Second day in Delhi

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  Delhi, India
Friday, December 12, 2008

After a fairly restful night a day after landing, we wake up pretty early in the morning. Rebecca immediately starts talking about food, and after last night's didn't agree with her (due to jet lag, not because of the food quality) she was really looking for some comfort food. In the morning, that means some kind of grainy mush, usually oatmeal. We walked upstairs to the kitchen and started poking around at about 8AM. We've discovered that India is a little slow going in the morning. Many of the shops don't open until 11AM, and many people don't get up before 10. So even the domestic help wasn't up yet. Having the entire kitchen to ourselves, we started poking around and Rebecca actually found an old box of oatmeal in a cupboard. It looked like something that had been purchased for some previous guest and then forgotten. (growing up, my kitchen had dozens of those items spread around) So she cooked up a nice bowl of oatmeal in the microwave while I figured out how to make the toaster work

A beautiful statue in the house

. They have this wonderful bread in the house here made by some local baker who actually delivers the bread to the house each day kinda like milkmen of old. The bread is pretty good by itself, but once you toast it and add a little of the local butter, it is downright heavenly!

So we sat out on the veranda listening to the morning sounds of Delhi and eating our morning meal (I added an Indian orange to my toast and was quite happy). After a little while, the domestic help started to appear and take care of the daily tasks of the household. They brought out a nice tray of tea for us without even being asked, and we were able to enjoy a couple of glasses while discussing our plans for the day. At one point a large eagle-like raptor flew in and landed on a power line in front of the house, that was pretty exciting, but it flew away before I was able to get out my camera. I'm not sure what it actually was, it looked just like a golden eagle, only it was a bit smaller and little more grey.

I sat down the blog for a bit (cleaning up some of the final details of yesterdays photos and post) and Rebecca actually found a copy of the Bhagavad Gita (one of the Hindu holy books), in english on a bookshelf in the front room. So she started reading that a little bit while we waited for the rest of the house to awaken.

We still had alot of elements that we needed to aquire, some for the wedding ceremonies, some for gifts, so it was back to Fabindia to pickup the stuff that we set aside last night and then on to a place called Khan Market, where we could shop at a different Fabindia, a placed called Anokhi, and a multitude of other little shops were said to be in this place

Bindu's Boat

. We stopped at a little bookstore called Full Circle books I think, and upstairs on the top floor is a little eating establishment called the Cafe Turtle. Rebecca had a pasta dish with spinach and mushrooms. But they had pizza listed on the menu so I just had to try it. I guess I've got this thing about trying pizza everywhere I go in the world. This little cafe appears to be al vegetarian, so the only choices for the pizza were things like spinach, olives, onions, mushrooms and stuff like that. So I got one with olives and peppers, not really knowing what to expect. There are times when you are in a foreign culture and they are using the same words, but they mean something totally different. I didn't know if this was one of those times...

...Yep! It was one of those times. The pizza showed up and for one thing, it was already cut up and seperated into little triangles sitting very colorfully on a nice ceramic plate (see the photos). The crust was thin, not quite a cracker, more like a panini bread... the tomato sauce was some kind of salsa-like bruscetta maybe? The peppers were abundant, easily the largest builk of the sandwitch with a couple sprinkles of cheese on top. And to top off this interesting concoction were little rings of green olives. I did order it with olives, but I've never heard of green olives on a pizza before. All the same, I cut each piece in half and popped each bite-sized morsel in my mouth and it was really quite tasty, just very different than what my brain imagines when you say the world Pizza

View from balcony

.

After lunch, we looked around this other Fabindiia and found their selection somewhat lacking. We keep looking around us and seeing all of these women wearing bright and vibrant colors, but when we go to the store, most of the selections are muted or something I might even classify as dark. One theory is that we are shopping in the fall or winter season, and the colors people want are a little more muted, another theory is that the super bright colors aren't actually all that common. And of course the much more likely theory is that we're just shopping at the wrong places for those kinds of colors. We are still finding some wonderful outfits, Rebecca is wearing a super-cute purple and pink outfit today that is quite striking, and she's in love with it because it's so cuddly soft.

Anyway, we kept wandering around Khan market for a couple of hours, checking out little stores here and there. At one point, Rebecca found a nice outfit in natural tan and greens that she thought her sister Rachel might look good in. So she called up her sister... which ended up being about 2AM Kentucky time and started asking her about clothing. I quite surprised that conversation went so well, but it ended up with Rachel telling us she wanted an actual sari, not just a comfy kurta with baggy pajama bottoms (called patialas I think)

Rebecca's Breakfast

. Before leaving the market, we found some bangles for Rebecca to wear at the wedding, and we went back to the cafe to try their "Gooey Chocolate Cake". It wasn't really that gooey, but it sure was a delicious treat on a warm afternoon (we had vanilla ice cream with it of course)

Affter the market, we went to Lodi gardens, which is a giant piece of property with a couple of ruins scattered about. The ruins are giant beautiful old-world structures made of stone. One of them is an old mosque they think, and one of them is a tomb for one of the mughal emporer's sons or nephews or something. We got accosted by some guy who walked up, pinned an Indian flag to my arm, started saying "God bless you sir, you are a good man" many, MANY times, and then of course started asking money to help blind and crippled children. He even wanted to show me his card, which was a 4x6 piece of white paper with some words on it, and a picture of the dude kinda half-pasted on to the corner of it. The whole thing was laminated, so it MUST have been official. It took quite a bit to get him off our back, at which point he got angry and I think he started swearing at us in Hindi. It was a little unnerving, but later on, when we explained the whole series of events to Bindu, she told us that getting angry is just the next act in their little play. They have tried everything else (friendliness, pity, charity, blessings, etc) and if none of that gets any cash, they turn to a facade of anger as a last ditch effort to get into your pockets

Another Blacony View

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Then, right after that, we were up in the main tomb complex of the place, taking pictures and having a good time, when a uniformed security officer who had been walking around the grounds for quite awhile walks up and asks if he can help us get some photos with both of us in them. We say yes, he takes the shots and immediately goes into this long-winded explaination of the grounds... all in hindi of course. It actually seemed like maybe that was his job, so we let him go on... and on... and then it was kinda like a game to see how much of it we could pick up with just his hindi and little bits of english spoken with such a thick accent that it might take 3 or 4 tries before we actually get the word. Anyway, it was kinda fun, and actually informative.... assuming he was completely full of crap. Before that, we were just playing around a couple of ruins that could have jumped right out of "The Jungle Book" and after, we actually had an idea what we were looking at, and potentially some significance to it. And then of course he started asking for money. Rebecca and I are really out of practice since China. They way you need to do it is this: you either wear clothing or carry a bag with lots of pockets, and you make sure that each pocket only has one denomination of bill in it. You also make sure you've got some of everything. If you've only got a 500 when 10 would be enough, you're screwed

Street Corner

. We haven't really done that yet (we should ASAP) so I reached into a pocket with sub-500 bills and said to Rebecca "whatever comes out, comes out" and it was 100... so we got jacked and we knew it. Still, it's only $2 USD, and the guy spent about 20 minutes with us being very sweet and as helpful as he possibly could. And everybody says it's just one of those things you gotta learn how to manage whlie in India.

We sat in the gardens, watching the sun set.... sometimes pretty impressive when the smog index is in the gazillions. And then we met up with the driver and Bindu to return home for supper. They decided to take us for a quick drive-by some of the sights, like the India Gate, and the congress building, and some former palaces. All of that was neat, but the conversation in the car really the highlight. We discussed India's history, in and around the time of the partition. And Bindu said one of the most astute observations about India-Pakistani relations I've ever heard: That the original group people that gathered for start fighting for Indian independance... later becoming the National Congress Party?? They were all very strong-willed and strong-minded people, and they didn't all agree on everything. You had Gandhi and Nehru and Patel and Jinnah and a number of others I can't remember... and their whole way of functioning was to get together, and bring issues and ideas to the table and discuss, disagree, decide..

Plants

. and it was all a very democratic process. But when Jinnah broke off and formed the Muslim League, he was it... one man running the whole show. So the idea is that the democratic way of reaching consensus among differing individuals is written into the very generic code of Indian politics. While Pakistan's genetic code has more to do with single monolithic rulers and political dynasties. We also got into a discussion about India's potential... that she is already beginning to emerge in some areas, but Bindu's opinion is that she is still just getting started. She talked about how different the indian mindset is now from even 10 years ago, and how more and more people are willing to take business risks in order to see if something will happen with it. I really don't know India yet, but what little I've seen so far, I would wholeheartedly agree that there is virtually limitless untapped potential here. Everywhere we've been I have see so much energy... SO many people doing SO many things, and every one of them has SO much energy when they are doing something they really want to accomplish, so wether it be a taxi driver trying to get a good tip, or some 80 year old man squatting in some back alley hammering steel beams... there is just a huge amount of energy everything. And at the moment, it just seems like (to my anyway) that everybody is still very caught up in their own little world. If all of that energy were to coalesce into a cohesive moment... it seems like India would be able to crush _anybody_ at _anything_

Another Street Corner

. I know that is what people always say about China... but I gotta say that I don't really see it. There is something about the chinese psyche that has been effected by this big-brother-is-always-watching idea they've got. And I think even though they might have a larger population, I think it would take generations and generations before they could embrace the kinda thing I'm talking about. But with India... I guess it'll still take awhile, but it just seems so much more ripe for a large-scale social change like that.

Anyway, right after getting home Rebecca and I kinda split up. I was upstairs with Poonam, the office assistant, chatting about movies and the days events. And Rebecca just disappeared for like an hour. Right about the time I started to worry and go looking for her, she pops into the dining room, happy as a clam. When I inquired about where she had been I found out that she was invited into the TV room downstairs by Devika's grandmother (who I've only seen when we first got here) and on the TV was a live broadcast of the events at the golden temple, with holy music and the ceremony to put away the Guru Granth Sahib. I'm not sure I'm going to get all this right, but my understanding is that the Sikh (pronounces SEEK) religion believes that multiple Gurus (teachers) came to earth to share God's wisdom with humanity, and the final Guru is actually a book called the Granth Sahib, and it is treated like a person by most practicing Sikhs

Old House

. It is woken up in the morning, it has it's own special bed-like space where it rests, and it is even put to bed at night. In many homes, it even has it's own room. This happens to be the case in this home. So Dekiva's grandmother invited Rebecca to go down to the lower floor to see the Guru Granth Sahib which was already been put to bed for the night, but still, she got to enter the holy place in this home and pay her respects. Meanwhile, I was upstair chatting about bollywood movies, so I think she got the better deal on this particular evening. :-)

We all had a wonderful dinner together, including a new dal dish that is super hearty. If you don't know what dal is, you could imagine something like creamed corn made with tiny little lentil beans.... only it tasts way better. There are many types of dal bean, and there are also many ways to cook each one. This particular dish, which I'd never had before, the dal is left un-split, they are usually dried, split and the chaff removed so you have a smooth end-product. But when they are left whole, you get something with a more complex taste, and it is quite a bit more hearty and good for you.

After dinner, Bindu wanted us to try a desert... she laughed and said they could make something very VERY traditional. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of it, but imagine all sorts of nuts and seeds (almonds, cashews, and these tiny mellon seeds you can only get in India) along with ghee and jaggery (a raw form of sugar). It came out in a little bowl and looked kinda like one of those christmas bird feeder pressed-log things... only not pressed yet. On first look, I knew Rebecca was going to love it, which she did. I wasn't sure it would be my thing... but it was warm, and crunchy, and just the right amount of sweet, and those little mellon seeds were FABulous. I'm' very sad we can't get them in the US. The substitude would be seasame seeds, which just simply isn't it. It was pretty fantastic.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Delhi Streets 1	Delhi Streets 2	Little Boy	Delhi Streets 3
Delhi Streets 4	Delhi Streets 5	Temple or something	Traffic Crunch
I can carry anything!	Rebecca at lunch	Rebecca's Pasta	Kirby's Pizza
Cafe Turtle	A nice stairway	Delhi Streets 7	Well labled bottle
42In flat screen deliverered by bike.	Camels!	More Camels!	Elephant
Leading Lines	Cute couple	Ruins 1	Ruins 2
Ruins 3	Cutie by pool	Kirby by pool	Kirby by pool 2
No Smoking!	Chipmunks	Rebecca in archway	Kirby and Architecture
Rebecca in Archway 2	Rebecca in Archway 3	India Gate 1	Arches
Nice shot	Description 1	Arches 2	Mosque
Kirby in foreground	Acabic Script	Inside Mosque	Corner
Ruins	Decription 2	Parrots	Archway 3
Birdbath Path	Hazy	Rebecca in turret 1	Rebecca in turret 2
Rebecca in turret 3	Kirby in foreground 2	Kirby holds up world	Kirby silly
Rebecca silly	Kirby and Rebecca together	Arches 4	Inside Tomb
More fuzzies	Famous Bridge	Different path	Famous Bridge 2
Description 3	Fountain	Walkways	Old lawnmower
Sunshine	India Gate	Rebecca Clothing

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