Taj Mahal!

Today, Camila Ehi and I took a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We were all incredibly excited about going, and were definitely not disappointed with our experience. The architecture was stunning, and the well-maintained structure of pure white marble with insets of real raw gem stones to make up the floral decorations on the structure of the building were both beautiful and astonishing in their uniqueness and probably progressive for their time. The gardens surrounding the monument are beautiful, and the relative quiet and peaceful nature of the entire complex added to the charm and surreal nature of actually being present at one of the greatest architectural wonders of the world.
Having a chance to enjoy one another's company outside the setting of an academic conference was liberating, although we managed to continue to talk about race and gender issues in the context of the people and environment around us. As one example, Camila mentioned that she hadn't seen any women passengers on motorcycles/scooters who were ever wearing a helmet- but there were male passengers who often did have such protective headgear. We wondered if it was perhaps a vanity deal, but even so, it seemed unfortunate and a little suspect that we couldn't find a single helmeted female passenger during our days in Delhi or on our 8 hour roundtrip journey today.
Early tomorrow morning, we leave for Ahmedabad to hopefully spend almost a week doing more hands-on field research among the rural villages of Gujurat. I'm looking forward to our next experiences in the very near future, but I will remember Delhi fondly. I have truly enjoyed the time we have spent here and will miss everything from our kind and hospitable staff at the guesthouse where we are staying, to the amazing simple homecooked food provided here, to the exposure we have had to different organizations working towards combating discrimination against Dalits in Delhi as well as all across India. It's only been six days, and this has already been an amazingly eye opening and transformative experience for me on both an academic and a personal level- I can't wait to see what happens next.