Day 7

Today was a special day as we vistited the Akshardham temple. It is quite a modern temple; construction started in 2000 and ended in 2005, taking only five years to complete the entire structure out of sandstone, with all the complex artworks on it hand-carved. The grandeur of the temple was beyond comprehension. And the beauty of its vastness and at the same time, the intricate carvings commanded all respect. We feasted on the sight of the temple and gulped in every detail. And as we were told that there was no photography allowed, sadness took over us. Haha. But at least we bought a guidebook on the temple with every aspect of it photographed.

First, we went for boat ride in the temple. It was not a real one, obviously. We journeyed through time on a boat with wheels, looking at the history of India from the very beginning. It seems that the very first idea of trigonometry, "Pythagoras" theorem, aviation and plastic surgery originated from India. It was just that nobody "patented" it and passed on history from word of mouth until primary history sources were found. The experience left all of us very open to new ideas and taught not to be definitive on anything in history as anything could be possible.

Along the way, someone puked in the temple after the boat ride.

After some cleaning up, we moved on to watching a movie in an "imax" theatre. We saw the inspirational journey of Neelkanth Darshan on 85 by 65 feet screen. He left home at 11 to seek spiritual understanding and along the way, inspired many across India by his wisdom and understanding of what is right at just a tender age. His most wonderous story would be his time in the Himalayas, with no food and only a piece of loincloth covering him, he survived for 4 months. Though I know that would be seemingly impossible, it is his determination and strength that inspires, just like religions all around. Finishing the story of the child-yogi, we rushed to catch the musical fountain display (told you it was a modern temple). The fountain display was fine, the water and lights were choreographed to Indian music so we did not really understand it. Still, we enjoyed it, it whole show, water and all.

After all that, we were semi-drenched and feeling very cold. We finally moved in to the main temple, which was warm! There were many pieces of artwork, a gigantic Buddha in gold, many beautiful statues of the Hindu gods and most wonderfully, no incense! We totally enjoyed the walk in the glorious space of gold, with hundreds of gods in sandstone smiling down on us from the ceiling. We smiled soon after as they informed us it was time for dinner. (Not me, though, I was still dizzy that night of vomiting!)

Dinner was less exciting as the temple, so I will stop here as we returned to the hotel later. Day 7 ends. Or not, as we moved off to Delhi railway station at 3 early in Day 8 morning.