India Days one and two

March 19

Here we are in India!  Again, a long and not very comfortable flight.  Seven hours to Frankfurt, 5 hours in the airport, and another 6 hours to Delhi.  The flight arrived at about 1.15 am.  We were met at the airport.  Actually we arrived before the greeter, and had to wait about 10 minutes before he arrived.  Then off to the hotel.  Unfortunately our route was blocked.  Apparently heavy trucks are only allowed into the city from about 10.30 at night to about 5 .00 am.  So instead of truck arrivals being spaced out over 24 hours they are all crammed into about 7 hours.  So you can imaging the chaos!  No problem for our driver.  He simply turned the car around on the one way road, travelled about 200 yards against the oncoming traffic, and turned off to another route.  Driving into the oncoming traffic was obviously something he was used to.  Actually he was not alone.  Many drivers had the same idea.  Fortunately traffic was light (it was, after all 2.00 am), or else it might have been quite chaotic.  (Chaotic is a term that you might see me use frequently here).   Trouble was, taking a different route meant that the driver did not know his way around.  After about 20 minutes Irene asked whether I thought we were lost.  I said I was not sure, but when we passed the same landmark for the second time I was sure.  I think it took us about an hour to get to the hotel from the airport.  I don’t know what it should have taken, but at 3.00 am who wants to be lost in a foreign city.  

Eventually we got to the hotel, checked in and quickly fell asleep, till about 9.00 am.  

This morning we toured Old Delhi, essentially a couple of monuments, including the largest mosque in India, the Jama Masjid.  It’s easy to be the largest mosque, when it is an outdoor mosque, essentially, just a paved square surrounded by buildings.  The style of architecture is the main interest. We also went to the famous Red Fort, a Bahi temple and Humayan’s Tomb.

Old Delhi is a jumble of narrow streets, very dirty, lined by grimy old house, where apparently people still live.  some of these buildings are hundreds of years old.  On striking feature of this area is the jumble of cables, probably electrical and phone lines.  There are hundreds of cables going in every direction.  It’s a mess!  If your cable goes out I don’t know how they can ever find yours and separate it from all the others.  It looks like tangled spaghetti.  It’s that bad.  The stores are tiny, no counters.  In some the storekeeper sits cross-legged on a platform and does all his business from this position.  There are no cash registers, but he has a wad of notes in his hand.  In other stores there are mats on the floor, and the storekeeper and patrons sit cross-legged on the floor.  

We were taken to a carpet place.  All the guides take you to places where they get kickbacks.  I said to them we are not buying a carpet.  Big mistake! Bottles water was brought out, then 2 rounds to delicious spiced tea. Many carpet demonstrations later and much haggling and we were the proud owners of a small carpet.  I must admit that it is gorgeous, but I, at any rate, had no idea we needed a carpet, let alone were going to buy one.  But of course, Irene knew just the place for it, and so now the study will have a small carpet to grace its floor. 

Just a bit extra from Irene- Our hotel is in an area called Connaught Place which is in the new part of Delhi. It is much quieter, had lots of green space and wide boulevards. Just the same, the drivers don’t always stay within the lines of their car lanes so there is a great deal of honking of horns. Not only that, but not everyone pays close attention to the traffic lights. So if the first car ignores the red light, so do all the cars behind it of course. If the driver does stop that means everyone does. This reminds me of Egypt.

The other point of interest today was a market. This is not a market with stalls but more of tiny shops with some vendors spilling out into the streets as well. I missed a lot of what was happening around me as I was busy watching the pavement- some holes, some wet places (not sure from what).... and the narrowest streets ever with motorcycles, tuk-tuks and rickshaws. There are no sidewalks so the vehicles toot and everyone moves over.

Not only do you have to watch for potholes, but in the absence of pavements you also have to watch out from traffic.  It’s a bit unnerving, having scooters, rickshaws, and bicycles passing within inches of you.  

Our luck- not sure if it’s good or bad yet. Today and tomorrow are the Holi days- in this case it is not a religious holiday but more of a celebration of a victory in battle. Holi means colour. As a result, people throw colours (coloured dyes) at each other. They used to do it with natural vegetable colours which just washed out. Now it seems they have gotten rowdier and throw unwashable colours as well as dirt and cow dung!!!!. We were told that the younger people also throw balloons filled either with water or with colour, and they have plastic water guns to spray with as well. 

There were ads in today’s newspaper which warned people to be careful, to use natural washable colours etc. Our guide and driver today said that unless we had clothes that we wanted to throw away it would be better not to go out tonight and to begin touring only mid-day tomorrow. The upside of today’s touring was that there was only about 30% of the usual traffic because people tend to stay close to home, not willing to take a chance with the rowdiness. We saw people who had been coloured with different powders- interesting, but we thought we’d give it a pass.

The carpet buying was fun. First we were given an education, then we had to feel the carpets and admire them. The store owner was a wily but charming old guy. He laughed when I countered his price on the carpet but he was probably laughing at me for offering too much. Finally he said that he would call the Kashmiri family he represented to see if they would part with their carpet- took 3 people 12 months to weave this carpet (yes, and we were born just yesterday). Anyway, after an appropriate period of time he came back and said they would take $30 dollars more than my final price. I countered with, “Then they’ll just have to keep it.” So what do you think, of course I got my price. (He’s probably still laughing at us!) He wanted to sell me a pashmina at a ridiculous cost, but I said no- just put it in with the carpet when you send it to us. Anyway, we both had a good time haggling, and Morris enjoyed being a spectator at the sport.

It does not feel at all unsafe here. I am so delighted looking the beautiful saris and punjab outfits (tunic, pants and scarf) that I may have to buy something for myself! And if any of the guys want a dhoti (look it up), just let us know!

All in all, a satisfactory first day.  We have plenty of time in Delhi, so we are in no rush.

Scenes from the Jama Masjid:  People washing their feet and hands

The Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India

The jumble of wires that I mentioned

It's amazing what can be transported by bicycle

The Lotus Temple:  A Bahai temple

Humayan's tomb: A magnificent building

Humayan's tomb:  You can see the magnificence here, despite the two obstacles in front of the building

Holi!  Splashed with colour

Sahib Morris and Memsahib Irene

Day 2

Happy Holi! Before we started out with our guide I went to have a fast look at one of the hotel stores. The shop owner asked me what part of the states I came from and when I said Canada, he broke out into a huge grin. It turns out that 27 years ago one of the the Eaton clan went to Kashmir to buy carpets for his stores. He liked them so much that he bought 50 and arranged to have this man come to Toronto for two weeks to design carpets for the house in Forest Hill. This man also stayed in the Eaton’s home as their guest. Not bad! 

Because of Holi, we got a late start but toured around for several hours. We were told that we really made good timing on the roads because of the holiday and lack of usual traffic.

On the agenda today was a Hindu temple- our first. It was very nice to look at and our guide gave us a very good summary of the three chief gods- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. There are also  many other minor gods. Music was playing in the temple and to me it sounded more like dance than religious music. We each were annointed with a dot on our foreheads.

Next came the Sikh temple which was the most interesting for us to see. The Sikhs believe only in one god. We had to remove our shoes and don a head kerchief before being allowed to enter the temple. There were many people sitting outside on the marble floors, both inside and outside the temple while someone recited prayers over a loudspeaker. Sikhs reject the idea of the caste system and everyone is treated equally. There were 3 men playing musical instruments and one moving a giant fan back and forth over their holy book which contains the teachings of 10 disciples. There are several shifts during the course of the day so that there is always music and the fan ensures that no flies can alight upon the holy book. Next we were shown the kitchen where there were many volunteers preparing and serving meals to anyone who wanted to eat. They feed thousands of people on a daily basis. Incredible!

Another interesting sight was the Qutub Minar which was built beginning in 1199 by invading Moslems and took 100 years to complete. Another amazing sight as the minaret is 75 metres tall and has beautiful engraving on it.

There were a few other places including the president’s palace (just the outside) and a large park where families enjoy the gardens and the young men have countless games of cricket going on.

At the end of all this we went to check out saris and punjabi outfits for me. The poor salespeople pulled out at least 20 samples. I did try some on but quite honestly they didn’t work-boohoo!  Morris here.  Once again, as you can imagine I was a spectator in the clothes tryout.  

Hindu temple

The kitchen of the Sikh temple.  How many people do you think this pot of vegetables will feed?

Making Naan, by the thousands

Dining courtesy of the Sikhs

Outside, people praying

Two misplaced wannabee Sikhs

Qutub tower; also magnificent

Details of the carvings on the tower

These columns were taken from several different Hindu temples and used in this mosque.  The two columns in the middle are more portable