Kolkata, Bhuvaneshvar, and Delhi

Zach outside the Marble Palace in Kolkata. This was the home of a 19th century maharaja who was obsessed with Queen Victoria and everything Victorian. There was so much stuff inside, perhaps he was a little OCD.

Zach with a giant Rosy Pelican in a bird zoo by the Marble Palace. It got angry at us and started running at us in its cage.
Me being scared of the rosy pelican.

Me in the Kolkata Botanical Gardens standing by possibly the hugest banyan tree in India (the world?). It has a canopy of about 250 m!
A beautiful lotus in the huge Botanical Gardens on the other side of the Hooghly River in Kolkata.
A Hindu holiday Baskin Robbins poster in Kolkata!
Silly sign in Kolkata.
The Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. Built by the British in the early 1900s to assert their colonial power. Mixing Roman-looking architecture with Mughal architecture perhaps implies that the British believed they were creating a new Rome.

Zach drinking tea and reading in Kolkata; the lights were too dim, so he put on his head lamp.

Panorama of the Lingaraj temple in Bhuvaneshvar, Orissa. This Hindu temple complex is from the 14th century and is dedicated to Shiva. Bhuvaneshvar is scattered with medieval temples and the Lingaraj is the largest.
A carving of a couple on the Lingaraj temple.
Me at a medieval Parvati temple near the Lingaraj temple.

An Orissan style painting of Shiva, the ascetic, destroyer and lord of dance.
A beautiful ancient statue...
...that has been engraved on by visitors of the Orissa State Museum.
Outside the Lingaraj Temple in Bhuvaneshvar, Orissa by the wheels of a juggernaut (jagannath). The jagannath is used on a Hindu holiday called Ratha Yaatra to transport the idols from one temple to another for a vacation for several days. The Jaganath is so large and heavy that it is difficult to stop or turn. Pilgrims used to throw themselves under the wheels of the jagannath to be crushed under the vehicle of the gods.

Zach posing with the jagannath.
Zach getting crushed under the jagannath - oh no!
Monkey being fed peanuts.

Some graffiti on a two thousand old Jain cave carving in Bhuvanesvar, Orissa.

A hungry monkey eating lots of peanuts.

Outside a more than two thousand year old Ganesh temple in Bhuvanesvar.
Entrance to the Ganesh cave.

Some Orissan dancers at a dance festival we went to. This was the only group performance! They had such control over their bodies, it was amazing!

Zach and I outside a tomb in Tughluqabad, a ruined city from the 14th century, in Southern Delhi.


View of the tomb from Tughluqabad.

The outer fortress of Tughluqabad, a ruined city from the 14th century in Southern Delhi.

Tughluqabad.
Tughluqabad.
The Rothstein-Dowden fam outside Jama Masjid in Old Delhi.
Me with a headscarf on in the top of a minaret at Jama Masjid.
Delhi at sunset.
A curious baby at Jama Masjid in Delhi.
Jama Masjid at sunset in Delhi.
A crow attacking a parrot (poor parrot!).
Ansel with his new friends at Red Fort...
A snake charmer outside Humayun's tomb in Central Delhi.
The Bahai Lotus Temple in Southern Delhi.
Humayun's tomb built by Shah Jahaan, the architect of the Taj Mahal.
Two best friends!