Ajanta, Ellora, and a little bit of reflection

So the past week or so has been mostly unexciting. I feel like I'm finally starting to settle into a definite routine here in Pune. I feel much better when my life has a pattern that is easy to follow, and to be honest, India is a lot easier to digest when I don't have to constantly think about the little things. The first few weeks are difficult because everything you do is difficult. Now that I know when to get up in the morning, what I'll be eating for breakfast (more or less), how to take the rickshaw to ACM, etc etc, I'm finally starting to open up my eyes to the things that I think I was kind of blocking out my first few weeks here. I think I'm finally starting to see India, to really be here. I had a very interesting conversation with my friend Ben on the bus ride to Ajanta and Ellora this weekend about how India is making us reflect on the things that we're going through. I'm realizing how American I am, even in the simplest of ways. I get anxious, for example, when a rickshaw I'm in is going really slowly up the hill to ACM, even though I'm constantly 15 minutes early to class. Why? I walk very quickly everywhere I go, even when where I'm going is NOWHERE. These things seem so pointless. People in India are constantly late, but at least they seem to enjoy the ride there. Instead of getting anxious or upset when there's a ton of traffic, they placidly deal with it and move on. I think I'm beginning to adopt this attitude, though it's certainly taking some effort to turn off the switch that makes me anxious or upset at the slightest bit of inconvenience. I think I'm going to come home a very patient person.

All that self-reflection aside, I originally wanted to blog about my weekend at Ajanta and Ellora caves in Northeastern Maharasthra! The caves are truly a fascinating place, but I'll go in order. We departed from Pune last Thursday short one ACM-er, because Liz was feeling sick. So the 8 of us, plus Gene (our American program director) and Anju, ACM's Indian travel guru, we were off in one of the mini buses featuring the goddess' watchful eyes on the rear view mirror. Most of us slept a lot of the long bus ride, but Ben and I had a very interesting conversation like I already mentioned. We stopped for several hours in the afternoon at a place called Daulatabad Fort. It was similar in a lot of ways to Sinhagad that I wrote about several weeks ago, but a lot cooler in some ways. Our tour guide told us all about how when the fort was built way back in the 14th century, the guy who built it built it to be the strongest fort in the world. It was never conquered, despite the rush of invaders featured in Maharasthra during the past few centuries. The fort had 5 outer walls that one had to conquer, a moat filled with poisonous water snakes and crocodiles, and probably the most intense, a series of pitch-black caves that encouraged you to kill your own men in an effort to conquer the place. Delhi was forcibly removed under Muslim leadership to this fort for several years because of it's excellent protection. The whole area, of course, was stunningly beautiful, surrounded by miles of lush green forest accented with the dark brick of the forest. We had an amazing time hiking around the fort and exploring the ruins for several hours. This was also perhaps the sweatiest I've ever been in my entire life!! After that, Anju took us to an amazing factory where we saw the most beautiful silk saris and scarves being hand woven by Indian women. Of course, everyone had an absolute field day buying gifts for mothers and grandmothers.

That night we arrived at our hotel, a picturesque series of bungalows in the middle of the jungle, facing the Ellora caves and a magnificent waterfall. The beds were the comfiest I've experienced in India and the whole place was filled with quite an aura of mystique.We enjoyed a late evening of each other's company and hit the sack for another early morning.

From the hotel we left early (after a breakfast with, get it, EGGS!!) for our drive to Ajanta caves. After more than six hours on the bus Thursday, we were not looking forward to another two and a half on the bus today, but it went quick enough and we were rewarded with stunning views of the caves from above. The caves themselves were carved, from the cliff, by Buddhists from the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD. Each features some sort of tribute to the Buddha and there are more than twenty of them!! They were all really amazing, some of them had really great paintings of the Buddha's lives on the inside and we had a wonderful guide who explained everything to us. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take flash photography inside the caves, so most of my pictures from inside them didn't turn out at all. We found out that the caves were abandoned for centuries until this English explorer was hunting tigers in the 1800s (awesome) and saw a tiger disappear. He followed it and happened upon this whole series of caves that were completely overgrown. Pretty soon there were all sorts of English archaeologists crawling all over it. The day was hot and humid so there were very few other tourists around. We had the whole day to explore the place and eat the most complicated packed lunch I've ever seen (two sandwiches, an apple, a muffin, two tins of curry and a few chapati, chips, a hard boiled egg, apple juice, and spiced buttermilk. I'm not even kidding), given to us by the hotel management who knew Anju very well.

Outside of Ajanta, there's a tiny area where everyone who wants to sell souvenirs has to sit and wait for tourists to pass through on their way back to the parking lot. Because it's been hot and dry, not to mention the whole swine flu debacle, we were absolutely SURROUNDED the second we entered the compound. Men trying to get us to come to their shops, all of which sold essentially the same thing, for ridiculously inflated prices. Case in point: I bought some pretty cool stone elephants that a man originally offered me for 2000 rps a piece at a whopping 400 rps for the pair. I'd say 10% of the originally offered price is a not-too-shabby bargain, though I'm sure even THIS price was inflated. The experience was seriously overwhelming though, and I couldn't take more than a few minutes of the men basically pulling us back and forth between their shops and following us around before I had to escape to the bus.

The next day was a trip to the Ellora caves, which are similar mainly in location. Both the caves are carved out of basalt cliffs, a type of rock formed by ancient volcanic activity. The Ellora caves aren't just Buddhist, though, they're also Jain and Hindu. Jainism is a really interesting religion that developed mainly to escape the caste system associated with Hinduism. It's followers don't believe in killing anything, so very devout Jains are supposed to sweep in front of them as they walk so they don't kill any insects. Interestingly enough, they are also the wealthiest per capita religion in India, though they believe in giving up one's possessions and living only through begging. Many Jains apparently do give up their wealthy lifestyles near the end of their lives. Anyway, the Jain caves feature some pretty amazing , as do their Hindu counterparts. The Hindu caves feature amazing depictions of the two Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabaratha, as well as pretty fantastic carvings of a variety of Indian gods and goddesses (oh, and the Kama Sutra, which was used as a sort of sex education in India back in the day).

After one more night at the hotel and a fantastic long morning drinking tea in the garden, we were off back to Pune on perhaps the longest, dustiest, sweatiest, hottest bus ride of my entire life. I considered it something of an omen when as we drove into Pune it began to rain, washing away the heat of the long weekend in central India. On the way home we stopped at the "Poor Man's Taj Mahal," which was constructed by the same guy who built the REAL Taj up North in Agra. It's actually a cool building in and of itself, but it's hard to love a plaster imitation of the real thing I'll be seeing in December. It was a fun excursion none-the-less, and got us out of the stuffy bus and out into open, albeit incredibly hot, air. The whole experience this weekend was an absolutely fantastic one. I feel refreshed with India, and like I mentioned at the beginning of this epically long blog, so ready to start the next few weeks. I only have TWO weeks until my travel in the South! I can't believe how fast the semester is going, even though it feels like a year since I've arrived. I think that these next few weeks will certainly be a test... it's time to open my eyes wide to India and see what I find.

Love to you all, wishing you could be here on this crazy adventure! If you can, be sure to check out my most recent pictures on Facebook, which feature all my adventures thus far--some pics of my home life in Pune, my trip to Phaltan, and this most recent trip to Ajanta, Ellora, Dautalabad and the Fake Taj Mahal.