SAJAforum

PHOTO FORUM: The Orange Men of Rishikesh, by Charlotte Purin

The Orange Men of Rishikesh

Text and photographs © Charlotte Purin

It was fitting that I met G.T. Roa (above) on the holiday of Holi, the Indian festival of color that celebrates a man’s survival thanks to his unwavering devotion to God. On this day Hindus, especially adolescent boys, throw or smear brightly colored, staining powders at anyone in the street. Despite this, I left the safety of my ashram and ventured out for sweets. Zig-zagging in order to avoid the boys, I bumped into G.T., a much-bemused sadhu, who was color-free except for the orange uniform that all sadhus wear to signify their life path. I thrust some sweets into his hands and said, “Happy Holi!” He smiled: “Come and talk sometime. I will be sitting here. I am always sitting here.”

The next day, there he was in the same exact spot. And he was there every day until I left four weeks later.  G.T. Roa is a man who left his job as a welder for the life of a monk, renouncing worldly desires for a life of devotion to God. One day he told his family he was going to the mountain – the Himalayas, refuge of seers (rishis) and saints. 

TRAVEL: Nepal, India on Nat'l Geographic Adventure's "Best New Trips"

Nepal and India have made to the list of the National Geographic Adventure magazine's "Best New Trips '09."

“Nepal: Everest for Everyone” and “India: The Amazing Megafauna Race” boast the first and second best adventure spots in the magazine’s Asia list.

From National Geographic Adventure's Claire Martin:

MUMBAI ATTACKS: Taj & Trident re-open + how you can help the workers

[See SAJAforum's full coverage of the Mumbai attacks]

On Nov. 30, 2008, four days after the attacks had begun Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Tata Group, which owns the Taj Mahal Hotel, appeared on "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on CNN. An excerpt:

ZAKARIA: And if you had a message to the world, who have witnessed all this and seen your hotel -- the hotel that your great- grandfather built -- go up in flames, what would it be?

TATA: I think my message would be that this has been a terrible blow to us, but we will, in fact, overcome the challenges that are ahead. It has not, in fact, diminished our commitment to go ahead with what we had in our minds, and that we will rebuild what has been damaged or destroyed, and that we will only come out stronger and, in fact, more determined than we were before this very unfortunate event took place [full transcript here].

Less than a month after the attacks, the Taj and another hotel damaged in the attack, the Trident, were open for business (the Oberoi has not yet reopened and may take six months to do so). From a Bloomberg report by Debarati Roy and Subramaniam Sharma:

A steady flow of cars and guests endured traffic jams, gun emplacements and security checks last night as Mumbai's Taj Mahal and Trident hotels reopened less than a month after terrorists killed 63 guests and employees.

Diplomats, religious leaders and victims of the attacks attended prayers and services to remember those who died. Others came out of curiosity or to dine at the reopened restaurants, which were booked out for the whole evening. For some, including an Aeroflot flight crew that checked in at the Trident, it was simply business as usual.

``I was in Room 602 and the terrorists had rounded us up to use as a human shield,'' said Chennai-based K.R. Ramamoorthy, chairman of ING Vysya Bank Ltd., smiling in the lobby and recounting the night of the attack. ``I came today to attend the memorial service and am staying here.''

Terrorists carrying guns, grenades and explosives entered the luxury hotels on Nov. 26, killing, destroying and spraying bullets. Twenty-five days later, the 105-year-old Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and the Trident Hotel reopened their doors after working day and night to repair damage.

Outside the Taj, a traffic jam of arriving guests snarled the road near the Gateway of India as part of the street was blocked for security. Guests walked past a sandbagged bunker of soldiers to have their bags screened near the steps of the hotel, before passing though a metal detector to enter the lobby.

Meanwhile, below is information about how you can help the families of hotel employees killed in the attacks.

BLOGS: Kamran Pasha blogs from Mecca

A few months Sree posted an item about screenwriter Kamran Pasha's upcoming novel on Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. It's called "Mother of the Believers" and will be out in April, from Atria books. Kamran's TV credits include Sleeper Cell and Bionic Woman, and his video game credits include 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.

Right now, however, Kamran is on Hajj, with his mother, and he's blogging about his journey.

Here are some of his recent entries.

From November 19, before leaving the US for Saudi Arabia:

My mother was always afraid to go on Pilgrimage. She was terrified of crowds, and the idea of spending days in the desert of Saudi Arabia surrounded by three million worshippers gave her panic attacks. Every year she would say: “Next year, insha-Allah.” If God wills. I always smiled indulgently at her words, knowing that God’s will was a convenient excuse for her own stubborn inaction. A pint-sized Pakistani firebrand who has lived in America for thirty years, my mother is a modern Muslim feminist.

Upon arriving in Medina, they check in to the Hilton and walk with their pilgrimage group to the Prophet's Mosque, the largest house of worship in the Islamic world:

I don’t think I can put in words the emotions that ran through me when I stood at Prophet Muhammad’s grave.  A unique mixture of joy and sorrow.  Joy at finally being able to address the man who I believe to be God’s messenger.  And deep sorrow that I can only do so through barriers of stone and earth rather than face-to-face as had those who were lucky enough to have lived at his side.

TOURISM: NYC opens a tourist office in Mumbai

In tough economic times, a story about an economic initiative. From the press release from NYC & Company, the official tourist office of New York City:

   Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta today announced the opening of a new tourism and marketing office in India, the culmination of a two-year plan to strengthen the impact of the City’s $30 billion travel and tourism industry. Travel to New York City from India grew by 47 percent last year to 157,000 visitors and generated an economic impact of $266 million. The opening of the office in Mumbai brings the City’s international presence to 18 offices serving 25 countries. Fertitta opened the office from Mumbai, where he unveiled new media targeted to the Indian market and invited Indians to visit and experience New York City.
<snip>
     NYC & Company today also launched the New York City Online Training Academy for the India travel trade market.  The online tool will train travel agents and tour operators on best practices for packaging and selling New York City’s five boroughs, as well as educate participants on important facts, figures and information relevant to a visit to the United States’ largest City.
     “With the launch of our new office, we’re giving India’s travel industry the tools it needs to sell the New York City experience to future visitors,” said Fertitta.  “It is important now more than ever for NYC & Company to have a presence in India as we capitalize on this important and growing market.”
      New York City is the most frequently visited destination in the U.S. for Indian travelers, capturing a 28 percent market share. India maintains a strong Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) market, as well as strong business relations between the two countries. In 2008, New York City is expected to welcome an estimated 175,000 Indian visitors.

They are also targeting the movie business:

The success of films like Kal Ho Naa Ho and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, which are among the twenty-five highest grossing films in India from the last decade, shows that Indian audiences are eager to see the real New York City onscreen,” said Commissioner Oliver. “Every corner of our diverse City is a cinematic moment waiting to be filmed, and we welcome producers and filmmakers to find out just how easy it is to film in New York City.”

But, as our colleague, Anil Kalhan, wrote just yesterday on SAJAforum:

After years of filming scenes in New York, Bollywood is now outsourcing. According to a Greater Philadelphia Film Office spokesperson, an Indian film production team is currently using Philadelphia as a "stunt double" for a film set in the Big Apple...

The full NYC press release is below. Post your comments, folks.

TRAVEL: Berkeley Students take Rickshaw across India

Ah, the auto rickshaw. India’s trusty three-wheeled taxi is usually seen swerving through the streets with a honk like a goose and five children packed into a two-person seat.

Not exactly the first choice for a cross country, all-terrain vehicle, but try telling that to University of California Berkeley students Brian Wong, Sonny Sabhlok and Allen Rodriguez, aka “Team Korma Police.”

With inspiration from Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, the team embarked on a 2,400 mile trip from Nepal to Pondicherry, India in June as part of a race called “Rickshaw Run,” organized by a British group the Adventurists.

To be eligible to enter, the team had to raise $2000 for charity. They chose to raise money for Mercy Corps India and the Frank Water Project. The team name was a combination of a Radiohead song and Indian cuisine.

Korma Police updated a blog during their trip with tales of Buddhist temples, scenery and fellow rickshaw racers as they make stops in cities such as Varanasi and Hyderabad. It wasn't all smooth sailing either. The team encountered a skidding auto accident, mechanical difficulties, injuries and plenty of bug bites.

“We already miss our rickshaw,” Wong writes in the blog, post-race. “Everytime I get in one here I'm tempted to kick the driver out and take over.”

There was no prize for crossing the finish line, but here's hoping the memories sufficed.

MALDIVES: KT Tunstall's Favorite Destination

Scottish singer KT Tunstall, whose hit single "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" won her a Grammy nomination in 2007, says her favorite travel destination is Maldives.

From the Florida Sun-Sentinel:

I visited the Maldives on my first fancy holiday three years ago when I first had success and really needed to lie down for a week! I fell in love with it. What was incredible about the Maldives was that the entire island we were on consisted of sand. There didn't seem to be any dirt. You could walk around for hours barefoot with your white trousers skimming the ground, and they'd still be pristine white.

Please post your comments below.

SIKHS: San Francisco airport judged worst for turbaned travelers

Sunita Sohrabji of India-West newspaper has this report on San Francisco airport and its dubious distinction of being the worst airport in the nation for Sikh travelers. Here's how it begins:

Prabhjot Singh, vice president of marketing at Computer Associates, has been pulled aside for a second screening on each of the nine times he has traveled out of San Francisco International Airport in the past five months.

Singh, who wears a turban, said he is subjected to a head-wear search every time he leaves his local airport. “I definitely feel I’m being profiled,” he told India-West.

“It makes people wonder ‘what did this guy do,’” said Singh, 30, who has lived in the U.S. since he was 10. “The people who watch this happening are definitely getting the impression that people wearing turbans are suspect,” he said.

The Sikh Coalition issued a report card earlier this month citing San Francisco as the worst airport in the nation for turbaned travelers. The Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights organization, received 80 complaints of secondary headwear searches between Dec. 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008. More than one-third of those incidents occurred at SFO.

See our earlier coverage on the issue, and read the rest of Sohrabji's article below. She interviewed Neha Singh of the Sikh Coalition, as well as other Sikhs who feel singled out at San Francisco airport. She also spoke to the Transportation Security Administration, which "attributed the larger number of complaints from San Francisco to the large number of Sikhs living in the Bay Area."

TRAVEL: AP's Daniel Sorid suggests (gasp!) India trip without the Taj

Daniel Sorid, an AP reporter (formerly with Reuters in India), has written a story about travel in India without visiting the Taj Mahal.

No doubt the Taj Mahal steals the breath away. But as a repeat visitor to India, I have often arrived at its gates too exhausted to have much breath left to steal.

Many tourists report being treated like gobs of tourist putty in the hands of Agra's masterful touts, cajoled into unwanted side trips to trinket shops or pressed to hire an unauthorized tour guide.

In a survey published in 2006, the government of India found that 63 percent of foreign tourists complained of being cheated or harassed "in many tourist destinations like Agra," as well as Delhi, India's capital.

But there are endless alternatives for a holiday in India without the Taj, and even first-time visitors to the country might choose one of these circuits - provided they can stand up to friends back home boggled by the idea of visiting India without seeing the fabled monument.

He goes onto suggest an itinerary that included Calcutta and cities like Konark and Puri. Read the full story (and the sidebar on getting there).

What do you folks think? I am a HUGE fan of the Taj and would never recommend to a tourist who is unlikely to go make a second trip that they go anywhere in India without also seeing the Taj. Yes, the touts are a hassle and it's crowded, but it's just too wonderful to skip completely.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• American dollars "no good" at the Taj
• Taj Mahal makes it to list of "7 New Wonders"

TRAVEL: Slum tours featured in the NY Times

Slum tours--organized excursions into some of the poorest urban areas on earth--were featured in The New York Times Travel section Sunday. As tourists look for more authentic experiences when they travel abroad, visits to slums are increasing in popularity. There's even a not-so-generous term for it: "Poorism."

In the article, "Slum Visits: Tourism or Voyeurism?" Eric Weiner writes:

From the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the townships of Johannesburg to the garbage dumps of Mexico, tourists are forsaking, at least for a while, beaches and museums for crowded, dirty — and in many ways surprising — slums. When a British man named Chris Way founded Reality Tours and Travel in Mumbai two years ago, he could barely muster enough customers for one tour a day. Now, he’s running two or three a day and recently expanded to rural areas.

Reality Tours and Travel takes visitors into Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, home to a million residents.  Tickets are 300 rupees (approximately $7.50).  The article features a recent visitor to Dharavi, Michael Cronin, who chose to take the tour because he had already seen the temples and monuments that tourists often flock to.  It was an eye-opening experience for him.

Mr. Cronin, 41, found himself skirting open sewers and ducking to avoid exposed electrical wires as he toured the sprawling Dharavi slum, home to more than a million. He joined a cricket game and saw the small-scale industry, from embroidery to tannery, that quietly thrives in the slum. “Nothing is considered garbage there,” he said. “Everything is used again.”