A CorpGoth's Passage to India

I knew I'd love this month's homework from Le Professeur Gothique: "India -- Your assignment this month, dear readers, is to come up with an outfit, art work, or anything else inspired by that fabulous country and its gorgeous people. Perhaps you're a great cook and want to feature an Indian meal. Or maybe you've been to India or are Indian -- show us your visit or home. Or, if you're anything like me, you have bits and pieces of Indian clothing and jewelry to feature. Or maybe your inspiration will come from Indian art forms and colors? Think beautifully deep and delicious red and sandalwood yellow. Whatever you feature it must be inspired by India! Good luck!!!"

Me, my husband, & elephant handler in Jaipur

See, I've been fascinated with India since I was a kid, in ways sacred & profane. Maybe it started with George Harrison, & it was definitely enhanced by a variety of '70s progressive art rockers with sitar riffs & proto-New-Agey lyrics. I had a National Geographic map of India on my bedroom wall & loved curries & thought the sound of Hare Krishnas chanting near the campus of my first-choice college, UC Berkeley, was dreamy. And finally, in 2001, my husband & I visited India, which was a huge culture shock & a fantastic life-changing experience.

There's a common joke these days about "first-world problems." But you don't truly understand how first-world-y your problems are until you visit the so-called third world. No matter how much you prepare yourself, the culture shock is intense for American & western European travelers to India. I'd read up on squat toilets & begging rings & lepers & rickshaws & baksheesh & the hard sell & everything-wallas & Delhi belly & all that. But looking it in the face is totally different, stunning, & humbling.

Me looking out over the River Ganges

Ironically, I had lost my job a month before the trip -- it was the first big dot-com bust, & the music start-up I worked for went out of business. But we had paid for much of the trip in advance, & it was non-refundable, so we decided to go ahead. I couldn't be more glad that I did because it gave me an amazing sense of perspective. Even without a job or prospects of one when I got home, I immediately knew, upon arriving in India, that I was wealthier than most of the people I saw. The cost of my plane ticket was more than an average annual wage in India.

Yet, despite poverty, I saw so much beauty everywhere. Women picked dusty fields while wearing brilliantly colored saris. Huge trucks belched smoke but were decked in ropes of saffron-colored flowers & painted with swirls & dots. Monkeys, camels, & elephants roamed the streets, even in the cities. Ancient temples stood, not as relics of times past, but as vibrant parts of the everyday community, continually in use.

Of course, we visited the obvious places -- the "golden triangle" of Delhi (the capital, old & new), Jaipur (the "pink city" where Indian couples go on their honeymoons), & Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) -- but also added Khajuraho for the erotic Krishna temples & Varanasi for the holy river Ganges ghats. We had local guides take us around big places & from city to city, & then wandered around markets & such by ourselves. It was a fascinating, exhausting, rich, challenging, & fulfilling experience.

Air pollution in Delhi

Random story: The inside of the Taj Mahal smells like feet! Everyone has to remove their shoes before stepping up to the huge marble platform where the domed tomb portion of the Taj resides. This is for both reasons of respect (you remove your shoes before entering any temple, mosque, & similar place) & practicality (the white marble wouldn't look so pristine after nearly 400 years if tons of shoes tromped all over it). Imagine going inside that mostly windowless space with a hundred bare- or stocking-foot people -- eww! It reeked.

Of course, the pollution all over India was terrible, not from smells, but from car exhaust & wood-burning fires on sidewalks in the city & fields in the country. I'm not usually sensitive to such things, but I was a sniffly wreak halfway through the trip. Ah well. At least I escaped from worse health problems :-)

Varanasi ghats

My husband & I did bring back some beautiful Indian crafts to decorate our home, as we are both very fond of the designs & meaning behind them. We have a hand-carved wood Ganesh on a shelf near the doorway to our home, because he is the remover of obstacles & good luck at entrances. Next to him is Saraswati, goddess of music, carved from sandstone. This was a personal choice of my husband, as he's a musician, but we both love various forms of Indian music, so this was appropriate to our house.

Indian hand-crafts

Pieced-quilt canopy

Perhaps my favorite piece is the purple & gold quilt that we bought & hung over our bed as a canopy. I even took colors from it to paint our bedroom walls with. The quilt/canopy is incredibly difficult to photograph, but nothing pleases me more than waking up to see it each morning & falling asleep under it each night. The materials are rich & divine, & it blocks light out to make our bed dark & cozy (& perfect for this migraineur).

Today, I didn't feel up to wearing a lot of Indian garb, so my travel & home dec photos will have to suffice. The cotton salwar kameezes I bought back in 2001 don't fit the way I'd like, plus I'm coming down with a cold today, so I just threw on this top & gathered up my favorite jewelry bought in India.

What I'm wearing:
Black embroidered tunic, thrifted but made in India | Black camisole, NY & Company | Black jeans, Levis | Black buckle ankle boots, Aldo | Black bead & silver skull bead necklace, DisneyLand | Onyx & silver earrings, bought in Delhi | Onyx & silver bracelet, bought in Jaipur | Garnet & silver ring, bought in Jaipur