We are at The Metropolitan Hotel in New Delhi. It's very nice, nothing overly-special, but it has a really good breakfast buffet. I love foreign hotels that cater to tourists because the buffets are so varied...one can have anything for breakfast; from oatmeal to mutton to curried veg and fish. I don't want to get Delhi-Belly just yet, so I ate sparingly (well, obviously I don't want to get Dehli-Belly ever, but I believe it's inevitable. I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to build a good tolerance to street food. So I stick to yogurts, cheese, fresh fruit and toast. For now.
When I woke up about the first day and looked out my window, I thought it seemed sort of misty/foggy out there, much like Vancouver and other coastal cities and I assumed it would burn off by noon. Well, as you may have guessed, it burns off never as it's smog and pollution from this city of 16 million. Million. That's like half the population of Canada in one city.
This is the view from my room. Looks ethereal until you realize it's smog and never goes away. It smells like burning garbage. I remember a Russell Peters routine where he said that everyone needs to go to India once, and "when your plane lands and you get out....stretch and breath deep, if it doesn't smell like shit, well, you're not in India." I'm not gonna say it smells that bad, but it does smell.
The city is like everyone says....it's so loud, the constant cacophony of vehicle horns just drills its way into your head...the noise never stops. The traffic is bumper to bumper at all times, and I literally mean bumper to bumper. There is no rhyme nor reason to the streets. It's quite terrifying. But you know, there is also no road rage or anger.
The trucks are decorated in intricate designs, and have signs painted on the back to "please blow horn" so that they know you're behind/beside them, as a polite warning. I don't know how that works since the sound of horns never, ever stops, so how a driver distinguishes between someone honking at him as opposed to the other 8 million drivers is a mystery to me. But I guess it works, although not too well because I have yet to see a vehicle without dozens of door-dings.
There are three major religious groups in India. Hindu, Sikh and Muslim. That makes up 86% of India. The other religions make up 12% and Christianity is 2%. Only 2%. We visited temples/mosques of all three.
First we saw a Hindu temple. Pictures were not allowed inside, but the outside looked like this:
It's the Birla Hindu Temple, built in 1939 and covers 7 acres. It was inaugurated by Gandhi, he would only inaugurate it if all castes and religions were allowed in. A priest blessed us by putting a tilak or bindi (the red smudge) on our foreheads.
Notice how the shape of the domes are elongated. That means a Hindu temple. Round ones are Muslim. See? You can learn things by reading my blog.
We next went to Gandhi's place of assassination, which I did not think was going to be interesting in the least, and I was so wrong. First of all, the minute you get off of the bus, the sounds of the city are enough to drive you a bit insane, and then the minute you step past the walls surrounding his home, into the gardens, it's like night and day. It's instantly cool, quite, serene, the birds are chirping, the temperature goes from a muggy, sticky 25C to something sweeter and enjoyable. It's quite amazing.
The life of Gandhi is fascinating. I won't bore you with a history lesson right now, although I'll bet you wouldn't actually be bored. What an incredible man. Every morning he'd walk the same path in the garden and contemplate and pray. The foot prints here are where he walked the last day of his life before he was assassinated in the spot where you see the small column.
There also a museum here of his life, which also surprised me. It was FABULOUS. You should go there! Really! It had room after room after room, each filled with the most incredible interactive displays. Some were like magic or like something from a Harry Potter movie, seriously! Writings that would appear on walls and the floor, as if an invisible person was holding a giant quill and was writing thoughts and quotes of Gandhi's, giant chess sets that would shine quotes on the walls as you moved the pieces, a huge harp in the whimsical shape of Gandhi that made picture appear as you plucked the strings and more and more in every room. It was all free, and filled with docents who were more than eager to show you how it all worked.
There were a lot of school kids there that day, all dressed in their uniforms and oozing politeness. They all wanted to show us how well they could converse in English (which was really quite good) and we joined them in a really fun display, which was teaching us how powerful unity can be. One person put their hand on a brass (brass? I'm not actually sure, is brass a conductor?) plate on the floor and everyone else held hands and the last person put their hand on another brass plate. As we held hands, purple lights lit up the column higher and higher the longer we held hands. The minute one person let go, the lights went out. I mean, I know it's simple science, but it was still a teachable moment.
After our lessons we all went out for a class photo, and then we went on our way. It was a really fun time!
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