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| India Gate |
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| Parliament House |
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| Mandir in Old Delhi |
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
and I was crying ...
Two weeks ago, after long debates, the French senate adopted a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The bill was a real bliss for us, the Armenians all over the globe. It needs to be stated that as a result of the same Genocide, there are
more Armenians in the Diaspora than in the Republic of Armenia itself. Thousands of Armenians, who managed to escape the well organized and
implemented Massacres by the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the
20th century, spread in different parts of the world and started their
life once again from the scratch, thus forming the Armenian Diaspora. The total number of deaths resulting from the genocide is generally
held to have been between 1 million to 1.5 million. Turkey till date has
not accepted this well recorded fact.
After the news about the French senate adopting the bill spread, many Armenians celebrated this prominent development in the history of the genocide recognition and expressed their gratitude to France and the French people. However, there are still others who ask "What is the result of this bill, what can it change? Will the century long pain of a whole nation be healed if someday somewhere in France some Turk is arrested?"
Without going deep into the history and especially into the world politics I want to express my genuine and humble opinion regarding this.
Whatever course the world politics takes in shaping the contemporary history is a matter about which I don't want to discuss. However, what I am sure of is that not only the denial of a historical fact should be criminalized, but also the Genocide of intellectual property has to be stopped. Ask me why.
During my last visit in India, one nice evening I went to a cinema with my fiancé. We bought the tickets, but as we were a bit early for the show we decided to spend our time looking around. We entered a shop near the Cinema. It was a two-story garment shop. From the very moment I stepped inside the shop my ears caught the familiar sound of the music playing there. It was duduk - traditional Armenian musical instrument, also known as Tsiranapogh which means "Apricot pipe". It was a pleasant surprise, but I was not amazed because Duduk has become very popular in the last 10 years, especially after Maestro Jivan Gasparyan played the famous soundtrack of the Hollywood movie "Gladiator “on it . As we went downstairs I told my fiancé: "This is duduk, I am sure". Then I realized that not only duduk was played but also there were Armenian motives in the melody. Ok, maybe this is broadcasted by a radio channel and most probably it is played by Pedro Eustache ", I thought. Otherwise how could an Armenian melody be sounding at an Indian's shop in the center of Delhi.? I kept on wondering about the heart-warming familiar tunes that made my heart melt...The sweet music went on.... Blouses, trousers, jeans, accessories, everything disappeared. I forgot where I was, why I was there, what I was doing. I was lost in the tunes that filled up my heart and my soul. I realized that it was not only duduk that could be heard, nor mere Armenian touch that could be detected in that music. Neither was in a modern interpretation of some western-eastern mixes. No! It was absolutely like an Armenian soul coming from the depths of centuries. I was getting impatient. I had to know what it was, I had to satisfy my inner urge. I ran up to the shopkeeper and asked desperately: "Sir, which music is this?" What I heard next gave me the greatest shock of my life. "It is Turkish music", he said. "What???? "
...I was stunned. For a moment I could not say anything. "Yes, I have bought this CD while traveling in Turkey.", he confirmed again. "I entered a restaurant where this nice music was sounding. I liked it so much that asked the owner how I could get a record", he said, showing me the CD which was covered with Turkey's flag with all Turkish names mentioned as the duduk players. It made me enraged. I was not surprised that he liked the music. I was just angry over the shameless deeds of the Turks who not only took so many lives of a nation, left its generations struggle in different corners of the world but also dared to steal their cultural and artistic heritage. "It's really great that you like this music and play it for you and your customers Sir", I sad, "But please, don't ever tell anyone that this is Turkish music because it is Armenian."
Saying this I felt that I was unable to stand in that shop anymore and ran out of it, tears streaming down my face.
That is not fair!!! It shouldn't be like that. That is the real genocide - stealing our cultural and artistic heritage, ruining our architectural treasures or presenting them to the world as Turkish. I wonder. Should we fight to make Turkey recognize the genocide of the past, or must we stop the ongoing ones first?
After the news about the French senate adopting the bill spread, many Armenians celebrated this prominent development in the history of the genocide recognition and expressed their gratitude to France and the French people. However, there are still others who ask "What is the result of this bill, what can it change? Will the century long pain of a whole nation be healed if someday somewhere in France some Turk is arrested?"
Without going deep into the history and especially into the world politics I want to express my genuine and humble opinion regarding this.
Whatever course the world politics takes in shaping the contemporary history is a matter about which I don't want to discuss. However, what I am sure of is that not only the denial of a historical fact should be criminalized, but also the Genocide of intellectual property has to be stopped. Ask me why.
During my last visit in India, one nice evening I went to a cinema with my fiancé. We bought the tickets, but as we were a bit early for the show we decided to spend our time looking around. We entered a shop near the Cinema. It was a two-story garment shop. From the very moment I stepped inside the shop my ears caught the familiar sound of the music playing there. It was duduk - traditional Armenian musical instrument, also known as Tsiranapogh which means "Apricot pipe". It was a pleasant surprise, but I was not amazed because Duduk has become very popular in the last 10 years, especially after Maestro Jivan Gasparyan played the famous soundtrack of the Hollywood movie "Gladiator “on it . As we went downstairs I told my fiancé: "This is duduk, I am sure". Then I realized that not only duduk was played but also there were Armenian motives in the melody. Ok, maybe this is broadcasted by a radio channel and most probably it is played by Pedro Eustache ", I thought. Otherwise how could an Armenian melody be sounding at an Indian's shop in the center of Delhi.? I kept on wondering about the heart-warming familiar tunes that made my heart melt...The sweet music went on.... Blouses, trousers, jeans, accessories, everything disappeared. I forgot where I was, why I was there, what I was doing. I was lost in the tunes that filled up my heart and my soul. I realized that it was not only duduk that could be heard, nor mere Armenian touch that could be detected in that music. Neither was in a modern interpretation of some western-eastern mixes. No! It was absolutely like an Armenian soul coming from the depths of centuries. I was getting impatient. I had to know what it was, I had to satisfy my inner urge. I ran up to the shopkeeper and asked desperately: "Sir, which music is this?" What I heard next gave me the greatest shock of my life. "It is Turkish music", he said. "What???? "
...I was stunned. For a moment I could not say anything. "Yes, I have bought this CD while traveling in Turkey.", he confirmed again. "I entered a restaurant where this nice music was sounding. I liked it so much that asked the owner how I could get a record", he said, showing me the CD which was covered with Turkey's flag with all Turkish names mentioned as the duduk players. It made me enraged. I was not surprised that he liked the music. I was just angry over the shameless deeds of the Turks who not only took so many lives of a nation, left its generations struggle in different corners of the world but also dared to steal their cultural and artistic heritage. "It's really great that you like this music and play it for you and your customers Sir", I sad, "But please, don't ever tell anyone that this is Turkish music because it is Armenian."
Saying this I felt that I was unable to stand in that shop anymore and ran out of it, tears streaming down my face.
That is not fair!!! It shouldn't be like that. That is the real genocide - stealing our cultural and artistic heritage, ruining our architectural treasures or presenting them to the world as Turkish. I wonder. Should we fight to make Turkey recognize the genocide of the past, or must we stop the ongoing ones first?
Friday, December 2, 2011
Moving in Delhi: Metro
Unlike going and coming back from classes by a taxi provided by the
program we preferred not to move by a car in Delhi. Instead we were
using Metro, Rikshaw and of course Bike.
METRO is the best means of transport in Delhi. It's very comfortable and flexible. We went to the Metro on the very first day оf my arrival and I was amazed to see how well designed and organized it was. After several days almost all our group members had already learned the metro map by heart and could move around the city quite confidently. Whenever anyone was telling us a name of a place to visit we would open up our Delhi map to find it and then Metro map to see the route.
Despite of having a Metro in Yerevan and being used to traveling by it whole my life I saw a big difference between these two in Yerevan and in Delhi. Just imagine the one in Yerevan has only 1 line with 9 stations and short trains have two coaches. Delhi Metro has 6 lines with more than 142 stations covering almost all Delhi area and Gurgaon as well.
It surprised me a lot when I saw police checking points at the stations with two different gates for both male and female. That was new to me and quite strange but in the meantime I felt more safe in a big and diverse city like Delhi. Another difference was double entry barriers at station for both entrance and exit. You can buy either a token informing the cashier about the station you want to get off or a smart card. Tokens for each destination have different value. While entering the station you put the token on the display of the entry barrier and you leave it inside the entry barrier while leaving metro. Similarly it goes with the smart card and while putting it on the display the system is calculating the value of your destination and charges accordingly. So being unfamiliar to this I would always forget to get my card out again while leaving the station and would create queues after me trying to find it in my purse.
It was a huge fun every time being in Metro in a group of foreigners accompanied by an Indian(s). We would speak in different languages attracting the passengers' attention to us who were trying to hide their smile especially when we were repeating the announcements like "kripya, darvazoon se hat kar khare ho" or "Agla station Udyog Bhavan hai". believe me it sounded quite funny and even we were laughing at ourselves. Whenever my sweetheart was not with us (it happened rarely) we were taking special coaches for women. These are separate coaches only for women to make their travel by metro more comfortable and troubleless.
Within
two months of my stay in Delhi only once I traveled by Metro alone when
I left the girls with their shopping at CP to get back to the hotel for
another meeting. Imagine that was also the only time when the automatic
announcement machine got broken and I couldn't get where actually I
was. When I decided to clarify it with the lady standing next to me it
appeared that I missed my station:)
Unfortunately, it was prohibited to take photos inside Metro. Especially I regret about one poster which was announcing "Spitting in Metro is prohibited". However my friends managed to click some and I'll post one here. Hope they don't mind:)
METRO is the best means of transport in Delhi. It's very comfortable and flexible. We went to the Metro on the very first day оf my arrival and I was amazed to see how well designed and organized it was. After several days almost all our group members had already learned the metro map by heart and could move around the city quite confidently. Whenever anyone was telling us a name of a place to visit we would open up our Delhi map to find it and then Metro map to see the route.
Despite of having a Metro in Yerevan and being used to traveling by it whole my life I saw a big difference between these two in Yerevan and in Delhi. Just imagine the one in Yerevan has only 1 line with 9 stations and short trains have two coaches. Delhi Metro has 6 lines with more than 142 stations covering almost all Delhi area and Gurgaon as well.
It surprised me a lot when I saw police checking points at the stations with two different gates for both male and female. That was new to me and quite strange but in the meantime I felt more safe in a big and diverse city like Delhi. Another difference was double entry barriers at station for both entrance and exit. You can buy either a token informing the cashier about the station you want to get off or a smart card. Tokens for each destination have different value. While entering the station you put the token on the display of the entry barrier and you leave it inside the entry barrier while leaving metro. Similarly it goes with the smart card and while putting it on the display the system is calculating the value of your destination and charges accordingly. So being unfamiliar to this I would always forget to get my card out again while leaving the station and would create queues after me trying to find it in my purse.
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| Smart Card |
It was a huge fun every time being in Metro in a group of foreigners accompanied by an Indian(s). We would speak in different languages attracting the passengers' attention to us who were trying to hide their smile especially when we were repeating the announcements like "kripya, darvazoon se hat kar khare ho" or "Agla station Udyog Bhavan hai". believe me it sounded quite funny and even we were laughing at ourselves. Whenever my sweetheart was not with us (it happened rarely) we were taking special coaches for women. These are separate coaches only for women to make their travel by metro more comfortable and troubleless.
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| Metro Map. New stations are being constructed yet... |
Unfortunately, it was prohibited to take photos inside Metro. Especially I regret about one poster which was announcing "Spitting in Metro is prohibited". However my friends managed to click some and I'll post one here. Hope they don't mind:)
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Refreshing memories
I came back to Yerevan with enthusiastic plan to write down everything happened to me in India. but soon I dived in so many different projects and work that I left my blog for a while (again). While am preparing new posts I decided to upload here some photos taken in India as a shower to my Tulsi not to fed away:)
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| Lotus temple - my first sightseeing destination in Delhi |
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| People visiting Akshardham |
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| Mandir - a Hindu temple at Chandni Chok , old Delhi |
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| My favorite flower tree |
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| Humayun Tomb - dedicated to a husband by a wife |
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| Malls are everywhere in Delhi. This one I liked because of its excellent decorated surroundings |
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| Kutub Minar |
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| Mother |
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| Purana Qila |
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| At Isckon temple in Vrindavan |
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| Amber Forte, Jaipur, Rajastan |
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| Red Fort, Old Delhi |
Monday, October 24, 2011
Arriving in Delhi
My first meeting with India was through the illuminator of the airplane landing at Delhi International Airport. It was a long journey of 3 hours flight from Yerevan to Dubai, 8 hours wait at Dubai airport and almost 4 hours flight from Dubai to New Delhi. However I could feel neither tired nor sleepy but excitement to see the land which had been calling me for more than two and half years.
Delhi was still sleeping and only street lights were welcoming us in the dusk. The monitors in the plane went on and we could see the road on which our plane was landing. I don't remember how I went off the plane, how I passed the immigration desk, how I received my baggage I just wanted to get out of the airport as soon as possible to see my sweetheart one month after his departure. Finally the doors opened and there he was, my fiance, my sweetheart, my future husband for whom I am here...
Since the moment my feet touched the Indian land one thing was in my mind. I had been told and read a lot about specific smell one can feel right after getting off the airport. Despite of my efforts to smell something strange or unpleasant I could feel nothing but happiness for meeting people I hadn't seen for long time and those whom I new quite long but hadn't met yet. Even when I was asked if it was hot I said "no, it's quite normal" :) The only thing which looked strange to me was seeing so many people. Unlike the early morning hour when the sun was only starting to rise the airport was crowded with different different looking people and some of them were lying or sitting on the ground itself.
After warm hugs and introductions, bouquets of flowers and a cup of hot coffee it was the time to leave the airport for the Hotel we were supposed to stay.
Then only we realized that there was no one to meet us and take to the hotel. Before leaving for Delhi I made sure that I would be transferred to the hotel by a driver who would be waiting for us at the Gate with a banner announcing the name of Institution from which we got the scholarship. Simply he was not there even though our flight was delayed for about one and half hours. I tried to contact with one of the moderators to find out what was the problem. Finally one of them answered my call and ensured me that the driver was at the airport. After I asked him several times to check with the driver it appeared that "he is on way", then "he is looking for space for parking". In the end the driver (a nice man of around 50-60 who later became our driver taking us from the hotel to classes and back every day) arrived in the airport informing us that he even wasn't aware that he had to meet us... Anyway it happens sometimes but I wonder what two young girls are supposed to do appearing in a country for the first time, at 4 am without a mobile and without anyone to meet them. What if one of them didn't have a fiance ready to take them to the hotel. How would they contact the moderators? However I was insisting on following the rules and ethics of the scholarship instead of braking the rules from the very beginning and for that we had to wait for 2 hours.
We reached the hotel and were welcomed by another nice Indian man whom we later used to call Uncle. Lucky we were to arrive one of the first and to have a chance to choose the room we liked. This room had become my shelter for the next two months. In this hotel I met my dear friends. Here I had nice breakfasts and here I had reunion parties which I will never forget in my life.
But then it was just a room with a big bed where I wanted to rest a bit before starting my journey to the new world called India...
Delhi was still sleeping and only street lights were welcoming us in the dusk. The monitors in the plane went on and we could see the road on which our plane was landing. I don't remember how I went off the plane, how I passed the immigration desk, how I received my baggage I just wanted to get out of the airport as soon as possible to see my sweetheart one month after his departure. Finally the doors opened and there he was, my fiance, my sweetheart, my future husband for whom I am here...
After warm hugs and introductions, bouquets of flowers and a cup of hot coffee it was the time to leave the airport for the Hotel we were supposed to stay.
Then only we realized that there was no one to meet us and take to the hotel. Before leaving for Delhi I made sure that I would be transferred to the hotel by a driver who would be waiting for us at the Gate with a banner announcing the name of Institution from which we got the scholarship. Simply he was not there even though our flight was delayed for about one and half hours. I tried to contact with one of the moderators to find out what was the problem. Finally one of them answered my call and ensured me that the driver was at the airport. After I asked him several times to check with the driver it appeared that "he is on way", then "he is looking for space for parking". In the end the driver (a nice man of around 50-60 who later became our driver taking us from the hotel to classes and back every day) arrived in the airport informing us that he even wasn't aware that he had to meet us... Anyway it happens sometimes but I wonder what two young girls are supposed to do appearing in a country for the first time, at 4 am without a mobile and without anyone to meet them. What if one of them didn't have a fiance ready to take them to the hotel. How would they contact the moderators? However I was insisting on following the rules and ethics of the scholarship instead of braking the rules from the very beginning and for that we had to wait for 2 hours.
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| View from my balcony |
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| My room at the Hotel |
Friday, October 21, 2011
Incredibly Nostalgic India
I am back home - my home in Armenia. Still I have such a feeling that I left my home. ...
I was in India for 2 months. That was a scholarship program sponsored by the government of India called ITEC/SCAAP. So I was both a student and a traveler but also went to visit my new family.
Cultural shock, climate, new experiences, likes and dislikes, new food, new people, friends and more than friends, new knowledge, parties, sight-seeings, discoveries, new family, new home and much more...I had experienced within these two months. But apparently the most important was the reunion with my sweetheart.
We traveled a lot all over Delhi - both New and Old and also managed to visits 3 cities - Vrindavan with the family and Agra and Jaipur with the whole group. Red Fort, Purana Quila, Lotus Temple, JNU, Qutub Minar, India Gate, Raj Path, Akshardham, Amer Fort , Agra Fort, Jantar Mantar and of course no visit to India without seeing the famous Taj Mahal. Food- lots of different restaurants and cafes with varieties of Indian food from North and South -Puri, Roti, Dosa, Raj kachori, Chana masala, Sabji, Thali, Khir, Lassi...so spicy and chili but so yummy. Moving round the city by metro, Rikshaw, Bike was such a great fun. But the most joyful pastime especially for girls - shopping in huge malls and street markets, Dilli Haat and at the buses...
Lots of interesting discoveries, events, people altogether was such a great experience to me and I want to write about each and every thing in detail. but now I just want to thank God for this opportunity I had, for those two months which changed my life a lot. i had so many apprehensions about the country I was going to spend my life. I was worried so much simply not to like it. I went , I saw and I want to go back. Thanks to my sweetheart, his family, friends and of course my new wonderful friends I enjoined my life there. Now I can say I really want to go back. Why? I'll try to give the answer through my posts about all the things mentioned above and much more. They say people cry twice in India, first time when they arrive and second time when they leave it. Hope you will enjoy the journey with me to India ...
I was in India for 2 months. That was a scholarship program sponsored by the government of India called ITEC/SCAAP. So I was both a student and a traveler but also went to visit my new family.
Cultural shock, climate, new experiences, likes and dislikes, new food, new people, friends and more than friends, new knowledge, parties, sight-seeings, discoveries, new family, new home and much more...I had experienced within these two months. But apparently the most important was the reunion with my sweetheart.
We traveled a lot all over Delhi - both New and Old and also managed to visits 3 cities - Vrindavan with the family and Agra and Jaipur with the whole group. Red Fort, Purana Quila, Lotus Temple, JNU, Qutub Minar, India Gate, Raj Path, Akshardham, Amer Fort , Agra Fort, Jantar Mantar and of course no visit to India without seeing the famous Taj Mahal. Food- lots of different restaurants and cafes with varieties of Indian food from North and South -Puri, Roti, Dosa, Raj kachori, Chana masala, Sabji, Thali, Khir, Lassi...so spicy and chili but so yummy. Moving round the city by metro, Rikshaw, Bike was such a great fun. But the most joyful pastime especially for girls - shopping in huge malls and street markets, Dilli Haat and at the buses...
Lots of interesting discoveries, events, people altogether was such a great experience to me and I want to write about each and every thing in detail. but now I just want to thank God for this opportunity I had, for those two months which changed my life a lot. i had so many apprehensions about the country I was going to spend my life. I was worried so much simply not to like it. I went , I saw and I want to go back. Thanks to my sweetheart, his family, friends and of course my new wonderful friends I enjoined my life there. Now I can say I really want to go back. Why? I'll try to give the answer through my posts about all the things mentioned above and much more. They say people cry twice in India, first time when they arrive and second time when they leave it. Hope you will enjoy the journey with me to India ...
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