Traveling

The past couple of weeks have flown by; Navina and Patty and I did a final "exploration"/performance in an empty stepwell at Sanskriti, creating a set from clays in different states (dry powder, slip, and wet clay) and different colors (a rich red ocher, a mustardy yellow ocher, a pink terra cotta, and a white china clay) and improvised. I was very sick with a cold of some kind, and felt extremely dizzy, so was a bit limited, but we got some great photos.

I was down for the count for a couple of days but also have been going to various wedding activities for my coworker Meera, who happened to be getting married while I was in New Delhi. The wedding was gorgeous; I also went to the henna ceremony the day before and joined the women in getting our hands decorated with henna.

Today we are at the Taj hotel in Gwalior. We are taking a weeklong trip to see some of the temples of Gwalior, Orcha, and Khajuraho. We have a wonderful driver, Sanjit, who is Sikh, but once we got to Gwalior removed his turban. I'm trying to find out why but so far haven't had much luck. We spent the morning at the fort and temples of Gwalior and had a 12-year old guide named Sunil, who also tried to teach me some Hindi but I've forgotten most of it I'm afraid. We were able to clamber all over the fort's walls, and entered a Sikh temple. Following Sunil's lead, we knelt to receive some kind of offering from the priest inside, which Sunil said was something to eat. I was a bit nervous about eating it, so I was relieved when Sunil fed his to the fish in the pool outside . . .

Tomorrow we will drive to Orcha. We return to Delhi in time for Holi, the festival of colors, and then Monday we fly back to New York.