It's wedding season in India as this is such a religious
country there are many months where marriage is prohibited for bad luck and
other days honoring the gods. The next
few months there will be hundreds of weddings each day of the week and we are
so fortunate to be here during the kick of month where nervous brides and
grooms who may or may not have ever met are marrying. I must add it takes hours before the
ceremonies actually start and I am left wondering if that is because the
families are all meeting for the very first time! I had about four hours of sleep listening to
the sounds of happiness coming from two yards away from our hotel. Even Jill's white noise soundproof Bose
headphones would not stop the blaring of music and cheering. This made for a long morning but thankfully
we arrived at Fatehpur Kikri - the City of Victory and Mughal Emperor Akbar's
home.
Akbar is the grandfather of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan
who built the Taj Mahal and the grandson of the founder of the Mughal dynasty
in India. He inherited the throne at age
13 and is best known for his appreciation of all faiths and his passion for the
arts and culture. The Fatehpur Kikri
completed in the 16th Century was the head of the Mughal Empire for about 10
years under Akbar's reign. It was
abandoned when Akbar defeated a tribe in what is now Pakistan where he
remained. The walled city is quite grand
but having experienced the Taj the day prior, it pales in comparison. The city constructed of red stone and in
typical Mughal (Persian) architecture consists of palaces, public buildings,
living areas for the court, army, servants of the king and a mosque (still
active today). Many of the carvings represent Hinduism, Christianity and
Islamic traditions highlighting Akbar's compassion and need to unite his
empire.
Our guide was 35 years old and originally from this area and
spoke amazing English. He was very proud
of Fatehpur Kikri and wanted to make sure we appreciated every detail of the
city. He kept stopping us to give
instruction. I am getting used to their
pleas but most the guides get very upset when Jill wanders to take pictures and
I am left listening. They want us to
listen first and take pictures later.
This guide was no different but sort of figured out Jill quickly. I enjoyed him because he was very open and
honest about his background. He lost his
father a few years ago and supports his mother (who suffers from a mental
illness), while his older brother travels the world as a Bollywood producer and
his younger brother works in Delhi. He
donned an American look equipped with the standard baseball cap, jeans,
sneakers and Ray ban sunglasses (most are more subtly dressed). He is Hindu (I of course guessed he was
Muslim) and is not married. We did learn
from him that Indians (Hindus primarily) are not allowed to marry someone from
the same village an unspoken rule). I am
guessing because they could possibly be related or something, which is
absolutely prohibited by law and religion.
He is to be engaged next year and then marry. I didn't get the feeling that he even knew
the woman yet.
As we toured Fatehpur Kikri for a bit, our guide started
building up a sight called the Tomb of Salim Chishti within a separate area of
the city. It is believed if you make an
offering to the Tomb, you will be granted three wishes. He made a strong case for this as his wish
for his mother came true. People from
all over the world visit the Tomb to make a wish. The former president of France Nicholas Sarkozy
and his wife Carla Bruni made a wish for a baby girl and it came true. I would never want to miss an opportunity to
make a wish so after 500 rupees ($10); Jill and I purchased the required cloth,
flowers and string. The Tomb is actually
a marble structure similar to a mosque with a center chamber. We entered the chamber area (heads fully
covered), laid our cloth on the Tomb, then our flowers and moved to a type of
gate and tied our string. Being in India
has left me superstitious so I won't jinx myself and share my wishes but if
anything maybe it will give a little power to the prayers my parents make each
week at church for both me and my brother....happiness, health and WEDDINGS!
In India, there is much time to be spent learning religion
and the country's culture. What Jill and
I are learning is that there are many sets of rules and some days we figure out
which ones apply to us and other days we give up trying. There are safe tourist restaurants that
supposedly prevent Delhi Belly, there are shops that are government and tour
agency approved that mark up their products 20 percent and then there are
American standards and Indian standards.
We go with the flow most of the time but there is the
occasional freak out moment like this morning when I took a cold shower or
yesterday when the guide tried to take us to his marble shop and was visibly
distraught when we didn't want to go to a second tourist trap. It's not easy being a tourist. It is an experience in a beautiful country
but the culture shock is dramatic.
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