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Away from the congested cities, there are some magnificent mansions in the Kerala country side. Above is one of the houses that has direct street access. There is an impressive amount of detail that has gone into building these.
We stopped our car briefly on the shoulder of the road, so I could quickly take a few snap shots. I didn't know how people might react to someone snooping around their house with a camera in hand, so this was practically drive by shooting.
There are many other houses that are even bigger, some of them looking like small palaces. These houses are deep within large plantations, and are barely visible from the main roads.
Click any of the images below to see in larger size.
Kerala, India
Chieko Okazaki, a member of the General Relief Society Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1990-1997, passed away recently.
Beloved Mormon women’s leader Chieko Okazaki dies
On best-selling Mormon author Chieko Okazaki’s 84th birthday in October, her family reluctantly moved her to an assisted-living center.
When she blew out the candles on a cake the family had provided, the frail and gray-haired grandmother said her birthday wish was “to get to know each and every one of [the residents],” adding that she was “so grateful” to be there and to have “all these new friends.”
Gratitude in the face of health setbacks, loss of independence and an uncertain future is rare, but “a classic Chieko response,” recalled Carol Lee Hawkins, a longtime friend who was with her at the time. “At every turn, she was totally at peace.”
On Monday, Okazaki — a popular speaker, master teacher and the first non-Caucasian woman to serve in an LDS general presidency — died of congestive heart failure in Salt Lake City.
With her death, the Utah-based faith has lost "a uniquely powerful voice," said Kathleen Flake, a friend who teaches religious history at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. "She accomplished that by being fearlessly honest about herself and the problems that members of the church faced."
Okazaki, who served as first counselor in the church's General Relief Society Presidency from 1990 to 1997, was one of the first speakers to address, in a church setting, the question of sexual abuse, Flake said, and to discuss balancing work and family; homosexuality; blended families; and coping — as she had — with racism.
"She took real and pressing problems and not only comforted," Flake said, "but led women in how to constructively engage those problems using the resources of the gospel."
She did it all by turning everyday items and experiences into powerful metaphors — a crazy quilt, a piece of rope, a "cat's cradle" string, left-side driving rules — that formed the centerpiece of her sermons.
Her first collection of speeches, Lighten Up, sold more than 100,000 copies. She went on to publish at least five more volumes, becoming one of the most-read LDS authors in history.
Physically, emotionally and spiritually, Okazaki "roamed everywhere," Hawkins said. "She had an ability to go where others didn't, to see past limitations and boundaries to ask deep questions that helped people see through silliness or traditions."
And she did it all with an unfailing optimism that created sermons out of sorrows, many of them her own.
Okazaki was a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who married a non-Mormon, experienced infertility, faced racial discrimination, endured bouts of breast cancer and lost her husband.
She was born in 1926 to Japanese laborers on a plantation on the big island of Hawaii.
As a Buddhist, a young Chieko followed many of that religion's traditions. She faithfully put fruit and rice on the family's shrine each day. She recited prayers with beads draped over her hands.
When she was 11, an LDS missionary couple offered a class on Mormonism at her school. She often had seen the church's chapel behind the school and wondered about it. The class coincided with her study hall, so she and three friends enrolled.
"It was a different experience,'' she told The Salt Lake Tribune in 1996. "I was used to shrines and incense and gold brocade materials. This was just plain, nothing there except listening to the gospel."
Okazaki continued to go to the Mormon meeting every Wednesday for four years and also to Sunday services. She enjoyed being both Mormon and Buddhist, but eventually joined the LDS faith at 15.
Okazaki's parents were set on her getting an education. They worked extra hours in the fields and made slippers to send her to the University of Hawaii. There, she met Ed, a World War II veteran. He was a Congregationalist, which caused another dilemma: Should she marry outside her newfound faith?
Ten months after their wedding, Ed joined the LDS Church. The couple moved to Salt Lake City in 1951 so he could pursue graduate studies in social work at the University of Utah. Okazaki worked at Uintah Elementary on the city's east side.
There the couple faced discrimination against those of Japanese descent. Though she had never lived in Japan, Okazaki was associated in the minds of some Utahns with "the enemy.'' Three mothers refused to allow their children to be in her kindergarten class.
"I made a fuchsia-colored dress that showed off my skin and black hair and tucked a fuchsia flower in my hair," she wrote years later. "I was the most vivid thing in the whole school that first day. ... What I wanted the children to feel was my own joy and excitement."
By the end of the day, the three mothers wanted their kids back in.
Because of medical conditions, Okazaki had only two children, Kenneth and Robert. She continued to teach school in Utah and later Colorado, eventually becoming a principal.
In 1961, she became the first non-Caucasian to be on the church's Young Women's Board. Seven years later, she joined her husband when he served for three years as an LDS mission president in Okinawa, Japan.
A few years later, she was asked to work on the LDS Primary Board, which oversees the religious education of Mormon children. She was there until her appointment in 1990 to the Relief Society Presidency.
Okazaki then became highly visible.
Typically bedecked in striking colors and often wearing a Hawaiian lei, she would call out to her all-female audience, "Aloha," and thousands of women would answer back, "Aloha." She even gave that unconventional greeting during LDS General Conference.
Her speeches were tightly woven masterpieces that she worked over for weeks and refined continuously. She then read and reread them, practicing each word so it sounded natural and fluid.
Every speech was a teaching moment, recalled Elaine Jack, the Relief Society president who chose Okazaki as her counselor. "She used words and examples so judiciously to make a good and memorable point."
With her light touch and subtle humor, she was able "to bring religion down to earth," said Okazaki's son Kenneth. "She inspired women to have a backbone."
And, after her two sons were grown and her husband died in 1997, the gentle mother turned her nurturing attention outward to the world. She visited mobile homes and nursing homes; she spoke in tiny branches in Africa and big conferences in Australia; she found women who felt lost or alone. Her reach was global, even as her approach remained individual.
"Every trial she had — including cancer, widowhood and prejudice — she consecrated to the good of others," Hawkins said. "She saw them each as a gift to be able to connect to other people — and to the Lord."
pstack@sltrib.com —
Funeral
P Chieko Okazaki's funeral is set for 11 a.m. Aug. 10 in the LDS Holladay South Stake Center, 4917 S. Viewmont St. (2200 East). —
Chieko Okazaki
Oct. 21, 1926 â Aug. 1, 2011 —
In her words
"Perfect people don't need a savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living and the living make mistakes. He's not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief."
Lighten Up, p. 176
"Adversity is frequently a call to do something great with our lives."
Aloha, p. 154
"Again, look around the room you are in. Do you see women of different ages, races or different backgrounds in the [LDS] Church? Of different educational, marital and professional experiences? Women with children? Women without children? Women of vigorous health and those who are limited by chronic illness or handicaps? Rejoice in the diversity of our sisterhood! It is the diversity of colors in a spectrum that makes a rainbow. It is the diversity in our circumstances that gives us compassionate hearts. It is the diversity of our spiritual gifts that benefits the church."
"Rejoice in Every Good Thing," Ensign, November 1991
It was March holiday in Singapore, my family and i selected Vietnam as our getaway destination. This is the first time in my life i ever seen so many motorcycles in a road. Too many that i couldn't even barely count. And it really bad as they had this crazy wire or the electrical wires or stuff hanging around the top. I mean look at the more developed countries or developing countries, i don't see such crazy moment of wires hanging around in anywhere in my country. This is an eye-opener trip for me.
I edited it till i thought it did look very much like a postcard, in my own personal view that is.
More edited and non edited pictures on craponlove.blogspot.com Post: 20th on March.
Cumulus congests clouds with altocumulus clouds at a highr elavation
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Late morning on Monday, October 5, and we step off the train into yet another quite warm autumn day, this time in hectic Varanasi, at the eastern edge of Uttar Pradesh. Though we’d be going to Delhi/New Delhi on the noon train tomorrow, I didn’t realize at the time that this would be the last of my photo shooting in India for this trip. (We were in Delhi for roughly 48 hours, but I got sick from train food on the 18 hour journey between Varanasi & the capital. Since the capital seemed way too smoggy, dirty, congested, disorganized…I didn’t feel like I’d missed out terribly, though there were a few places I would have liked seeing there.)
I’ll finish this posting on a good note, though, and focus on Varanasi. Before getting there, I wasn’t terribly excited about the tourist attractions I’d read about, but that’s not why people come to Varanasi. Varanasi is to Hindus what Mecca & Medina are to Muslims, or Jerusalem to Christians. It’s their holiest city. On the banks of the Ganges, people come here to die, then have their ashes spread in the river.
Varanasi has a lot of poor and indigent people as well, who come and hope to be cremated and buried in the river, and there are a few places that serve as pseudo-hospices to help them. They tend to try to collect donations from anyone to afford to pay for the wood – it’s a specific wood they use for the cremation – so they can help these people.
So Varanasi is an interesting place. There are many ghats (ghat is like…a pier, or a place where you can access the river), and the most famous are probably Dashashwamedh Ghat (the liveliest and most colorful) and Manikarnika (the Burning Ghat). There are many other ghats, as well, and some have specific histories attached to them.
For me, the best plan was to stay in a hotel near the ghats in the Old City so we could enjoy the sunrise and stroll around. The Hotel Alka was my random choice, and it turned out to be good. It’s cheap, riverside, has a decent restaurant (though, as it’s a hotel restaurant, not as good as many of the others where we’d eaten in the past two weeks), and overall a comfortable room.
After getting checked in (and this place was pretty crowded), I took a shower, then headed off with a local guy who gave me a tour of the Old City. Now, a word on that… It’s not recommended that you go with any local who offers because most of them will steer you into various businesses, or towards people who are all too happy to try to get your money. I was very firm with this guy, though, and told him the maximum price I’d pay regardless of what he showed me, and that he should plan accordingly. He didn’t, and was a bit disappointed when I paid him exactly what I said I would.
The tour included stops at a few temples – they all started to look a bit alike after the second one – and at Manikarnika (one of the places where you’re herded and they try to make you feel guilty if you don’t fork over five million dollars to pay for everyone’s cremation). The last stop was at his boss’s store, well away from the old city, over in the Muslim Quarter, where I had to sit patiently through a whole lot of lecturing on textiles and their pleading that I buy the entire building. I tried to be as polite as possible with the last part, stating up front that I wouldn’t buy a thing before going in, though that disappointed them to no end. In the end, perhaps it’s better to go on your own…
After about four hours with my guide, it was already dusk and the city actually felt less safe than others. (There were a lot of police out and about.) It turns out that there wa s a religious ceremony that the police were banning this particular year for some reason, so there was a bit of tension. And since Varanasi isn’t a city that is lit up much at night, there wasn’t much to see, so I was glad to just get to my room and call it a day.
Waking early on Tuesday morning, I caught the sunrise over the Ganges, then wandered up and down the ghats for an hour or so. This really was an interesting experience as it seems the entire city comes to bathe in the river, and everyone seems pretty happy. There are plenty of boat tours, too, which I skipped, as I just wanted to take a walk.
After an hour or so of wandering the riverside, I went back to the Alka, had breakfast, and enjoyed my remaining few hours just watching the sun rise higher before heading to the train station for the unofficial (though still unbeknownst to me) end of this trip to India.
In hindsight, this was a terrific two weeks. Though I enjoyed Uttar Pradesh, I wouldn’t go out of my way to return here – unless going to different parts of the state, and I would certainly include a trip to Agra in that – but Rajasthan…I would gladly go back to anytime. However, India has a lot to offer, and I’m not sure if I’ll return here or go to different parts of the country. Anything is possible…
City streets alongside canals are pedestrian and bicycle friendly rather than smelly, noisy and congested with motor vehicles.
Capture this image of Delmy holding her dog, Big, just before Melody and I hit the road on our first full day of our 2014 trip to Idaho. Though we had planned to spend the night in Reno the night before it was so hot and the traffic so congested that we spent the night at Delmy's house in California's capitol city of Sacramento. Earlier she had cut her long hair to support a cancer survivor. Her little dog is named Big.
SMITH-ee-uh -- named for British botanist and physician Sir James Edward Smith ... Wikisource
KON-fer-tuh or kon-FER-tuh -- crowded ... Dave's Botanary
commonly known as: congested flower smithia • Assamese: অলক্ষণী alokhyani • Dogri: लक्ष्मन बूटी laxman booti • Gujarati: લક્ષ્મણા lakshmana • Hindi: लक्ष्मणा lakshmana • Kannada: ಕುಡುಹುಲ್ಲು kuduhullu • Konkani: नाईची भाजी naichi bhaji • Malayalam: മുതിരപുല്ല് muthirapullu, തിരുതാളി thiruthaali • Marathi: बरका barka, नाईची भाजी naichi bhaji • Mundari: boror ara, loyong-masuria, pui-masuria • Nepali: लक्ष्मन बुटी laxman buti • Odia: ଲକ୍ଷ୍ମଣବୁଟି laxmanbuti • Punjabi: ਲਖਸ਼ਮਣਾ lakshmana • Sanskrit: लक्ष्मणा laksmana • Tamil: இலைகண்ணி ilaikanni • Telugu: లక్ష్మణా laksmana • Tulu: ಕುಡುಪಂತಿ kudupanthi • Urdu: لکشمنا lakshmana
botanical names: Smithia conferta Sm. ... homotypic synonyms: Damapana conferta (Sm.) Kuntze • Smithia geminiflora var. conferta (Sm.) Baker ... accepted infraspecifics: Smithia conferta var. conferta ... heterotypic synonyms: Smithia hispidissima Zoll. & Moritzi ... POWO, retrieved 29 August 2024
Names compiled / updated at Names of Plants in India
Saigon, Vietnam - Jun 30, 2017. People walk on Nguyen Hue Street in Saigon, Vietnam. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) has exotic food, colonial architecture, and memories of war.
Prevent Los Angelization Now (of San Diego).
San Diego I-5 freeway near 805 / 56 merge.
As you can see in this photo, the northbound lanes are still backed up. It seems that no matter how many lanes they build, they will never keep up with population growth. More southbound lanes are still under construction as you can see in the photo.
Taken in my neighborhood from the balloon shortly before thankgiving break, that accounts for extra holiday traffic I think.
If you feel like it, view large and try to count all these lanes, and then figure how many more are under construction. Is Everyone moving to Southern California?
Catalonia, new state in Europe
Ten Good Reasons for Independence
1. Because we want to build a new and better country
At a time when the whole world, not only Catalonia, is undergoing a deep economic and social crisis, many Catalans aspire to leave the crisis behind by working harder and building a different kind of state, more democratic, peaceful and respectful of other ways of thinking. Catalonia aspires to be the Netherlands or Denmark of southern Europe, a small country but with strong commercial links to the rest of the world.
2. Because we want to promote our own language
Catalonia is and will remain a multicultural society and the Spanish language (Castillian) will remain a very important and praised language in an independent Catalonia, which is likely to be strongly bilingual for many years to come. Yet, most Catalans aspire to promote once again their own langauge (Catalan) in all spheres of society, allowing it to regain the place that it deserves amongst the diverse and rich languages of Europe.
3. Because we want to be recognised as Catalans
An increasingly high number of catalans have lost (or never had) any sentimental links to Spain. For us the Catalan flag (four red stripes on a golden field) represents our culture and our values. We want to hear our national anthem and feel proud of it, as the citizens of all other Euroean countries are allowed to do. When visiting or working in a foreign country, most of us don’t identify ourselves as Spanish. When asked, we respond that we are Catalans and we would like to see our national identity recognised all over the world.
4. Because we need to improve our economy
We have the right and the will to manage our own resources, according to the needs of our community, using them in a rational and sustainable way. Nowadays, Catalonia has to confront a deep economic crisis, as all other European countries do, but it also has to contribute around 8% of its annual GDP, much over any solidarity obligations, to sustain an inefficient Spanish state. Only by becoming an independent country can we hope to come to overcome this kind of fiscal discrimination.
5. Because we need to dignify our own culture
For much too long have we been under the control of the Spanish state and its centralising culture. With its colonialist mentality, the Spanish insitutions have often treated Catalan culture and Catalans themselves as small children that lacked any right to make their own decisions on important matters and had to be ruled from the Castillian center, as one rules untrustworthy or inferior subjects.
6. Because we already have all the attributes of a nation-state, including our own language, our own history and our own traditions
“Castellers”, “diables”, “gegants”, “sardanes”, “diada de Sant Jordi”, “calçotada”… If you don’t know what this is all about, ask us and we will be more than happy to explain you. Our culture, our existence as a people, is more than one thousand years old. Our cultural heritage and our identity allows us to exist as a free and self-standing nation that only needs its own state to achieve its plenitude and fully contribute to the world’s progres.
7. Because we deserve to decide for ourselves
It is a right of every people: to make its own decisions. And at this point, it is essential for us to put an end to our subordination to the Spanish Parliament in Madrid. What´s the point of voting laws and try to rule your own community if everything you decide will be immediately vetoed or modified to fit other people’s interests? The Spanish Constitution dates from 1978. It was written under pressure of the army and the fading structures of Franco´s dictatorship. It has ensured a certain degree of stability by suppressing the rights and aspirations of subjugaged nations like Catalonia. If democracy is to survive in Spain it is paramount that these aspirations are finally heard.
8. Because a small country works better
Smaller nation-states are closer to their people and their territory. As an indepndent state, we will be able to better plan how to protect our environment, to decide which energy sources we want to tap and to lessen the damage we inflict on our own natural community. We will also be able to improve our education and health systems. As many cases in Europe and elsewhere show, bigger is not necessarily better.
9. Because we need to improve our infrastructures
Our roads, airports, highways and ports are important and cannot be neglected. Too many people die on Catalan roads due to the lack of investment or because of poor management by the central government. Nowadays we have too many tolled highways with some of the highest traffic densities in Europe. Also our airport and our ports are heavily congested due to lack of investment for political reasons.
10. Because we want to support our sport teams
Presently, Catalonia cannot compete on any international sport events. Even if we would like to participate, as Scotland or Wales do, the Spanish government constantly forbids it. Spain won the 2010 football World Cup. Seven of the players in that team were Catalans and the Spanish media pounded some of them for showing the Catalan flag on the celebration. We dream of one day when we will be able to participate in the Olympic Games as any other free nation of the world.
Dr. Bently-Taylor really enjoys having medical students around on these trips, and he takes plenty of time to teach them as he works. In this image, he teaches one of the medical students how to spot some signs of congestive heart failure.
LOCATION:
CEML Hospital, Lubango, Huila, Angola, Africa
NORFOLK, Va. --- Quinton Chievous scored a game- and career-high 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead four players in double figures as Hampton University defeated Norfolk State (20-13), 75-64 in the semifinal round of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament at the Norfolk Scope.
The Pirates (15-17), the Number 6 seed, will take on Delaware State, the Number 5 seed in the championship on Saturday at 1 pm. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Chievous made an impact early, tallying 13 first half points to give Hampton a 36-33 lead at intermission. The Pirates extended the lead to 50-39 in the first seven minutes of the second half on the scoring of the play of Chievous, Reginald Johnson and Ke’Ron Brown.
Red Weasel Media (RWM) was there to capture all of the jaw dropping action.
The Strasburg is looking like a model railroad with SRC 8618 shifting freight cars, LO&S 10 awaiting passengers, and several coaches staged. Strasburg, PA
When things got too congested in the city, Janus pops this folding motor scooter out of his boot, and goes off in hot pursuit
When things got too congested in the city, Janus pops this folding motor scooter out of his boot, and goes off in hot pursuit
As we mentioned earlier, traffic in Istanul is a bit congested. Getting on and off the brige takes in normal traffic up to 2 hours...!
Camera www.topshot.fi, AF lenses www.vuokrakamera.fi or MF Leica R www.kameratori.fi
This is one of the most congested segments of the Lakefront Trail.
The pedestrian path is cantilevered off the east side of the Lake Shore Drive bridge over the Chicago River and DuSable Harbor. It "broke" in September 2009 and a detour was made onto a travel lane.
The city installed metal plates over the open grates of the bridge deck, as well as a guardrail and reflective signs.
Read about my proposal alternative to the Navy Pier Flyover, a $45 million bypass structure, on Grid Chicago.
66303 gets through a congested Cheltenham (race week) with 4V38 0820 from Daventry to Wentloog. 10th March 2015.
When touring Old Delhi with a pretty blonde woman, every tunnel, every underpass, every bridge, is an adventure. A really, really creepy adventure. My nerves were never so frazzled as they were after a day in Delhi.
Flash Parker Photography:
My Blog | On Facebook | Flash Light Expeditions | The Ubiquitous Kimchi | The Metro Project
This is the watercolor I did for the Congestive Art Failure show this weekend.
I was going for the different ways medicine can affect you. Some makes you smarter, more amorous, some can KILL you (dun dun DUNNNN!) and some helps you focus. I had a few other ideas but the canvas I got is pretty small so I didn't have a whole lot of room. This is also my first real attempt at watercolor and I'm pretty happy with it.
The show is being put together by Evermore Gallery where I got my tattoo (many thanks to Carrie for that!). Opening night is Saturday, February 14th at FUBAR. You should stop by and see this thing in real life, along with a lot of other great stuff.
Aka clogged pores, blackheads, whiteheads, comedones, open comedones, close comedones, macrocomedones, non inflammatory acne
Introduction:
Having a congested skin can often be referred to clogged pores, and the cause of most acne problem. Clogged pores are clinically called comedones, or blackheads (open comedones) and whiteheads (close comedones).
Deep within each hair follicle, sebum normally flows from the sebaceous glands to reach the skin to keep skin moist and pliable. When the routes or pores being clogged or congested, sebum is trapped within the pores and form comedones or blackheads and whiteheads.
for more information:
www.cellnique.com/index.php/se-problems/skin/sp-congestio...
connect us: facebook.com/cellnique
tweet us: twitter.com/cellnique
The spicate inflorescences bear congest cylindrical head comprising only disk flowers. The styles are long and bear long terminal appendages. This site lies in the mountain big sagebrush steppe of Burke Park, Bozeman Montana.
I woke up this morning with the uncomfortable feeling of a congested nasal passage and I had a feeling it was raining and I knew it was agreat opportunity to test the 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens for what it was made and bought for. So Out came the camera and the tripod. Thank you Lord for the showers of Your blessing. Thank you Lord for Your unfailing kindness and faithfulness. Great indeed is the Lord!
Male' city at night. Home to more than 100,000 people, it's the most congested place I've ever seen.
Solitaire, the largest pipelay vessel in the world, has set new standards in the pipelay industry. Precise manoeuvring on full dynamic positioning allows the vessel to work safely in congested areas. Her high cruising speed and lay speed make her very competitive world-wide. Lorelay was the world's first pipelay vessel on dynamic positioning, representing a new generation. Being able to manoeuvre precisely and safely – specifically an advantage in congested areas – and having excellent workability, she has made her mark world-wide.
While the Solitaire moves forward, the pipeline slowly enters the water from the ship's stern. Proper calculations, including pipe weight, and water depth and density, determine the optimum speed at which the pipeline is laid. To ensure safe delivery, the pipeline is fed onto a computer-operated device called a "stinger." The stinger, attached to the Solitaire, and resembling an insect stinger with pipeline in tow, feeds the pipeline into the water at a gentle curve and a controlled rate. The biggest pipelay vessel in the world is also the fastest. And depending on the weather, Solitaire can lay from 4 to 7 kilometres (2½ to 4½ miles) of pipeline per day—twice as fast as other pipelay vessels.
A vaccinator scrapes past the highly congested & difficult lanes of sangam Nagar to reach out to children under 5 years of age, so that no child is left out. .
.
One more night in Memphis and we took another look at Beale Street. This time a lot less congested and a lot less intimidating. Altogether a much better experience. Ate in the Hard Rock Cafe. I know not very adventurous but it was decent. And a stroll along Beale Street led to BB Kings where we were thoroughly entertained by one Patrick Dodd. Amaze-ing!!! Terrific blues and made Beale Street feel so much more worthwhile. This guy is awesome. He's on facebook, so check him out and if he's ever in your neck of the woods and if you love blues you will defy love this guy... www.facebook.com/patrickdoddmusic
Before leaving Memphis for Nashville I wanted to visit the Lorraine Motel, the scene of Martin Luther King's assasination as I read it was a civil right museum. When we got there we met the most incredible woman Ms Jacqueline Smith. She has bee protesting there for over 22 years. I got chatting to her and decided not to visit the museum after all. Read her story she is an amazing woman. And I got a wee kiss from her too!!! :D www.fulfillthedream.net/
Next stop Nashville wooooohooooo! (At last!!!)
Late morning on Monday, October 5, and we step off the train into yet another quite warm autumn day, this time in hectic Varanasi, at the eastern edge of Uttar Pradesh. Though we’d be going to Delhi/New Delhi on the noon train tomorrow, I didn’t realize at the time that this would be the last of my photo shooting in India for this trip. (We were in Delhi for roughly 48 hours, but I got sick from train food on the 18 hour journey between Varanasi & the capital. Since the capital seemed way too smoggy, dirty, congested, disorganized…I didn’t feel like I’d missed out terribly, though there were a few places I would have liked seeing there.)
I’ll finish this posting on a good note, though, and focus on Varanasi. Before getting there, I wasn’t terribly excited about the tourist attractions I’d read about, but that’s not why people come to Varanasi. Varanasi is to Hindus what Mecca & Medina are to Muslims, or Jerusalem to Christians. It’s their holiest city. On the banks of the Ganges, people come here to die, then have their ashes spread in the river.
Varanasi has a lot of poor and indigent people as well, who come and hope to be cremated and buried in the river, and there are a few places that serve as pseudo-hospices to help them. They tend to try to collect donations from anyone to afford to pay for the wood – it’s a specific wood they use for the cremation – so they can help these people.
So Varanasi is an interesting place. There are many ghats (ghat is like…a pier, or a place where you can access the river), and the most famous are probably Dashashwamedh Ghat (the liveliest and most colorful) and Manikarnika (the Burning Ghat). There are many other ghats, as well, and some have specific histories attached to them.
For me, the best plan was to stay in a hotel near the ghats in the Old City so we could enjoy the sunrise and stroll around. The Hotel Alka was my random choice, and it turned out to be good. It’s cheap, riverside, has a decent restaurant (though, as it’s a hotel restaurant, not as good as many of the others where we’d eaten in the past two weeks), and overall a comfortable room.
After getting checked in (and this place was pretty crowded), I took a shower, then headed off with a local guy who gave me a tour of the Old City. Now, a word on that… It’s not recommended that you go with any local who offers because most of them will steer you into various businesses, or towards people who are all too happy to try to get your money. I was very firm with this guy, though, and told him the maximum price I’d pay regardless of what he showed me, and that he should plan accordingly. He didn’t, and was a bit disappointed when I paid him exactly what I said I would.
The tour included stops at a few temples – they all started to look a bit alike after the second one – and at Manikarnika (one of the places where you’re herded and they try to make you feel guilty if you don’t fork over five million dollars to pay for everyone’s cremation). The last stop was at his boss’s store, well away from the old city, over in the Muslim Quarter, where I had to sit patiently through a whole lot of lecturing on textiles and their pleading that I buy the entire building. I tried to be as polite as possible with the last part, stating up front that I wouldn’t buy a thing before going in, though that disappointed them to no end. In the end, perhaps it’s better to go on your own…
After about four hours with my guide, it was already dusk and the city actually felt less safe than others. (There were a lot of police out and about.) It turns out that there wa s a religious ceremony that the police were banning this particular year for some reason, so there was a bit of tension. And since Varanasi isn’t a city that is lit up much at night, there wasn’t much to see, so I was glad to just get to my room and call it a day.
Waking early on Tuesday morning, I caught the sunrise over the Ganges, then wandered up and down the ghats for an hour or so. This really was an interesting experience as it seems the entire city comes to bathe in the river, and everyone seems pretty happy. There are plenty of boat tours, too, which I skipped, as I just wanted to take a walk.
After an hour or so of wandering the riverside, I went back to the Alka, had breakfast, and enjoyed my remaining few hours just watching the sun rise higher before heading to the train station for the unofficial (though still unbeknownst to me) end of this trip to India.
In hindsight, this was a terrific two weeks. Though I enjoyed Uttar Pradesh, I wouldn’t go out of my way to return here – unless going to different parts of the state, and I would certainly include a trip to Agra in that – but Rajasthan…I would gladly go back to anytime. However, India has a lot to offer, and I’m not sure if I’ll return here or go to different parts of the country. Anything is possible…
When things got too congested in the city, Janus pops this folding motor scooter out of his boot, and goes off in hot pursuit
When things got too congested in the city, Janus pops this folding motor scooter out of his boot, and goes off in hot pursuit
2 aspect (red and amber) signals at often congested Heatherton Road roundabout in Noble Park adjacent to railway crossing. The purpose of them is to stop traffic entering before the boom gates go down in order to allow traffic from the eastern approach to clear and thus not be stuck in the crossing.
It is not unusual for three or more trains to keep the gates down during peak hour and the roundabout prevents Heatherton Road from clearing effectively.
Our view from a plane that we ultimately had to deboard three hours after waiting in vain to use a congested runway.
This is one of the most congested segments of the Lakefront Trail.
The pedestrian path is cantilevered off the east side of the Lake Shore Drive bridge over the Chicago River and DuSable Harbor. It "broke" in September 2009 and a detour was made onto a travel lane.
The city installed metal plates over the open grates of the bridge deck, as well as a guardrail and reflective signs.
Read about my proposal alternative to the Navy Pier Flyover, a $45 million bypass structure, on Grid Chicago.