Jaipur

So we went to Jaipur for the weekend via a car with a driver.  So much easier than taking the train if not a touch spoiled.  Bilu the driver picked us up Friday morning and it was pretty much a five hour drive to Jaipur which is known as the "pink city" because the Mogul king had all of the building painted pink - the color of welcome - in the mid 1800s on the occasion of Prince Albert's visit.  Then they liked the look so much they just went with it.  Jaipur is in the state of Rajasthan which has more of a desert climate and the biggest change is that there were camels and lots of carts pulled by camels just cruising down the road.  There were also elephants at the tourist areas which was sad since elephants belong in South India where it's far wetter.  They get dehydrated and sunburned in the north.  So we played tourist and saw a movie at a famous theater that's all done up inside like a psychedelic wedding cake.  Wednesday we go to Agra for the Taj Mahal and then Sunday we go to Goa for some real monsoon rains (hopefully just a few hours a day!) and the beach.  Then back to Kathmandu where the garbage strike is in full swing and now making international headlines.  I hope everyone is well!  xoc

Naps

What a busy week. (sorry mom and dad for not blogging more.)  I've been doing a few work things for the India program and playing tour guide.  But also the monsoon started (early) but then mostly stopped for now and so it's really, really hot and humid which is a killer.  I have never been a napper but have found myself dozing off just after breakfast, in the mid-afternoon after coming in out of the heat and in the early evening.  It's my inner Margaret Thatcher coming out.  So today we're off to Jaipur for the weekend....more later.  xoc

Connections

I really like the taxis here; they are made in India and are called "Ambassadors". Retro-trippy.  Today was one of those good days when one just seems to make connections that don't turn out to be crazy stalkers.   One of the guys who is always around my apartment flat - he's someone's staff - is a real cutie and, although he barely speaks a word of English, is nice in that distinctly South Asian way.  By that I mean that South Asians have fewer social boundaries and think little of staring at, pointing at, discussing, smiling at and, in general, acknowledging how fascinating they find (something, good or bad, about) you.  For instance a few days ago I received a card in the mail that Jen Rose sent (from her 4 year old son Connor who apparently felt an overwhelming and immediate need to send me a lovely collage) and both Ram, the servant in my flat, and the other guy felt no qualms about crowding around for the envelope opening and felt quite at ease to inspect and approve of the collage.  Ram managed to tell me "my son good artist!"  So the other guy was getting on his scooter this morning and in a most animated way encouraged me to jump on the back (side saddle Indian-lady style) for a little ride to the end of the block.  Luckily it turned out to be the end of the block; he could have just taken me across a city of 13 million people using the most unsafe mode of transportation possible aside from those guys who ride on the tops of trains.  I mean, sitting side saddle on a scooter and holding onto a little bar on the back is one step below surfing on the seat.  And then after lunch I was in the window of the restaurant waiting out a particularly heavy deluge of rain  and a crowd of people in a near-by window found my presence so unbelievably interesting that they all took my photo on their cell phones.   Just smiling and taking my picture.  So I just smiled and waved while thinking "really?  is it because I just ate at the hare krishna place?  'cause otherwise i'm just not that exceptional... i'm not even blonde anymore and i'm kinda wet."  And then I had good rickshaw karma going to and coming from lunch (meaning no outrageous American prices) but on the way home I experienced the perils of using rickshaws when it's raining because if cars pass by going too fast through the (lake-like) puddles then a wave of water literally passes through the rickshaw, soaking one's entire lower body in the process.  My driver would honk, shout and shake his fist each time this happened (to us both) and then turn and smile at me like we were comrades.  Then he'd sing.  I liked him so much I gave him a big fat American-style tip.  Then I went for an evening walk around the Park and saw the ancient, toothless granny who's always there with her two year-old granddaughter.  The granny always smiles and points at me, I wave and the kid freaks out and cries.  You can't win 'em all.  In a sheer coincidence while walking I was listening to a podcast about a study that had been done at a seminary in which a group of students were given various sermon topics (half of the group was given the parable of the good samaritan as a topic) and then during their preparation periods they were individually called to another building during which they had to pass a man bent over in obvious pain.  They correlated the data on who stopped to help not to factors such as who was just working on the sermon topic of the good samaritan, but to how late the person felt he was.  The study went on to correlate compassionate behavior with how much attention people are paying to the outside world rather then being lost in thought or on the phone.  There's always a risk of connecting with a kook but there's a lot of upside to paying attention to the people around you.  Just not after dark.  xoc

Gym

Yesterday I had a day of luxury: a pedicure and a trip to the mall.  Not a bad mall, either, and then met another contact for a coffee.  It hasn't been raining so hard lately and so the early monsoon might be a bit of a misnomer...this might be the calm before the real storm.   It's been fun planning for Janice and Lydia's visit and I've found some great restaurants and clubs and the big prize: a convenient theater  playing "Sex and the City".  Hooray.   Don't worry about me getting bored - I am reading tons of books and doing work for the India boss - it's just not as fun doing everything by myself.  But I still find Delhi to be very livable and apparently its pollution is quite a bit less than it had been (I keep reading it's one of the most polluted cities in the world but it just doesn't seem that bad to me) due to all buses and rickshaws now using compressed natural gas and the positive results from a tree-planting campaign started many years ago.  Delhi is also in the messy midst of installing a subway system which will be a huge relief.  So I'm off to the neighborhood gym which is such a hoot because it's so obviously an unself-conscious part of daily life.  There are lots of young men pumping iron for their Bollywood bodies, lots of prosperous, chubby young women working hard on their diets, and plenty of plump, late middle-aged moms wearing full salwar kameez (long tunic and flow-y pants in vibrant colors) with the long scarf intact walking on the treadmill and using the weightlifting machines to a dance soundtrack turned up to 11.  And Siek men in perfect white turbans and dress pants walking around the outdoor track at speeds that I couldn't match.  And then there's me on the stair-stepper, all red faced and sweating in my obligatory long pants...just one of the crowd.  xoc

Monsoon

So the rains have started and it really cools things off, which is nice.  But wow, it's been said a million times, but that's a lot of rain.  I'm scared to vocalize my new hope in fear of jinxing it, but then again maybe saying it will help make it so: I'm angling to get invited to join the brand new Delhi office of my work.  I've done a little work for them already and it's so great working with a start-up and with people who are looking for help.  People who actually welcome ideas instead of being threatened by them.  Perfect timing would be January after the holidays and so hopefully everyone will cooperate with my master plan.  Otherwise, if everything goes well then Janice and our friend Lydia are coming to Delhi Friday for the weekend and Janice is staying for a few weeks and we'll go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and to Jaipur.  Then if the rains aren't too bad we'll go down to Goa which was a Portuguese colony for nearly 500 years before the British took over.  The food is supposed to be a lovely mix of South Indian and Portuguese and the beaches are reputed to be lovely.  Plus there are spice plantations and all kinds of crazy stuff.  One big benefit of living in India would be that the (originally British) railway system is comprehensive and so travel is much easier than in Nepal.  I feel guilty loving the results of brutal colonialism in India and secretly wishing that Nepal had had a little colonialism (but just the nice, happy kind of course).  So hopefully we can do a trek in Nepal this fall, do the India thing, and then go back to Nepal next fall after my contract's up for the Everest base camp trek.  Yeah, yeah I know:  and then I wake up.  But why not aim high?!  'Cause after that trek southern Thailand would be lovely......  Happy Father's Day to you dads out there.  xoc

Karims

Impossible Amounts of Stuff (and two green rickshaws in the back)

Yesterday was pleasant enough....I toured the Red Fort in Old Delhi and took a rickshaw ride through the crazy, bustling bazaars.  And then I ate at Karim's, considered to be one of the best (oldest) restaurants in Delhi.  Ah, Karims.  It was a nice meal but WOW, was I sick all day today.  Sick like I haven't been sick since I took that trip to the mountainous region of Nepal.  Shivering, vomiting, sweating, the works.  Not pretty.  The really good news is, however, that at about 7:00 PM I started to feel fine and I've had some crackers like it ain't no thang.  So I will NOT be going back to Karims but since it happened 20 hours after the fact I avoided being grossed out by Indian food (although I've never loved paneer since I got so sick soon after eating it back 6 months ago).  Breakfast food, however, is another issue!  So today I read a whole book and am now stir-crazy.  MUST GO SOMEWHERE TOMORROW.  xoc

The sun and the moon

This place that I visited yesterday was so crazy: it's called Jantar Mantar and it's an observatory built by a Maharaja in 1725. With the instruments he could track movements of the planets and predict eclipses. the tall structure in the middle is part of a giant sundial. It's not far from a big shopping area, Connaught Place, but it was like another world. I just kept wondering where were the skateboarders! xoc

Sunday in Delhi

This is my room at Mrs. Kamte's place.  Not bad, huh?  Although the bed is basically a board.  The only strange thing about this place is that she has a buzzer in her bedroom and a buzzer in the family room, both of which are to call the servant, Ram, from the kitchen, which is about 20 feet away from the two rooms in question.  In the evening when she's watching television she must ring - and it's a damn loud ring - no less than 20 times in a space of 3 hours.  What, I mean WHAT, could be so pressing that it couldn't wait the ten minutes until Ram next returns?  I suspect it has something to do with the topping off of a cocktail simply because there are 8 or so bottles in the fridge to chill water from the filter and they are all empty booze bottles (and a fine assortment, I might add).  Plus, I've seen the evening alcohol delivery man and so it's not like they're from some past era.  Then we go through the same process in the morning with the bedroom buzzer.  It's madness.   But try as I may to be nice to Ram he basically could care less and so I simply choose the style of eggs that I want for breakfast and mind my own business.

Lunch was so much fun and I learned to cook aloo paratha (potato stuffed bread).  And I learned about a great kind of pan called a tawa - why can't I want to buy small, light things like scarves?  I made two parathas and let's just say that one of them was easily identifiable because it was too thin and the filling was spilling out.  It was a relief that my system has adjusted such that I didn't get sick from eating the diced cucumbers and other vegetables that they also served (along with yogurt).   I love to see people's homes and after I talked about having been to the Lotus Temple and the Hare Krishna temple they deemed me safe and proudly showed me their elaborate Hindu alter in their bedroom.  Very cool.  Not a bad Sunday.  xoc

Zoo

Yesterday was overcast and so perfect for being outside.  I visited Humayun's Tomb and Purana Qila which are Mughal era tombs/monuments.  They were lovely and surrounded by acres and acres of grass and trees.  I had to pass by the entrance of the Delhi zoo when going from one place to another and discovered where everyone else in the city spends Saturday.  It was nice, there's a big lawn in front of the zoo entrance and hundreds of families were spread out having lunch from their stacked, metal tiffin containers.  A tourist in June, let alone a single woman, was apparently of great (smiling and pointing) interest as if to say, "didn't someone tell her that June's the hottest month in India?  That's so funny!" and so I tried to look dignified when ordering and drinking my soda.  Although I will say that India is one place in the world in which being an American is greeted with great delight and congratulations.   I am asked about my nationality at least a dozen times a day.  I have pretty well settled into accepting the rules of travel in South Asia: bartering for taxi fare is a game and should be approached with humor and not dread and a single traveler will automatically acquire an unshakable tour guide upon arriving anywhere.  Generally I will only understand about 20% of what these guides have to say but for a dollar or two they provide some sense of security when touring ill-lit buildings filled with people taking their afternoon siestas.  Lunch was a joy because it combined a lamb kabab from a hole-in-the-wall vendor in the alley behind Kahn Market who, come to find out, is on everyone's "must do" list for Delhi including the New York Times (so delicious and I will now eat there constantly) and a piece of molten chocolate-filled cake from an air-conditioned cafe that could have been anywhere in the world but was sleek and modern and such a nice respite from the craziness and heat.  Today I'm having lunch at my friend Kamal's house and his wife is going to show me how she cooks a few things.  Excellent.  xoc

Lotus Temple

So I visited the Baha'i Lotus Temple built to look like a big lotus flower. I had not realized that Baha'i is a totally separate religion. It seems quite nice, here are their Principles:

1. The Oneness of Mankind
   
2. Independent Investigation of Truth
   
3. The Common Foundation of all Religions
   
4. The Essential Harmony of Science and Religion
   
5. Equality of Men and Women
   
6. Elimination of Prejudice of all kinds
   
7. Universal Compulsory Education
   
8. Universal Peace
   

It was a lovely, peaceful place only disrupted by the fact that we had to take our shoes off at the bottom of the steps and MAN those steps were hot even through the sisal mats. I'm so philosophical....

THEN, onto the rather awe-inspiring Iskcon Hare Krishna Temple at which I intended to eat my late lunch because I happen to know that the Hare Krishna's always have great vegetarian restaurants. But as soon as I got there I was inexorably drawn to the Vedic Expo multi-media show about Krishna consciousness. All I can say is Wow. Smoke, laser lights, movies, mirrors, you name it. It was just a guide and me in a pitch black room, moving from station to station that would then come "alive" just like Disney World, and again I had that "Huh, I'm in a dark, smokey room at the Hare Krishna Temple in Delhi alone with some guy. Who'd a thunk it?" thought that comes at improbable moments. But I've always kinda liked the Hare Krishnas (blame it on my mom for taking us to the former temple in Ann Arbor to see them dance when we were young) and it's safer than the streets in Delhi! But I missed the lunch service and so must return. I actually settled on an Italian meal of sauteed mushrooms, salmon, and a glass of Merlot. It cost $30 which could have bought me a private guide for two days but it was perfect. xoc

Settling In

So now there's a rhythm to this strange life; I wish it was more romantic to be exiled and perhaps I'll be more creative about it in the coming weeks. Right now I'm trying to diligently email plans and thoughts back to the program in Nepal but the truth of the matter is that while I'm there, I'm there, and while I'm gone, I'm just gone. Who knows if they even open my emails, but at least I tried. So I get up in the morning and take a shower and Ram makes me breakfast. Normally I sit at the little dining table by myself and read while eating but yesterday morning another American was staying in the second room for rent and so we had a chance to talk. She's a Fulbright Scholar doing her PhD thesis in something-or-other like how social anthropology and mental illness overlap and how effective the drugs are in the cultural context, blah, blah, blah and she's doing 15 months of field research (that's about as much as I understood). You meet a lot of smart people out here in the world. So then I do little work and plan my day's adventure. As I don't want to be out late on my own I plan for a late lunch around 4 so that I just don't have to eat again, and so I head out to tour from 1 - 4 ish and then eat. Yesterday I checked out a small Mogul tomb, went by Tibet House for a book, and then met a contact that Karen Schreiber gave me (thanks, Karen!) named Akhil. He chose to meet me at the American Diner which meant that I was FORCED to eat my afternoon meal there which was onion rings and "American burgers". They served three small burgers in a basket: one lamb, one chicken, and one veggie. Very American (!) Akhil was a really nice guy who went to Karen's business school, Thunderbird University in Arizona, which is the highest ranked international business school in the world. He started his own education foundation here in Delhi and they have started an economics and banking school in collaboration with private business so that they can channel the profits into free schools for the poor. Very cool. Then Akhil showed me this fun art gallery complex and told me he'd let me know what else the group is doing....hooray, friends! Then I got home, showered, (so dirty and sweaty), read a little and went to bed. That, my friends, is a day in Delhi. I'm going to branch out more and think that I have found a favorite rickshaw driver (this means that his English is good and he has a cell phone) and have a taxi company from which I can rent a car for 1/2 or a full day. Does anyone want to see Delhi in June? Anyone? xoc

Life in the Del'

Yes it's hot and yes it's lonely, but I do like Delhi so far. I live in South Delhi and it's very peaceful. I am so grateful to be living in someone's home and like Mrs. Kamte and Ram, the servant. Mrs. Kamte watches sports every evening (either cricket or tennis these days) and Ram makes me breakfast every morning: eggs and toast. I try to go somewhere every day because there really is a limit to how long I can stay in the room and read - it's not THAT hot out there - and so far I've been to several shopping areas, an art gallery area, and the Museum of Modern Art. Staying busy is going to be a little tough and I am looking for a cooking class. Something that really stands out is that Kathmandu is far, far more religious than Delhi. Granted it's tough to compare a less developed city of a few million to that of 13 million, but still Kathmandu is really, really Hindu. There are temples almost on every block, people making offerings (pujas) all the time, and almost everyone wears a tikka. I never really realized it until I got here. They also say that the Nepalis take the caste system far more seriously, which is difficult to put in context. Alright, I'll try to take pictures tomorrow. It has taken a few days to settle my stomach, get a good night's sleep, get used to the heat and get my energy back. And please think a kind thought for Dave Holcomb and his family; Dave's father passed away yesterday and they could use all of the good vibes that you can send their way. Goodnight. xoc