Needless to say that is was absolutely amazing to see the Qutab Minar. It was quite a spectacular. Vikas mentioned that for Islamic carvings or architecture that there was no representation of humans or animals. Such representation was considered blasphemous. We had a little contest to see what house could spot the most appearances of humans carved into the surrounding structures of the Qutab Minar.
While at the Qutab Minar, I was intrigued by all of the wildlife and nature that was present. I was surprised that there are so many stray dogs in India. This is something that I hadn’t really considered or thought about. I know that there are so many stray dogs present because India doesn’t have animal control or something of that capacity going around to round up the stray dogs. But it also makes sense because of the sheer amount of stray dogs that are present, it would be next to impossible to get all of them off of the street and once you get some off, others will pop up.
After we visited the Qutab Minar, it was time to get ready to go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal. I noticed quite a few differences between Agra and Delhi from the bus ride to Agra. The biggest difference between Delhi and Agra that I noticed from the road was the distance between the rural villages and the more “urban” areas. In our prep classes we discussed how middle class people’s houses can be right across from or next to a very run down house or hut. This was very evident in Agra. In Agra, there was a lot of trash and an abundance of stray dogs, ox, and goats. I was almost shocked to see a little boy squatting on the ground to go to the bathroom. I’m aware that there isn’t a lot of public bathrooms in India and that not everyone has access to bathrooms so I’m not sure why I was so surprised by this but I took everything in stride.
The traffic truly is orderly chaos. I still find it strange that the roads have lanes but the lanes are basically useless to the drivers. The roads hold as many drivers as can fit the width of the road. Drivers still honk at each other to get another driver to move out of the way so that hasn’t changed from Delhi to Agra. We were asked to think about one factor that affects travel time to most. In my opinion, the traffic is the one factor that affects travel time the most. Traffic can turn a one-hour trip into the three-and-a-half-hour trip. Honestly, I was surprised to see that traffic was so heavy in India. I knew that the cities in India were very heavily populated but I had assumed that most people didn’t have many different modes of transportation besides walking.
The problems with transportation and delays can be addressed by leaving earlier during the day when traffic isn’t heavy yet. Of course, heavy is a relative term – so I mean heavy by Indian standards and not by US standards. We’ve been doing this so far with our visits to historical sites. I believe a mass underground transportation system like a subway or metro would be effective. The logistics of constructing such a system might me hard in terms of having to block off roads and create diversions, it could take and long time and could be expensive. However, I think it could work to pull some of the road goers to the metro and potentially lessen the amount of traffic.
On the road trips through Delhi, I was most interested to see the abundance of Western clothing brands. Even though we were in one of the nicest areas in Delhi, the city was right next to the slums. I’m glad that I got a chance to witness this for myself because there is a difference between hearing about something and then actually seeing it firsthand.
I saw such contrast once again later tonight, in Agra, we went to the Oberoi Hotel. This hotel is so amazing. I am shocked by the extravagance of the hotel. It was one of the nicest hotels that I’ve ever been in – in my entire life. It was a grand display of opulence and flare. I’m very glad that I got the opportunity to see such a place. We get exposed to extremely beautiful and nice things in India in addition to slums and shanties.
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