June 14, 2008. Hindu Weaponry and "Walk-About" Kahn

After a week in the office, we left home this morning for Akshardham temple. The ride to the temple was with a Formula-1 rickshaw driver, and let's just say we got there faster than we had anticipated. Akshardham temple is on the Eastern outskirts of Delhi, and holds the Guinness World Record for being the “world's largest comprehensive Hindu temple.” And it’s a good thing I left my trident in the apartment. At the security check point, a plaque displayed all of the items that could not be brought onto the temple premises. The forbidden items made quite an interesting cast, and included: digital cameras, the Islamic burqua, fencing foils, samurai swords and yes… the three-pronged trident.

The temple itself is incredible. The base of the temple is a cutaway frieze, depicting tens of life-size elephants, as well as lions, monkeys, and other Indian animals. The entire building and surrounding edifices are made out of Rajasthani pink sandstone, and apparently, the temple was constructed without a single piece of steel or concrete. And did I mention that the temple holds a world record for size? It should also hold a record for intricate detail. There wasn’t a square inch of wall or ceiling, inside the temple, that wasn’t carved. There are over 20,000 deities cut into the structure, and an eleven foot gilded statue of Swaminarayan, the founder of this denomination of Hinduism, sits in the center of the temple.

Prior to our visit to the temple, the four of us went to a number of attractions on the temple grounds. As the temple was completed in 2005, the Swaminarayan denomination created one Disneyland-esque (with emphasis on the “esque”) walk-through attraction, an IMAX movie, and an enjoyable boat ride through 10,000 years of Indian history. One of the most interesting parts about the boat ride was hearing how everything was done in India much earlier than it was done elsewhere in the world. “So and so discovered the laws of physics 300 years before Newton…so and so discovered flight 1000 years before…etc.” The narrator was brazen and smug, and by the end of the boat ride I wanted to shout “Hey pal, Disneyland opened in 1955.” For Jenny’s sake I held back.


We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping near Connaught place, and eating vegetarian and chicken masala pizza at Pizza Hut. Jenny and I are becoming quite the shopping pair. Jenny makes the final decision on the product, and I do the bargaining. Today we whittled our bill nearly in half for a piece of silver jewelry and a 1 foot tall, rosewood Buddha head. Unfortunately, however, the novelty of street shopping in Delhi is eroded by “walk-abouts” as I call them – the guys who don’t have a store, but are as eager as Hurricane Andrew to sell you something frivolous. Apparently, aside from looking like I sport a trident, I’m also the guy who looks like he wants to buy wooden snakes from street vendors. Nobody has tried to sell Jenny a wooden snake.