Little Taj

I spent the last few days in Aurangabad with my host uncle and his family on a trip to attend a happening first birthday party. To get to Aurangabad, we had a three hour drive with 10 people in two rows of seats. As a privledged male in Indian society, I only had to sit with three other people in the front row, which was essentially like sitting on top of the gear shift. Relative to the back seat, no complaints. There were 3 adults in the back and 4 kids, one of whom was a baby if you don't want that to count.

To keep sane we rolled all the windows down and feasted on Cadbury chocolates and water. The road trip turned out to be entertaining, mostly because of our skilled lunatic driver. We went screaming down the two-lane highway at 110 km/hour, give or take 10 kilometers because the needle on the speedometer jumped with every pothole and lump in the road. Everything travels on the road, including bullock carts, meandering peacocks, buses, cars, trucks, motorcycles, auto rickshaws, scooters, bicycles loaded with goods, families of monkeys, and lots of villagers who like stand in front of and stare at oncoming cars, stepping out of the way at the absolute last moment. Our ten-year old, range rover-esk diesel ripoff was pretty cushy.

You can tell the autorickshaw owners from the drivers who rent vehicles by the color of the exhaust. Renter-drivers mix petrol with much cheaper kerosene, saving some cash at the expense of a healthy engine. This "shitfuel" burns a slate grey, and leaves the 2-cycle engines of the rickshaws in intermittent clumps, like from a burping volcano. I've got some good rickshaw photos that I'll post soon.

I missed a chance to see the renowned Ellora Caves near Aurangabad, but still got to see (spelled phonetically, I hope) Bebe kub Maqbara. Known to many as the Little Taj, it's a slightly smaller replica of the Taj Mahal built ten years afterward in 1651, also as a mausoleum for a woman that some Mughal emperor cared greatly about. I was disappointed that India didn't seem to spend any money on maintenance, but the gardens were still stunning and it takes more than a lot of damage to make well carved white marble look bad. The benefit of having such a great monument go relatively undeveloped and undermaintained is that there's more freedom, and no security guards at every corner to tell you not to cross this line or not go up that stairway. It was stunning, and probably doesn't have the same reputation only because the Taj Mahal is a notch more impressive. Photos to come later in the week.

Much more to share, later.