large update!

So it's been a while.

First, two weekends ago I went to visit some friends of my parents from back when my dad went to Harvard. Here's a picture of them with their dog, Fidel. Their home is lovely and they fed me an enormous amount of food.

Second, for my class on the history of Delhi, I went to see the Qutb Minar! It's a pretty amazing structure in the southern area of Delhi and was built by the first Islamic rulers there. There's a mosque attached to it as well as the famous Iron Pillar, the remains of a university, and the foundation of the Alai Minar, which was a failed attempt by an unpopular king to one-up to Qutb Minar. Pictures are up at the other site.

A few interesting things though:
The mosque in the Qutb complex was one of the first Islamic buildings in the area; previously Hinduism had been the main religion. As such, the mosque has many decidedly un-Islamic characteristics. Almost all of the builders were used to building Hindu temples, which are more based on the square and a series of beams, so many of the arches and domes in the mosque that are characteristic of Islamic architecture are lopsided since the builders didn't know what they were doing. Also, despite the taboo against any images of people or animals in a mosque, this one is full of them. A lot of this is due to the fact that many Hindu temples were dismantled easily and the materials used in them, including already carved pieces of stone, were simply reused. This is something that happens a lot in the history of Delhi; Hindu architects rarely used any type of mortar (which speaks a lot to their skills), and as such whenever the establishment changed and something new had to be built the temples were taken apart to be used in something else.

The Iron Pillar, which is made of 98% pure wrought iron from back in the 4th century AD (over a thousand years before metallurgists in Europe figured out how to cast such pure iron) is only now beginning to rust. It is much older than the Qutb complex and the mosque it stands in was actually built around it; however, according to the inscription on it the Iron Pillar originally stood in a village about 50 km away. It's very strange.

That's not all though! Last night I cam back from having spent 5 days in Kerala in South India. We spent two days in Kochi, the capital of the region, and then the rest in Alleppey, which is near the backwater region. Kerala is dramatically different from most other parts of India, especially Delhi: it has a long international history, having traded with the Arabs for centuries before the Muslim invasion and also being occupied by the Portuguese (led by Vasco da Gama) and the Dutch. Currently it is unusually in having a democratically elected communist government, the highest literacy rate in India, some of the best economic growth in South Asia, and a huge emphasis on gender equality. It's much different from Delhi in other respects too. Tourists are typical there, going to the beautiful beaches, the backwater, and the old churches, and as such they're welcomed. People actually SMILED at me! Strangers! Delhi is a fascinating city but it is not a friendly one, so being in a warmer environment - both socially and climate-wise - was really nice. We stayed at a lovely resort in Alleppey and I got my first professional massage, which was at first a little weird with being handled completely naked by a stranger, but in the end really cool.

There's so much more to talk about, but for now I need to catch up on reading for classes tomorrow. I'll post again with more personal impressions rather than a hurried summary of everything I've been doing.