India: An Architectural Point of View

Day 4- Lotus Temple
Bradon Loya

I was happy to wake up with no stomach pains. We started off by going to the Lotus Temple. This was very rewarding to me because I did my project over the Lotus Temple during the semester. The temple was just like the pictures online. It was a large temple in the shape of a lotus flower. The only thing that was different, and that took me by surprise, was that the temple was not very clean. Although for India standards, it was not dirty at all. We had to take our shoes off again to enter the temple. The temple was made by the Baha’i faith. They believe in having a unified government and claim no single religion. There are seven temples build throughout the world including a temple in Chicago. It has nine pools that surround it and a nine sided flower structure. It was exciting to me to see the structure I studied for so long.

We then went shopping. India shopping on the streets is very different from the USA in almost every aspect. The shops are packed in next to each other with no room to spear. Every surface, wall, and empty space is covered with items for sale. They use every technique in the book to draw us into their store and buy something. The most straight forward is by simply begging us. They mostly increase their price by double just because we are travelers. They follow us trying to sell sometimes for a block or two and it is not uncommon to have several following us at the same time. At first this was very fun but it quickly became tiring having to say no to small kids begging for a purchase. Then there are the money baggers who just beg you for money. These are mostly women that will have a small baby on their shoulder. They say they want to eat and need money for their baby. They make you feel bad but it is all a scam. The baggers can follow you for up to thirty minutes. This setting really continues everywhere we go. It becomes part of you to not care and say no and it even gets you mad at times.

We continued the day by seeing two other sites (Qutar Amar and Jantar Mantas). These were interesting but not enough to expand on here. We were leaving early in the morning to Jaipur. Due to this we ended the day early. I feel more engaged in the culture. It has taken a while but I have started to enjoy many parts of India. It is a place full of both enjoyment and pain.