INDIA, THE JAMMA MASJID MOSQUE

After our bicycle rickshaw ride through the Chandni Chowk Market we load into a bus for our next destination. Street hawkers persistently pursue tourists with their wares for sale. Our guide, puts on a "bus bazaar." For instance, the man in the white shirt is selling the beads he wears on his head. After we are seated, Ranvir  holds up their wares and gives the price. If he thinks the items are of decent quality, he holds his thumbs up.  If not, he holds his thumbs down. We pass items around before we decide. There are usually five to six vendors crowding around the bus entrance and someone always buys something.

We arrive at the Jama Masjid Mosque, the largest in India. This is the outside entrance gate, swarming with people.
This is the inside at the back of the temple, also swarming with people. Hard to tell the difference.

This is a Muslim temple and we must wear cover-ups, provided, and no shoes are allowed. This is the women of our group, from left, Carol, myself, Kathy, Pam, Ellen, Diane (almost hidden),Trish, Sandy, Chris, our guide and Hazel.

While Manju gave us a history of the temple, Indies gathered around- interested in we tourists. This fellow wanted his picture with Theo. I took one and he had his friend take one for him. Then followed about six more guys who wanted pictures and we finally had to refuse anymore pictures.

A huge pool sits in the center of the square, where people wash their feet, and hands.  I just missed a picture of a guy swabbing his beard. They come to pray. 25,000 of them can fit into this square.

This arch is beautifully inscribed in marble. Muslim religion does not permit idols, there is only the holy words of the Koran. This arch leads into the entrance to the tower, where the Iman calls the prayer.

The tower is twemty-two meter's high and is now closed to tourists because of a suicide.

This carved marble gate allows worshipers into the Iman's area of the mosque. Except for tourism, The mosque is now used only on festival days.

Heavy, ornate doors can be closed. It is interesting that in ancient times, people did not use tables or chairs. They covered their stone floors with carpets and sat cross-legged and did all their business from the floor.
People feel quite comfortable laying down to sleep, or rest, or sit cross-legged just about anywhere in public.
Back into the crush of traffic, we drive around the city as Manju Sharmi gives us a history of the seven cities of Dehli.

This load is so high, it reaches the bus window. Had it been open I could have reached out and touched the boxes.

We first drive through Old Dehli, pronounced Dealie with a history of 500 years.  The city transformed and rebuilt seven times But this part of Dehli is the squalid, crowded lanes where only the poor live.

A one-legged man begs in the street.

Commerce is very local. You can find live goats, chickens, and ducks for sale.

This man is selling fried chicken. Ranvir described it like this. "It is crispy chicken, beloved by all. It takes on more flavor as the day goes on with the dust and diesel fumes enhancing its flavor. I would die if I ate that food, though I used to eat street food. The people here have a powerful immune system it doesn't bother them at all."

When your vehicle is overloaded, you can use it like a wheelbarrow. Look at the snarl this load is headed for. Take note of the electric wires hanging on both sides of the street.

It is not my intention to make fun of these people and their way of life. They are survivors and they work hard and do what they can  to keep body and soul together.

Pictures taken from the window are subject to movement of the bus and glare, but notice the tangle of wiring above this juice stand.

We see these pictures on the internet and laugh. One can't help but think of the safety regulations we live with and how can this be maintained without fires?  In fairness, on our entire trip, this is the only place, in this poor neighborhood, in old Dehli, where this wiring situation exists.
The window is a sideshow while Manju gives us some interesting statistics. One child is born every second. The city has 16.5 million people.

The wealthy keep their homes from generation to generation. Sixty per cent of Indies rent. The city covers 1,408 square miles.  India has the second largest population of Muslims in Asia second only to Indonesia with 14.2 billion. India is 86% Hindu and 11% Muslim. We are headed to visit Mahatma Ghandi's resting place. More tomorrow.

Dehli India, Chandin Market by Richshaw

Dehli is the capitol city of India, a diverse, swarming polyglot of people, vehicles, shops and sights. I traveled with my Grandson Theo, who posed with our Dehli City Guide, Manju, as we loaded into bicycle rickshaws at Chandin Chowk Market.

Here members of our group load in with a pre-arranged group of rickshaw drivers. Otherwise we'd be besieged by any driver trying to pick up a customer. The rules are, traffic is heavy, the driver may make a sudden stop. Brace your feet and hold on tight.

As we begin, it is a bit disconcerting because our driver is going against the flow of traffic. Doesn't it matter what side of the street you drive on?

We are soon in the midst of the traffic and we are astonished at how varied and interesting the traffic is. Cars, along with trucks and people walking, motors, and tuk tuks, the green and yellow motors that serve as cabs are mixed together in what seems an impossible ability to get anywhere.

Vendors walk among the traffic selling goods if they can.

This is just business, nothing unusual.

Traffic is slow. No one gets hurt and at some point you realize that driving a car might just be impractical.
These school boys, you know by their uniforms, are not the least bit upset by being crowded into a rickshaw and holding on to the outside.

There are times the rickshaw is practically touching a tuk tuk and at one point a car was calling up to our driver,  indicating he wanted him to watch out for his side mirror which he was covering with his hand to avoid a miner collision.

At an intersection we see one of those famous "loads" you see in pictures on the internet. People here work very hard and they carry impossible loads.

We are getting closer to our destination but traffic never let's up.

The rickshaws take us to Jama Masjid, the biggest temple in India where 25,000 people can worship in their square. We will return by bus. More Tomorrow.

TAKING DOWN A GIANT.

A one hundred foot tree has shaded the west side of my house for 18 years. An old, giant, live oak. A tree expert pointed out a rotten core in the tree and warned me of the danger it posed hanging over my bedroom roof. I didn't want to do it. I just hugged that rugged trunk and called it my friend and thanked it for its many years of shade.  The smallest part of the trunk was an easy fall.

Down it went and it was just slice and dice.

Nate's Tree Service has a cherry picker to raise the sawyer up to the tree top. But the soil was so wet and muddy, it was in danger of getting stuck. The chipper could not maneuver between the trees, so the guys dragged the brush to the chipper.

That didn't stop the job. They came prepared. The climber took over. He whacked his way up the main trunk to the roof.

Some of the big laterals are the size of small trees.

Once into the over story, the climber struggled with the thick brush, hand cutting his way to follow the limb and gain a foothold and a place to drag his ropes and hooks along with the chain saw he was wearing.

The tree fills the sky, hovers over the roof and in one place a far reaching trunk bends heavily toward the ground. A tree close to the house doesn't crush the house when it falls. The danger is when a  distant  tree goes over and slams into the structure. I didn't want to cut this old friend. But wet soil, with nine days of steady rain in the forecast plus the possibility of a cold snap putting heavy snow on the limbs made me wary. I decided it had to go. The rotten core was just about roof level and about four feet long.

The sawdust and a huge chunk 0f a lateral branch fall to the ground.

All clear, the guys on the ground cut off the brush and haul it to the chipper.

With most of the big laterals removed, the tree is looking skinny but the top has to go first and there is still a lot of tree up in the air.

Finally, the top succumbs to the saw.

He cuts himself down the tree. That piece of blue sky on the right is where the tree used to be.

The biggest hunk goes down. Part of the rotten spot visible.

Piece by piece, by piece.

Goodbye, old friend.

When all was down on the ground, the rot wasn't bad. My tree could have stood for another 50 years-maybe.  I have yet to count the rings to determine its age.  But, I have already planted a replacement for this tree and now it will have a better chance to grow with more sunlight.
I was very impressed with Nate's Tree Service. The guys blew the sawdust off the roof, porches, my driveway, even places where they made no mess. They shoveled chips in any spots on the ground that were disturbed by the heavy truck tires and left my place looking great. They were, in a word, awesome.

NEW YEAR'S DAY HIKE.

From Highway 49, Glory Hole Recreation District at New Mellones, a free hike was advertised for New Years Day, rain or shine. You can see people warmly dressed as we strangers met at the entrance station and introduced ourselves.

Dogs are allowed on the trails. We met two bikers and we saw evidence of horses using the trails. Walkers are asked to give way to horses, but we didn't meet any.

Ranger Josh, guided the group and pointed out the growth patterns of this type of forest and explained in some detail the various flora and fauna.
At the beginning of the Angels Creek Trail, the forest has a mixture of digger pines, black oak, live oak and thick underbrush.  Ranger Josh admitted the underbrush is a fire hazard with chemise and buck brush.

I was impressed by the girth of this giant manzanita specimen and the lichens and bright, green moss growing on it. Ranger Josh noted that the east side of the hills get most of the water. He told us that manzanita burns very hot and can burn up your stove, actually melt it if you use enough of it.

Angels Creek is low, in tune with the current drought situation. The trail is a 2.5 mile hike.

I looked at just about every mushroom, hoping to find a "buckskin". (Not it's scientific name.) The old Italians knew their mushrooms and would pick up large delicious mushrooms under manzanita habitat. I didn't find a one. Deer feed on these, as do various insects.

I didn't get many pictures of the hikers. Strung out in a line, it is hard to capture everyone. The trail is narrow in most places. Looking back and forth I believe we had about 30 people on the hike. The Calaveras side of the Recreation Area has seven trails of different lengths and are rated easy, moderate, challenging and so on. This trail is moderate.

When guided, Ranger Josh makes many stops and he even played a couple games with us. He formed us into a walking caterpillar, eyes closed, to just walk and tune your ears, nose and senses to the trail. If you are a lone hiker, you get the sense of quiet that being in a natural forest gives you.

The sun didn't come out during our 3 hour hike. This tree, etched against the overcast made a nice contrast, with the west side of the hill in the distance showing meadows; more barren than the brushy east hillside.

At the end of the trail was a pretty view of the lake with an island showing that isn't visible when the water level is normal. Drought conditions persist here in California though the recent rains are encouraging. The Calaveras side has seven trails and the  Tuolumne County, Tuttletown Recreation area also has seven trails.  Senior Citizens, with their pass can enter the hiking trails free at anytime of year. For most, there is a day use charge.

This was my first excursion with a new social singles group  and I got to meet the seven people at the end of the hike. Cindy is the key organizer and can be reached at this phone number if you are interested in joining. I didn't ask permission to print her phone number, (no addresses are given), but her number was published in the newspaper ad for this hike, so here goes. 209-559-8517. The only qualification, you must be 50 or older. We picked up two new members at this event.