Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

If there is one thing I learned during my travels in India, it was exciting and evident that the country is one of contrasts and unseemly complements. Within our first days of being in India, my friends and I found ourselves at the Qutb complex in Delhi. This historical site exemplified for me the dichotomies we were about to experience: The site is one of ancient origin, yet reconstituted for a monarch's ego; the building blocks are of Jain temples in sanskrit yet constructed to call Moslems to prayer with minarets and mihrabs; the complex is of sacred significance then surrounded by mundane office parks. Of all these contradictory elements, India finds a way of weaving the pieces together and finding connections in the least of places. The woman in red - evidence of a living, thriving culture - stands against a crumbling and ancient world monument, but seen together, I am hopeful that attention to world heritage will preserve the culture for future generations.