October Recap: Visiting 6 Indian States!

Blog #12 October Recap: Visiting 6 Indian States!

Slideshow on Ancient Rajasthani Architecture in Jodhpur

October has been an eventful month in terms of visiting and learning about different regions in India as this month alone I’ve been in 6 states including Haryana (my home), Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat.  It has been a long time since I wrote blogs due to an eventful couple of months. With this, I will keep everything brief and will start writing on a weekly (or two) basis again! The first trip was for YES students to Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan for the mandatory AFS midterm orientation. We stayed at the Rajmata Krishna Kumari Girls' School in which it was founded by His Highness Maharaja Gaj Singhji Sahib on 20th July 1992. The school is named after his mother Rajmata Krishna Kumari Sahibaji. After we got through the two days of AFS orientation material at the beautiful and hospitable school, we had the opportunity to visit Jodhpur, in which we visited man historical places such as the Umaid Bhawan Palace, Mehrangarh Fort, and lastly the old town.

YES Abroad India cohort at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur wearing YES shirts & traditional Rajasthani kurta.

Next, I was supposed to go to Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat on the 12^th of October, but had to change my tickets to the 13^th due to a function at my school called “Annual Day”. I was part of the MC during the beginning welcoming the crowd to the festivity, and towards the end, I was an American businessman, which was a perfect role! 

Annual Day Function at School

The next day early in the morning I flew to Ahmedabad for a Navratri program the Ahmedabad chapter magnificently organized. Navratri means nine (nava) nights (ratri), hence it is celebrated for nine days. In Hinduism, Navratri celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over Mahishasura, the buffalo-headed demon. She fought for nine days and nine nights before emerging victorious on the tenth day. Different regions celebrate it in their unique way but we flew to Ahmedabad as the Gujarati’s celebrate it quite specially with a dance called Garba. We learned (for me: attempted to learn) and danced until late at night, late morning, or even sometimes all night and getting no sleep!

Pictures of the Navratri event in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

After arriving back in Delhi and resting for one day, I then left again and headed to my host-family’s village in the state of Uttar Pradesh and the bride’s town in the state of Uttarakhand for a wedding. For a couple of days, I experienced the true Indian village life, in which I truly admire and enjoy its simplicity and calmness. I also experienced an Indian wedding: another well-spent sleepless night! Words can’t really describe much about the great time I’ve had, so I’ll just leave it to the pictures…

Pictures of the village and pre-wedding event! 

Then during my first week back to my normal schedule, Wednesday, the 24^th of October was a holiday at school, the AFS Delhi chapter organized an excursion to the Swaminarayan Akshardham, a Hindu temple. They said that if we arrive at 1pm, we would leave around 7pm, in which I did not comprehend why we would be taking so much time at a temple, but this temple was not like the ones I visited in the past. Personally and respectively, I see it as the Disneyland of Hindu temples. I say this because there were interactive displays out. One was a boat ride resembling “Splash Mountain” although we did not get wet and learned a lot about the history of the religion. Another one was an interactive walk with automated props explaining the story and principles of Sahajanand Swami (or Swaminarayan) lived by. This specific exhibit made a lasting impact on me, something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but hesitated for an even longer time, but the exhibit made me re-evaluate and realize that it was best thing to do: become a vegetarian. With this, I wanted to have my last meal with meat, so I stopped somewhere and got a chicken shawarma – let’s just say my stomach didn’t approve my last non-vegetarian meal. There was also a beautiful water show with lights and lasers once the sun went down.

We are not allowed to bring any phones or cameras inside, so I borrowed a picture from the internet to show its beauty. Credit: Akshardham.com

 Akshardham Temple and Night Watershow

Finally, that briefly summarizes my month of October in a not-so-brief blogpost!