Now, you've got to get the mental picture right- my class meets in the auditorium of the Stone Center, so it's a big lecture class. My professor is a short and slightly rotund Persian man with more hair on his arms than on his head and a self-proclaimed Backstreet Boys complex. He clips on his mike and paces the stage, alternating between vaguely inappropriate humor and profound truths. As much as it has burdened my heart, I love going to this class to learn something new and to listen to Professor Safi lecture. It's good stuff.
So, after we've done a day on Partition in India and Pakistan, the next lecture goes into South Asian culture a little. I'm currently fascinated by Sufi performances like this . Anyway, after listening to some fun music, Professor Safi threw up a picture of the Taj Mahal and proceeded to tell us this story.
When you go to see the Taj, you've got to see it in different lights. You need to see it in the morning, you need to see it in the evening, because depending on the light that's hitting it, the building looks completely different. So me and my friends were traveling around India, back when I had hair, and we were going to go visit the Taj. We get to Agra and have dinner at this restaurant that claims that its founders were the chefs for Shah Jahan. I don't know if that was legit, but the food was. Anyway, we get back to the hotel and we get up at like 3:30, because we're going to go see the Taj at dawn. Imagine this, you've got to visualize it. Say the stage is the Taj. There's this platform at the back of the auditorium and between the Taj and the platform are these cascading fountains, rivers of water. And you stand on the platform and you take a picture and it looks just like this:
Now, any of you who travel know that any time you get to a touristy destination, what do you find? 200 Japanese tourists, who, regardless of the time of day, have been there for an hour before you have with their little fanny packs and cameras. So we get to the Taj, it's what, 4, by now and what do we find but 200 Japanese tourists in color coordinated shirts, waiting in line to get on the platform to take a picture. And they line up, 5 at a time, and they walk up [imagine a rotund Persian man imitating a Japanese tourist bouncing up to take a picture] and click. And then the next five walk up and click. And the next five walk up and click. Click. When you leave the platform, you're led right to a postcard stand that has photos that look oddly like this [gestures to the photo of the Taj Mahal behind him].
So we wait for all 200 Japanese tourists to walk up on the platform, and we're looking at our watches and it's almost time for dawn. We finally get to get up on the platform and we're getting ready to click, when this little Indian man comes up to us- swear to God- and says, "You will come with me." [Imagine a rotund Persian man -with a Persian accent- imitating an Indian accent] And we're like, what is this little Indian man talking about? We just waited, did you see the 200 Japanese tourists? We've been waiting and this is our only chance to see the Taj and the Little Indian Man says, "You will come with me now." And I don't know what it was, but we were like "We will come with you now." [in a hypnotized voice] And -swear to God- we hopped down off the platform and started to follow the Little Indian Man.
And he takes off, so we're following this Little Indian Man and we're talking to ourselves like what are we doing, this is our only time to see the Taj, this is ridiculous, and we're running to keep up with him because the Little Indian Man is walking fast and looking at his watch and saying, "You will hurry now" and we're like "We will hurry now." Now, he's going diagonally away from the platform, away from the Taj, towards this old broken-down retaining wall and we're still talking to ourselves. And now we're at this wall and the Little Indian Man turns to me and says, "You will climb the wall now." And I'm like, no, Little Indian Man, we just left the platform and followed you around, but it's getting to be dawn and we really want to get back to the platform before the next group of Japanese tourists come through, and he says, "You will climb the wall now," and I say, "I will climb the wall now." And so I do, I climb up this broken part of the retaining wall at the behest of this Little Indian Man and turn and look at the Taj.
Turns out that this broken part of the retaining wall is where the first sunbeams of the dawn come up and hit the Taj and it is from this location that you can see semi-precious stones start to sparkle. The whole building starts to sparkle and it doesn't look anything like this [points to the picture of the Taj Mahal behind him]. And so we climb up and see this wonder and talk to each other about this amazing sight. And the Little Indian Man says, "You will get down from the wall now." And we're like, But this is gorgeous, it's the Taj, and the lights, and it sparkles and [gestures at the Taj Mahal in his mind in front of him]... and the Little Indian Man says, "You will get down from the wall now." And we say, "We will get down from the wall now."
The Little Indian Man leads us across the way to a tree that's hanging off a ledge and he says, "You will climb the tree." And we're like, No way, that's hanging off a cliff, could you imagine what would happen if we fell? I'm not climbing that tree. And the Little Indian Man says, "You will climb the tree now." And -swear to God- I said, "I will climb the tree now," and climbed this tree. And here was a completely different angle, with a different light, and it was just as beautiful as from before. I turn to tell my friends and the Little Indian Man says, "You will get out of the tree now." And I do. For the next hour, we follow the Little Indian Man around to different places, climbing up on walls, hanging off ledges, climbing trees. He had this place mapped out, knew the best places to see the light as it reached the Taj and knew exactly when to be there. He had this itinerary of beauty saved away in his little Indian brain and he was showing it all to us. When we were done, we walked back to the platform and we see another group of tourists up on the platform, click, and walk away happy with their postcard picture.
And this was around the point in my life when I realized that if you are only looking for the the postcard picture, that's all you're ever going to see. When you want to learn, really learn about somebody or something, especially someone's religion, you have to be willing to go to some unexpected places, hang off some cliffs, climb some trees. And it really helps to have someone who knows the place along to guide you around. And that might be the single most important thing you learn this semester.
Thanks, Professor.
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