So…to begin at the beginning…the adventure started with 24 hrs of travel to finally arrive in New Delhi at about 3 am…hot and raining…crowded at the airport even at this hour…got to the hotel about 4.  Stayed at The Imperial Hotel, which is very ritzy…heads of state stay here, apparently.  Old-school colonial feel impeccably maintained…more people working at this place than you can believe.  And makes you feel like a Brit in colonial times, as the place is barricaded behind guards and iron gates and opens to manicured lawns and fountains amidst the craziness of the 21 million people who call Delhi home.

 After a nap and meeting our guide for the trip (a very charming and really smart guy named Vishu Singh), we dove right in with a visit to a charity that is supported by the tour company we used (Geographic Expeditions).  It is called the Salaam Balak Trust, and works to get kids off the streets and out of living beneath the train station.  Started by a famous movie director named Mira Nair.  Works with YOUNG kids – 6-14 years old.  Our guide through this was one of the kids who has graduated from the program and now works for the Trust while he goes to school in computer science.  His name is Iqbal, and has the most tragic story (parts of which Vishu thinks are not his own), but now seems to have his life on track.  Amazing successes and at the same time devastating that they have 4500 kids in the program.  The scale of everything in this country of 1.2 billion people is amazing.

 Spent a couple days touring around Delhi…visited three different religious sites:   a Hindu temple, a Sikh temple, and a Muslim mosque, the latter of which was built by Shah Jahan in the 17th century, the same Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal.  It’s an outdoor mosque and quite beautiful.  Religion is everywhere here, but rather than fanatical, it is simply a way of life and community.  So refreshing…I think a lot of has to do with the fundamental tenets of Hinduism, which are too much to go into at the moment!

 We followed that by a harrowing ride through winding little narrow streets on a bicycle rickshaw.  Small shops tucked into nooks and crannies like you wouldn’t believe.  Selling everything from clothes to produce to fried food to car parts to stationery (apparently having over the top wedding invitations is a must in India, and everyone you have ever met in your life is invited).

And then the bomb blast happened – very glad we were nowhere near that!  But it did throw a wrench in our plans as we were supposed to go to the crafts museum and market, but the tour company advised against the area.  So we went to the National Gallery, where they have an amazing collection of miniature paintings (other stuff too, but that was the highlight).  The next day we toured around a bit more – went to Humayan’s tomb…which is the oldest example of Mughal architecture and on which the Taj Mahal is based…then the Qutb Minar, a mosque built in 1199. Totally fascinating!  An intricate and super tall tower that has withstood the test of time. It’s really beautiful.  Drove around a bit more to see the President’s Palace (interestingly, the President is a figurehead…power rests with the Prime Minister and Parliament).

The next morning it is back to the airport for a short flight to Varanasi, one of the oldest cities on the planet (perhaps older than Jerusalem and Athens) and the center of Hinduism. To die in Varanasi “ensures release from the endless karmic cycle of rebirth and suffering.” All Hindus are cremated, and many either come here to die or have their bodies sent here to be burned in a funeral pyre on the Ganges. This sounds horribly creepy, but in fact is so much part of the culture and life here, it is really quite spiritual. Seeing the fires (which happen all day long and at night) is at first startling, and then seems…like just another element of the fabric of this country.

 September 7, 2011