Homeward

There are no pictures to document final days in Delhi, partly because a storm rolled in and dumped rain on the city, plunging it further into its sepia tones.  Along with my boss' return, my last two days were spent trying to expedite health recovery and attending more meetings.  Both activities seemed pretty successful.  In other news, I missed seeing the Super Bowl since I was not able to find a TV channel which carried the game (just lots of cricket and the "other" football).  

My final night - before departing for my 2:30a flight - the noise from what I had thought was a several night festival reached a crescendo finally making me look out the window.  I was in time to see fireworks, and party goers greeting a brass band and a groom arriving on a white horse to his wedding festivities - being held under a large tent, in the rain, in the garbage park, just to the other side of the metro rail line.  Given license, one could wax poetic about that image - the grime and dirt of Delhi combined with the pageantry and vibrancy that is India.  Go with it.  In my lay over haze in Amsterdam, I certainly will, and I look forward to returning some day soon to experience more.

Into the Fog

I was determined to see the Taj Mahal during this trip.  In hindsight I should have been less attached to that outcome.  I'd arranged to depart at 4a in order to see the Taj at sunrise. Two young colleagues from the Delhi office thought it would be fun to come along.  I'd been battling my head cold this past week and just when I thought it was getting better, I woke up this morning decidedly worse - considered canceling but thought, oh it will be so worth it to see the Taj in its glory.  I chose wrongly.  

Our drive out took nearly twice as along as we'd anticipated due to the most dense fog bank I've every experienced.  For hours we drove with only a few feet of visibility.  We kept hoping that once we'd come to Agra, the fog would have burnt off.  No such luck.  You couldn't see the massive Taj Mahal until you were standing next to it - and even then it was like being in a cloud.  Coupled with this, maybe it was a combination of sinus infection, caffeine withdrawal and dehydration but I was stricken with a vice like, jackhammer, nauseating migraine.  Fortunately my travel companions noticed I was feeling horrible and we decided to head back to Delhi instead of going to Agra Fort.  After all, there's always next time.

Art & Yuppies

Thursday night, I joined a group from the office on a cross-town outing to see one of the research assistant's art on display in a hip new area of the city called Hauz Khas Village.  To get there involved a bus, metro with transfer and an auto (tuk-tuk).  The experience and the destination were worth it.  Gone was the dirt, noise, traffic and crowds of Delhi and in its place an enclave of buildings with narrow winding alleys housing high end boutiques, shops, cafes and restaurants - sort of shabby-chic.  It was fairly empty but apparently on the weekends this is THE place to be and full of "yuppies".  The art was hung in a covered alley wedged between a cafe and a beatnik bookshop.  

We then scaled five skinny stories to a rooftop restaurant terrace with a cold, foggy view of the city.  Fortunately, it was an early night, but getting back proved a challenge, since no auto wanted to drive far and my companions did not trust taxis.  In the end, one member of our group had a car and he nicely drove us the half hour across town where two of us needed to go.

Out and About

The head-cold has worsened, but since staying shut up in the hotel is just not an option, I've been spending the day working from the office, eating amazingly good and cheap lunches (a highlight of my day can you tell?) and having the occasional adventure.  The office is located in an amazing setting - a campus, housing a large number of agriculture related research centers.  

Tuesday evening I took the metro to meet a friend from DC whose partner is from Delhi and wanted to return home to do his dissertation research.  His area is geography and he is studying the role of the Delhi garbage pickers - how the amount of recyclables are declining causing worse sanitation and decreased livelihoods...I think.  My friend continues to work for the same organization he worked for in DC, but as a local hire.  In response to this pic, he wrote "Ah snow, falling in central Delhi".  Yeah that would be the particulates in the air.

Running the gauntlet from hotel to metro and from metro to our meeting place was not a pleasant experience but at least short-lived.  On the bright-side, I discovered the metro Ladies Car which was far more enjoyable and getting around on one's own is a satisfying accomplishment. 

Tourist Attraction

Despite a head cold, I ventured out to see the sights of Delhi.  I'd opted for the tourist mainstay of major cities, the hop-on-hop-off bus.  While there were 13 stops on the route, I quickly decided that paying the international visitor rate at each one would make for a very long and expensive day.  I chose to spend time and money at the Red Fort and one of the Tombs (above).  As sometimes happens in places where there is a lot of domestic tourism, the foreigner becomes part of the site-seeing.  My image is now on several Indian smart phones and so I thought I should probably capture the moment as well:

All in all riding around on the bus was a pretty good way to see the city, but the highlight of the day was taking the metro back to my hotel.  Like most world metro systems, it was very intuitive and the only questionable part was being crammed into the car with the rest of humanity. 

Transition

Thursday was transition day from Dhaka to Delhi.  To say that Delhi feels calm and spacious after being in Dhaka should speak volumes.  Due to a delayed flight, I had to race to the hotel and then office, to attend a presentation across town.  However, already I can tell that my time at the India office will be a good experience. Friday was also a day of meeting after meeting as I am overlapping for a couple days with my boss and there were many potential program partners to meet.

Now it's the weekend.  While the hotel is nice, it is located next to nothing.  I.e. the view from the room is the metro rail, main street and the garbage in a small green space.  Coupled with this, Saturday is Republic Day when travel is restricted in the city.  I attempted a walk outside but that was a bad idea - run down, no sidewalks, feeling very conspicuous and nothing to see.  Ergo, it's internet, TV marathon and reading in my room.  Fortunately tonight I'm going to visit a grad school friend and her family.  Pictures are the hotel lobby and view from my room:

The past four days have melded together.  I was at the office the first two days and a project workshop for the second two days, with various evening activities. Monday a friend of a friend who works here took me to a handicraft shop and the we went out to dinner.  Tuesday evening a friend of a friend's father, a Rotarian, took me to his Rotary Club meeting.  It was quite an experience.  In addition to the speaker, who gave a lesson about the prophet Mohammed's origins as an orphan and the need to remember the poor (and how this relates to Rotary's core beliefs), I was given 10 minutes to tell about my club and my job.  What followed were back-to-back questions about herbal supplements, research on food safety, what is a healthy diet, my thoughts on GMOs, and how to make healthy food cheaper for the poor.  A picture from the evening:

My last evening in Dhaka, I went out again with the girl from Monday, first to a shop and then to The American Club for dinner.  The Club is one of many clubs in the city where expats of various nationalities go to get away from the city.  While it wasn't as posh as I was imagining, there were aspects that are a little slice of USA - the pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, ranch dressing were common American brands.  A bar, tennis courts, pool, yoga classes etc are also available on the grounds.  We even ran into my expat colleagues having dinner that evening.  Tomorrow early I depart for Delhi.  It's been a good introduction to Bangladesh, but it's time to move part 2 of this trip.