Essay

I was asked to do a write up for an article related to our Aurangabad trip. I'll make that today's blog entry. Also, Meera and Susina - you can simply cut and paste the article from here if you don't get the message I sent you both on FaceBook. thanks.

The TEA trip to Aurangabad was an enjoyable time for all. Old friends and new friends enjoyed two exciting days of ancient painted Buddhist caves, temples carved from mountains, and an exciting fort that invigorated the imagination of all who saw it. Overall, it was a great success.

The trip began and ended in a dedicated train car where families and friends joined each other for good conversation and community. While it did not evoke the Orient Express in all of its attributes, the train ride did give everyone a taste of travel in India that was new to many of us. While the cadence of the train and the rhythmic movements of our car were something we have all experienced before in other times and in other places, for many of us it was the first time that the Indian countryside was the view out of the window. The arid stretches of the Deccan plateau stretched out for all of us. Andhra Pradesh faded into Maharashtra at some point. the land around us was covered with the light brown of grasses long since dried after monsoon. We saw the sights that never cease to intrigue us - young boys riding camels, a goat herder with his flock, small groups of women on foot in brightly colored clothing and more than one school where the students waved at the train passing by. What we saw was India reshaping itself time and again into forms that delight the sense and occasionally shock our Western sensibilities. We saw small cities, villages, settlements, and farms - a huge variety of communities passed by as the day progressed on into night.

We arrived in Aurangabad late on Friday night and proceeded to the Taj Residency with the kind of fatigue that had all of us moving slowly. Sleep came quickly that night.

When we awoke, the first day was dedicated to visiting Ajanta. Ajanta is a series of man-made caves which are carved and painted in fantastic ways. Some of them date back more than 1,500 years. The faces on the walls were varied in appearance and hue, showing that this was a crossroads for pilgrims from all over Asia and lands beyond. The ornate carvings were overwhelmingly of Buddha, with a serene look on his face and his hand held in different positions indicating teaching, meditation and a variety of other postures. At one point, our tour guide disappeared behind a "stupah", a Buddhist altar of worship. He let out various chants to illustrate the acoustics of the place. It was a magical moment.

We retired back to the hotel and a spirited game of water polo followed. Through inexplicable bad fortune, the superior team lost.

On the second day we went to Daulatabad Fort. It started with a vigorous hike up the side of a small mountain. At the top was a tree filled with monkeys, seemingly there to tell us that more amazing things awaited us. We walked into the Fort.

While in the fort, we were amazed to find that it had almost all of the attributes of a Disney exhibit. The fort had a moat that once contained crocodiles. It had massive doors with spikes that was opened only at dawn. Bridges between towers. Sections where invading armies would have boiling oil poured upon them. And a myriad of surprising false hallways and misleading steps that intended to befuddle and vanquish those armies foolish enough to attempt to take Daulatabad through force. The highlight was being lead through a section of the castle inhabited by bats while being lead by a guide carrying a flame torch. It was a romantic moment that made a few of us forget we were not in an amusement park.

As we exited the castle, I asked Tara in a fit of forgetfulness if we could rush to get a good place in line for Space Mountain. She rolled her eyes.

Ellora was the culmination of the second day, where we saw more caves as well as the fantastic Kailash. The Kailash is a beautiful and intricate edifice carved from one single stone hillside. On it there are multi-headed and -armed deities shown in battle with demons. There are massive heads of elephants surrounding the base of the Kailash evoking images of power and strength. While there, many of us were amazed and amused to see our children playing an innocent game of hide-and-seek amongst statues and caves that dated back more than 1,000 years. For some of these children, their ancestors lived in India while this amazing work was being done. Perhaps some of their ancestors even worked in the Kailash, or even designed it. Or prayed at the site after it was complete. For some of the other children, their ancestors lived in the Europe during the era that Ellora's Kailash was being achieved, wandering hill and dale without an idea that such a place as India even existed. And somehow, history has knit all of us together in a new community.

The heat got to some of the group, as some have made strange claims that we visited a smaller version of the Taj Mahal. Perhaps best remembered as a bit of a mirage, this place solidified in the group's mind that valuable time should be dedicated to seeing the real thing, not the degraded plaster version that some believe was seen that day.

That night we got back onto the train for the midnight ride back to Hyderabad. As we all returned to our dedicated car, we carried the best kind of fatigue. So many of us get tired day-to-day due to lengthy hours of work and attending to the lives of our families in this different land. Yet that night, we had acquired our fatigue through hiking up hillsides that had frolicking monkeys on them. We were tired from visiting ancient Buddhist caves. And we were tired in all of the right ways that permitted us a quick descent into Dreamland. We all easily slipped into a sound sleep as the trains wheels lulled us to sleep.

When we got off the train, we all quickly went our own ways. And in fact, a time will come when we global nomads will all go our own ways in a more significant sense. We will some day all be in different places. Still, we will always carry the amazing shared memory of time together on the arid Deccan plateau in a place where forts, castles, painted caves and profound carvings coalesced easily with friends from far and wide. Aurangabad will be remembered for the rest of our lives.