while Fawzi was here, we took him out to the Taj in Agra, and few other places within Delhi. before we left for Agra in a Toyota Innova, he politely asked us if it would be a vehicle with an AC. it was a little embarrassing to know then that the cab driver we hired to fetch him to and from Marriott had not switched on the AC while Fawzi traveled in his cab.
The Agra trip was great, sans the scorching heat. my colleagues Anushree, Narendra, and I found Fawzi to be a down to earth person and a curious observer. he was happy to see a snake charmer when we stopped over for refreshment. Agra was soaked in April heat when we reached there. the best part was while passing through the security check, i was asked to buy a foreigner entry ticket of a higher value instead of the domestic tourist one!
The Taj is a mesmerizing structure for just anyone. A memorial of love built by the Mughal king Shahjahan for his beloved queen Mumtaz. It took 17 years and 20000 men to construct the memorial on the banks of Yamuna river. The Taj was constructed in a location which was directly visible from Shahjahan's Agra Fort. it is said that after the construction, the labourers had to part away with their hands because Shahjahan did not wanted them to construct any other Taj like monument in their lifetime. The monument boasts of intricate geometrical designs, carved flowers and petals studded with semi precious stones. The minars on the four sides of the structure have a slight tilt towards the outer side of the main memorial. These were constructed so keeping in mind that they would not fall and destroy the main monument in the event of an earthquake.On our way back to Delhi Naren wanted to pickup some Matura famous 'pedas' and so we navigated through the busy Mathura streets. Fawzi wanted to know why so many people were assembled near the Krishna temple, so we told him briefly about Krishna and most things related to him. he surprised us by amusingly asking me to wish for getting married soon! may be i did not ask for krishna's blessings and therefore am a bachelor till date!!
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once he was back home, he sent us a detailed description of his experience traveling and staying in India. I am copying here the email he sent us, part of which was composed when he was onboard his return flight to the US.
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...Thomas Friedman came back from his visit to India to proclaim “The World Is Flat”. However, I came back from 
my first journey to India to claim that God is not dead but rather live and well though along with most angels he is too busy maintaining order amidst the utmost human chaos to keep millions of his precious offspring’s of Adam alive. Or else how would you explain an unbelievable number of different types of moving vehicles and an amazing number of humans and untamed beats all sharing a physical dimension that defies all logic and even the laws of physics. In this paramount chaos I discovered order, an order that is beyond any human comprehension, and an order that can only be orchestrated by a much higher order. It is so that I have come to realize that only the highest being can orchestrate such a perfect chaotic order aided by an army of guardian angels, Shiva, Ganesa, Krishna, and a thousand other Indian Gods. As such, it is no wonder that such an order can exist in the most unimaginable chaos.
Few years ago my eight years old stunned me with a question “dad do you think God is hiding because he is afraid of what he has created?” Dumbfounded I asked her “Why would you even say something like this?” She simply replied “There are too many problems in this world…may be his human experience has gone bad” Little did I know that she was right. Too many tragedies in the world and very little sign of any divine intervention. My trip to India has helped me understand the following:
The world will never be flat
And getting smaller it is not
No one will fall off the edge of the world
Into a vast emptiness to glide into infinite nothingness.
To all mankind of all types of faiths
I beg forgiveness and mean no offense
I am in no way reducing your God and mine
To traffic cops in super congested Indian cities
But that is where I simply was the witness
Of divine intervention truly at work
Orchestrating the perfect chaotic order of coexistence
Mankind with untamed beast and a complex nature
Perhaps nowadays God and all his angels
Can only do it one nation at a time
The Human angel whom I believe
Mother Theresa who has come to be
A long ago understood it well
She joined God’s angels enlisting for life
For all the tragedies else where in the world
We should no longer cry in the midst of night
Oh mighty Lord have thou forsaken thee
Perhaps for even God how knows no time
It now takes time, it takes time
Because of our subhumanization of only one created race
Our human greed and our desperation
Our human nature in all it’s tribulation
Forever multiplying in jubilation
Is now a transformation of a dying planet
Mistaken for a world shrinking in size
Perceived to be a world getting smaller
A round world can never be flat
Just recreation or uncreation
To a mighty God it is all the same
I shall no longer ask the question
Where is the God in our existence?
And ponder the choice of my own subsistence
In born to be what am I to be?
Just born into this world so have we all come to be
Now that even God knows ITT
It takes time…it takes time…
my first journey to India to claim that God is not dead but rather live and well though along with most angels he is too busy maintaining order amidst the utmost human chaos to keep millions of his precious offspring’s of Adam alive. Or else how would you explain an unbelievable number of different types of moving vehicles and an amazing number of humans and untamed beats all sharing a physical dimension that defies all logic and even the laws of physics. In this paramount chaos I discovered order, an order that is beyond any human comprehension, and an order that can only be orchestrated by a much higher order. It is so that I have come to realize that only the highest being can orchestrate such a perfect chaotic order aided by an army of guardian angels, Shiva, Ganesa, Krishna, and a thousand other Indian Gods. As such, it is no wonder that such an order can exist in the most unimaginable chaos.Few years ago my eight years old stunned me with a question “dad do you think God is hiding because he is afraid of what he has created?” Dumbfounded I asked her “Why would you even say something like this?” She simply replied “There are too many problems in this world…may be his human experience has gone bad” Little did I know that she was right. Too many tragedies in the world and very little sign of any divine intervention. My trip to India has helped me understand the following:
The world will never be flat
And getting smaller it is not
No one will fall off the edge of the world
Into a vast emptiness to glide into infinite nothingness.
To all mankind of all types of faiths
I beg forgiveness and mean no offense
I am in no way reducing your God and mine
To traffic cops in super congested Indian cities
But that is where I simply was the witness
Of divine intervention truly at work
Orchestrating the perfect chaotic order of coexistence
Mankind with untamed beast and a complex nature
Perhaps nowadays God and all his angels
Can only do it one nation at a time
The Human angel whom I believe
Mother Theresa who has come to be
A long ago understood it well
She joined God’s angels enlisting for life
For all the tragedies else where in the world
We should no longer cry in the midst of night
Oh mighty Lord have thou forsaken thee
Perhaps for even God how knows no time
It now takes time, it takes time
Because of our subhumanization of only one created race
Our human greed and our desperation
Our human nature in all it’s tribulation
Forever multiplying in jubilation
Is now a transformation of a dying planet
Mistaken for a world shrinking in size
Perceived to be a world getting smaller
A round world can never be flat
Just recreation or uncreation
To a mighty God it is all the same
I shall no longer ask the question
Where is the God in our existence?
And ponder the choice of my own subsistence
In born to be what am I to be?
Just born into this world so have we all come to be
Now that even God knows ITT
It takes time…it takes time…
FAWZ
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