The Leonard Chronicles: Adventures of Eric and Crystal: Visit to India

I spent a week in India in May. This trip was mostly for business reasons but I fit in two days of site seeing to take advantage of being in the country. Harman has a few offices in India and I went to visit our research and development team at the beginning of the week. Our team in China and Utah work closely with this them, as they develop most of the software for our products. The last two days I spent in Delhi and Agra. In those cities I saw many great Mosques and Temples including the Taj Mahal.

Our India research and development office is located in the city of Bangalore. This city is considered the Silicon Valley of India because it is the hub for IT companies. Our office is located near offices for Wells Fargo, Samsung, Intel, Sony, Cadence, ARM, Cisco, LG, JP Morgan Chase, etc the list goes on and on. Essentially any large company that has software development has an office here. Bangalore is the second-fastest growing city in India at 8.7 million people. Our India team recently completed a project that will be transitioned to China for future maintenance. I am helping with that transition and getting the China team all set up. I also went to get acquainted with the team and put faces to names. The team was very nice to me while I was there. For lunch my last day we went to a place called Barbeque Nation. Each table had a few small grills with the starters, and a soup, salad, main course and dessert buffet nearby. It was very delicious. I went with four Indian co-workers and one other co-worker visiting from our Utah office.

Lunch at Barbeque Nation

While in the office one day I was talking with Rudresha, our Director of Engineering in India. I asked him what he enjoyed doing in his spare time, he told me he was preparing for a half marathon. He told me how many kilometers he was running each day in preparation. In response to that I said “Holy Cow”, and Rudresha responded with, “yeah, they will be running too.” I said it without thinking about it completely. He has a good sense of humor so everything was okay. Pretty funny.

After Bangalore I traveled to Delhi in northern India. I hired a local travel agency that drove me from place to place. It was really convenient and saved a lot of time and trouble. I've provided a small amount of detail/history for each site.

The first place I visited was Gandhi Smriti formally known as the Birla House. Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life at this house. During his nightly walk on January 30, 1948 he was assassinated at a place now called the Martyr’s Column. It was a pretty interesting place. The house has been converted to a museum dedicated to his life.

Gandhi's last steps marked on the path

Martyr's Column

Ghandi's room

I then went to Raj Ghat which is the location where Ghandi was cremated. This site was technically closed because they were preparing it for a visit from the prime minister of India in a week. My tour guide didn’t like that answer and was very persistent until after twenty minutes of discussion and me surrendering everything in my pockets and my shoes, I was allowed to enter. The shoes thing was due to the sacredness of the grounds, but the contents of my pockets was so that I wouldn’t be a security threat. Since it was closed I had the place to myself. The black marble platform in the picture marks where Ghandi was cremated. There is an eternal flame next to it that has been going since the day after the assassination.

This was right outside the cremation site.
I like his ladder and lack of shoes as he paints the light post.

Next was a quick visit to the President House, Parliament and the India Gate. The President House sits on a 320 acre estate with many gardens. The India Gate was built in 1931 and was inspired by the Arc de Triomphe. Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that. J It is an All India War Memorial for the 90,000 soldiers who died during WWI and the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

Gate of President House

President House

Parliament

India Gate

The largest and best known Muslim mosque in India is the Jama Masjid. It was built in 1656. I didn’t go inside since it was Friday and people were inside worshiping. The inner courtyard can hold around 25,000 people.

My tour guide wanted me to see some of the market streets in the city. We walked down a few “streets” that were lined with shops. People were selling fabric, chickens, statues, spices and much more. I tried to not look like a tourist in some places so I took pictures while my camera was hanging around my neck.

What a mess of wires

It is amazing that our calls to India for our IT help arrive there.

I guess this makes for a good place for monkeys to play.

I then visited the Humayun Tomb. It is the tomb for the Mughal Emperor Humayun. It was completed in 1572 and took nine years to build. It is made of red sand stone and is surrounded by gardens. There were very few people visiting here when I went. I essentially had the place to myself.

Cool ceiling

Gardens

A cute little Indian girl that kept saying hi to me, so I had my picture taken with her

My last stop for the day was the Lotus Temple. It is a non-denominational house of worship. As is fairly standard practice, I had to remove my shoes before walking up the path to the temple. To avoid waiting in the long lines to “check-in” my shoes I left them with my tour guide since he didn’t want to go in.

Pools around the flower

Surrounding gardens

When I came back out my guide told me a funny story about my shoes. He was standing near my shoes while on his phone and such casually watching after them. After I’d been gone about 15 minutes he noticed another Indian guy that was lingering around him and was keeping an eye on my shoes also. My guide knew that the guys was waiting to see if anyone came back to reclaim the shoes, and if not they would be his for the taking. My guide decided to play along with the guy. He said to him, “I saw them first, if the kid doesn’t come back soon I get them.” The other guys claimed that he was there first and that they were his. They continued to argue back and forth about who was there first, who saw them first and who would get to claim them. One of the arguments my guide used was “look how big there are, they won’t even fit you. I have bigger feet so I should get them.” He said it was a good thing I came back when I did because the other guy was getting pretty frustrated. When my guide pointed to me and said “here he comes” the other guy took off. Didn’t know my tennis shoes were so cool.

The next day I traveled the 400km round trip out to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and the Tomb of I’timad-ud-Daulah. It was well worth the drive.

The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in 1653 out of white marble. He was the Mughal emperor at the time and he built it for this third wife who died in childbirth. It took 12 years to build the main tomb, and another 10 for the mosques and entrance gates.

Entrance gate to the Taj Mahal

Inlay of colored stone into the white marble.
The inlay inside the tomb was much more intricate but no photos were allowed.

The white marble has been etched away leaving the flowers

The black writing is marble inlay

One of the four minarets

One of two identical mosques next to the Taj.

I then visited the Agra Fort that is a few kilometers away from the Taj. Inside the fort there are many structures built by rulers over time. There are mosques, work areas, gates, towers, public halls and gardens.