Many Routes

Sitted in room 116 at infocity on this sunday morning at 10:49am wondering where life is heading for me. So many roads i see but knowing to choose which I do not ! Reflecting on life i am for age is not reducing. Yesterday, the team had a tour of Ahmedabad (Ahmed + prosperity (abad)) . We were guided through the old city where a great king on seeing a rat jump onto a DOG thought the animals ( people ) living in the region must really be courageous. The King setup a walled city and so many temples both Muslim and Hindu. Walking through the streets reminded me of Bond Movies where Bond rides with a bike ontop of a roof of a slum house with narrow streets and full of filth. I came face to face with the poor part of India, dog / cow s**t allover the place & beggers were a common site.

I really admire the dedication and Art the olden day people put into Architecture of buildings. Buildings that stand to this day. Most of the ones we saw were built using Sandstone and Marble. All such buildings looked old but still stood strong. The kings of those days must really have put so much value in buildings and art. How come we no longer have purely stone curved buildings being constructed ? Is it because we want to have buildings finished quickly with the aid of machines ? How come we use weaker building materials ? Is is because we have to have buildings finished quickly ? Our group attracted alot of attention (because of our color maybe). often people asked whether we were from Africa or West Indies. I felt the tallest in town as i could see the map of every ones head around. Our morning walk eventually ended at a mosque where we met Sam who was to be our tour guide for the rest of the day. He led as quietly through the streets of old Ahmedabad for about 500m without any single utterance. He then started by showing us the Old stock exchange building built by the british in the 50's and a certain 3 part city wall entrance. He then proceeded to show as all kinds of Hindu Temples and Mosques paying specific attention to the different Architectural styles used. The last mosque we visited was built by an african using funds he collected from the people of the area. The center piece of this mosque was the stone curving of a palm tree that was really amazing.

We then proceeded to see our last temple of a certain religion (whose name i cant remember ofcourse coz the guide talked too much) who believe in no god but something about mind, body and soul ( bla bla bla namaste bla bla ) I had never seen so many idols in one place in my whole life. These guys had 63 gods caged up which the priests had to bathe every single day ( i wonder why ) yet they were clearly very white and clean. Some of these kings (gods) idols . whatever ..... were gold plated. It was amazing how much this guide new about the history of the area. like he was actually there. I mean, he was a christian after all , how could he possibly know intimate details about all these religions ? ( ofcos its possible ) but sometimes i felt he was lying.( ehe ehe ofcos i am most likely wrong ) . so we entered this temple without our shoes and belts ( something about leather being of living creatures ,,, and them not allowing dead creatures in the temple ) .

Sam takes us through the motions of prayer in the worship place. He actually dances before one of the gods with some broom like thing ( at which point i almost burst into laughter ) but because other people are worshipping i had to keep cool. These people ring a bell step forward to the alter ( i think ) burnt some incense before the white idol sitted in a meditating position while chantting some gibberish. I really saw our guide as a hypocrite... why ? he entered with his hat in his hand and decided to wear it from inside !!!!! Anway he takes us outside as he rants on and on about the architecture ( we are obsviously tired of his arc crap at this point ) but we listen to him as he intimately describes the scenary.

I thing i found striking was the fact that the people in this religion actually beleive in some form of paradise and hell ! This seems to connect all religions somehow.They also believe in re-incarnation. As we left this temple i asked sam what happened to the offspring of the great blackman who supposedly built many temples to which sam answered " he had no children " i really found this hard to believe !! but considering that non of us existed during that time i had to believe him. We had lunch and thereafter drove for about 30minutes to the step wells.

The step wells were a place of rest built by a queen for people to stop and refresh while on long journeys. The arc consisted of steps leading down to a well with a series of platforms above .( i sighed in relief at the sight of a white man - a foreigner at this site ) . At this point we were realy tired of temples, it had become to much . We finally proceeded to Ghandis place. We entered his house , saw the spoons he used entered his bedroom and did all the tourist crap. Sam said he wished he had my height, infact he grabbed my hand for a photo shoot with him. He sang me a song. Seriously, Ghandi was really a greater personality that deserved the recongnition he got. A man to sacrifise 90% of his land to people he hardly knows.. that was truly something. A man who desired no self praise despite his great deeds ! wow.... he was truly amazing. We left the place and proceeded to a jewelery Shop we were later to find out belonged to sam our guide. I bought mom a bed cover and some jewerly i could afford. My friend Kannan who rode with us through the trip was not amused i had spent alot in such a short time, he felt i should have consulted him before !! apparently i spent the amount of cash he spends in a whole month !!!

But that was really my yesterday. Let me continue with my future reflections. I have written down some accounting of my expenditure and my future goals. Its my hope and prayer that i have the answers to all my questions by the time i get home.

GOD BLESS you ALL.