Tuesday, May 29, 2007
"Lunch time, sir!"
At last I found today the encence sticks that smell very similar to some nice flavour I noticed already in some hindu temples. It is called "flora bathi" and I received it from a company bus driver who was burning some in his driver cabin as I was passing by. The end of a long quest...
Two days before, I had been delivered a wooden box, covered with jute cloth, coming from Darjeeling. The only suspens was to know which of the tibetan items it was containing. I was the lucky one, only 2 parts were inside : book covers (top and bottom plate) finely ciseled in brass and silver showing some buddhist saints, together with animals and flower patterns. Un coup de coeur. My sister's parts will follow...Agnes and me had been there a week before to get a taste of places in India that would provide a strong contrast to the Chennai standards. Some unplanned short stop in Calcutta had made us familiar with the famous metallic structure of the Howrah bridge, the dynamic driving style of the taxi drivers and the bloody rituals of the Kali temple, where the flowers used for offers are exclusively (red) hibiscus and where many black goats were sacrifized every day to the feared three-eyed goddess. To reach Darjeeling, you land in Bagdogra airport, 80km in the south and you take a taxi from there where they are not on strike. It was a strike day. We heared days later that this strike may have been linked with the autonomy movement of the Gurkas who want to creat a Gurkaland distinct from West-Bengal where they belong to nowadays. Many adverse(-turned-nice) events followed, in spite of which the memory print of the city was charming and absolutely relaxing :
1. heavy cloudy, so Kanchenjunga was not visible (we woke up once at 3.30am to go to the view point but gave up as we heared the continuous rainfall from the comfortable bed...)
2. the Happy Valley Tea Estate was closed "for maintenance" that day. Inspite of that a guide succeeded in making us visit it from outside and a 66-year old lady made us enjoy the uniqueness of the "Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowry Orange Pekoe 1" made in that estate. 5 seconds enough and the leaves can be re-used 3 times! Her second passion after tea business was football. She (born in Nepal, married in Darjeeling) was just about to retire from her team where she was goalkeeper and she was fan of...Diego Maradona. Later we heared in a shop that the factory had been closed 2 years before...but what about the people in the tea garden all around. A ghost factory?
3. it was a thursday, so the main market, Chowk Bazar was closed, what didn't prevented many small shops to be open and a massive and heterogeneous crowd to walking on the streets, including many jung students in various uniforms. Massively Gurka type, so "sun-burned chinese", with endless variations, a wonderfull show. Food was simple but good : "momos", the local version of the ravioli-pirogi-korean pirogi, and "tukpa", a delicious noodle-beans soup.
Hardly time to conduct an last barganing, and it was already to late to catch the Delhi flight. Luckily an unexpected short-cut through the tea plantations saved us, until the driver, considering that the toughest part was behind, stopped the car in front of a small hotel and looked at me : "lunch time, sir!". No need to say anything about my reaction...
Delhi. The only of the 4 major indian metropoles (including Bombay, Calcutta and Madras) having more than 500 years history (and not beeing a harbour...). The histrorical city of the Kauravas in the Mahabharata. Tuglukabad, that hosted Ibn-Battuta during years after his long trip through the islamic world. Sher Shah and Humayun's magic Purana Qila (=fort). Shajahanabad and his Lal Qila (Red Fort) and Jama Masjid (main mosk). Later Lutyen's visionary New Delhi : Arriving from the airport, you drive through large avenues (am I in India) leading to minister offices, minister residences, ambassador offices, ambassador residences. Designed early 20th and looks very spacious in the 21st century. And from times to times, the shape of an elegant mughal ruin showing up. I mentionned already Lodi garden, probably one of the best places to have a rest in a well maintained garden with majestuous mausoleums facing each other and incredible variety of birds. Purana Qila, build by an afghan invader but further modified by Humayun (2nd great mughal) is also place you would like to stay forever. Massive and elegant gates with huge bee nests hanging, octogonal building transformed by Humayun in a bibliotheque (in these stairs he slipped and died...) and a modest in size but amazing mosk, the most beautifull seen so far in India. This fort was at a walking distance from our hotel in Sunder Nagar so we dropped here first on the second day, thinking it would be a question of minutes to check out what was there. The whole day agenda suffered from that first visit...This blog should not become a touristic guide, so I stop about Delhi, but it is more than the admistrative capitable, as frequently described. Go there a experience yourself.
BREAKING NEWS from here :
*Many protest here after Aishwarya Ray (you can't ignore her) and Abishek Bachchan enjoyed during their wedding a 45min exclusive worshipping cession in the richest temple in India, Tirupati. Scandale! The temple management had to present excuses to the public on the next day. The common man after queueing many hours is allowed to see the God during only a few seconds!!!
*Amithab Bachchan, Bollywood number one superstar (and Abishek's father), has to give evidences that he is a farmer (sic!) if he wants to keep some agricultural land he acquired in Puna area.
*After the poor performance of the Indian team during the world cup in West Indies, some districs even officially banned cricket!
*Gurukant at the end of the movie called "Guru", speaking to a massive indian crowd : "Shall we (Indians) tell the world that we are coming?"
*Huging is a dangerous game in India and Pakistan : the well known Gere and Shilpa event, and a Pakistan female minister who was so happy to make her first parachute jump in the french sky, that she hugged her instructor after landing. A fatwa was waiting for her in her home country and she had to quit since.
Good bye Rostro!
Read an enjoyed recently :
Naom Chomski : Propaganda and the public mind
William Dalrymple : The City of Djinns (best inspiration guide for Delhi)
Current :
Mc Cullough : "1776, America and Britain at war". Starting Boston's siege by Washington, don't know the end yet...
And you?
Two days before, I had been delivered a wooden box, covered with jute cloth, coming from Darjeeling. The only suspens was to know which of the tibetan items it was containing. I was the lucky one, only 2 parts were inside : book covers (top and bottom plate) finely ciseled in brass and silver showing some buddhist saints, together with animals and flower patterns. Un coup de coeur. My sister's parts will follow...Agnes and me had been there a week before to get a taste of places in India that would provide a strong contrast to the Chennai standards. Some unplanned short stop in Calcutta had made us familiar with the famous metallic structure of the Howrah bridge, the dynamic driving style of the taxi drivers and the bloody rituals of the Kali temple, where the flowers used for offers are exclusively (red) hibiscus and where many black goats were sacrifized every day to the feared three-eyed goddess. To reach Darjeeling, you land in Bagdogra airport, 80km in the south and you take a taxi from there where they are not on strike. It was a strike day. We heared days later that this strike may have been linked with the autonomy movement of the Gurkas who want to creat a Gurkaland distinct from West-Bengal where they belong to nowadays. Many adverse(-turned-nice) events followed, in spite of which the memory print of the city was charming and absolutely relaxing :
1. heavy cloudy, so Kanchenjunga was not visible (we woke up once at 3.30am to go to the view point but gave up as we heared the continuous rainfall from the comfortable bed...)
2. the Happy Valley Tea Estate was closed "for maintenance" that day. Inspite of that a guide succeeded in making us visit it from outside and a 66-year old lady made us enjoy the uniqueness of the "Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowry Orange Pekoe 1" made in that estate. 5 seconds enough and the leaves can be re-used 3 times! Her second passion after tea business was football. She (born in Nepal, married in Darjeeling) was just about to retire from her team where she was goalkeeper and she was fan of...Diego Maradona. Later we heared in a shop that the factory had been closed 2 years before...but what about the people in the tea garden all around. A ghost factory?
3. it was a thursday, so the main market, Chowk Bazar was closed, what didn't prevented many small shops to be open and a massive and heterogeneous crowd to walking on the streets, including many jung students in various uniforms. Massively Gurka type, so "sun-burned chinese", with endless variations, a wonderfull show. Food was simple but good : "momos", the local version of the ravioli-pirogi-korean pirogi, and "tukpa", a delicious noodle-beans soup.
Hardly time to conduct an last barganing, and it was already to late to catch the Delhi flight. Luckily an unexpected short-cut through the tea plantations saved us, until the driver, considering that the toughest part was behind, stopped the car in front of a small hotel and looked at me : "lunch time, sir!". No need to say anything about my reaction...
Delhi. The only of the 4 major indian metropoles (including Bombay, Calcutta and Madras) having more than 500 years history (and not beeing a harbour...). The histrorical city of the Kauravas in the Mahabharata. Tuglukabad, that hosted Ibn-Battuta during years after his long trip through the islamic world. Sher Shah and Humayun's magic Purana Qila (=fort). Shajahanabad and his Lal Qila (Red Fort) and Jama Masjid (main mosk). Later Lutyen's visionary New Delhi : Arriving from the airport, you drive through large avenues (am I in India) leading to minister offices, minister residences, ambassador offices, ambassador residences. Designed early 20th and looks very spacious in the 21st century. And from times to times, the shape of an elegant mughal ruin showing up. I mentionned already Lodi garden, probably one of the best places to have a rest in a well maintained garden with majestuous mausoleums facing each other and incredible variety of birds. Purana Qila, build by an afghan invader but further modified by Humayun (2nd great mughal) is also place you would like to stay forever. Massive and elegant gates with huge bee nests hanging, octogonal building transformed by Humayun in a bibliotheque (in these stairs he slipped and died...) and a modest in size but amazing mosk, the most beautifull seen so far in India. This fort was at a walking distance from our hotel in Sunder Nagar so we dropped here first on the second day, thinking it would be a question of minutes to check out what was there. The whole day agenda suffered from that first visit...This blog should not become a touristic guide, so I stop about Delhi, but it is more than the admistrative capitable, as frequently described. Go there a experience yourself.
BREAKING NEWS from here :
*Many protest here after Aishwarya Ray (you can't ignore her) and Abishek Bachchan enjoyed during their wedding a 45min exclusive worshipping cession in the richest temple in India, Tirupati. Scandale! The temple management had to present excuses to the public on the next day. The common man after queueing many hours is allowed to see the God during only a few seconds!!!
*Amithab Bachchan, Bollywood number one superstar (and Abishek's father), has to give evidences that he is a farmer (sic!) if he wants to keep some agricultural land he acquired in Puna area.
*After the poor performance of the Indian team during the world cup in West Indies, some districs even officially banned cricket!
*Gurukant at the end of the movie called "Guru", speaking to a massive indian crowd : "Shall we (Indians) tell the world that we are coming?"
*Huging is a dangerous game in India and Pakistan : the well known Gere and Shilpa event, and a Pakistan female minister who was so happy to make her first parachute jump in the french sky, that she hugged her instructor after landing. A fatwa was waiting for her in her home country and she had to quit since.
Good bye Rostro!
Read an enjoyed recently :
Naom Chomski : Propaganda and the public mind
William Dalrymple : The City of Djinns (best inspiration guide for Delhi)
Current :
Mc Cullough : "1776, America and Britain at war". Starting Boston's siege by Washington, don't know the end yet...
And you?
Comments:
<< Home
and I, after an equal music am still walking around Calcutta with an unsuitable boy
# posted by 
: 11:42 AM
: 11:42 AM
belle nouvelle page d'écriture (je reste admirative chaque fois) ; d ailleurs, comme on ne sait pas à qui tu envoies le lien, je vais me permettre de faire un peu de transmission d info complém. eventuellement un peu redondante.
tu continues bien à visiter l inde (avant...la "fin" ! ) ; de mon côté, j ai continué la visite via la littérature ; y avait une session de blog sur ce sj, mais tnat pis, voici le complément en vrac !
En complément de mistry, rushdie, davidar (cf commentaires précédents sur le §blog bouquins) : Gosh, "feux du bengale",, que j ai bien apprécié.
Puis une nouvelle tentative, achevée cette fois, de naipaul : "la maison de Mr Biswas" ; comme la plupart des autres livres cités, un sorte de saga familiale, mais ej confirme mon avis précédent sur l auteur, qui a pourtant eu un prix de littérature : je ne trouve pas celaparticulirement bien écrit (ou est ce la traduction, car je l ai,pareussement, ou pragmatiquement, lu en francais).
Pour la suite : Tagore, (qd meme évidemment !) , et qq autres nouvelles.
Bon tout !
on t embrasse
tu continues bien à visiter l inde (avant...la "fin" ! ) ; de mon côté, j ai continué la visite via la littérature ; y avait une session de blog sur ce sj, mais tnat pis, voici le complément en vrac !
En complément de mistry, rushdie, davidar (cf commentaires précédents sur le §blog bouquins) : Gosh, "feux du bengale",, que j ai bien apprécié.
Puis une nouvelle tentative, achevée cette fois, de naipaul : "la maison de Mr Biswas" ; comme la plupart des autres livres cités, un sorte de saga familiale, mais ej confirme mon avis précédent sur l auteur, qui a pourtant eu un prix de littérature : je ne trouve pas celaparticulirement bien écrit (ou est ce la traduction, car je l ai,pareussement, ou pragmatiquement, lu en francais).
Pour la suite : Tagore, (qd meme évidemment !) , et qq autres nouvelles.
Bon tout !
on t embrasse
# posted by : 10:55 AM
: 10:55 AM
le même en signant ! 'autre que "anymous" !!)
belle nouvelle page d'écriture (je reste admirative chaque fois) ; d ailleurs, comme on ne sait pas à qui tu envoies le lien, je vais me permettre de faire un peu de transmission d info complém. eventuellement un peu redondante.
tu continues bien à visiter l inde (avant...la "fin" ! ) ; de mon côté, j ai continué la visite via la littérature ; y avait une session de blog sur ce sj, mais tnat pis, voici le complément en vrac !
En complément de mistry, rushdie, davidar (cf commentaires précédents sur le §blog bouquins) : Gosh, "feux du bengale",, que j ai bien apprécié.
Puis une nouvelle tentative, achevée cette fois, de naipaul : "la maison de Mr Biswas" ; comme la plupart des autres livres cités, un sorte de saga familiale, mais ej confirme mon avis précédent sur l auteur, qui a pourtant eu un prix de littérature : je ne trouve pas celaparticulirement bien écrit (ou est ce la traduction, car je l ai,pareussement, ou pragmatiquement, lu en francais).
Pour la suite : Tagore, (qd meme évidemment !) , et qq autres nouvelles.
Bon tout !
on t embrasse
valerie S-B
Post a Comment
belle nouvelle page d'écriture (je reste admirative chaque fois) ; d ailleurs, comme on ne sait pas à qui tu envoies le lien, je vais me permettre de faire un peu de transmission d info complém. eventuellement un peu redondante.
tu continues bien à visiter l inde (avant...la "fin" ! ) ; de mon côté, j ai continué la visite via la littérature ; y avait une session de blog sur ce sj, mais tnat pis, voici le complément en vrac !
En complément de mistry, rushdie, davidar (cf commentaires précédents sur le §blog bouquins) : Gosh, "feux du bengale",, que j ai bien apprécié.
Puis une nouvelle tentative, achevée cette fois, de naipaul : "la maison de Mr Biswas" ; comme la plupart des autres livres cités, un sorte de saga familiale, mais ej confirme mon avis précédent sur l auteur, qui a pourtant eu un prix de littérature : je ne trouve pas celaparticulirement bien écrit (ou est ce la traduction, car je l ai,pareussement, ou pragmatiquement, lu en francais).
Pour la suite : Tagore, (qd meme évidemment !) , et qq autres nouvelles.
Bon tout !
on t embrasse
valerie S-B
# posted by : 10:56 AM
: 10:56 AM << Home
