Thursday, July 06, 2006
Temples and mosques and ruins, oh my! (oh yeah, and some work too.)
Well, I talked about the mosques and ruins in the last post. Yesterday a was a trip to the Akshardam Temple, which is huge temple complex for the Swaminaryaran sect(not sure if that is the correct term or not) of Hinduism.
The temple grounds are enormous with at least a dozen large, highly decorated, buildings. The artwork and sculpture adorning the buildings are quite beautiful and intricate. The temple complex was only finished last year (and was built in a very quick five years), but it draws from traditional Indian architecture and design, so the style is not really contemporary at all. There are a series of three exhibits (all rather high tech) outlining the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, the founder of the movement (born in 1781), and the history of India (in 15 minutes). Sadly, we didn't have time for two of the exhibits. The one we did go to was a series of audioanimatronics (moving, talking robot "actors") dioramas outlining the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. It was...interesting. I'm going to avoid any extensive political or social commentary here, but briefly, the basic principles of the movement seem sound (peace, happiness, etc.). However, as an atheist pacifist with strong anti-hierarchical tendencies, I have some issues with the application. (And I apologize if I've offended anyone with my above summary or comments. I'm trying to summarize a rather complex religious movement from only my very brief introduction and a few readings online.)
Post-temple, we finally got in touch with the National Polio Surveillance Project which is who we will all be working with over the next two months. We met several of the people in the main office and received some orientation to the management of polio surveillance in India. Still no idea where the three of us are going (myself, H and A), but it looks like one person will be working on immunization campaigns, one person will be substituting for an SMO (surveillance medical officer) in Orissa (a state on the eastern coast of India) and the third, who knows. We should find out on Monday, and hopefully we'll be off into the field on Tuesday.
This weekend, we've arranged a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and a few of the other sites there. It's a long day trip from Delhi. We'll be on a 6am train out of Delhi and not get back to the hotel until almost midnight, but it would be a shame to be in India and not see the Taj.
And now it's back to getting some work done on some Utah-related stuff. There isn't a whole lot of polio work for us to do at the moment, so I figure the time is well spent getting other types of work done.
The temple grounds are enormous with at least a dozen large, highly decorated, buildings. The artwork and sculpture adorning the buildings are quite beautiful and intricate. The temple complex was only finished last year (and was built in a very quick five years), but it draws from traditional Indian architecture and design, so the style is not really contemporary at all. There are a series of three exhibits (all rather high tech) outlining the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, the founder of the movement (born in 1781), and the history of India (in 15 minutes). Sadly, we didn't have time for two of the exhibits. The one we did go to was a series of audioanimatronics (moving, talking robot "actors") dioramas outlining the life of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. It was...interesting. I'm going to avoid any extensive political or social commentary here, but briefly, the basic principles of the movement seem sound (peace, happiness, etc.). However, as an atheist pacifist with strong anti-hierarchical tendencies, I have some issues with the application. (And I apologize if I've offended anyone with my above summary or comments. I'm trying to summarize a rather complex religious movement from only my very brief introduction and a few readings online.)
Post-temple, we finally got in touch with the National Polio Surveillance Project which is who we will all be working with over the next two months. We met several of the people in the main office and received some orientation to the management of polio surveillance in India. Still no idea where the three of us are going (myself, H and A), but it looks like one person will be working on immunization campaigns, one person will be substituting for an SMO (surveillance medical officer) in Orissa (a state on the eastern coast of India) and the third, who knows. We should find out on Monday, and hopefully we'll be off into the field on Tuesday.
This weekend, we've arranged a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and a few of the other sites there. It's a long day trip from Delhi. We'll be on a 6am train out of Delhi and not get back to the hotel until almost midnight, but it would be a shame to be in India and not see the Taj.
And now it's back to getting some work done on some Utah-related stuff. There isn't a whole lot of polio work for us to do at the moment, so I figure the time is well spent getting other types of work done.
# posted by Disease Cowgirl @ 9:15 PM 
