Delhi

We would have been the first customers at the hotel's breakfast buffet, except that we showed up an hour before they opened, so we went back upstairs for awhile. A newspaper had been delivered to our room, a tabloid along the lines of the UK's Daily Mail. We marveled at how incomprehensible the English could be! Breakfast buffet was pretty good. I tried to get onto the internet and send an email to family that we had arrived. but neither Gmail nor Yahoo would allow me to log in from the other side of the world -- damn security!

We met with the guide for an orientation meeting in the morning, then set off for Old Delhi in a bus that is very large for only 14 tourists. But our driver negotiated terrible traffic with ease. We drove around the government buildings -- most built by the Brits in the 1920s, walked around the India Arch war memorial, and the empty pedestal that used to have a statue of King George until it was removed at independence. On the way out we drove by rows upon rows of "bungalows" built for British officials, but now serving as residences for Indian military officers, cabinet ministers, and bureaucrats. Pretty nice fringe benefit for government work.

Our next stop was Jama Masjid, the huge mosque built by the same Mughal sultan who commissioned the Taj Mahal in Agra. He also built a large city wall, remnants of which can still be seen, and the great Red Fort to protect the city of Delhi. The mosque requires Western women to cover, even if they are dressed pretty much like the Muslim women who are entering. And the mosque is mostly open air -- the structure itself is mostly solid, like a Buddhist stupa. Even if one gets a front row seat, he prays to a wall. Also, this mosque, as all in this part of the world, faces west rather than east, because Mecca is west of here.

The mosque divides the Muslim quarter of old Delhi from the Hindu quarter. The requisite rickshaw ride took us through the Muslim quarter -- mostly shops for used auto parts. Our guide joked that if you drove your car to this area to buy tires, you might end up buying back the tires you drove in on! The Muslim call to prayer sounded while we were on our ride, but there was no discernible change in the level of activity -- buying and selling continued.

Throughout India we were amazed at the way electrical, telephone, and cable TV lines are draped haphazardly through the streets. Can they really repair these when necessary? How do they trace the right wire?

        We then took a walking tour through the Hindu quarter.  It was quieter, less hectic, though just as crowded, and more residential. Some grand old houses are tucked, cheek to jowl, among hovels. Both quarters are a maze of narrow, winding alleys with many dead ends. It was built that way intentionally to confound foreign invaders.

Last stop was Raj Ghat, the national memorial and site of the cremation of Gandhi. A flame taken from the cremation pyre still burns, now gas fed. It is surrounded by a beautiful park area, as the river shifted about a mile east in later flooding. The night ended with our "welcome meal" at a very upscale restaurant called The Kasbah. We managed to stay up past 9:30 p.m. despite little sleep the night before due to jet lag.