass through the Gate, you are able to see the entire view of the Taj Mahal, which is unreal and cannot be done justice by any description. In front of the Taj Mahal is the typical four-part Persian garden (similar to what we saw at Humayun's Tomb in Delhi). 

Mosque next to the Taj Mahal

 

The Taj Mahal

SWE Overseas at Taj Mahal!

As we walked down the Persian garden/walk way, we took pictures and were able to observe the Taj’s slowly changing perspective. We then climbed onto the marble platform on which the Taj stands and entered the tomb. Before we entered, Mr. Jolly explained the exquisite marble/gem work of the artisans that Shah Jahan had employed. Precious and semi-precious gems are cut into various designs and then inlaid into the white marble (after the design has been etched away from the marble). The white marble carvings are all carved from one stone.

Marble/gem work on Taj Mahal

 Once inside the tomb, we were not able to take any pictures but were able to see more intricate marble/gem work on the tomb.

After seeing the Taj, we drove to the Agra Fort. By this time of the day, the temperature was starting to reach its maximum (113 ^oF!!) and we needed a lot more water! The Agra Fort was constructed from red sandstone by Akbar, the 3^rd Mughal Emperor. This was where the emperor Shah Jahan was later imprisoned by his own son, Aurangzeb. Once inside the fort, we got to see several buildings with beautifully intricate carvings on red sandstone and white marble.

Marble/gem work inside Fort (inside the room in which Shah Jahan was imprisoned)

View of Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

After seeing the Fort, we drove back to the hotel, picked up our bags and drove to Fatehpur Sikhri. On the way there, we stopped at a marble/gem work store where artisans (whose ancestors, I believe, were those employed by Shah Jahan to work on the Taj) explained their craft to us in more detail. Some of the gems they use in their artwork (and that were used in the Taj Mahal) are: Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli, Carnelian (translucent under light), Pearl, Jade, etc.

After this, we continued to Fatehpur Sikhri which was about 1 hr. and 15 mins. from Agra. Fatehpur Sikhri is a city that was built by Akbar in honor of a saint whose blessing, he believed, endowed him with three sons. The saint was known as Salim Chisti and his tomb is also located in Fatehpur Sikhri. We went to the palace Akbar built in this city. The palace once again consisted of many buildings, built with red sandstone and carved very intricately.

Architecture/carvings inside palace in Fatehpur Sikhri

 

Architecture/carvings inside palace in Fatehpur Sikhri

Architecture/carvings inside palace in Fatehpur Sikhri

After walking around in the palace under the scorching sun, we returned to our bus and drove to a restaurant for lunch. Lunch and water were much needed after our eventful morning! After lunch, we had a long and very bumpy ride back to Delhi, during which we got to see several rural/farming towns. Anyways, we made it back safely to our hotel in Delhi where we had a great dinner.

Today was an exhausting but exciting day, and we all can now say that we have seen the Taj Mahal - one of the Seven Wonders of the World! Tomorrow we fly out to Pune, and begin the most exciting part of our trip – outreach in Walchandnagar! But more on that later ;)

-          - Shobhita 

Mumbai to New Delhi to Agra

The second full day of trip began SUPER early today with a checkout time of 5:45AM from the YWCA hotel in Mumbai. Unfotunately, I think all of us are still trying to get over this jet-lag, and so the early wake up time didn't seem to be too big of an issue. The city of Mumbai was really quiet that early, and it was neat to see such a busy city in a peaceful state.

We arrived at the airport and boarded our flight to New Delhi. The flight was less than 2 hours and we safely reached the ground in India's second largest city. Once again we had a bus waiting for us at the airport to take us on a quick tour of the city. It was interesting to see how Delhi compares to Mumbai. While both are incredibly densely populated city, there was a striking difference between the New Delhi streets and Mumbai- it seemed like in Mumbai that people were literally filling every space possible- sidewalks, beaches, any sort of green space. Here in New Delhi, it doesn't seem to be as crowded; but then again, we only saw a small portion of the city so maybe it is just as crowded elsewhere.

Due to time constraints, we were only able to visit one historical site, but it was an incredible experience! We went to see Humayun's tomb, who was a Mughal Emperor of India in the 16th century (it was finished in 1572... give or take a couple of years, I don't completely remember what our tour guide told us!). The tomb is listed as a UNESCO World Hertiage site, meaning that it is of special cultural significance to the country. It was super interesting to see the locals and the tourists mingle together at the site. I think it must be awesome to have such a ancient site so close to your home- I can't even imagine having this giant structure anywhere in the midwest.

Our group outside of Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's Tomb

View of the climb to the main entrance of the Tomb.

In addition to seeing Humayun's tomb we also got to explore the Isa Khan Tomb Enclosure. This was on the grounds of Humayun's tomb, but was actually built 20 years earlier. This spot was also architecturally striking, and gave us a nice spot to rest in the shade from the overbearing sun.

SWE member's photograph Isa Khan Tomb Enclosure

After we were all overheated and needed water, we left the site and went to dinner at a local restaurant. The Indian food they served us was absolutely delectable. We gorged ourselves a bit too much, however, and all quickly fell asleep for our 5 hour bus ride to Agra, where we are going to see the Taj Mahal.

Once we arrived at our hotel in Agra we all met to discuss plans for our outreach activities in Walchandnagar next week. We discussed the order in which we were going to introduce the activities, carefully planning which ones we should introduce first, which activities should be on the same day, etc. We also discussed questions that we should ask the teachers before interacting with the students, and set a high level plan (but seeing as we're in India, plans are bound to change once we actually get there!).

We're now all safely back in our rooms and getting ready for the day ahead of us. Tomorrow it's off to the Taj Mahal and other sites around Agra, and then back to New Delhi!

From Agra, goodnight and goodluck!

-Jenna

First Days in India

The first day of our trip was spent sitting down for hours and hours on end. We flew from Detroit to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam to Mumbai. We flew for about 16 and a half hours, and emerged from the Mumbai airport unscathed on a late on Wednesday night.

Since safety was the number one priority for this trip, we had a bus waiting for us right when we left the airport. It took a while to get to the YWCA hostel but eventually we were able to find the quaint building and get settled. I got to bed at around 3 am, but I'm sure the sleeping schedule was different for everyone. However, one thing is for sure, everyone was pretty exhausted by that point. Nevertheless, we got up for breakfast and headed out the door at 9:30 am for a tour of Mumbai.

Some of the SWE members on the Overseas trip (not all are depicted here)

The tour mainly consisted of driving by places of interest with the tour guide telling us the history behind Mumbai while we snapped pictures and watched city life rush past us. I wish I had a memory for names because I was only able to write down the names of the places that we stopped to visit. We stopped at the Hanging Gardens, the highest point in Mumbai, Mani Bhavan (a museum about Gandhi) and the Mumbai Train Station.

At the Hanging Gardens

At Mani Bhavan

At Mani Bhavan

More sites around Mumbai were visited such as the Gate to India and an Indian laundry station, however, I did not go on this part of the tour. At the Mumbai train station, me and 3 other Society of Women Engineers (SWE) members hailed a taxi and traveled to the US Consulate for do a presentation on SWE.

The taxi ride was another adventure entirely. Imagine zipping through a bustling city where cars, buses, people, and tuk tuks are rushing all around you. Tuk tuks are quirky small vehicles with no side doors, and one front wheel. Then imagine looking at the road an realizing that even if lanes on the city road do exist, no one seems to care. Throw in a few "close calls" with pedestrians and aggressive cars, and then maybe you can imagine taxi rides in Mumbai.

View from a taxi

View from a taxi

View from a taxi

View from a taxi: Tuk tuk sighting

Anyway, we arrived at the Consulate at around 12:15 pm, 45 minutes early. However, this actually worked in our advantage since we were then able to get lunch before our presentation. The US Consulate was a high security place, which was pretty interesting to see, alas, photos were not allowed. After having lunch, Almitra Kika  the Cultural Affairs Specialist from the US Consulate drove us to the Usha Mittal Institute of Technology at SNDT Women's Studies.

This was where we did our presentation on the Society of Women Engineers. We had around 20 women engineers come to our presentation, most were PhD students and a few were undergraduate students. We talked about National SWE and Michigan SWE in detail and let the audience know that SWE is looking into possibly establishing a chapter in India. This was a great experience because we got to share the value of having an organization like SWE to more people. It seemed like a few were interested in joining SWE after our presentation.

After the presentation, we grabbed another taxi and made our way back to the YWCA. This taxi driver had a slightly wilder driving style. The driver drove over multiple speed bump type deals and it seemed like the bottom of his car was getting slammed into the ground every time. Of course, the cab driver could hear and see our concern, which only resulted in his amusement.

After arriving safely at the hostel, we headed back out once again to run some errands. Some people needed to exchange our money for rupees, buy SIM cards or buy clothes. While 4 SWE members left he main group to do a presentation, the rest of the members collected the necessary supplies for outreach activities.
Which will be discussed later in the blog!

After a long day of adventures, our group had dinner at the YWCA hostel. Mumbai was definitely an interesting city with lots of history, and lots of life. The tour guide we had today mentioned that as you can tell by looking at the buildings, economic extremes sit right next to each other in Mumbai. Mumbai is a city of color and a city of contrast and I am sad to leave it so soon.

Tomorrow we will be flying out to continue the adventure elsewhere!

P.S. Sorry I had more pictures I wanted to post but we're in a time crunch and someone else needs the computer!