The Meanings of Om

We've been on the move the last three days - a whirlwind tour of India's Golden Triangle - Delhi, Jaipur & Agra. We left Delhi early Friday morning - putting ourselves in Kala's capable hands for the long, long drive to Jaipur.

Along the way we saw some monkeys, lots of lorries, and dozens of small villages. At one point we drove behind a "mosquito-control" truck for a few minutes, and I'm pretty sure I inhaled a good bit of DDT. After hours of staring out the window I'd concluded that India isn't beautiful - that in fact India looks like God scooped it up in handfuls, shook it around, and then let it fall back through his fingers down to Earth - leaving dusty little clumps of trees, dirty bundles of firewood, mangy bunches of monkeys/pigs/dogs/camels, piles of rubble & dung, and a kaleidoscope of garbage - plastic heaps of every imaginable color.
It made me want to take a giant bucket and some soap and give India a good bath. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and isn't that om?

As soon as I resigned myself to the ugly dirtiness of India we came to Jaipur - a little gem in the hills with the most magical moments waiting for us. And here India transcended the ugly, dirty, stinky of it all. Transcendence is om.

We took a tour of the Man Singh Palace - crawling through the centuries-old nooks and crannies, towers, and rooms. The photos on the right show the view from inside and from atop the palace. Notice also that little graffiti pearl of wisdom - "F" the fear, drink the bear". Uh, OK. And sort of om?

From the roof of our guest house we watched the sun set over Jaipur as the evening call to prayer sang out over the hills and small boys throughout the city stood on their roof tops flying kites. Imagine - dozens of kites dancing across the sky - a backdrop for laughter and prayer. Laughter and prayer belong to the many meanings of om.

The next day was early to rise again with a few more sights in Jaipur. First stop the observatory - where a couple hundred years ago some guy measured the crap out of the stars and left behind some crazy park more reminiscent of a modern sculpture park.

It was very quiet and peaceful there. The right kind of setting for om.

And here we pay homage to Taurus & Scorpio.

Then the City Palace in the Pink City before another stop at the Monkey Temple. So many monkeys. Many, many mangy monkeys. And the monkeys had one of the best views in Jaipur.
Lucky monkeys.

Agra almost turned out to be little more than an aggravation. We weren't able to make it to the hotel we'd booked. The road was closed about a kilometer away due to a fatal auto accident and not likely to reopen for several hours. So, we never did get to see the sun set on the Taj from the roof of the Taj Heritage. Kala found us another hotel and finagled some sort of upgrade. Mind you - I use the term upgrade loosely.

So we missed our chance to gaze upon the Taj and sip gin and tonics. But we did share a bottle of whiskey with Kala under a torturous fluorescent light bulb in a hotel restaurant. And that is how we spent our last evening together- discussing family, life, religion, and the meaning of om.

The next morning came early and with a bit of a hurty head and enough stomach for some toast (which was good because that's all the hotel was serving for complimentary breakfast). We rushed off by 7 am hoping to see enough of the Taj before it closed at 9am for a private tour for President Sarkozy. We waited impatiently in a kilometer-long queue just to get through security. TSA's got nothing on the Taj security. I dare say I was molested, but it was worth the humiliation of public groping. The Taj Mahal is om to the enth power - a remarkable spectacle, but about an hour and a half visit will do.

It was a sleepy but restless drive back to Delhi. We made one final tourist stop at Akbar's Tomb (those are the final 2 of 3 photos in this post). We arrived back at the Delhi airport with lots of time to spare, and so I did some more thinking, but I will save those thoughts for another day and another post. Namaste, dear friends & loved ones.