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I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about religion and mythology. I guess since the past month + has been an onslaught of temples (Cambodia, Hampi, Tamil Nadu, even the monasteries and pagodas of Myanmar), it makes sense that this has been on my mind. Curiosity led me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and it’s honestly quite fascinating. For example, you see swastikas everywhere in Hindu and Buddhist countries, so my original thought was that it originated out here. But it turns out that the swastika has been discovered in prehistoric and protohistoric sites ranging from Europe to South Asia to East Asia. Many Indo-European civilizations have striking similarities (language, a “thunder” god like Zeus/Indra/Thor, etc. etc.), and the swastika is no different. Turns out that when the OG nomads spread across Eurasia, certain things stuck, like languages and symbolism – one of these happens to be the swastika.
I think it’s a pretty powerful sentiment that the stories we tell ourselves can spread geographically across countless generations like that. People attach meaning and a sense of self to a lot of these stories, which is what makes them so sticky.
While in Goa, I woke up one day to the news that Kobe Bryant had passed away. More than almost any other athlete (Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson being 2 comparables), Kobe transcended life to become a living myth. The stories are countless (not flinching during the throw in, shit-talking foreign players in their mother tongue, etc.), and rarely happen in this degree to athletes (or hell, humans period) while they are living and in their prime. I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that, while Kobe’s death was sudden and tragic, what really made it impact people (myself included) was the fact that he had basically become mythologized into this larger than life figure. That’s why for me, the one defining Kobe memory is of him celebrating the Eagles Super Bowl victory right after the final play – it brought him back down to Earth, and showed that he was human just like all of us.
Goa
I was a bit ambivalent towards Goa going into this trip, but due to the egging of one of my cousins in Chennai and to the fact that I had to be in Mumbai for a wedding anyways, I bit the bullet and came for a few days. Now don’t get me wrong, it was fun. Basically spend all day lazing on a beach and reading, while downing beers and eating delicious spicy seafood…as great as it sounds, this shit gets old after like half a day. I’ll never understand white people and their infatuation with beach vacations. I definitely spent a day too long here. Still had a blast! The beach shacks would all blast techno/EDM/electronic (I don’t know the genre well enough to define it) at night, basically the same music that all the soundcamps at Burning Man played so it was a nice throwback. I mean it was fun to hang out during the day, but Jesus Christ there are so many other things I would rather be doing than just bum around. I don’t mind as much now where time isn’t exactly a pressing matter for me (it still is! 4 years is not close to enough to see everything I want to see), but I can’t fathom how you would choose to do this when you only have a limited number of vacation days to use per year.
Speaking of which, I spent a half day to go to Old Goa, which has this collection of old (new by Indian standards, but from 200-400 years old) Churches/Cathedrals. Goa was originally a Portugese colony, and these churhces honestly rival any that I’ve seen in Europe, outside of Italy, France, and Russia (Italy and France were simply magnificent, while the Orthodox churches in Russia have their own unique style so aren’t really comparable at all). It was definitely a nice little taste of Europe in the midst of this Asia leg of my retirement.
Goa was weirdly reminiscent of Palestine, where the Israeli Army effectively has displaced the local brown population. I literally met over 30 Israeli soldiers who were on annual leave and just bumming around in Goa. I also will say that Goa probably has the best food I’ve had in India after Delhi. The spicy Masala Fry seafood deals that all the shacks offered were delicious. And the shacks themselves reminded me a ton of The Shore Shack from Rocket Power…just stereotypical thatched roof buildings along the shore that served cheap booze and amazing food.
Mumbai
The whole reason I timed this little trip the way I did was so I could line up meeting my high school friend Martin and his girlfriend Julia in Mumbai. They were in India for Martin’s friend’s wedding outside Mumbai, and he was able to get me an invite for this weekend. Spent a day in Mumbai with them, then went to the wedding for a few days, then went back to Mumbai while they flew out, and met up with my mom for two more days in Mumbai before going to Aurangabad with her.
Mumbai was honestly the biggest pleasant surprise of my retirement so far. Probably my second favorite city I have been to after Delhi since I’ve started this, sliding in ahead of Shanghai. In many ways, the Delhi/Mumbai dichotomy strongly reminded me of Saint Petersburg/Moscow, where the former was more of a “cultural” site and the latter more of a living city to experience. Could definitely spend way more time in Mumbai, and will definitely be visiting again in the future.
While in Russia last June, I read Shantaram, which is probably my favorite book that I have ever read, despite large chunks of the book being excruciatingly difficult to read due to being poorly written. But the parts that are good are *amazingly* good. It takes place in Mumbai in the 1980s, and Leopold Cafe in Colaba features prominently in the novel. Needless to say, it was definitely really cool to go there and walk by it a bunch of times during my stay in Mumbai.
Went to this really cool Irani cafe (Parsis are Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran from like 500+ years ago, while Iranis are Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran from like 100 years ago) called Brittania & Co. with Martin and Julia here, which was probably one of the better meals I have had since I’ve left the US. The decor here was also pretty cool, and in a weird way reminded me of like a Wes Anderson set, with the retro setup. We also went to the Elephanta caves, which was dece – highlight here was the giant carved-in sculpture of a three-headed trimurty, with Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu.
Another interesting thing in Mumbai was that the marine drive area really reminded me of Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Had these artificial rocks lined up against the shore and you could see the skyline across the curved bay. Mumbai is really the only Indian city that feels “modern” with it’s skyline…despite all the history here, it’s a legit bustling city with a ton to do in terms of going out. Parts of south Mumbai (especially Colaba and Cuff Parade) had some really cool ruined colonial buildings, that were almost like the ruined Chettinad mansions that I saw in Tamil Nadu.
And of course, no mention of Mumbai can be complete without the fact that Andy Reid finally won his first Super Bowl while I was here. I woke up at 5am to stream it on my laptop, and honestly was probably like 60% as happy as I was when the birds won it all in 2018 (which is saying a lot!). So happy for Big Red since him, McNabb and Dawkins are basically the reasons that I am an Eagles fan. He also seems to be a legit fantastic human being which only makes it even better. I’ll always root for Andy Reid (and BDN!) if the Eagles are out of it. The only bad thing about Reid winning it all is that he’ll most likely go to the Hall of Fame as a Chief rather than an Eagle.
One final Mumbai note before the wedding – one of the lowkey nice things was just going to a field and watching people play cricket. Did this on two separate occasions, once with Martin and Julia and a second time with my mom. Also, the tea here was probably the best I have had since I have left the US. I never was a tea person before this trip, but the masala tea in India is sooooo good. Way better than British tea (and even Sri Lanka/Nepal/China tea). But the tea from street stalls in Mumbai in particular was even better, and apparently the secret ingredient here is lemongrass.
The wedding was incredible. Honestly, brown weddings blow white weddings out of the water. Martin’s friend was kind enough to let me attend, and it really continues the trend of Indians going above and beyond in terms of being accommodating. It was a two day marathon of dancing – the wedding was dry, and honestly I don’t think it would have been possible to do with alcohol since it was a giant marathon-sprint. This was my third Indian wedding but first proper North Indian wedding (other two were South Indian ones), and North Indian weddings are a riot. Bhangra music is blasting (my ears are still ringing…) and people just get in impromptu dance circles and start doing coordinated group dances. It’s just a massive scene of pure, unbridled joy and the fun is so infectious. It’s also incredible to see all these 50+ year old Uncle and Aunties bust out baller dance moves…these guys have probably been to 500+ weddings so have had ample time to hone their craft. There was this one particular balding, bespectacled, ponch-bellied man who whipped out a jaw-dropping hip thrust dance (with another kid closer to my age getting down on his knees and shaking his head to the thrusts…this kid and his brother were the two best dancers in a very crowded field), so Martin and I kept referring to him as the MVP after that beautiful move. My favorite dance move from this wedding was one where you get a partner, lock hands while crossing your arms (so my right hand holds your right hand, my left hand holds your left hand), and then just spin in a circle as fast as you can. Apparently it’s a fairly common thing here.
One of the cooler aspects of this wedding was when Anshul, the groom, got on a horse, and we spent two hours just dancing in front of the horse as it slowly made the rounds around the wedding venue. This was exhausting, but was an incredible party atmosphere. In general, Indian weddings are just so much fun because of how not-strict everything is. Start times are just suggestions and things routinely start hours late, but this lack of structure makes the whole event more free-form and fun.
Another highlight from the wedding was this Holi-like event, where we were just throwing yellow powder around (and smothering each other) while dancing. After this, because the venue had a pool, there was an impromptu pool party where gangs of 15-30 year old maurauding youths were chasing all the uncles and aunties, lifting them by their legs, and carried them up to 100 feet to dump them in the swimming pool, all while wearing formal wear. They were kind enough to pause the kidnappings to help remove shoes, phones, wallets, watches, etc. before the baptisms. But this pool party was *probably* the highlight of the wedding for me (and that’s saying something!) – just so crazy. One final wedding note – in the final day during the religious ceremony, all of Anshul’s cousins just barged onto the platform and started a coordinated chant to demand ice cream. This was rooted in a tradition of the groom’s family demanding dowry during the wedding, and one of the guys we were with commented on how the wedding was so progressive that it went #FromDowryToDairy. The priest was visibly annoyed by these antics but it was beyond hilarious, and was just so cool to see how much fun the cousins were all having here. The whole thing was even better since an acquaintance from high school was nice enough to meet up for all of this.
Aurangabad
The primary two sites to see near Aurangabad are the Ajanta and Ellora caves. The Ajanta caves are a group of 30 Buddhist caves that are ~1000+ years old, and ~110km north of Aurangabad. This close to 50 mile drive took over 4 hours each way…honestly this was easily the single worst road I have ever driven on. It’s pretty impressive just how terrible these roads were. Ajanta itself was pretty decent. I’ve seen enough temples now where even objectively amazing places just sort of give me an “eh” reaction. I think a part of this is that Ajanta was all Buddhist, and I personally find Buddhist architecture to be a distant fourth in terms of major religions for me (Hindu temples are a runaway 1st and I would personally place mosques and churches/cathedrals tied for 2nd, with maybe a slight edge to historic mosques). In terms of Buddhist architecture, I definitely prefer the remote mountain temples that I saw in Ladakh…those were awesome.
The next day, we did some sightseeing in and around Aurangabad before going to the Ellora caves. Aurangabad was decent, the highlight here was the Bibi Ka Maqbara, which is basically a mini-Taj Mahal replica. The Taj was built by Shah Jahan and the Bibi Ka Maqbara was built by Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb (Aurangabad was founded by him as a temporary new capital from Delhi). Obviously it wasn’t quite as amazing as the Taj (which is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen) but it was still a nice little pitstop on the way to the Ellora caves.
Ellora was fantastic. One of the coolest things I have seen on this trip. If I had to rank my temple trips, I would roughly say Cambodia is still easily first, but then Hampi/Ellora/Tamil Nadu are a tightly packed 2/3/4. The Ellora site has 100+ caves, of which ~34 are opened to the public. The first ~12 or so are Buddhist, then the middle ~20 are Hindu, and the last handful are Jain. The Buddhist temples were nice but sort of a “more of the same” continuation of the ones at Ajanta. The Hindu and Jain ones however were awesome. The biggest standout was the Kailash Temple, which is the world’s largest monolithic structure. It’s a massive stone temple that was carved out of rock, all in one piece. So the entire complex is connected as one rock, from the obelisks to the gopurams to every single step and carving. It’s a mind-numbing achievement, and apparently took close to 200 years to fully construct. It’s definitely thought provoking to imagine what humans could do if they put these amazing efforts into things that actually help people, instead of monuments to gods. At least it gives me cool things to do and see in my retirement.
Next up is a quick trip to Punjab with my mom, where we’ll be seeing Amritsar for a few days and hopefully also catch the border ceremony that the guards do with the Pakistani guards.