the National Museum in Delhi

Doesn't this look like a happy bunch?? And this was the very first thing they saw! We went to the National Museum on a Saturday, and despite being all geared up for a fight, we got in at the Indian price no problem. Which meant, even paying for a camera (yes, you have to pay to bring a camera, more if it is a video camera) the total for the 6 of us was 44 rupees. I love that! The kids were one whole rupee each at the student rate. Anyway, they were mad I was making them go anywhere, since all they want to do is sit in front of the TV, but we did see some cool stuff. This stone Egyptian bust was the first thing we saw, and ended up being the oldest thing too, as it is from about 1000BC. There were lots of stone carvings in the main halls.
This was in the textiles area, which I thought was pretty sparse, considering the textile industry in India today. It is an embroidered boardgame, with ivory game pieces.

The museum is a round building, with a circular courtyard in the middle. There were some statues in the courtyard, but it was about 90 degrees out, so we saw them thru the window.

Lots of awesome carved wood lintels and tons of stone. (haha, little museum humour there) Much of the stone stuff had people that were... how to put it delicately ...underdressed. And then they had some polished parts. Can you see what I mean? Alex was grossed out. And later, when we went into a new gallery, she said "oh please, no more art of naked people!" She is NOT into it.

Sam is standing beside a very tall, very heavy trumpet.
Isaac is knocking on a 15cm thick door from the 14th century.

This is a gold-plated top of a temple - the very top of the spire even held a diamond!

You know how Isaac loves that self-portrait setting!

Oooh, the money room! Who doesn't love that? The coins thru the ages were pretty cool - square, round, solid, with holes, gold, silver, brass, copper, stone and shell. Some were big and some were sooooo tiny. Isaac's finger shows how small this one is.
We did like this, but on the way in to this exhibit, I read the sign and said "ooh, a numismatic gallary" and Isaac says "what does that mean? Bored?" he's funny, in a lippy kind of way :)





The dancing god is Shiva, god of dance. Pretty famous. That one and the one with all the arms are the only ones I was even vaugely familiar with before we came here. Of course, many of the exhibits would be more interesting if we knew the legends and stories of their history. So many of the paintings depict scenes of gods doing legendary stuff, and we know nothing.

A couple kids, lost in the desert, in need of water. One section had empty cases, so we fooled around for a bit, before the guard came to tell us to knock it off.
These guys were just inside the door of the Hall of Arms. I don't know, their arms aren't much to write home about. Look at those toothbpicks!

The Marine History room - Sam liked the replicas of the tall ships. Holy rigging, Batman!
I like the traditional painting on silk - I have bought several (cheap ones, of course). Randy thinks it is too two-dimensional, but I love the colours. We saw it demo'd at a gallary (Jaipur I think) where they crush the rocks and mix with water to make the paint, then use a tiny brush - maybe one hair - to paint.







Everyone loves the Armory - what is not to like about 6 foot muskets and wavy swords and elephant armour?

Muskets and powder horns.

Randy and Alex saw these spikey ankle trap things that go on the elephants - what they didn't get is why the spikes would be on the INSIDE of the ankle trap ???


I like the lethal-looking two-blade dagger things. Love that wavy blade!

Copper plates - a good way to store records and documents you want to last for hundreds or thousands of years. Gee, where have I heard that idea before?? And here is Vanna, to tell us more...



This sitar belonged to Eddie van Kumar. According to Randy.

This fits into the category of things you shouldn't really have to say on a sign... can you read it? and we DID see guards and cleaning crew sitting around upstairs under an identical sign.


This is the coded law of (I think) Sumeria. It is OLD - about the same age as the Egyptian bust.





The giant thing under glass is a five-tier temple chariot. It represents the spiritaul asprirations of a community. On auspicious days the temple diety would be loaded into the chariot and the people would, together, pull the chariot thru the village. Don't know why, just read it on the sign.

Hooray for cheap museums!!

Take another trip back in time...

Well, I am blogging again, but some of it is a bit older. So if you are interested in the Taj Mahal and the visit of my friend Lori Clancy and what we did then, please go back to April and check it out.

But, as usual, be patient, it shows up a bit at a time :) !!

Miranda's Baptism!! (finally...)

Well, only 4 months after Miranda's 8th birthday, we finally had her baptism. The delay was mostly because she turned 8 just a few days before we headed home to Canada for the summer, and she had decided she wanted to be baptized in India. It was a very small group - our family and the Barnes family, and Sister Stella, the Primary President. We even had to go upstairs and pull a missionary out of a meeting so we would have enough witnesses! It was very nice - Isaac said the opening prayer, Sam and Alex gave the talks, Miranda and Kiera Barnes sang with Isaac on the violin. It was fun to be baptized outside in the backyard of the church! And later, after brownies and pop (her choice) she came home and opened some cool presents. (we don't usually do that, as the other kids were quick to point out!) I had made for her a scrapbook of just her, with a written message from Randy and I and the other kids. Aunt Kari made a pretty neat "quiet book" with scripture cards, and Grandma Brooks gave her a Baptism scrapbook, which she LOVES, and we have worked on for several days now. The vandenBusches even sent a gift! Miranda was pretty excited to be baptized, and we are proud of her. It feels like a big step to have all our family now official members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!
I am adding these photos of the outside of the Church building which I took months ago and have never posted.

We meet in the bottom two floors of a 4 story house, and yes, people live upstairs. The first photos are inside the chapel area in the basement. The font is at the end of the driveway. There is a guard there full-time, since there are not really any outside doors. As I type this, I see that I need more photos to explain it properly - it is pretty different from church buildings at home!
PS if you go back to May you can read about her birthday!

back to the water park, but not alone this time.

Since the kids hardly go to school in October (festival season means 2 days off for Ghandi's birthday, 2 for Dusshera, and a week for Diwali, plus a bonus day in between for I don't know what) we headed to the waterpark again. Sam chose to be a grump and stay home. It is still plenty hot for swimming (about 92 that day) but unfortunately, it was a holiday, and HORRORS! we had to share the place!!!

They brought some chairs so we could sit in the shade and watch the kids.

It was more of the usual, except that we got a much clearer picture (literally) of the weirdness of Delhi-ites when it comes to apparel in the pool. I say that because in the south, apparently it is much more relaxed. This place rents swim costumes (the speedo looking ones for the men, and sleeved ones with bike-short length legs and a skirt) for women. One girl had hers on backwards (not so modest that way) and this mom kept her pants on!! What?! The lady in the brown outfit probably figured that wearing her clothes would be more modest than a swimsuit, but I think not. And the men... those swim tunks should be outlawed - WAY too much information revealed. And Indians are sort of hairy, so that doesn't help. Really, these are some wacky ideas.

This is video that illustrates the extreme volume of EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE in India. We are forever asking stores and restaurants to turn down the music so we can hear ourselves. During festival time, someone is ALWAYS blaring distorted music or chanting from a truck or a temple. And even at the water park, they think if it isn't deafening, it isn't loud enough.