Ambiguities in Agra

In Agra, we were looking forward to staying with our first Servas hosts since Australia. However, it turned out to be our strangest (and least pleasant) Servas experience, although also very interesting.

Leaving Mcleod/Dharamsala, we caught the overnight bus to Delhi, which provided some beautiful views of sunset (after a downpour of rain that afternoon) with the mountains and town in the background. Back in Delhi, we caught the train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. The ride wasn't very scenic, with lots of flat, dusty land cultivated into small fields.

After giving up on making train reservations at the crowded station, we were happy to get to Krishna, a former member of parliament, and his wife Saroj's house, where they live with their son Vikram, his wife Varsha, and their two children Baras and Nina. While it was cooler that day because of clouds and even a little rain, after lunch we were still glad to retire to our room for a siesta during the afternoon heat. After that, Saroj, a social worker who is involved in many community functions, invited us to accompany her to the innaugeration of an area summer school. The school itself was a good example of our surprise at the state of infrastructure in India- given how it's portrayed in the media (IT jobs, such a fast growing economy, etc.), we expected to see at least a moderate level of infrastructure, but in terms of things like roads, schools, and sanitation India is more like the least-developed places we've visited, about on par with Ghana.

At the school, we sat around for awhile with the group of other dignitaries/speakers, and then the ceremony began, with some students and the local tv station cameras in the audience. In a lineup that also featured school girls chanting, people giving speeches and enthusiastically reciting poems, and a dance routine by 3 boys straight out of Bollywood, we were also asked to speak. It was nice to be part of the ceremony, although still a little weird to be viewed as so important just because of our foreign status. Just like our appearance in a local newspaper back at the start of our trip in Turkey (at the eco-village Pastoral Vadi), we made the news, apparently both in tv news and the newspaper (unfortunately we never saw any of this).

The next day we rose early (but not early enough for sunrise) and went to the Taj Mahal, where we stayed for several hours. It was very impressive, and we could notice changes in the color of the marble with the changing light (the main reason to stay while there); but of course it was very hot and some hassles. Returning to the house, we left again shortly to buy groceries (to cook for the family tonight) at a store they said "had everything." When we arrived, not only did we discover that they certainly didn't have everything, but also what they did have was of pretty poor quality. We bought ingredients for pasta, and back at the house vegetables from a cart the the vendor pulled through the neighborhood.

That afternoon, Saroj brought us to a Hindu ceremony where a young "guru" was presiding. The ceremony was in a covered courtyard space in the middle of the old city, where the street life looks like it was lifted directly out of the Middle Ages--people, animals, goods, garbage, everything all jammed together in such tight spaces. Like at the summer school innaugeration, again we were guests of honor, going up to the front to have an orange saffron and sandalwood paste dot put on Rachel's forehead, and stripes on mine. The ceremony consisted of dancing, singing, and the guru speaking; Rachel was recruited several times to dance in front with the main women. At the end, we were given "holy food" (sliced cucumbers and a bag of potato chips), and touched with holy water. At one point, we were again pulled aside to talk to the tv cameras. The ceremony was really interesting to see, and one of those things that we definitely couldn't have done on our own. We cooked the pasta that night, but it seemed strange that only Vikram ate with us- Varsha watching the kids, Krishna in the other room drinking whiskey with some political friends, and Saroj not joining us because, as Vikram told us, it's not respectful for a son to drink in front of his mother.

It was interesting to talk with Vikram and his wife (separately) about their marriage, which was arranged. In India there's an entire section of the newspaper called "Matrimonials," with ads seeking both brides and grooms. The ads include caste, profession- strange to us, but maybe not that different from the personal ads at home. Varsha asked to see the perfumes we had with us, she said she collects them so Rachel gave her some of hers.

The following day Vikram gave us a tour of his marble workshop. He said that he is the 11th generation marble worker in his family, which did the marble work on the Taj Mahal. Vikram's workshop is currently responsible for the maintenance of the marble in the Taj, still using the same methods as his ancestors. The marble inlay work is so detailed and beautiful, and it was really interesting to see the process. He said the workshop is closed except to friends and dignitaries--one of the recent famous Americans who visited was Bill Clinton! That afternoon Saroj took us to a fabric store and tailor to get some clothes made- we thought for another ceremony we were attending that evening, but that turned out to not be the case.

Our final interaction was what made us look at everything a little differently: we were taken "to a friend's to have a drink," which turned out to be a jewelry store, where we did have a drink, but then were given the tour and expected to buy something, which we didn't. After this, it wasn't ambiguous to us whether or not we were being manipulated to buy things, but rather whether this was the only motivation, or it was mixed with some genuine hospitality. We think the latter was true, but still it was a sour note to end the time in Agra as we boarded an overnight train to Varanasi.