November 20, 2010

On Saturday morning, we visited the Bharat Mata Temple (Mother India Temple). It was built in 1918 and is a novel temple, dedicated to Mother India, which instead of the customary Gods and Goddesses, houses a perfect relief map (with a scale of 1 inch = 1.1 miles) carved on marble of the Indian subcontinent. We then walked around a large vegetable market outside the gates.


We returned to the hotel to complete our packing and get ready for a 12:30 departure. When I was packing up, I came across bottle of Ganges River water which I had collected the previous day. I had put the murky, heavy polluted water in a plastic water bottle and removed the label so it was easy to identify. As I handled the bottle, I noticed that it was only half full. I asked Harold what happened to the water. He blanched and said he got thirsty while packing and thought it was clean water and drank it. We panicked! He first purged himself, then immediately started taking cipro (antibiotics). Some of the others of our group gave him some helpful remedies. All we can do is wait and see.

We drove to the airport and had an uneventful one-hour flight back to Gurgaon, on the outskirts of south Delhi. This is a newly built city which houses the call centers of many large foreign companies.

We all met in the bar area at the hotel for drinks and snacks and a final goodbye to Sanjay and those departing. It was a great group of people and I hope we’ll stay in touch. We will surely miss Sanjay who has probably spoiled us for any other OAT tour guide. His enthusiasm for and knowledge of India were incredible. So, after our hugs and farewells, we got ready for our last night’s sleep in northern India. Tomorrow, it is off to the south.

Marble relief map of Mother India

Cow enjoys the vegetable market

Selling his vegetables