The [almost?] last post on India

Last Wednesday I wrote one paragraph wrapping up the trip...and then took a break.

The taxi delivered us home at 8 pm. After taking a moment to register how clean and fresh our house looked, and another moment to appreciate the beautiful bouquet of camellias, snapdragons, and ferns our horticulture expert had left by the back door, I was sound asleep at 8:05. This morning the scale said I shed half a pound on the trip - the first loss ever on a vacation. I'm sure it would've been more if we had stayed at a less grand Delhi hotel than the Imperial, and flown Economy. The hotel's extraordinary breakfast offerings (including freshly-baked banana/chocolate bread pudding each day), about 6 meals on the flights home, lovely warm chocolate-chocolate chip cookies mid-Atlantic, all my favorite junk food in Delta's Atlanta lounge and on the plane to Orlando....I succumbed to it all.

Since then I've made headway in unpacking (did I tell you we paid $119 overweight charges in Delhi, and that was after a "gift" ignoring 7 kilos; internal flights allow only 15 pounds for a carry-on, and my suitcase weighs 9.7 empty), learned I picked up a flu-like bug on the way home, got meds and spent a lot of time in bed, and still have trouble staying awake at 10 p.m. or asleep after 4 a.m. This has to end; the social whirl is on.

I have put my favorite brief movie sample of our rickshaw ride experience on YouTube: Delhi rickshaw ride  I hope you can see it when you click on it. Be sure you have your volume on; the sounds are part of the experience!

I've also found notes about things I meant to include in earlier blogs. One is a New York Times article that came out shortly before we left: India’s New Focus on Rape Shows Only the Surface of Women’s Perils

Another is a list of facts about India Kenneth eyed on the front page of the Jaipur Economic Times on January 26, India's Republic Day.  Here are some excerpts:
* Since Independence, India has built 1.25 million miles of new roads
* It has the second largest labor force, is self-sufficient in grain and cloth, makes more than a million cars a year, has launched 65 satellites
* Churns out the most films in the world. Has the best delivery boys, the dabbawalas (Google this amazing phenomenon!)
* Chess was invented here. Algebra, trigonometry, and calculus too
* The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
* India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees from Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh
* India recycles 60% of its plastic waste. The figures for Japan and China are 12% and 10%, respectively
* As of 2007 India's bovine population was 304 million
* 31% of households use kerosene to light up their homes
* 53.1% of households do not have a latrine within the premises
* 33.5% of households draw drinking water from a hand pump.
* 46.5% of households have mud floors, but 29% have a roof made of concrete
* The government started collecting data on rapes only in 1971. Since then, the number of recorded rapes has zoomed 873%

So now it's time to move toward an end to this story, and then to creating picture books. First, though, some questions I've been asked and answers I've given.

Why did I want to go?

  Curiosity about this gigantic country. The best way to start learning is to go and see.

Would I change the itinerary if I could re-plan it?

  No. I thought it was a good use of the time we were willing to spend. 

Would I go back?

  Absolutely

What images and memories will stay with me?

  The women in their beautiful colorful saris and other traditional wear - in the airports, alongside rural roads, everywhere

  The dust/sand - in the air, on the roads
  The congestion on the roads: The variety of transport, the way they all manage to share the road, the constant horn-taps

  Hinduism - Trying to understand it, wondering at the system of arranged marriages

  The splendor in art and architecture, especially in Persian-influenced design in the maharajahs' palaces and monuments

  People's friendliness, curiosity, responsiveness to a smile

  The extraordinary skill of our driver, Paramjeet Singh, and the competence and personal qualities of our guides

  The quality - and often the history - of our hotels

  The delicious-sounding vegetarian choices - half the options on every menu 

  The custom of bobbing a head from left to right and back - meaning Yes!

What did I not enjoy so much?

Sadly, the Indian food (too much pepper and chilies for us)

The amount of tipping expected, and the concern to get it right (i.e. meet reasonable expectations)

 The shopping experience, in general; sales presentations on local industries; bargaining/negotiating (&  doing badly)

Language - not understanding accents, not making any sense of the words

Eating restrictions (water, salads) for our safety

What were the high points?
  Way too many to pick a few; you'll have to see The Books

What were the low points?
  For A - the pummeling ayurvedic massage in Bikaner with the rock band performing just below
  For K - the elephant ride in Jaipur

What's next
  Reading: Indian history, current events, development of Hindu beliefs and practices
  Movies: Re-watching Water, Slumdog Millionaire, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; watching Saalaam Bombay
  Returning to India? Look at this map: We basically just explored Rajasthan, the orangey state in the Northwest!

To close with a smile, I bet you're curious about The Table. Here's the salesman (pink shirt) and his minions:

The "canvas bag" and the crate inside:

 And a close-up:

Thanks for joining us for the journey!

The journey home - Mon/Tues, February 4/5

A nice start to the day came when we got the newspapers off the door and read the headlines.

But of course the journey wasn’t complete. When Kenneth went to the concierge to get a boarding pass, the fellow said there is snow in Kashmir, and our scheduled 5 pm plane would be coming from there so there might be a delay and thus it was possible we could miss the Delta connection at 1:25 a.m. (And I knew that since Delta didn’t make our internal air reservations, they would have no responsibility to get us home.) What lovely initiative! Over the next hour he talked to our Indian travel agency and they got us earlier tickets (change fee c. $70, I think), and made arrangements for a driver to get us to the airport at the new time, and a transfer person in Mumbai for the revised schedule. 

We enjoyed a new route to the airport, this time through the embassy part of town.  An occasional drizzle was a surprise, and the fog/smog was thicker than usual. I liked the Indigo airline (Go.Indi.Go) message at the counter:

And they had good service, offering K a special seat while waiting to begin boarding the nice bus to the new plane, with its great access device - a jointed ramp, with no steps!

After 2 hours in the air we landed in Mumbai, got the bags in  reasonable time, and found our pick-up agent easily. I liked the Gandhi message over the entry.

The ride from the domestic terminal to the hotel was full of photo opps, from new construction to one last tuk-tuk shot to begging women with babies and little kids darting through traffic selling books and souvenirs and knocking on car windows.

We had a “day room” at the Lalit Hotel very close to the international terminal. (I don’t know what makes it a day room; Kenneth slept in the bed, and it looked like any other nice room.) 

I had great plans to take a shower and change clothes but that all changed when K asked if I had checked on the arrival of our marble table from Agra. Arghh: It had not been delivered to the hotel. But the Duty Manager became my new best friend and promised to do some searching while we ate, as phone calls to the company got no response. I sent off emails to Agra to cancel the order since it wasn’t here and we were going to the airport in 2 hours.

The dining room was another experience, especially as a gigantic Japanese tour group arrived on our heels. The restaurant had an a la carte menu, but a bowl of soup was $10, so we figured the buffet was a better deal even though it was c. $30.  But when I checked the  long line of hot dishes, I found every one had an Indian name. With patience, we found the lead guy and a nice young chef who offered to cook us pasta with our choice of sauces, and to grill some shrimp, fish, and tenderloin. Beef - after 2-1/2 weeks without. (BTW we were successful in going the full time without a single salad or uncooked/unpeeled fruit or vegetable.) The grilled things were perfect; what a fine surprise. And the dal was so delicious, I'd like to have the recipe!

Back in the room, I got an email response that the table was at the Blue Dart office; someone from the seller had written to ask them to allow a hotel employee to pick it up. Meanwhile, it turns out the concierge had spent the hour tracking it down, and had been told I would have to pick it up in person, with my passport. The DM was distressed that his hotel cars had all gone to the hotel for pick-ups, and he was afraid a taxi driver wouldn’t be able to find the place, and he couldn’t wait for his cars to come back because I didn’t have enough time. He was blissfully easy to understand as he had worked a cruise ship out of Ft Lauderdale for 5 years.

We had no Indian money left and just a little American, so I exchanged $20, the DM negotiated a price with a taxi guy, and we took off. The driver wanted to talk, it seemed, and handed me some list to look at. Of course I couldn’t understand him, and actually got a little anxious about what he wanted (more money, or no return? My imagination was wired).  This was the one point of anxiety - so I practiced deep-breathing as I looked around the shoddy interior, noted the folded-in side rearview mirror with no glass, observed the neighborhood activity...and then after about five minutes I heard the guy answer his phone and then say You are a lucky woman. He made a U-turn at the next opportunity and we returned to the hotel where Blue Dart delivery guys were waiting. 

The “canvas bag” with the marble and legs, something that would fit in the overhead bin - essential because it’s fragile - turned out to be a too-large-for-the-bin heavy box. The men were insisting on being paid for the delivery (261 rupees, c. $5). But the DM was insistent that I not pay, as I had already paid the driver Rs 300, and the company had been aggravating and uncooperative. So while the poor bell guy held the box and I stood there, a long conversation in Hindi followed, complete with phone calls to the Blue Dart boss. Finally, the DM motioned me to go up the room, and I left him still arguing with the guys.

So much for the shower plan; no time to change into comfortable flying clothes. I crammed my stuff back into suitcase and bag, went downstairs to pay the bill for dinner and internet connection, tip the concierge and get contact info for the General Manager so I could write my thanks. And by the time I had done that, our transfer guy and driver had arrived. I turns out the DM has been on the job here less than a month. He returned to India because his mother, who is alone, isn’t well; apparently it was easier for him than for his brother, who is in the [Indian] restaurant business in New York. Of course my preferred solution for all this would have been to let Blue Dart return the table to Agra as undeliverable...but the DM said I’d never get my charge refunded. Maybe some day I will come to love this table! (NB: I wrote the GM of the hotel about my gratitude before I started this post!)

Off to the airport and the total joy of having my own transfer agent. He was worth his weight in gold, as he told us what papers to have next and where to go, filled in our immigration forms, converting what invariably is an unpleasant challenge when we’re on our own in a strange airport where English isn’t #1 into a lovely departure time.

We found the Delta lounge, and easily resisted all edibles except a bag of potato chips and a cola, the only familiar products. Boarding time was 12:30 for our 1:25 am. flight. Kenneth spent the hour chatting with the woman in the next lounge chair. Indian-born, she grew up in Scarsdale and teaches at the U of Michigan med school! I had time for a 30-minute massage at the “spa” we had just passed. Although the girl set up the chair somewhat uncomfortably, it turned out to be the best chair-massage of my life She was amazingly thorough, kneading or stretching every muscle in the upper ⅔ of my body. There were a few times near the end when I thought something might crack, as she had me sit up straight and moved my arms behind my back and turned them in odd positions. I just wish I hadn’t read and heard Nicholas Kristof, as now I can’t see a roomful of young Asian women working without worrying that they’ve been kidnapped and are being forced to work for nothing!

As we settled into the luxury of Business Class comfort, I again thanked Kenneth for working so hard and being so thrifty all his life. And then, as boarding in this cabin progressed, we heard an announcement we’d never heard before: We are spraying the aft cabin for mosquitoes. They should be gone soon. Egad! But I remember it’s Delhi and Agra that have been experiencing the dengue-fever-bearing mosquitoes recently, not Mumbai. (We had taken fancy Deet stuff to apply there, but had never seen a mosquito, and found the warnings on the Deet application more alarming than the possibility of a bite.) We did swat a few bugs in the plane, but felt no nibbles.

It couldn’t have been more than 10 minutes after take-off that the “OK to use electronics” announcement was made. I pushed the button to turn the seat into a bed, pulled the down comforter up, and was asleep in a minute, even without eyeshade. A bit later I became conscious for just long enough to realize food had been served. I think I glimpsed croissant and melon...but I refused to become alert. Then, astonishingly, with my long history of miserable sleep efforts on long flights, the next time my eyes opened and i looked at the Flight Tracker screen on the front wall, it reported  c. 3 hours to landing; I had slept c. 6 hoursl I wanted to teleport back to Mumbai and give that massage girl every penny I had!

  We landed in Amsterdam 25 minutes early. In the lounge I snapped a photo, then went to plug in the computer to write.

YIKES! I realized I had left the computer and a portfolio with all the trip receipts on the plane! I raced off to the gate and made a new best friend with the Delta staffer finishing up her work, Brigit Bok. After two trips onto the plane, she reported it absolutely was not where I left it. And Security had been there during the entire cleaning. I was certain it was not in my bag, and I thought this was NOT a good end to the trip. 4,000 photos, an expensive new computer, etc. etc. 

On the way back to the lounge I checked the "spa". Instead of $22 for a 30-minute massages it was something like $40 for 10 minutes. Easy decision: No. Back in the lounge I found that Brigit was there already. And from behind I could see what was in her hands: my treasures. It turns out someone had picked them up and given them to a KLM rep who had gotten them to her. (So I've also registered a compliment on delta.com already). 

In 30 minutes we board again and hope for a dull 10+ hour trip to Atlanta. 

Cheers to you...

Delhi Day 3 - Sunday, February 3

 We're delighted we were able to spend three full days in Delhi, as we got to see most of the priorities on our list (I'm disappointed to miss the early-morning wholesale flower market; I'd love to have had a spa experience here). Today we focused on museums, beginning with a fascinating museum dedicated to village crafts. We arrived when it opened at 10 and discovered it was built like a village, itself. In addition to small buildings brought in from or reproducing typical village houses, a large porch-like area  featured artisans at work. I was immediately unhappy that I had so little cash. While there's a fine government-run shop here, of course the artists could only take cash. Our day was too full to ask the driver to come and get me and take me to an ATM machine! Of course that saved me a lot of money and an even bigger suitcase challenge.

I should note that for all the perfection of this hotel, they can't control the all-night Metro work, which made my first two nights wakeful. I figured Saturday would be great, as surely the workers would have it off - and they did. But the toilet ran and ran each time it was used. Oh well, life is real, no matter what efforts you make, right?

Before we got to the artisans, we found that the exterior walls of the buildings all had roof-high paintings done in various traditions. In addition, we enjoyed several galleries featuring various aspects of traditional crafts.

A reconstructed haveli (rich man's house) gateway with fine carving

After about a half hour of having the place all to ourselves, thousands of school girls began arriving, followed by varied tourists - artsy metrosexuals, Indian families, a couple from Charlottesville VA.

Double-click and note the "hemline" of his jacket

 These girls insisted I try their lunches when I showed interest in what they were eating. I did have one of the marinated chickpeas...very delicious. But the others were macaroni and I could see the bits of red pepper!

Heaven and hell, according to Islamic belief  - 19th c.

"Hair dryer - Punjab - 18th c." !!!

He does remarkable work on palm leaves- cutting & inking designs.

She makes jewelry and decorative items using ti grass

K had a good time talking with these school girls

Then it was back to the hotel for another bowl of their fine soup. (roast tomato for him, mushroom cappuccino for me, 2 teas = c. $40). On the way, I was pleased to snap a fine elephant. Across the Metro construction "street" in front of the hotel there's an interesting modern office building.

Off again at 2:30, through the area with walled compounds around big estates, government housing and attractively landscaped traffic circles, on our way to the National Museum. There we found interesting people outside and interesting figures inside.

Saraswati: goddess of learning and wisdom - 12th c.

Devotees worshipping phallic representation of Shiva - 12th c.

We really wanted to see two more museums, so stayed here just 40 minutes. On to the Nehru Memorial Museum, in the huge estate his family owned for many decades.

This last will and testament, reproduced on a huge scale, was fascinating reading. I hope you can read it if you double-click.

The house has been a memorial for decades and has inadequate funding, I assume, to make it a first-class memorial. No entry fee, no real welcomer; mainly you [try to] follow a path of occasional arrows leading you through the vast second floor with varying exhibits. Gifts from heads of state. Rooms furnished as they were (but hard to believe, they're so modest). And many many many rooms with copies of newspaper clippings and photos that tell his history - and the story of India's independence movement. It as definitely interesting, and we did our best to take it all in and still leave time for a quick tour of Indira Gandhi's  museum. Both his daughter, Indira, and her son, Rajiv, became India's leaders, and both were assassinated. But what will also stick in my mind is a story our guide told us yesterday: Nehru's family was so wealthy that when he went to university (was it the Sorbonne, or in England?) there was a car and driver waiting for him at each of the four possible campus exits he might take! Mobile phones have certainly changed our choices.

The "back yard." There's also a library and an observatory! 

The front grounds had many of these beautiful shrub/trees

The Indira Gandhi museum was quite different - on a smaller scale with small galleries, lower ceilings, more modern exhibits. And it was packed. But since the path was 1-way and clearly defined, we could move along easily. We were the last ones out at closing time, grateful to have spent as much time as we did there. Of course since Rajiv's family also shared the large house, it was also his story...and very Kennedyesque.

As close as I get to a tiger

Back of house

Sari/shoes/purse she wore when murdered by 2 security guards 10.31.84

The last few metres of her walk have been covered with crystal suggesting a river in flow.
A sheet of clear glass marks the spot where she fell.

Love the guard outfit!

Back to the hotel...and realizing I should include a photo of a bus in memory of the raped/murdered woman recently in the news. It seemed so bizarre to read that she had taken a private bus...but our time here has taught us many things, including that bus systems in cities are very complex. While Delhi just recently has bought smart new buses for their system, the tradition has long been for private companies to run old buses; in most cities there are no public buses..

Back in our lovely hotel home, I was delighted to find wedding preparations going on in the garden. Very different color scheme, much less spent on flowers, this time a band with thumping audio, two "living rooms" instead of one. But again huge.

Of course I immediately asked what time the guests would arrive, and made a dinner reservation accordingly.  Our favorite server even pulled up the screening so we had an open view. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't have a lens designed for great long-distance shots. But this will give you a sense of the stage, where the bride and groom seemed to sit or stand the entire two hours, being photographed.

Having learned to trust the wonderful service staff here, I ordered an Indian entrée, the one tandoor chicken dish on the menu that wasn't spicy. A perfect ending to a really wonder-full and joy-full 2-1/2 weeks exploring India.

On Monday, off at 11 to the airport, a 2-hour flight to Mumbai, a hotel stay until 9, back to the airport at 11, with plane scheduled to head to Amsterdam at 1:25 a.m. The fun is behind us. And the daily blogs. But I'll definitely be adding a few notes in the week to come. And I'll figure how to post the rickshaw ride video. Thanks for joining us on this journey!