A Day in Delhi

December 31st @ 6:30pm PST, Kelsey and I arrived safely at the San Francisco International Airport. It was a long 17 hours, with a brief layover in Taiwan. I have more to say about India and our experiences there, so I am going to write two blog entries, this one and then one summarizing our trip.

We had one day to enjoy a few Delhi’s sights, finish a bit of shopping and do a bit more eating! We arrived late and took a cab to the Hotel. Delhi is not exactly a walking city, there are no clear traffic patterns, no obvious traffic lights and people, dogs, monkeys, ox driven carts, bicycles, cars, trucks, motorized rickshaws, pedaled rickshaws, and busses all fight to drive on the bumpy paved roads.

Our day in Delhi was great. We stayed at this place called the Ajunta hotel. It came complete with several service people, one person to check us in, to carry our bags, to help exchange money, to help with the computers, for long distance calls, for food, someone else for laundry, for checking out, checking in and finally a person to explain to us how to use our hotel room (including the toilet, hot water (a standard shower) and toilet paper dispenser. The room wasn't great but the shower was AWESOME!!

We left the hotel and were approached by Ajay, an English speaking rickshaw driver. We were looking to go shopping and he offered to take us to a shopping bazaar. After shopping and me entertaining a very odd Sikh man we left shopping bazaar and ran into Ajay again. After a brief discussion, Ajay agreed to drive us around for a better part of the day. With Ajay as our trusted driver we agreed to tour Lodi park, another bazaar, and the Lakshmi temple. As we drove around, Kelsey and I had all sorts of questions for Ajay and he had a lot to say about India. He told us that he felt India had been heavily influenced by the west and that as a result it was not the India he grew up in. Ajay felt India was not as open and generous as it had once been and that the changes were due to western influence. He explained how his children (all daughters) were growing up in a different India than he did. We asked him about Sikhism, it turned out that Ajay was raised as a Sikh and he offered to take us to his childhood temple. After touring the second bazaar with Ajay occasionally standing behind one of us pretending to be a sales person we drove to the Sikh temple.

We coerced Ajay to come into the temple with us, or maybe it was our puzzled looks as he tried to explain to us how to enter the temple. First we had to have our heads covered, then we had to remove our shoes, after that we just followed Ajay....step through water, wash your feet, clean your hands and face, up the stairs to the main temple to listen to singing (we watched as Ajay blessed himself on each step and once in the main temple), sit and observe the people and the singing, then outside to walk clockwise around the sacred body of water inside the temple grounds. While walking around Ajay did his best to explain Sikhism to us, he is clearly very proud of his religion, how cast is not important, how all are considered equal, and that as a child he had to clean the floors of the temple just like everyone else. As we finished our lap around the pool, Kesley was attacked by a group of kids who were super stoked to have their photo taken and by a man who wanted to explain the chanting to us. The whole experience was totally awesome!!

Ajay then took us to the Lakshmi temple and we parted ways. We wandered quietly around the temple, reading the writings along the walls, selecting our favorite comments repeating them to ourselves as a mantra and committing them to memory. A night we enjoyed our last meal in Delhi at a fancy westernized restaurant called Q’BA, in Caunaught Place, and appreciated Ajay’s comments from earlier in the day.

The next morning we woke up, finished packing our bags, and headed out to catch a cab to the airport. When we left the hotel, Ajay was outside to say goodbye. We thanked him again for a great day, said our goodbyes and headed to the airport. At 2:40pm we boarded a plane bound for Taipei, Taiwan and then home. We each said a silent goodbye to India, and our one month adventure filled with wonder and fun.