Taken in October of 2014 at Daulatabad Fort
As you enjoy your weekend, if at any point dread of the work-week to come arises, take a moment to reflect on the fact that at least you don’t have this guy’s job carrying stones on your head up several flight of uneven stone steps all day – everyday.
Taken in Great Himalayan National Park in July of 2015
Back in my day, we had the “Scenic Overlook.” Now when you’re trekking they have the “Mobile Phone Access Point.” Thoreau would cry.
Taken in April of 2016 at the Wagah border crossing
Taken at the Wagah (Attari) Border Crossing Retreat Ceremony. Kids running with the Indian flag toward the border with Pakistan. These were some of the more skilled flag wavers, which–oddly enough–meant they did less “waving” of the flag. Those who waved the flag tended to wrap it around the pole. These kids had technique, just hold on tight and run like the dickens.
Taken on July 2, 2016 in Kolkata
This cathedral is located due East of the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata (Calcutta.) It’s an Anglican church that dates to 1847.
Taken on July 4, 2016 in Kolkata
Walking through this cemetery, which dates to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, was a trip. I didn’t realize that there was an entire scale of grandiosity between your run-of-the-mill cemetery and places like the Ming Tombs or the Pyramids at Giza. While there were a few normal-sized monuments (as seen in the picture below, tombs under a banyan tree), most of the mausoleums were gigantic.
It would be interesting to know what led to this trend at that time. I know these were all wealthy British gentry, but, still. Possibly because the mausoleums were so huge, the cemetery filled up in a narrow time span. (i.e. Most of the tombs I saw were dated in the first decade of the 1800’s, but there were some from the late 1700’s as well.) It’s like the occupants learned of the Pyramids and were like, “I’ll be damned if some Pharaoh is going to outdo me.”
Taken on July 3, 2016 in Kolkata
This square in Kolkata was previously named Dalhousie square for the British Governor General of that name. B.B.D. is short for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh, three gunmen who assassinated the Inspector General of Prisons in a gunfight in a prominent building nearby (i.e. the Writers’ Building.) All three of the men committed suicide rather than be captured (Badal via Potassium Cyanide and the others by self-inflicted gunshot wound.)
Taken on July 2, 2016 in Kolkata; Taken by Lilla Gourley
Taken in Kolkata on July 4, 2016
Taken on July 2, 2016 in Kolkata
Interestingly, while this monument looks like the minaret of a mosque (and combines elements of Egyptian, Syrian, and Turkish architecture) it was originally a memorial to the commander of the British East India Company, Sir David Ochterlony. Ochterlony was instrumental in the defense of Delhi in 1804 against Marathas and a British victory in the Anglo-Nepalese war.
In 1969, it was re-purposed to serve as a monument for those who died in the Indian independence movement. The current name, Shahid Minar (or Shaheed Minar) means “martyrs’ monument.”
The Shahid Minar dates to 1828 and sits in the north of the Maidan, Kolkata’s central park.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 