Delhi
Red Fort
July 28, 2008
I was supposed to go to Amritsar, Punjab, but my flight was cancelled, so I got
stuck in Delhi; I went to the government run pre-paid taxi stand and gave him 500
for the 180 fare. He then gave me a 100 and said “I said 180, you give me 100.”
I tried to argue with him and said I gave him 500, but he refused and demanded more
money. I could do nothing; who am I supposed to complain to? He works for the government?
After taking a cab to the New Delhi train station, I realized there was a fast train
to Amritsar, but it leaves from the other train station, so I quickly headed across
town to buy a ticket from a travel agent. Despite warnings, I went to an unofficial
travel agent and only realized this after I had left. Despite the horror stories,
it is a legitimate company, just not the cheapest company.
There were no seats left on the train to Amritsar, so I had a couple days to occupy.
I considered going to Jaipur, a nearby city that is supposed to be nice, but the
travel agent/salesman talked me into going to Kashmir instead. I bought my ticket
to Kashmir, booked hotels in Kashmir, and booked trains to Agra and Varanasi for
later in the week.
After leaving the travel agency, I read my guidebook to discover the travel agencies
in this area are notorious for scamming tourists and I immediately regretted my
decision. The only saving grace was that at the travel agent I met two English girls
who took the same trip and said it was incredible.
I had a couple hours before I had to meet my German friend, Sascha, who I went to
school with in Poland. I spent my free time walking around Connaught Place and seeing
the shops and bazaars. I was constantly approached by people claiming to be college
students interested in practicing their English. It didn’t take long for any of
them to tell me where to go or what to do. When I told one person where I was going
he said it was a bad place and that I shouldn't go there. One of these "college
students" asked me if it was monsoon in the United States, then followed this
up by asking how far the United States is and helped to answer by saying “its close
right, like 5 or 6 hours by train?” The conversation ended there and I went my own
way, despite his advice that there are better shops I should go to.
While I was wondering around I couldn’t help but dwell on how horrible the traffic
is in Delhi and how difficult I found it to breathe given the pollution and excruciating
heat and humidity.
I met up with Sascha and we ate at a very nice restaurant. He ordered his favorite,
which he wanted me to try. It was chicken in a tomato curry sauce; very good and
it went well with our paratha. The first question I asked Sascha was how he liked
Delhi and he said he hates it. I found that odd since he’s lived here for nearly
three years.
After dinner I headed back to Sascha’s place and met his girlfriend, Ana, a Czech
girl, who has only been in India for a year and a half, but much less content with
life here. At times I felt like a psychologist, listening to them complain, yet
at the same time they were educating me. I think it was good for them to vent to
someone other than themselves, and to be honest I found it fascinating.
Arranged marriages are still commonplace in India and they discussed how the people
here look forward to their marriages, but once married the girls must move in with
his family, get an entirely new wardrobe based upon what her husband wants her to
wear, and learns how to treat her husband based upon what her mother-in-law tells
her to do. In addition to all of this, she has never met her husband or anyone in
his family. It seems relationships are odd here and sex education is for the most
part non-existent.
The next vent session involved geography. Maps are unknown in India and no one has
any idea about directions or geography (not that many Americans are any better),
which would explain why my taxi driver took the most round about path to the airport
in Bangalore. I had only been there for 5 days, but I knew we were taking an inefficient
route.
Travel for the sake of travel doesn’t really exist here and to find a traveling
Indian is odd. The people don’t seem to make sense in many ways, but it’s probably
just the result of being uneducated or simply a different mindset, which seems illogical,
although it's simply a logic I don't understand. Of course education here
is odd and I was told one story about a couple of girls with MBAs, which I was told
were worth as much as the paper they were printed on... One girl has a large stomach
and asked how to get rid of it. Another girl told her to put her arms above her
head and shake them, that should get rid of the stomach fat.
Sascha said that Indians don’t learn, they adopt. He tells his employees to do something
numerous times, but they never change their habits. They also never seem to fix
or address problems, but rather just get used to them. Instead of working hard for
8 hours a day, 5 days a week, they would rather work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
The reason is simple; they don’t want to work hard, they would rather be at work
for 12 hours and do nothing than work hard for 8 hours. So problems aren’t a concern
because they don’t care anyway. Money, according to Sascha is all they want and
they don’t have to be efficient or good to get money, they just have to show up.
It was at this point that their vent continued to say living in India makes you
racist and the longer they’re here the more they hate Indians. I think they’re simply
frustrated and once they leave their memories will be positive, but who knows. Apparently
many of the MBA graduates can’t turn a computer on and most don’t know how to use
Microsoft Word. For what’s known as a growing tech country, the percentage of people
who are familiar with computers is very small.
It was late and I needed to go to bed so headed into the other room to sleep. Their
apartment seems slightly run down, but still costs $450 a month due to its location
in a safe neighborhood.
Jama Masjid
July 31, 2008
My flight to Delhi from Srinagar, Kashmir was smooth and soon I was at Delhi’s Red
Fort. Again, my driver demanded a tip, but his service was poor and by this point
I began to stand my ground so declined and it felt great.
As soon as you enter the Red Fort you have a market selling souvenirs. Every salesperson
is asking you to look at their stuff. This is India: you pay an entrance fee then
get bothered by salespersons. I ignored them and just acted confident, like I’ve
been here before and knew exactly where I was going. This seems to be the secret
to getting rid of salespersons.
The fort was impressive, as was the nearby Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque.
But more impressive than both was the atmosphere in the area and the nearby market.
The area is filled with people and seems so alive. The small side streets are filled
with shops and the stench of fish permeates the air. I bought some water here and
soon headed out to find an auto rickshaw to New Delhi.
Shockingly I found a driver who was willing to use the meter, something my German
friend, Sascha told me is rare. I took him up on it and it was much less than I
was offering other drivers before I found him. He didn’t ask for a tip and he put
on the meter without my request. I rewarded him with a substantial tip and thanked
him for his honesty, a well deserved tip.
I got some money from a Citi Bank ATM, one of the few I trust here and walked over
to Humayun’s Tomb only to find it closed. I made my way back to Khan’s Market to
call my friend Dr. Manjit, then headed over to La Meridian for dinner. The hotel
was incredible and made me not want to leave. Dinner was Indian, and the relaxation
the hotel’s atmosphere offered was very welcomed and for the first time in days
I felt like I didn’t have to be on guard.
Red Fort
Dwan-i-Khas
August 1, 2008
I woke up at 10am which was the most I've slept in days. I tried to check my
e-mail, but the internet in the building was out so I got a car for the day compliments
of my friend Dr. Manjit. We started at the Ba’hai Lotus temple, which was very impressive
and peaceful.
We then continued on our tour of the city in true tourist fashion. We went to the
new state of the art mall, then Qutb Minar, a great old ruin from the time of Ashoka,
Indira Gandhi’s house/memorial, the president’s house, India Gate, a Buddhist temple,
Sikh temple, Humayun’s Tomb (open this time) and finally Gandhi Smriti. Everything
was impressive and it truly displays the history and excitement of the city. Every
place I went was full of tourists, not Americans, but tourists, except the Indira
Gandhi memorial at which I think I was the only tourist. I have little to write
about today, I was simply a tourist and avoided the culture until dinner when I
met my friend Sascha at an Italian restaurant.
The food was very good, but a large flat screen TV adorned the wall and didn’t seem
to fit into the environment. This seems to really bother Sascha, especially since
it’s just showing regular TV and there is no sound due to the “atmospheric music.”
After dinner I headed back to Sascha’s place for a couple hours until I was picked
up by Dr. Manjit and taken to his second condo in the city. He had one of his employees
stay there to act as my servant, which was again odd, but Indian I suppose.
Gandhi Smriti, the place of Gandhi's assassination
Qutb Minar
Sikh temple