021 All Good Things Must Come to an End

So today was our last day in India, and I spent the whole day torn between being ecstatic that we were finally going home and heartbroken that we were leaving this wonderful, wonderful country. The day was pretty relaxed, and we got the chance to see a lot of monuments. To be honest, I kind of wish we were given a free day to lounge around, or pack, or shop, but the monuments were pretty and I was just happy to have the opportunity to spend more time with people I can now consider my good friends. The day started early, as we had to have all of our luggage packed and ready to be loaded onto the bus by 7:30am. Naturally, the lot of us had a good time talking and spending time together till about 6 in the morning the night prior (our last night in India!), and so waking up and packing up was near impossible. Somehow, Kaleah, Ariel, Mary and I managed to get all our things down in time, and we had a pretty relaxed breakfast. The group gathered in the IDSA lobby for the last time and soon headed off for Qutb Minar.

Qutb Minar was beautiful and yet another stunning architectural feature for India. We enjoyed taking pictures and taking in its interesting history. Arjun told us that the tower we all wanted to climb was now closed because it was the site of one too many suicides, which was a little morbid…we definitely weren’t too keen to be around it after that little tidbit, but we did continue to explore the rest of the site and take tons of pictures! I’m so glad that the group is so comfortable with each other now. I almost wish we could stay a little longer and have a week to hang out and investigate the rest of Delhi. 

Some of the sights.

It was beautiful.

The tower.

In any case, we managed to see the famous Iron Pillar while we were at the Qutb Minar, which was super exciting. My group had done a presentation that had covered the Iron Pillar briefly and so to see in real life was a little surreal.

After leaving the Qutb Minar, we went to the Lotus Temple, which was a strange experience. The Lotus Temple is the place of worship for people of the Baha’i Religion and we had the opportunity to tour the temple, but not really learn anything about it. 

The Lotus Temple.

What I thought was most interesting about the temple was it was mostly staffed by college-aged students who led and arranged the tours in the temple…if you could call them tours. Essentially, we were told to get into two different lines, given a brief spiel about the Baha’i belief, and led into the temple where we were expected sit quietly, and…pray? Meditate? We couldn’t figure it out, so we left relatively quickly. The inner sanctum of the temple was quiet, peaceful and serene – so different than most of India. I was impressed by the level of commitment these kids had for their religion, so much so that they were willing to travel half way across the world to volunteer in their belief’s name. I thought it a little odd only because typically missionary work is supposed to be for the betterment of a community or some form of relief work – I’d never seen people volunteer at their religion’s places of worship. In any case, the visit to the Lotus Temple was a nice break albeit an unexpected one, to say the least. After the mini-tour, we were free to roam the grounds, and so we just hung around the pools and took plenty of pictures.

Once we left the Lotus Temple, the group headed off to Humayun’s Tomb. Before that, we stopped at a Hindu temple called Akshardham, and it was absolutely stunning. I walked into the temple and literally, my jaw dropped. The level of intricacy and skill that was on display was out of control. We were told that each individual statue was unique (and they were!) and I could hardly comprehend the amount of time and effort put in by each contributing artisan and sculptor. Truly, truly awe-inspiring. 

Aksardham from afar.

Eventually, we got to Humayun’s Tomb, but by then, admittedly, most of us were monument-ed out, so we stuck together, took some pictures at some name-worthy places and were ready to leave relatively quickly. 

About to enter.

Humayun's Tomb.

We did find a random statue of a dwarf with some NFL team’s logo on it on the stairs near Humayun’s Tomb, and that was very odd, but also super exciting. Perhaps a sign that we were returning home soon.

Little Seahawks gnome.

After taking the obligatory group picture, we headed for the bus, but not before Thomas and I grabbed some local Indian ice cream. Delicious! After Humayun’s Tomb, the group headed to a nearby “mall” to pick some food and medicine up. Since the group had some roaming time, we explored the area which turned out to be a little shopping neighborhood. I saw a huge Manchester United Restaurant/Bar and took plenty of pictures there. I’m glad to see my favorite team is pretty popular in India too.

Glory Glory Man United!

After that, we headed back to IDSA for a buffet dinner. I made it a point to only eat Indian food since it would be the last time I would have authentic Indian food in a long time.

Last meal in India!

Goodbye, Indian ice cream...

Dinner was delicious, and the lot of us were definitely stuffed by the end of it. We finally headed to the airport and flew home. Bye India!