Saturday, November 04, 2006

First Day Getting our Footing

I didn't take many pictures and I'm afraid i can't write the hundreds of thousands of words to make up for them. Some quick notes. Breakfast cooked specially for us - the parantha brought to the table hot from cooking, the curry too. The autorickshaw zipping through the streets. We'd read about touts, but still were not prepared for everyone on the streets to to come up to us, offer us assistance, generally telling us not to go where we wanted to go (The shops aren't open yet, it's Muslim sabbath, no one is there, it's full of pickpockets, better come this way; there's a strike over there, it will be over in an hour, now you might want to go shop in the government emporiums, etc.) Slipping into McDonald's (something we never do at home) just to be able to look at the map and Lonely Planet India without a bunch of people all over us. But they were nice, charming even. We wandered around trying to find our way at Connaught Place - the center of Delhi according to the book, but really the center of tourist Dehli. We eventually slipped into the subway - opened recently - and for 18 Rupees (about 40c) for the two of us we were whisked to old Delhi and the Red Fort. We came up out of the subway and were suddenly in the India of movies. A narrow street, tiny shops on each side. people moving everywhere. Food stands, car repair, and we even saw our first cow. I felt taking pictures was intruding, besides I didn't think I could stop. I felt conspicuous as the foreigner, even though almost no one bothered us in this part. Eventually we got to the Fort. I was frisked along with all the other men (as I was getting on the subway). Women in a separate line, got frisked by a woman. Running out of time in the internet cafe. More tomorrow. Some pics of the Fort.

2 comments:

  1. We love Aradhna. Check him out and see if you could get/buy a nice picture and/or a small story book of him...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Des, not sure what this means. I've asked people and they say 'Aradhna' is a form of meditation.

    ReplyDelete

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