Dazed in Delhi - Democracy and Obama Win!!!
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
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62
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Trip End
Jun 28, 2009
Delhi,
India
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
This morning, we all woke up very early, so Dad and I took a walk in the neighborhood around our hotel, which is in New Delhi. There are two parts of Delhi, old and new. We saw a broken down bus with lots of guys around it trying to help and lots of people were still on the bus
Sari market
. There were also cars everywhere.Then we watched the election results - Barack Obama is the new president-elect of the United States!!!!!!!!!! It was fun to watch his speech and think about how great it is that he was elected. I won't forget this day! I bet his daughters are very excited - they get to live in the White House and get a new puppy (that is what Obama said.)
After school and a swim in the pool, we met our guides Indrajit and Nanveet to go see some of Delhi. First, they took us to Old Delhi. On the way, I saw so many wild things. I saw a boy going to the bathroom right on the sidewalk, and lots of people came up to our vehicle to ask for money, including kids my age. It felt really strange and sad. I am going to get some pencils to give them. There were cars and people everywhere and a huge traffic jam.
When we got to Old Delhi, I saw a guy cleaning out someone's ear, which is a real job in India, and barbers just sitting by the side of the road on the ground cutting people's hair, and rickshaws everywhere, and mopeds, and tons and tons of people. (I found out that most people in India make about 500 rupees or $10 a day!) We went to see the second biggest mosque in all of India, which was made of red sandstone and white Tamil marble. Even in the mosque, there were people asking for money. We had to take off our shoes and mom had to wear a special robe. I saw a sundial, like the ones we studied last year at school. In India, religion is very important but there are one million gods in India!!! The main religions are Hindu, then Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and then some like Jain
Us in front of one of the Parliament building
. If you are a Jain, you can't eat any meat and you also can't eat anything grown in the ground, like potatoes and carrots and some people wear masks and brush the ground in front of them when they walk so they won't kill any bugs. Some of the main Hindu gods are Ganesh, who is an elephant with lots of hands and Hanuman, the monkey god. We went for a rickshaw ride around Old Delhi and it was wild. The streets are very narrow and there are rickshaws everywhere loaded with people and other stuff. We saw the areas where they sell paper, saris, jewelry, and more. I even saw a McDonalds. People were everywhere, just everywhere and it was very loud. It was hard for our rickshaw driver to get around and it seems like a very tough job. I don't know how he biked with all of us on the back of the rickshaw.
I also saw a monkey running across some wires and later we saw tons of monkeys at the Parliament buildings and Presidential palace (which has 365 rooms!), and tons on the sidewalks. Tonight, there was a show on television about the problem of monkeys in Delhi. In Hindu culture, you can not kill or hurt or even touch a monkey. But because of overcrowding, some monkeys are biting and attacking people and so Delhi people are trying to figure out what to do. And the monkeys are suffering too because they are getting diseases and things. They have not come up with an answer yet.
Tonight we are going to have dinner with a scholar who is an expert on Indian history and culture. I think there will be a ton to learn here. I just can't remember it all!
