“A little trip around India”

After the group had left I went with Martyn (Chair of Mamta Welfare Trust in U.K. which sent me over to India and sponsored me), a friend of him and his nephew to several places around India.
We basically traveled to several villages and cities to meet some of hi Indian friends and spend some time with them. Most of the time we stayed in Kosamba, a small village in Gujarat with a Muslim family. It was very nice and peaceful there and gave me the chance to see a bit more of Indian culture, because I had basically lived and spend time with Hindus before.
Besides staying there we met some people in Jambusar and Baroda and did a little bit of sightseeing as well. Thus we got a tour round a boarding school run by Muslim’s, visited a school for deaf to learn English where I met some of my Indian friends again and went to a Gujarati museum which did have, unfortunately, besides some Indian art, loads of European as well. Back in Kosamba we got the chance to see a bit of an inauguration ceremony of a new temple and got special blessings from a very important saint.

The biggest cultural highlight though was our “short” trip to Agra and Delhi. After a whole night and day of traveling we finally reached our primary destination in the evening and set of the next morning to see the world famous Taj Mahal. Although I had seen it on photos many times it was amazing to actually stand in front of it. Fortunately we had a guide with us who could explain all the history and architecture etc. and thus made it possible for us to really understand why it is and deserves to be one of the 7 world wonders.
After spending several hours in and around the tomb we went to see Agra Ford, which was nearby, to then set off for Delhi again. On the way we stopped again and had a look at Sikandara, another tomb of a Mugal king. We spent the night in Delhi and tried to see as many things as possible the next day. Thus we saw ancient places like Qutub Minar, India Gate, the Bhai Temple, Birla Temple, the Indira Gandhi museum and Mahatma Gandhi museum (both were the places where they were assassinated) and then finally went on a night train back to Gujarat again.
All the places we went to were very interesting and fascinating. But unfortunately, due to a lack of time we could only spend little time at each place and all the traveling was quite exhausting and tiring.