by Bhagin R. Kellenberger
On June 25th the temperature before the start in Zurich was 13°. On arrival in Delhi at midnight, the thermometer still showed an unpleasant 30°, which immediately made me sweat.
I was very grateful to be able to sleep in an air-conditioned room that night.
Day 1
After a one hour drive through the busy city traffic, i.e. mainly stop and go, we met Mr. Dinesh Jangid, Managing Director of a large door factory in Delhi. In his office it was 36°, the somewhat stuffy air was moved somewhat with a ceiling fan.
The explanation of SHIN’s sketches about the two temple gates took a little more than five hours. However, it was not the inability or ignorance of our counterpart which made such a long conversation necessary, but the doors are full of special symbols, which were new in their kind and arrangement even for a Hindu.
Mr Jandid wanted to know their meaning and also the meaning of the symbols’ arrangement. Of course, the explanations took a lot of time.
Afterwards I drove with Rohit in the intensive evening main traffic through the city again, a high demand on the driver and his patience.
This trip led us to a chrome steel processing company which will manufacture the ladder to the pyramid roof and an inner ladder with a platform in the main tower. I am always amazed at the simple machines the Hindus can use to produce the things they want.
After an hour or so I was relieved to return to the refrigerated hotel room.
Day 2
This day was well filled with the 8-hour drive from Delhi to Shivaland and some grocery shopping for staff and school supplies for the nature-school. I really appreciate Rohit’s safe driving style, because it is not a matter of course to reach your destination safely after 300 km of Indian traffic.
The surrounding area of Shivaland presented itself greener than ever in spring due to the onset of the monsoon.
Day 3
The site manager Negi and Rohit showed me the progress and also the problems with the various buildings.
I really admire the labourer working in the sun even at 30° to 35°, sometimes even during the midday hours.
The southern half of the Vimana is finished. The exact execution of the team from South India is impressive and makes me very happy.
The Kailash or the side chapels with the mountains, on each of which a small temple building will be placed, now reaches the third level. This work of art is a symbol for a very old city and at the same time it is also an invitation to all aspects of God and Goddess.
On the first level are three chapels, which also show themselves like folded hands.
On the second level six Kailash were built. Above them, at the Shiva tower the third level is under construction with further chapels, which will be completed in its shell construction by mid-August.
Subsequently, the scaffolding will be moved to the south side and the Kailash artwork on this side is put into work. The foundation for this Kailash is already under construction.
Intensive work was done on the interior of the temple and the various areas are well advanced.
The bathhouse is developing splendidly and is increasingly taking shape. The size of this building is already clearly visible.
The ground floor of the guards’ house will soon be ready for occupation. The roof still has to be formed and concreted.
Day 4
There will be a meeting with the architect T.S. Aswal and a pool expert. Various plans of the temple and especially of the bathhouse, which were created by the architect, had to be sighted and checked whether they accorded with the specifications of SHIN.
The conversation with the pool expert took a little longer than planned, because he could not understand that we do not want any water heating in the two pools and also no chemical cleaning of the water. The “wastewater” from the bathhouse will be prepared in a natural purification process to irrigate the plants. But in the end the cooperation with the architect, the site manager, pool expert and Rohit was very fruitful and good solutions were found.
Day 5
Creative break, which I used to look at details and to rest.
Day 6
Trip to our nature school Paramarth Awadhawan. Rohit had bought a luggage compartment full of trees. The current blogs about the school visit can be found here….
The next day I flew back to Delhi and was grateful to be able to travel to cool Europe again after these “hot holidays”.