Last few days in Delhi:

Dinner in Connaught Place: 

From my table by the window, I had a prime view of a Saturday Night in Delhi. 

Families were out shopping and/or eating icecream. Ladies were wearing their saris or salwar kameez, men were wearing their kurtas and youngsters were in jeans and t-shirts. Men stood selling sweet potatoes, grains with fresh vegetables and sweet lime water with incense to keep the flies away.  There was an older man selling some squeaking ducks, however, it looked like he might fall asleep at any moment. Other people were selling balloons and roasted chestnuts. A young boy walked by, about eleven years old, with hunched shoulders and ribs and bones showing and stray dogs slept right smack in the middle where everyone was walking. Every once in a while I would see another westerner here and there: a rare sight!

Monday:

The Salaam Baalak Trust organizes city walks of Old Delhi led by street children.  I was interested in knowing more so I signed up. The tour had about ten people and Tariq was our guide. He told us that he had run away from Nepal with $3000 rupees (about $60) when he was nine and arrived in Delhi thinking he was the richest person in the world. He sold watches and took care of recycling for food and a place to stay. Eventually, he joined the trust, which offered room and board, studies, a counselor and a doctor. He is now applying for a scholarship to study in the United States. He told us not to give street children money as they spend it on cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, and very occasionally, clothes or a Bollywood film. Money encourages them not to go to school and Tariq says that they can always find food as the temples offer free food for anyone in need. 

Tariq took us through Old Delhi so we could see the safe shelters for the children. Along the way, he pointed out plaques that had been placed waist level on a wall. Images of Krishna and Jesus Christ help prevent people from using the wall as a toilet!

At the shelters we had an opportunity to meet some of the children. The boys stay in Old Delhi and the girls stay outside the city, where they are safe from people who may try to sell them into prostitution. One boy stood up and sang Jingle Bells for us!

Learn to live, then live to learn...

During the tour, I met Isabel, from Portugal though she spoke English with a Scottish accent. She and I decided to explore Old Delhi together. First stop: buy train train tickets at the New Delhi Train Station. We made our way upstairs to the International Tourist Bureau (careful not to fall for the old "It's closed, across the way, moved, ect"). After filling out a paper with our names, nationality, and where we wanted to go, we joined the queue. However, we were almost to the ticket counter when everyone in the office decided to go for lunch! All at once! Thirty minutes later we were at the counter and I bought my tickets for Delhi to Agra and then Agra to Mumbai from a very unhelpful man. But, in only an hour or so, tickets were taken care of and purchased! 

Isabel and I joined up with a girl from Israel named Shelly. We took the metro to Chandni Chowk and walked to the Red Fort and then to the Jama Masjid (India's largest mosque). In order to go to the top of the minaret, we needed to be accompanied by a male, so Isabel went off to search for another traveler. Once we were all introduced to one another, we were separated as the pryers were starting.  Our companion was ushered one way and the rest of us another. As we lost our first escort,  Isabel tracked down three more. But, the same thing happened again! We were separated from the three young men who would accompany us to the top!

Finally, with our male companions, we made it to the top of the minaret which had some fantastic views over the mosque, Red Fort and Old Delhi. 

Tuesday, Last Day in Delhi:

It was a day when everything worked out and everyone was helpful. Unusual and special! I had three tasks for the day:

1. Though my laptop was up and running, I was still missing some applications, so back to Future World it was! The same young chap who had helped me out before installed the needed applications without charge. He told me that the reason that it took so long to fix my 2008 laptop was because it was 'vintage' and they needed to send out to Bangalore for a part!

2. My mother had asked me to search for a colleague of hers when she was leading tours to India in the '70s. She gave me the information of the travel agency that her friend had worked at then so I decided to investigate. Though more than thirty years later, it turned out that someone knew her friend at the travel agency and was able to tell me all about Mr. Biswass. Apparently he is now living in New York City so I will have to pay him a visit when I am next in Manhattan!

3. Every year in Tucson, Arizona, there is a gem and mineral show. It is the biggest gem show in the world and people come from all over, not just to sell gems and minerals, but things from India, Tibet, you name it... And, every year I make sure to stop by the shop of a family from India. They told me that next I am in India, I must stop by their shop and say hello. Business card in hand, I ran through Connaught Place, looking for their shop when I heard shouting behind me.    Sumesh was yelling and waving with a big smile. He had seen me run by and recognized me! He lives in a beautiful colonial home on the second floor of Connaught Place (with is surprisingly quiet and peaceful) and he invited me to have some chai with him and his wife. It was good to see them! They told me how much they love Tucson and Mexican food and look forward to it every year. We chatted over biscuits and chai and they invited me to dinner and to stay with them when I am next in Delhi!

Back to Karol Bagh to meet Isabel. It was so much fun to get to know her and I liked what her friend said when she told him of her new travel companions: "that we were all looking for each other." We decided to go to the Akshardham Temple and then to meet her other friend for the sound and light show at the Red Fort. 

The Akshardham Temple, which was finished in 2005, is absolutely sunning.  It is a temple dedicated to Swarminarayan. Inside the temple there is an aqua statue of Swarminarayan surrounded by statues of elephants and peacocks in pinks, violets, and baby blues. Everything is gilded and illuminated  by an ornate chandelier. The ceilings are incredible as they are carved with so much detail that it is completely indescribable. Statues of Radha and Krishna, Rama and Sita, Lakshmi and Vishnu, Shiva, Parvati and Ganesh stand in couples (or as a family) in the corners. Outside, 148 elephants boarder the temple with stories. One plaque read that, "Elephants, happy vegetarians, eat ferns, long grass and leaves."

Cycle rickshaw to Akshardham Temple with Isabel

As we were running a bit late to the Sound and Light Show, Isabel, her friend Hannah from Germany (studying architecture in Delhi for six months) and I went in search for some snacks. We found a little shop, busy as anything, selling snacks and sweets. We bought vegetable cutlets, samosas with chutney, and gulab jamun and made our way to the Red Fort. 

The Sound and Light show was a bit hard to follow if you didn't already know a bit of the history, but it was gorgeous being in the Red Fort at night, under the stars with a picnic....that and warm gulab jamun (fried balls of dough in a sweet and sticky rose syrup) was bliss.