My team woke up early in the morning to get a complimentary breakfast. We were jetlagged and hot. The food was pretty decent. We decided to go for a walk outside, and to figure out what was going on in our area. We walked around for not long at all, and ended up hiring a 4-day chauffeur while we stay in Delhi. Cars are a great investment here, considering we have so many different interviews to attend. Otherwise, I feel our whole group would be either lost or kidnapped in no time.
India is very very warm. And very warm, humid. I kind of feel like a constant state of gelatin, which means it's pretty nasty.
A few notes on the Delhi streets. There are cars and motorcycles and bikes and rickshaws going in every possible direction on the narrow streets. Everything, absolutely everything, has dirt on it in some form or another. People sleep on the streets and on the main roads -- kind of like they just decided to sit down and take a nap on the side of the road -- all over. It is noisy. People line the streets and hang out and will not hesitate if you approach to talk to them or ask a question.
We had a meeting at the World Bank with Dr.Connors, and what a great initial interview to have while in India! She was truly captivating, and really well knowledgeable. We had a nice, comfortable conversation with this woman (a real firecracker) about water and sanitation in India, and ended up leaving feeling absolutely great about our project. It was so informative, and we ended up leaving with a packet of papers, 4 emails with attachments, and a few additional contacts. Despite the heat, our groggy and disoriented team really rocked our interview.
We had a late lunch at the hotel. And then we promptly returned to the hotel to nap for a few hours.
After a long nap, we all crammed into our driver's car and went around town. First place we went to was a Hindu temple, which was relatively new (1980s) but beautiful all the same. The building was mostly an outside / open temple, and it was painted red and dripping with swastikas and OM icons all over the walls. It's all marble and you have to enter barefoot. The deities were bright and laced with gold and flowers. The overall temple was very light and flowing. Peaceful, yet to some extent vibrant. There was scripture in Hindi (and some in English) all over the walls inside and out of the whole complex. And I really loved Ganesh, like usual. While we were talking around the temple, I felt at ease and very appreciative of the shrines and quiet, solemn temple. Prayer began sometime while we were in there, and the sound of sober singing and chirpy bells pleasantly wafted through the air. Some guy who worked at the temple site got me to follow him into a temple room and showed me the shrine for Krishna, where he plucked a flower off of the altar and gave it to me, "For good luck." Very sweet.
We then went to the underground Palika Bazar, near Connaught Place. It looks like a mound on the outside, but underground it is like a packed, seething labyrinth of swarmy shop owners and hagglers. Walking around in the marketplace was intense, and the only visual explanation I could related it to was the fishbowl scene from "City of Angels". Thank goodness for Maulin, our token bodyguard in the group. He has been able to keep an eye on us 3 women while the rest of the Indian men oggle at our existence. I consider it a conundrum; we are being stared at for being white or female, or both, but I'm not exactly sure which one.
We ended up going to a restaurant at a super super ritzy, uber swanky hotel, Lalit Hotel. We just thought we were going for a nice meal near the bazar, but we endd up realizing that our restaurant was truly for the luxe-oriented and big spenders. Luckily, for us, the prices were still less than in NYC. They did not like that we ate only appetizers (which were great but incredibly filling), but the food was great, really creative and gourmet.
But I would LOVE to have some fresh fruit and veggies right now. Naan and cooked veggies may be the trip's demise.
No comments:
Post a Comment