Coming soon!

Terri Zeh Jacobson, Oct 2010 at the CC Conference

My close friend Terri Zeh Jacobson passed away on 3.24.11 in the late afternoon after a 3 year battle with cancer.  She was 47 years old.

I’m so thankful that I had gone to visit her in early February when she asked me to “come play with me” after the Mayo clinic gave her 8 weeks to live.  Sadly they were correct.

As I had promised her then, I went to Minnesota on Tuesday night to help her husband and company with the transition and to attend the Remembrance Service.

This is the Temple of Eck in the spring time

I’d like to share a little about the event with you.  The service portion was beautiful.  It was held in the sanctuary at the Temple of Eck, an amazing building with a gold pyramid roof in the middle of a forested area of Western Minneapolis.  The minister who married Teri and Steve 23 years ago conducted the service. A guitarist played as we entered and a friend of Terri’s sang Amazing Grace.  3 friends shared about Terri and her love for life and deep devotion to her clients and her family.

After the service there was a lovely reception in the social hall with Terri’s favorite carrot cake and tea and an open mike.  For 45 wonderful minutes people walked up to the mike and shared about how Terri had touched their lives, clients, friends, family and more (including Cathy and me). Good thing I brought Kleenex!

For those of you who did not have the honor of knowing Terri, and for those who did, here is a link to the Memorial Page.

Let me share some photos from the event with you.  We start with flowers from our partners.  I didn’t photograph the beautiful family flowers in purple and white.  So sorry I can’t share them with you.

All our sympathy from your friends at Apple

With deepest sympathy from your friends at SUREPayroll

At the entrance to the Sanctuary was a table and several posters with pictures of Terri:

Cathy Palazzolo from Acclivity

Top: Terri & Steve at their wedding. Middle Left: Brother Mark and Terri with the famous laugh! Bottom Left: A young Terri

Terri as we knew her and young Terri with bird (she loved all animals)

Art and Carole Zeh, Terri's beloved parents

Steve, Terri's husband with Teresa, one of Terri's best friends from childhood who came in from Fargo for the event.

Peggi, Amanda, Terri's right hand staffer and Cassandra, who has taken over Terri's business (with child #3 who will be joining us in person at the beginning of June!)

Local CC's Patti Curtis and Thom Melcher and former Resources staffer and good friend Anne Klaers-Grothe join Cathy and all of us for the service and reception.

For those of you who did not have the honor of knowing Terri, and for those who did, here is a link to the Memorial Page.

First, for those of you in the Los Angeles Area, I’d love to see you in person!

I’m having an Open House, Birthday Celebration and Trip Sharing Evening on Saturday night, starting at  7 pm.  I would love to have you join me!  I’m serving Indian Food and I’ll share the video’s from the 26/11 event, as well as stories of my travels.

Please RSVP if you are coming and I’ll give you parking instructions (Park at the Mall and walk over).  I do need to know if you are coming, so that I can order enough food!

Looking forward to seeing many of you!

NOW ON TO THE STORY OF THE LAST DAYS IN MUMBAI

The Oberoi Hotel, where we stayed in 2008, was ruined in the terrorist attacks.  They took 18 months and totally renovated the hotel.  They changed the rooms to suites and re-did the lobby and the restaurants.  We had loved everything about the hotel in 2008, especially the Tiffin restaurant where we had eaten most of our meals.  It was home.  And Naomi and Alan Scherr were killed there and four others were wounded, 3 severely.  All have since recovered, although wounds are never fully recovered.  They’ve changed the restaurant name to the Fenix, but the food and the staff are still fantastic.  We ate many meals here this time!  We also visit the escape route of the 4 wounded with Linda Ragsdale, who was shot in the back, and we went to the 15th floor, where Lisa and I had been trapped in our room for 40+ hours and saw the inside of one of the re-done rooms.

You might be interested in the security situation now!  It was tight everywhere in India.  Cars are screened and inspected before coming in the gates of the 5 star hotels.  Then your belongings are screened, you are screened and then patted down.  Think of going into the airport.  EVERY TIME you come in, even if you left 5 minutes earlier.  It made us feel good.  And at the airports, twice as much.

The lobby of the Oberoi, now with white marble floors and a red piano, very modern and gorgeous

We were here as the guests of the Oberoi.  They are so honorable.  They kept all 400 employees on staff during the renovations, at full pay.  Some worked, some didn’t, but full pay none the less.

And they had refunded our fees from 2008.  So, a positive side benefit of the terrorist attacks for me was 2 mostly free visits to India!

The employees we met were so warm and friendly and when they found out we had been present during the attacks, they shared their stories with us too.  It was very therapeutic in all ways.

We were housed at the Trident, which is the adjoining hotel.  Both are part of the Oberoi Group and both were attacked in 2008.  (We also stayed in Tridents in Agra and Jaipur.)  They put us all on the same floor.  It felt like a family reunion.  We were back and forth between each others rooms.

Every evening we went to Master Charles’s room and hung out, laughing and sharing and telling stories from 9 pm til midnight or later. Having that intimate personal time, in addition to meditating together made the trip really special.  By the way, we did share our terror experiences with each other and some of us had energetic responses to being present again in the hotel but no one had any major flashbacks or PTSD.  It was quite the opposite, we felt so much love.  It was a blessing and very healing.

Twelve of the survivors were here and Joe and John Slicker brought their whole family –  a total of 9 Slickers, one more wonderful than the next!  And Helen Connolly brought her 25 year old daughter, who was a terrific help in producing the event.  So we were 2 Australians, 2 Canadian’s and 16 Americans!

Dosas

Back to the Tiffin/Fenix, I had discovered dosas here.  Dosas are an ultrathin bread-pancake, with a masala flavored potato and onion mixture.  Lisa and I shared dosas and masala eggs every morning in 2008.  I ordered dosas everywhere we went in India.  They come in all sizes and thicknesses and shapes.  But the BEST are at the Tiffin/Fenix.

Here is my breakfast plate.  And the centerpieces here are a rectangular glass vase, with rocks at the bottom and 2 red orchid sprays and a guppy swimming around happily!  Orchids are everywhere!

The Tiffin/Fenix and the Trident Jaipur tied for best food on the trip.  For Lisa and I the two best things about India are the food and the people!  For every non-buffet meal we picked two items from the menu and shared them.  I had hoped to lose weight on the trip.  No such luck!  But I didn’t gain any!  That was a miracle!  The food is very healthy here.  We had mango yogurt for breakfast, mango lassi drinks in the afternoon, pomfret fillets (fish) for dinner.  We ate Saag Paneer (spinach and cheese) many times.  And every sauce under the Indian sun, with vegetables we didn’t know existed!

THE SEA LINK

Mumbai is a city of 20 MILLION people, and growing every day.  The traffic is intense and there is nowhere to build a freeway!  It feels like many Manhattans, everywhere you look there are high rise apartment and office buildings and many more under construction.  Billboards everywhere promote new housing developments, and Cadbury Chocolate and MTV!

So one solution was the Sea Link, a bridge and highway over the Indian Ocean.  It cuts the trip to the airport (and to Bandra and Malad (where my Ayurvedic health clinic is) by 30 minutes.  And it is spectacular.  In the first photo you see the Sea Link going straight out over the water at its’ start and you also see two platforms for building an extension of the Sea Link.  Next you see the length of the bridge, going parallel to the shore with those gorgeous towers at the end.  In the final picture you see the bridge towers up close as we drive thru them.  It is a spectacular ride and hard to photograph, as there is no pulling over!  It took 8 years to build it!

SHOPPING – A MUMBAI TRADITION!

Sabine, perfumiere par excellence

Meet Sabine, friend to our entire group. She mixes scents to make you your own individual perfume from her shop in the Oberoi Mall.  She also created the scent that they have in the Oberoi Hotel chain. There are scent generators everywhere in the hotels.  I bought it and have it in my bedroom – a rose-jasmine scent.  In 2008 everyone hung out in her shop.  The same was true this year.  This photo was taken in Linda Ragsdale’s room.  Linda, an artist and children’s book author/illustrater, had promised Naomi that they would draw dragons tomorrow the day that Naomi died.  So in her memory, Linda created the Peace Dragon Project.  Linda travels to schools in the US and in India now, and everywhere else is coming, does art projects making hearts with messages of peace and then gluing them together to make peace dragons.  She and her Indian students presented a gorgeous double dragon 3-D art piece to the manager of the Oberoi to be on permanent display there at our 26/11 Memorial Event (go back one blog to see the picture of it at the end of the page).  Do check out her web site.  Her project is vast and inspiring.  She is a perpetual motion machine!  One piece of her project is a scent for purchase.  So, of course, she is working with Sabine, pictured above.  I joined them in Linda’s room and checked out the seven scents Sabine has developed.  One, SOUL SEARCH, spoke to me loudly and I bought a large bottle of it!

Shopping for Spices

This is just a glimpse of our shopping.  There is a Mall in the hotel and we went and visited our merchant friends there. Harry, who came and meditated with us in 2008 and fell in love with MC, also shopped for us!  Then came to the room and delivered our merchandise!  I got a wonderful Om prayer shawl, an amethyst crystal energy tool and a canvas suitcase to hold my purchases for the flight home!  I think it weighed 40 lbs!  Of course we went to FabIndia where they have inexpensive India clothes and shopped til we dropped.  We also shopped silk fabrics in Jaipur, where I had 5 outfits made and Lisa had 3 – all completed in 18 hours!

Our last shopping jaunt was to Crawford Market, one city block square, where they have every animal, fruit, vegetable and almost anything else you can imagine for sale from little booths.  We strolled thru it to the spice store.  Lisa was getting saffron for her brother.  After smelling so many wonderful spices I ended up with 5 different masala and fenugreek packages.  I make an Indian stew and already have an Indian spice container with 7 different spices.  I’m off today to get another container!  I plan to cook Indian-style for myself.  I have enough spices to do it daily for a long time!  And teas.  I bought 3 bags of India tea in Delhi.  One is mango flavored and delicious.  We had a tea tasting session at the store in Delhi.  Shopping is so fun in India.

SHAMIM and the end of our trip

Shamim at Ayushakti

Our last day in India Shamim drove us to Ayushakti Ayurvedic Clinic (where I went 3 times in 2008) for an hour plus of fantastic treatments and then off to a special farewell dinner for the 3 of us at the Leela Hotel at the airport and then to the airport to fly home.

Shamim was our driver in 2008 and my post terrorist project was to help Shamim get his own car and business.  With help from many of us, we did that.  Unfortunately the economy in Mumbai is even worse than here and he has need a lot more help to survive.  Having all of us there to hire him helped tremendously.  He was able to earn the money for the car insurance for the coming year.  But he is still struggling and needs more help.  Donations are still needed and he and I would really appreciate any help you can give.  Send me an email and I’ll handle your tax deductible donations.

Shamim met our plane into Mumbai, hugging us and saying to me, here is your car!  Our car, I corrected him!  Over the next 7 days we went many places together, talking the whole time.  We learned about his life and finances and about his girlfriend.  Unfortunately, her father died suddenly and unexpectedly on 11.26.10 so we did not get to meet her.

Shamim and I both cried when we separated at the airport.  For sure, I’ll be coming back.  Mumbai feels like home to me.  I really didn’t want to leave (first time that has ever happened on a trip).

It won’t be next year though.  I’m going to Valladolid Spain in November 2011 for the Global MicroCredit Summit Meeting, produced by Sam Daley-Harris, my long time friend and inspiration.  So maybe in 2012.

A QUICK THANK YOU! TO EVERYONE FOR READING THE BLOG

Writing the blog started out as a way of assuring my scared family and friends that I was okay, safe and happy in India.  It transformed into a deep introspection and sharing of my experience with a far larger group.  I do not know who has read what I (and Lisa) have written (although some have written me back).  We really enjoyed doing it.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Until we connect again, much love.  May our our lives improve, our spiritual connection grow deeper and may we live in a world of peace and love.

Peggi

During Set Up, Rattan Sharma does classic Indian music

MUMBAI – 26/11 Remembered

The purpose of our visit to Mumbai was to attend our 26/11 Memorial Event and the Indian launch of One Life Alliance (OLA).  Kia Scherr, the widow of Alan and mother of 13 year old Naomi, was the producer and she had enlisted Shibani Satchdeva, from the family who produced our events two years ago and a professional fundraiser, to co-produce with her.  Kia was a wife and mother, a meditator, who lived a quiet ashram-based lifestyle before her shocking loss pushed her into the limelight.

Kia with Rattan's Group

She had no experience with producing media events.  I’ve had the privilege of working with Kia in LA over the last two years and I so admire her willingness to educate herself and become a world figure for peace and compassion.

Upon our arrival in Mumbai it was clear to me that the production of the 26/11 event was far from ready.  Shibani and Kia called the 10 am meeting, showing their vision and plans and asked for help.  We jumped in.  I became the third co-producer and the facilitator between the other two.  It reminded me of LAWHE in 1980 and the tensions and fears that come from putting your career and life on the line while creating a new and unknown style of event.  So a microcosm of the conflicts of the world come up in the space and have to be processed through.

Swami Shankaranda from Australia

The Sheriff of Mumbai

For me, it was a privilege to serve.  I worked on the message to be presented and the power point presentation.  Linda had the concept to make a film to show at the event to introduce the returning survivors.  Shibani came up with the theme – I honor the sacredness of life by . . .  Hamel, from Odyssey Films, a New York faith-based media company, who was videoing the entire process and events of 26/11, agreed to shoot and edit the interviews and I took responsibility for getting it done, i.e., I became the producer and director.  With 48 hours til the event began!  Bonnie Sullivan and I together took on the management of the seating of the honored guests and the event co-ordination.

You can begin to see why I haven’t written anything for the web site!  We worked around the clock!

The feminist Iman and his translator

Father Anthony D'Souza

Jewish Community Leader Solomon Shofer

Miraculously, the event worked beautifully.  400 people attended.  It began with High Tea. We had 2 higher education speakers, 5 religious leaders (2 Hindu Gurus, 1 Muslin Iman, 1 Catholic Priest, 1 Jewish Leader) a local high school choir (singing It’s A Wonderful Life and We Are The World) and MC and Kia as speakers.

St Andrew's School Choir

Linda Ragsdale, who was one of the only 4 survivors from the restaurant.

Students present the Peace Dragon art work to the Oberoi Hotel

The Peace Dragon, composed of 1,000 Hearts with a Peace Message, made by US and Mumbai students

Linda Ragsdale, one of our original group who was seriously wounded by the terrorists, presented her art project, Peace Dragon, project as an example project and Kia and MC led the guests in taking the OLA Pledge to honor the sacredness of life for the next 30 days and then the kids choir sang the National Anthem of India.  2 moving and powerful hours and the event was complete.  A big success.  You can see pictures and read about it on this internet news site.  Keep clicking next for about 4 sections.  The writer could have been part of our group!  She totally got us.

Now we are relaxing, hanging with our friends, shopping and enjoying the hotel and the city.  Shamim drove me to the Ayushakti Ayurevedic Health Clinic on Saturday (which I had visited 3 times in 2008) for 5 fabulous treatments on Saturday.  I brought John Slicker, another of the survivors, with me and we really enjoyed getting to know each other deeper.   After a wonderful birthday dinner with Lisa, Carole and Bonnie at the Tiffen (now known as the Fenix) restaurant at the Oberoi, we had our final session with MC.  We celebrated the successes of the event, laughed and told stories, had birthday cake (a gift from the hotel to me) and hung out, then said our good-byes.

My Birthday Dinner at the Tiffen (now Fenix) with Carole Wise, Bonnie Sullivan and Lisa Schwaber

On Sunday, Master Charles, Kia and Helen, Carole and Bonnie left to go to Benares and visit an ashram there and  Lisa and I visited the merchants in the hotel mall from whom we had bought in 2008 and who felt so connected to us.  They came to our event.  So much hugging and love between us all.  We ended the evening with a dinner with Shibani and her brother Gottam, who had produced the 2008 events with MC, and Miriam, Phy, Linda, Lisa and me.

Today Phy, Linda, Lisa and I are having breakfast at the Fenix, then Lisa and I are meeting our friend Gayatri for lunch at her club and doing some serious shopping!  Tomorrow we go to Ayushakti again, then take Shamim to dinner and then go to the airport to fly home!

Written by Peggi, Posted on Tuesday, 11.30.10 at 8:15 am, Mumbai time.  Heading home tonight.  I will post one more blog, after I get home on December 1st!

COME CELEBRATE WITH ME!

I’m having an Open House, Birthday Celebration and Trip Sharing Evening on Saturday night, starting at  7pm.  I would love to have you join me!  I’m serving Indian Food and I’ll share the video’s from the 26/11 event, as well as stories of my travels.

Please RSVP if you are coming and I’ll give you parking instructions (Park at the Mall and walk over).  I do need to know if you are coming, so that I can order enough food!

Love to all!

Peggi

written by Peggi

view from our hotel room in the morning

Today we arrived in Mumbai!  Shamim met us at the airport at midnight and drove us to our hotel.  It was wonderful to see him again and to ride in the car we’ve purchased for him.

We were all overjoyed to be together.

We checked in at the Trident Nariman Point at 2 am and went to bed!

We had a 10:30 am meeting to attend!

South View

Our meeting was on the rooftop floor of the hotel.  The views are amazing! You are seeing the Indian Ocean on two sides of the hotel.

West View

Kia and Shibani shared the program they’ve developed for the 26/11 Event with us, the survivors, and asked for our help. They shared their personal discoveries as they developed the program. We did several experiential exercises. We were all in tears as we went thru the 2 hour meeting.

Then Shibani asked the key question: What is the difference between good people and bad people? The answer?  The bad people (terrorists) are very focused and passionate and will do any and every thing to further their cause.  Only 1% are bad people and look at the havoc they raise.  What about the good people?

We, the good people, need to share our passion intensely too.  Our passion is honoring  the sacredness of life.  Seeing it in ourselves and everyone, all the time.

Greeting Kia and Master Charles at the conclusion of the evening program

We had a public program with Master Charles in the evening.  The Indians were so thankful that we have returned to Mumbai.  Over 100 people attended.  Master Charles spoke and then we chanted and meditated together.  I was blissful.  MC closed with a story, one of my favorites.  It is the story of an artist, who exhibited his latest creation with much fanfare.  A critic told the artist, your painting is lovely but you have made a mistake.  A mistake ?, asked the artist.  Yes, said the critic,  your picture of the garden is beautiful, but you forgot to paint the handle on the door.  Ahhhh, said the artist, you don’t understand the painting.  The door to your heart can only be opened from within.

For me, the question of the morning and the story of the evening are why I am here. The action that Kia and Master Charles created out of their experiences of 26/11 was to create an organization, One Life Alliance, to promote action by good people on the sacredness of life.

The One Life Alliance Pledge

Here and now…and for the next 30 days, I will honor the oneness and sacredness of life in myself and in everyone I meet.

This focus will assist you in living authentically with compassion on a daily basis, and in so doing, you will transform both yourself and your world.

I want to personally invite you to take the One Life Alliance Pledge. For the full details click here and you will see the One Life Alliance website.  What a wonderful way to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Please feel free to share this with your family and friends.

THIS IS WHY I AM IN MUMBAI.

Sunday, November 21^st started out easily.  We had breakfast at the hotel, packed up our stuff and were driven to the airport in Delhi (seemed like the size of Rhode Island when we landed), with a bit of city tour on the way.  Now the troubles begin.  It was a good thing we had our cranky day the prior day!

Sunny, our guide went with us and the luggage into the airport to get the wheelchair for Lisa and the boarding passes.  It took a long time.  They kept asking me about Lisa.  Why did she need a wheel chair?  Could she climb the stairs to the airplane?  Finally, the wheel chair arrived, we bid Sunny goodbye and off we went to the ticket counter to check our luggage.

We had been concerned about weight.  But they took our luggage without issue.  But no boarding passes. Our wheel chair assistant kept going back and forth between agents.  I asked, what’s happening?  He said 10 more minutes.  This went on for an hour!  Lisa was left sitting in a corner waiting in her wheelchair, wondering.  Peggi couldn’t tell her, because she didn’t know, in spite of standing with the wheel chair assistant and talking to each of the agents.  Finally, she found out.  Kingfisher Airlines had re-routed us through Mumbai to Hyderabad.  Now instead of a 1 ½ hour direct flight we were scheduled for 4 hours in the air.  Stay tuned, there is more.

Off we went to security, got our “pat downs” and then to gate 54.  The Delhi Terminal is laid out like a “C” on its back, and our gate was at the very end.  Felt like a 100 mile trek, pulling the hand luggage!  Lisa realized, it wasn’t Rhode Island, more like Manhattan!  One cool thing:  They have a laptop station at each gate, with power, and with lounging chairs.  Peggi felt like at home, lying down, with her laptop in her lap!

We were very impressed with Kingfisher’s flight crew. In a 1 ½ hour flight, they served a soda immediately after take off, then they brought a full meal with two hot dishes (choice of vegetarian or chicken) and chocolate cake!  And then hot coffee or tea.  Delicious.  Then we landed in Mumbai.  A wheel chair awaited.  Off we went.

We were walled out of the airport.  We had to go all the way to the baggage claim then turn right, take an elevator up and go thru security again and back out to the gate area, right where we came from!  Then they announced a gate change for our flight.

Our new gate was at ground level.  They had buses there to drive you to the plane.  They put us on a bus all by ourselves, with our wheel chair assistant and the wheelchair, plus our hand luggage.  Then, they drove just us to the plane.  There were the stairs to our Airbus 320.  Up we went, with the staff carrying our luggage.  We were the only ones on the plane!  Then another bus arrived with the rest of the passengers!  We started the engines and moved onto the tarmack.

There they announced that Mumbai was backed up and our take off slot was delayed an hour.  So we sat.  Lisa got to know her delightful seatmates very well.  Peggi read her book.  After take off we had another meal, flew to Hyderabad and arrived safely.  So did our luggage!  YEAH! And our Culture Holidays local contact met us cheerfully and drove us to the Green Park Hotel in Hyderbad.  They have a new elevated highway from the airport to town that is just gorgeous (think New Jersey Skyway).  No traffic issues.  The best road we’ve seen in India (and we’ve spent a lot of time on the roads!)  We checked in at midnight!  12 hours total travel time.

Monday, November 22nd –  Microfinance Field Trip

Dr DSK Rao met us in the lobby at 6 am to take us to Bidar, a 2 ½ hour drive west, in a neighboring state.  Another wild and thrilling ride.  This time it got to Lisa and Peggi was amazingly cool.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND: Peggi has been involved in ending hunger in the world since 1978.  One of the organizations she supports is RESULTS, which lobbies on behalf of the poor in the US and around the world.  The founder of RESULTS, Sam Daley-Harris, has been her close friend since 1980.  Sam has made microfinance a major thrust for ending poverty.  He has partnered with Mohammed Yunus (2008 Nobel Peace Prize Winner) to promote and assist microfinance organizations thru the Microfinance Summit Campaign.  Dr Rao is the head of the Asian Microfinance Summit Campaign, working for Sam.  Peggi tried to visit a microcredit project with Dr Rao in 2008 during her India visit, but it was interrupted by the terrorist attacks.  In January, 2010, Peggi had the pleasure of escorting Dr Rao around Los Angeles for a day.  So, today was the long awaited day for the field visits.

And it was worth waiting for.  We met Niranjan Sheelavant, the CEO of Nirantara, a Microfinance Institution (MFI) at his office in Bidar

DSK & Niranjan at Nirantara Office

MFI Client running her grocery stall

and then met one of his clients at her grocery stall.

Peggi, DKS & Lisa at MFI women's group meeting

We then sat in on a group meeting.  The women meet each week, make a loan payment, and support each in their businesses.  Each woman introduced herself to us and told us about their work.  And we did the same!

Town Women's MFI Weekly Group Meeting

The ladies all wanted their pictures taken with us

Their Loan Records!

Then there were lots of handshakes and photos.

Passionate woman and her husband and daughter

We took the most passionate woman in the group home to look at her business.  We met her husband, mother-in-law and child.  They make bras and underpants that are sold in this region.  We saw the sewing machines and met their workers.

One of the eight sewing machines in their business

Then DSK, Niranjan and the couple had a big conversation about expanding their business.  They are the biggest and most successful business of this MFI group, employing 9 people, having used 3 MFI loans.  Their number one issue now is capital for expansion.  DSK will help Nirantara help them in moving beyond microfinance by getting a capital expansion loan of $3,000 US.  We felt so great to witness the process.

Woman with chickpea business giving us samples

Then we went off to a village meeting, stopping at several of the clients’ homes along the way.  These women were shy and excited simultaneously.  They were proud to show us what they are doing.   One woman roasts chickpeas for snacks.  We all had many samples.  They were delicious.  It is hard work, you can tell by her hands.

Flour Mill Businesswoman

Another woman runs a small flour mill.  She was very excited to show us how it works and take pictures.

Exterior of Flour Mill

Buffalo for milk and the business woman

The kids love being in the pictures and then seeing them in the camera.

Another woman sells the milk from her buffalo. Nirantara is working on a milk co-op project in this village.

DKS & Jan in village

Fort

On the way back to Bitar we stopped at this 15^th century fort complex.

Another section of the fort

It has just become a national monument and restoration has just started.  We stopped for refreshing cold drinks there .  Later we stopped at a Sikh temple for a simple lunch of daal and chapattis, followed by a sweet donut-like treat.

Jan's family

We stopped at Niranjan’s home nearby to meet his grandmother, wife and 3 ½ year old daughter and 2 year old son.  And now for the drive home!  OMG.  Lisa decided the best way to handle this was to keep her eyes shut for the entire journey.  But not her mouth!  We had a very stimulating 3 way conversation on both legs of the journey about economics, finance and politics.

Full Moon over Lake in the center of Hyderabad

After a 2 hour rest break DSK’s driver picked us up at the hotel and took us to see the gorgeous lake around which the city is built and then to meet DSK, his wife Sheela and their son, Sanjay at the Country Club for a delightful outdoor dinner.

In spite a huge party on the patio below us, Peggi was sound asleep within 30 minutes of our return.  Lisa was the night owl!

Tomorrow we fly to Mumbai.

(PS.  Please forgive so many words and the messiness of the page.  I want to get this published!  We are in Mumbai now and I have to run to our evening program.  I’ll do another page tomorrow!

So much to share! Happy Thanksgiving to all!)

Today was our cranky day! We think everyone is entitled to at least one cranky day.  So, we’ll get it off our chests right now!

Actually, it started after midnight, when we arrived back at our hotel in Delhi.  The room they gave us was completely unacceptable.  So they took us to another room.  It had just been remodeled and looked lovely.  BUT, when Lisa walked barefoot to her bed she discovered that the carpet was soaking wet. Too tired to do anything about it, we went to bed.   When we woke up this morning, the room looked and felt like a cold and steamy sauna!  The humidity that the shower leak caused to the carpet was the source.  We started to envision mold and called the front desk.  Off we went to room #3! At last, an acceptable room.  However, they are busy remodeling other rooms and the construction noise has been difficult to bear all day.  What were we doing in the room all day, you ask?  We’re going to tell you right now!

So, we flashback in time to Thursday late afternoon. Hot, tired and exhausted after our Taj Mahal visit, we went to a delightful air conditioned restaurant for another great meal.  We have a habit of ordering a couple of dishes and sharing, plus some great bread as well (Nan).  Lisa is a real authority on India food, and Peggi loves to eat it!  So, each meal is an adventure.  The food was great here, but the mango lassi won the prize for best of trip.  So refreshing when one is so hot.

Then off to a marble factory for a demonstration on how the Taj Mahal marble was inlaid.  Then, of course, the mandatory shopping.  Gorgeous marble tables, shipped home for free, but the tables run into the thousands of dollars.  Peggi had a choice, buy a table, or pay her property taxes.  It was a tough call!  Marble plates, jewelry boxes and a lamp Peggi loved out of mother-of-pearl inlaid on marble (looks purple, but when lit it turns red). Didn’t get the lamp but Peggi bought a few small items.  The salesman kept offering her great prices if instead of buying 6, she would buy 12 or 20. She escaped with only her 6 gift items.  She was so proud of herself!

One of the best parts for Peggi was the closeness of each of these spots to each other.  No drive in Agra was more than 15 minutes, as opposed to Jaipur, where every trip was an hour thru horrendous traffic. Back to the hotel we went to rest and work on the blog.  Peggi and Lisa collaborated until Lisa drifted away into sleep.  It was only 5:30 pm, but we were both exhausted. Peggi called it a night at 9 pm.

All was well until 12:30 am when Lisa awoke and spent the next six hours experiencing various forms of intestinal distress (i.e., Indian version of Moctezuma’s revenge.).  Peggi slept right through it all.  Which begs the question:  WHY?  Since we both shared every meal and were in the same place all the time, why did Lisa get it and not Peggi?  Peggi’s not complaining, mind you. Another great mystery, unsolved.

Trident Front Desk staff woman, in the Oberoi traditional sari, supervises the doctor visit.

In the morning, Lisa was just plain miserable and we called our tour company representative, Mr Vikal.  He spoke with the hotel and soon a doctor was at our door. And we became VIP Guests.  The doctor prescribed 5 medicines and bed rest.  We happily complied. We were scheduled to go to 2 more mausoleums and the Agra Fort/Palace complex.  Instead, the hotel graciously extended our stay thru the afternoon.

The Trident Agra is part of the Oberoi Group chain (2 years ago we lived in the Oberoi Nariman Point in Mumbai for two weeks and LOVED it! and they couldn’t do enough to take care of us.  They kept checking in on us, delivered flowers and offered everything except shares in the hotel.  The General Manager of the hotel came to check on us and visit with us, and then sat with us in the restaurant while we had a lite bite.  He asked about the rest of our trip and said he would call the GM of our hotel in Hyderabad (he grew up there!) and make sure we would be well treated there.

The late afternoon debate was what should we do next.  We were supposed to come back to Delhi on the super-fast air-conditioned train (only 2 hours). But if we stayed an extra night in Agra, the train was sold out and we would have to return to Delhi by car –  a 4 1/2 hour drive  with our wonderful Raj, with heavy rains predicted for the late afternoon.

Peggi’s response to this option was NEVER!  NO WAY!  ABSOLUTELY NOT! Lisa concurred that the train was the optimal choice and declared that she would be well enough.

So we prayed for a speedy recovery, the Trident extended our room stay til 7 pm and Lisa slept the whole afternoon but got up to go to the train.  Once we got settled on the train, Lisa went immediately to sleep and only woke up for the arrival. She also slept all night after we settled in at the Delhi hotel!  You’d think she’d be well rested by now!

You might be thinking that the gifts will be slim after all this added expense, but you’d be wrong. The Trident did NOT charge us any additional fees. The doctor’s charge was 600 rupies and the medicines cost $200, delivered to our room.  By the way, 24 hours of wireless internet service was $800 rupies.  In dollars, that’s a little less than $20!  A bargain at any price!

So, that is why we are spending today inside our Delhi hotel room.  Relaxing and preparing for the next leg of our trip:  Hyderabad and the micro-finance site visit.

Both of us were so tired of people having said to us, “you went all the way to India and you’re didn’t see the Taj Mahal?”  So this time we planned our whole trip around the visit to the Taj and today was the day!

The Taj Mahal, framed by the East Gate

You know all those pictures of the exquisite structure?  It is even more beautiful than we imagined.  And add to that the romantic story of the Shahjahan and his great love for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who bore him 14 children, who was highly intelligent and valued for her wisdom and beautiful.  She died in childbirth, in the battlefield with her husband and he pledged to build this monument as her mausoleum.

It took 2 years of planning and 22 years of construction to build.  They brought the marble from 340 kilometers away on camel carts.  The extremely hard marble was carved with chisels and inlaid with semi-precious stones from around the world, glued in place with a secret formula.  Almost 400 years later, the stones are still perfectly in place.

May our pictures inspire you to come to India!

The Eastern Gate

Interior Dome of the Eastern Gate

Close up of the inlaid marble on the Eastern Gate

Here we are, in our newly made Indian finery

In order to enter the Taj itself, you slip these on over your shoes, or go barefoot!

Taj exterior dome

Flowers carved into the marble

Semi-precious stones inlaid into the marble

14 Chapters of the Koran are written on the building, one for each of their children

We close with an artsy photo, shot by Wahid our guide, the Taj reflected in Peggi's sunglasses!

A FEW MORE OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE INDIAN ROADS, shot in Agra

Lisa shooting the bull

The whole herd strolling down the street at 11 am

Meet Raj, our trusty driver!                    

Entrance to the Amber Fort

Off to visit the Amber Fort Palace we went.  OMG.  Construction began in 1592 on this huge fort and palace.  It is exquisite.

We were supposed to ride up the steep mountainside to Amber Fort on an elephant and Lisa was very excited about it, but Peggi is a fraidy cat and Lisa’s knees weren’t up to it.  So Raj drove us up to the back door, which normally isn’t allowed.  We are so special!

Great Wall of Amber

There is a 12 kilometer wall which surrounds the entire city (think of the Great Wall of China) and inside the palace fort are temples and gardens and beautiful rooms (unfortunately both our camera batteries died during the middle of our visit here).

On the way back, Lisa went to meet a master painter who paints with crushed gemstones and Peggi went to the hotel to rest and start the blog.  When Lisa returned, we ordered room service and worked on the blog well into the night.

DAY 7:  JAIPUR TO AGRA

It has been our style to walk you thru our day, in order.  Today, we’re going to share our thrills first and then go back for the rest of the day.

Late this afternoon we set out on the last leg of our journey to Agra.  It was raining pretty stongly at that point.  As dusk approached the rain grew heavier.  It got darker and foggy.  While we were on a country road, understand that the “India traffic dance” was the same as we’ve described before, except that traffic was only going in two directions – towards us and away from us.

Peggi's Camera, with Lisa at the helm, accurately captured our internal experience.

The oncoming lights were blinding.  On the other hand, the animals, rickshaws, bicyclists and people in the street, had no lights, making them almost impossible to see.  And still the traffic dance went on.  We were sitting in the back seat, praying to Lakshmi and Ganesha, for a safe arrival.  And begging Raj not to pass in the oncoming traffic lanes.  “We’re in no rush.”  Raj said, “don’t worry.  We’re okay.”  And the rain got stronger.  And there was lightning and thunder.  And the highway narrowed to a single lane in each direction.  And Raj kept moving into the oncoming traffic lane to speed past tuktuks, bicycles, animals, etc.  Lots of honking all around.  Lisa said “if we can’t see them, at least we can hear them.”  Peggi was not reassured!  Oh, and the roadway was flooded in part.

Finally we got to the city area.  Peggi actually felt better, thinking if we were hit and crashed here, we stood a good chance of surviving.  Lisa was still worried that we might hit a pedestrian, cyclist, etc, because we couldn’t see them til we were on top of them.  (Peggi here:  I’m really amazed and proud of myself that I handled this ride so well.  I didn’t jump out of the car, insist that we park and stay where we were or even scream.  Nor did I have a panic attack.  I just withdrew a little and prayed.)

A large section of town was without power (not an uncommon phenomena here) and the roadway was very dark, just like out in the country.  Didn’t seem to slow down the drivers or the traffic dance at all.

The city of Agra is built on a hillside.  We went up and up and up and up.  The traffic was dense and the water was intense.  And yet, we still hadn’t arrived.  Finally, after an hour and a half, we pulled into the Trident Agra.  We were so relieved we flew out of the car.  Peggi was thrilled to find a bathroom after 6 hours on the road and a couple of bottles of water!

FLASHBACK TO THE MORNING

Today was another grand adventure: the 5 hour road trip to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal).

Our day began with the arrival of our custom made clothes that we bought late yesterday at fabric store.  We had a fashion show, trying on each outfit.  Amazingly, they all fit perfectly.

We then went down to breakfast, our last great meal at the Jaipur Trident.  Now it was off to Agra with trusty Raj at the wheel.  Getting out of Jaipur was difficult, several roads were closed and the one we took was under construction, but we finally made it out of the last gate and onto the toll road!  Don’t start thinking about the 73.  This toll road is just like the city street traffic we described yesterday.  Lots of trucks carrying vegetables and others carrying bricks, tractors towing heavy loads, many camels pulling carts, all the other things we mentioned before and lots of brahma bulls strolling down the highway.  Also, cars going the wrong way.  And as always, people hanging out in the roadway or crossing.  It’s a dance and Raj is a masterful dancer.  You may be thinking that we have a fixation on the traffic here.  If so, you’d be right!

We stopped for lunch after 3 hours at a little “mall”.  Again, don’t think Westside Pavilion or even strip mall.  It was a square-ish building with a souvenir store, bathrooms and a restaurant.  The food was surprisingly good and amazingly we didn’t buy anything!

Fatapour Sikri

Back on the road, we went thru a section where they make and sell red stone statuary and fountains.  One business after another on both sides of the road, where all the products look exactly the same.  Think of the jewelry district, or the downtown clothing district, only red sandstone carvings instead.  Then back to farmlands.  2 hours later we arrived at  Fatehpur Sikri:  The deserted, red Sandstone City, that the Emperor Akbar the Great built as his capital and palace in the late 16th century It a veritable fairytale city and its “ruins” are in pristine condition … it’s not hard to imagine what the court life must have been like in the days of its grandeur.  Our new guide, Wahid, showed us the harem, the homes of Akbar’s 3 wives (one Muslim, one Hindu and one Catholic).  He was considered very progressive and he saw all religions as one and was very liberal to the people. He told stories of how Akbar liked to play games, particularly Parchesi and Hide and Seek.  He played Parchesi with beautiful harem women instead playing pieces and had a large building built with many passageways for Hide and Seek.

The rain began during our visit to Fatehpur Sikri.  First it was light rain, then it got so heavy that we were soaked before we made it back to the car. You’ve already heard the rest!  Now we will flash forward!

We made our room our new home and ordered room service.  Tomorrow we are going to the Taj Mahal, so we’re off to sleep after writing this!

So, it’s 2 am on Monday.   Don’t ask what I’m doing up at this hour, my clock is all off.   In 2 hours we get up and prepare to board a train for Jaipur.  Who knows what adventures await us there?  Let me fill you in on Sunday’s adventures in Delhi.

We went sightseeing and walking and shopping and walking and sightseeing.  We took a rickshaw ride through the narrow streets and warrens of the old city.  We saw people and camels and goats and brahma bulls and dogs (interestingly, no cats), and—tah dah—an elephant.  We went from the old narrow, winding alleys to the open, broad avenues of the government section, with its’ huge beautiful buildings that sit symmetrically across from each other and surrounded by parks.  We went to the Gandhi Memorial and to a Lakshmi temple.  And we went shopping.  Probably the less said about that, the better!  We had a wonderful tour guide named B.J. and our driver was Rahul.

Rickshaw ride thru Chandra Chowk

So, that’s the short version of what we did.  What is the experience of this place?  It is wild and chaotic, crowded and crazy.  It is peaceful and calm.  It is the broad smiles of the people and also the frowns.  It is soaring hearts and great sorrows.  It is the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. It is a place of extremes—colorful and beautiful and full of life.

TRAIN TO JAIPUR:

Walking into the train station was insane. It was 5:30 in the morning and it was dark.  Walking into the station was difficult as there were people sleeping everywhere and people dragging luggage in all directions in between the sleepers (their trains were delayed).  In the station, up the stairs, over the tracks onto the bridge, then down the stairs and onto the platform, with our escort and our driver carrying our bags!  They helped us onto the train and put our luggage on the rack above us and then said good-bye.  The train was billed as a first class air-conditioned train.  They did not run the air-conditioning but there were fans on the ceiling that we could control.  So, I turned on the fan.  And at the second stop a gentleman got on and sat in front of us.  First thing he did was turn off the fan.  There were no animals or produce or smelly, dirty people but first class it didn’t feel.  We felt amongst the Indian middle class.

80 pounds of luggage on his head and he was running!

Four hours thru the countryside gave us quite a taste of rural India.  Fields, animals, shacks and nicer homes.  People working the land.  And towns, with multistoried buildings.  Electrical plants and other industry.  A smooth ride.  And food service too.  First we got a tray with crackers and candy and a tea kit with 2 tea bags, 2 of the largest sugar packets I’ve ever seen and a packed of dried milk.  Plus a hot water thermos and a cup.  It was delicious.  2 hours later they delivered vegetarian breakfast with a vegetable cutlet, some loose vegetables and 4 soggy French fries!  And catsup and two pieces of commercial white bread with butter and mixed fruit jelly!  And more tea.  The lady sitting next to me made a butter and catsup sandwich. She thought it was delicious.  We were hungry and we enjoyed it.

Sunil met us at the train and helped us through the stairs up and bridge over and stairs down process from the train to the parking lot.  He hired a porter to carry our luggage.  He carried both bags on his head.

Getting down to one lane to go thru one of the 7 gates of Jaipur

The traffic getting out of the station was like the 405 North at 5 pm, except worse.  Took a half hour to go 4 blocks.  Jaipur was a walled city with 7 gates to enter the city, all built several hundred years ago, ie, before cars.  So imagine that all traffic has to narrow to single file to go thru the gate.  Gridlock in a totally different style.  Many of you know that I am quite quirky about traveling in cars.  Simply stated, I drive or I don’t go.  Well, that is out of the question here and was my biggest issue about the trip.  Riding here is the ultimate trip.  And, shockingly, I’m doing fine with it.  No panic attacks here!

Traffic in the rain

Imagine, cars and jeep taxis and little 3 & 4 wheeled tuktuks (electric carts), some with up to 7 or 8 people in them (think of an enclosed golf cart for 2 with 8 people), small trucks, big trucks, small vans, small buses, large vans and enormous buses.  Add bicycle driven rickshaws and hand pulled rickshaws and hand and bicycle driven carts carrying any and everything imaginable from small sacks to giant containers.

Jaipur street scene

And simple bicyclists too.  Plus horse and cow and camel driven carts, also carrying people and merchandise.  Motorcycles, with one, or two, or even 3 or 4 people on it, usually the women in saris ride sidesaddle and the man drives, sometimes with the children in front.  Now add people.  Pedestrians.  Walking, crossing, weaving in and out of the vehicles, stopping to shop in the middle of the road.  Now for the animal kingdom, wandering dogs, cows (brahma bulls and brahma cows), pigs, bulls, goats and elephants.

Wandering Brahma Bull in the street

All the animals seem to wander around everywhere at will.  Often a cow will tire and curl up in the middle of the street for a leisurely nap.  By the way, the streets go from alley size to broad avenues.  They are two way streets, some divided, most not.  So here’s an cross section:  Building, sidewalk, parking lane, with food carts and cloths laid out on the ground with fruits and other merchandise exhibited for sale, driving lane(s) in one direction, sometimes a fence, often with plants or trees, sometimes with a shrine and now the same on the opposite side.

Now to the issue of lanes.  There are marked lanes, but that’s irrelevant to the drivers.  Everyone crowds and pushes to get ahead of the others.  A constant stream of vehicles cutting in on each other, not to mention the wrong way people and the left and U-turners.  People drive/move in everyway imaginable.  It is an intricate dance, the likes of which we’ve only seen here in India.  And now let’s add the sound track.  Horns tooting with all kinds of sounds – long musical toots, short ra-tat-tats, angry non-stop blasts and more, music from the nearby temple playing on speakers in the middle of the street and the sounds of the people themselves .  So far, we’ve never seen an accident.  It’s a dance.

By the way, Lisa and I have now merged!  We are writing this blog together and hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing it.  Drop us an email and let us know!

It seemed like it took as long to get to the hotel from the train station as it took on the Delhi to Jaipur train, but the hotel was worthy of the journey.

The Trident Jaipur. An Oberoi Hotel.  Each staff member greeted us individually with a bow and a Namaste.  We were seated in the lobby and brought a refreshing ginger/lemon drink as a beautiful sari’d woman processed our registration and then she escorted us to our room and expained everything.  Elegance of space, elegance of manner.

Off to lunch we went.  Did I mention that both Lisa and I love Indian food?  And Lisa is much more knowledgeable about it than I am.  And in her opinion, lunch was the finest Indian meal we’ve ever had.  The hotel has a buffet with 6 or 8 Indian dishes and another 6 or 8 international dishes, plus breads and desserts.  And masala chai tea or caffe lattes too.

City Palace Interior

Welcome to Jaipur, the pink city.  The skinny Maharaja declared that all building would be pink, a color pleasing to his wife, and 200 years later, they are still pink.  And beautiful by the way, even the ones in disrepair.

Sightseeing we went!

CITY PALACE – A blend of Mughal and traditional Rajasthani architecture, the City Palace sprawls over one-seventh of the area in the walled city.

World's largest sundial - too bad there is no sun here! Only haze.

JANTAR MANTAR – This is the largest and the best preserved of the five observatories built by Jai Singh II in different parts of the country. This observatory consisting of outsized astronomical instruments is still in use.

"Palace of Winds"

HAWA MAHAL – The ornamental facade of this “Palace of Winds” is a prominent landmark in Jaipur. The five-storied structures of sandstone plastered pink encrusted with fine trelliswork and elaborate balconies. The palace has 953 niches and windows. Built in 1799 by Pratap Singh, the Mahal was a royal grandstand for the palace women.

And then we visited a jewelry factory for a little education and a little shopping.

Lake Palace - the view from our room

We returned to our lovely room. Had a little trouble with the electricity.  I travel with an extension cord to power my sound machine/charger for my iPhone, Lisa’s camera charger and my camera charger and my laptop. I used the converter, plugged in the extension cord and blew the circuits.  We called for an electrician!  A charming man came to our rescue, but he was unsuccessful after blowing the circuits many more times.  His supervisor came and brought us an Indian extension cord and finally all systems were go!

This morning we visited the Laxmi Narayan Temple.  It is a vision in white marble.  We took our shoes off and spent a half hour inside in walking meditation.  Lisa was stoned!  Next we went to Albert Hall, built by the Maharaja to honor Prince Albert of England now housing the Central Museum, was earlier a place of recreation for the royal families.  We were fascinated with the collection, especially the Hindu gods/goddess sculptures.  It was also the scene of a downpour which caught us by surprise giving us quite a drenching.

Shopping

Then a little shopping for jewelry and for fabrics (custom made clothes).  We were quite successful.  They are delivering my new wardrobe to the room tonight!.

Spinning little dancer-boy and musician (probably dad!)

Neeraj and his guide friend

Niraaj, our guide, settled in with us for lunch at a nearby restaurant, complete with entertainment.  2 of his guide friends joined us for a fascinating conversation and shared meal about tourism in India.