[NOTE: I went online and discovered that I am one of many Blogger users who are experiencing the horrible formatting issues when trying to insert photos on an iPad! No help available, it seems, so I am going to separate text from photos if I have a lot of the latter. And I will no longer apologize for any technical issues. I also want to say that at the end of this post I realized I described a dish we ate as “fried palak,” when it should actually be “fried paneer” (cheese) but I am unable to scroll to that section to edit it. 😠]
This morning we rode our bus from New Delhi to Old Delhi. The bus dropped us off near the “entrance” and we were transported by rickshaw into the thick of it. Seeing this part of Delhi was another mind-bending experience. There are narrow lanes and passages lined with doorless shops (like a mall), one after the other—every kind of shop imaginable, with apartment homes above most of them. These lanes are crowded with rickshaws, mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians. It reminded me of Jerusalem’s Old City in some ways, but Jerusalem is much, much tamer!
The rickshaws dropped us off at a certain point and we walked for a short distance to a restaurant where a dozen men of all ages squatted or knelt on the ground right in front. They were all nestled together in orderly lines, anticipation on their faces. They just sat quietly and waited. Abhi explained to us that these men were all homeless, waiting for someone to buy them a plate of food from the restaurant. He asked if anyone wanted to give the man at the cash register 100 rupees and give two homeless men each a plate of food, and I think everyone in the group did so. I paid my 100 rupees ($1.39!!) and the restaurant guy gave me one plate and then another, each filled with some sort of serving of meat and two pieces of naan, and I gave two of the men their meals. The way it works is that once they’re fed they move out of the way so others can eat. Abhi said they’re lucky we stopped by...it was good karma...sometimes they will wait 2-3 hours for food. This was such a moving, emotional experience and I had to stop myself from bursting into tears. The theme of this trip, at least so far, seems to be that if people are hungry, you feed them. We stood for a while outside the restaurant, sharing some of the bread with our travel mates, tearing off pieces and savoring every bite, almost like communion at a church service.
Next Abhi let us walk up the lane on our own for a bit. When we met him back at the restaurant, he was with a young man named Rehan, who is either the owner or the son of the owner, and he led us through some zig-zaggy back passages to his home (to visualize the way he walked, refer to the holy cow’s gait in a previous post!). Rehan and his wife live with some of their other relatives in an apartment with four levels. We all sat on the first level, which consisted only of what seemed to be a living room. Some of us sat on the floor (more like a giant bed) and some sat in plastic chairs. Rehan’s wife and two cousins faced us. Abhi had already told us that the point of this encounter was to ask them questions about what it’s like to live as Muslims in a mostly Hindu nation. (Note that Rehan’s wife’s English was very good, one cousin’s English was pretty good, and the other cousin’s English was excellent. The third one was also very smart and very outspoken. Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of their names.)
What an engaging, fascinating discussion we had! The three young women (I’m guessing all in their 20s) considered themselves very liberal. For example, the two unmarried ones said if they fell in love with a Hindu boy, they would marry him and their parents wouldn’t disapprove. We talked about Modi (the excellent English speaker called him a dictator), Kashmir, Article 370 (google it if you don’t know about it), rape and acid attacks, women’s right, prejudice against Muslims...lots of heavy topics for a Wednesday morning! Oh, and we found out that the family restaurant is open from 6am to 11pm, and that all meals after 9pm are free.
We said good-bye to our friends and headed back into the chaos. Abhi took us to a restaurant for lunch and we sat upstairs and had a delicious pre-ordered meal. After that we took a quick motorized rickshaw ride back to the bus. Then we had free time before dinner, so I went with two couples to a Kashmiri artisan silk rug place and listened to a guy tell us all about how the rugs are made (“They’re not hand made, they’re hand twisted.”). It was really interesting and he was so charming/passionate, but I was not going to spend $1500 for a 3x5 rug. The bigger ones were $17,000! He must have said a million times that this is a dying craft because young people only want to be on their cell phones now and text. “You give them a needle and thread and they can’t even sew a button on their shirt!”
At 6:00 we had to have our checked baggage packed and sitting outside our room door because it was to be collected to be bussed to Jaipur, our next destination. We’re going to fly there tomorrow with our carry-ons (more convenient). We all had dinner then at a place in Khan Market called Punjab Grill, which had the best food I’ve ever had in my life!! (Wait..... 😉) It was another pre-ordered meal, and one of the items was black lentils, my new fave. The palak paneer was the best I’d ever had (so creamy!) and the fried palak, which I’d never heard of, was scrumptious.
One of my travel mates, Tim from Minnesota, got sick so he didn’t join us. Uh-oh....! Then Teddy, a woman from NC, tripped on uneven pavement after dinner and fell down, hurting her lip. They’re dropping like flies! We all got in tuk tuks and came back to the hotel. We leave for the airport at 7am.
This morning we rode our bus from New Delhi to Old Delhi. The bus dropped us off near the “entrance” and we were transported by rickshaw into the thick of it. Seeing this part of Delhi was another mind-bending experience. There are narrow lanes and passages lined with doorless shops (like a mall), one after the other—every kind of shop imaginable, with apartment homes above most of them. These lanes are crowded with rickshaws, mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians. It reminded me of Jerusalem’s Old City in some ways, but Jerusalem is much, much tamer!
The rickshaws dropped us off at a certain point and we walked for a short distance to a restaurant where a dozen men of all ages squatted or knelt on the ground right in front. They were all nestled together in orderly lines, anticipation on their faces. They just sat quietly and waited. Abhi explained to us that these men were all homeless, waiting for someone to buy them a plate of food from the restaurant. He asked if anyone wanted to give the man at the cash register 100 rupees and give two homeless men each a plate of food, and I think everyone in the group did so. I paid my 100 rupees ($1.39!!) and the restaurant guy gave me one plate and then another, each filled with some sort of serving of meat and two pieces of naan, and I gave two of the men their meals. The way it works is that once they’re fed they move out of the way so others can eat. Abhi said they’re lucky we stopped by...it was good karma...sometimes they will wait 2-3 hours for food. This was such a moving, emotional experience and I had to stop myself from bursting into tears. The theme of this trip, at least so far, seems to be that if people are hungry, you feed them. We stood for a while outside the restaurant, sharing some of the bread with our travel mates, tearing off pieces and savoring every bite, almost like communion at a church service.
Next Abhi let us walk up the lane on our own for a bit. When we met him back at the restaurant, he was with a young man named Rehan, who is either the owner or the son of the owner, and he led us through some zig-zaggy back passages to his home (to visualize the way he walked, refer to the holy cow’s gait in a previous post!). Rehan and his wife live with some of their other relatives in an apartment with four levels. We all sat on the first level, which consisted only of what seemed to be a living room. Some of us sat on the floor (more like a giant bed) and some sat in plastic chairs. Rehan’s wife and two cousins faced us. Abhi had already told us that the point of this encounter was to ask them questions about what it’s like to live as Muslims in a mostly Hindu nation. (Note that Rehan’s wife’s English was very good, one cousin’s English was pretty good, and the other cousin’s English was excellent. The third one was also very smart and very outspoken. Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of their names.)
What an engaging, fascinating discussion we had! The three young women (I’m guessing all in their 20s) considered themselves very liberal. For example, the two unmarried ones said if they fell in love with a Hindu boy, they would marry him and their parents wouldn’t disapprove. We talked about Modi (the excellent English speaker called him a dictator), Kashmir, Article 370 (google it if you don’t know about it), rape and acid attacks, women’s right, prejudice against Muslims...lots of heavy topics for a Wednesday morning! Oh, and we found out that the family restaurant is open from 6am to 11pm, and that all meals after 9pm are free.
We said good-bye to our friends and headed back into the chaos. Abhi took us to a restaurant for lunch and we sat upstairs and had a delicious pre-ordered meal. After that we took a quick motorized rickshaw ride back to the bus. Then we had free time before dinner, so I went with two couples to a Kashmiri artisan silk rug place and listened to a guy tell us all about how the rugs are made (“They’re not hand made, they’re hand twisted.”). It was really interesting and he was so charming/passionate, but I was not going to spend $1500 for a 3x5 rug. The bigger ones were $17,000! He must have said a million times that this is a dying craft because young people only want to be on their cell phones now and text. “You give them a needle and thread and they can’t even sew a button on their shirt!”
At 6:00 we had to have our checked baggage packed and sitting outside our room door because it was to be collected to be bussed to Jaipur, our next destination. We’re going to fly there tomorrow with our carry-ons (more convenient). We all had dinner then at a place in Khan Market called Punjab Grill, which had the best food I’ve ever had in my life!! (Wait..... 😉) It was another pre-ordered meal, and one of the items was black lentils, my new fave. The palak paneer was the best I’d ever had (so creamy!) and the fried palak, which I’d never heard of, was scrumptious.
One of my travel mates, Tim from Minnesota, got sick so he didn’t join us. Uh-oh....! Then Teddy, a woman from NC, tripped on uneven pavement after dinner and fell down, hurting her lip. They’re dropping like flies! We all got in tuk tuks and came back to the hotel. We leave for the airport at 7am.
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