Nov 2nd- After noon flight to Delhi. Had booked an airport shuttle bus to collect me from my hotel at checkout 12noon. Packed tonnes of people and their luggage into a teeny tiny bus- felt like preparation for India had already begun at this point!
Had an unfortunately VERY noisy flight to Calcutta where i then got my connecting flight to DElhi with the same noisy men! I was NOT a happy bunny. There was some interesting people sat next to me and i dont mean that in a good way. i can't be particularly bothered to describe the stupid and unbelievable conversation i shared with my neighbour but it made a change from the Thaio who barely spoke to me before! Now it had become a case of EVERYONE and anyone wanting to speak with me- it soon lost its appeal though when all i wanted was to sleep, and not to be asked pathetic questions like "vow, CAMBODIA- that is in South America no?!" errrr NO!
Got to Delhi at 11.30pm where my friends driver was waiting to collect me. Got to the house where they were all up and waiting for me- saw the size of the bed and knew id have one of the best sleeps of my life- and i did !
Nov 3rd
Woke up relatively early and ate breakfast- (3 courses- This is normal!!) wiht my host (dads friend) and his daughter. bfast here is a family affair. Most days it's eaten together round the dining table- makes a change from eating alone and was so homely. I felt a tad nostalgic! Great food and great hospitality- Delhi was off to a great start!
Plan for the day was the following\...
I was sent/semi-summoned to the beauty parlour for a "clean up"! I had all treatments under the sun for a fraction of the price id pay back home- im not complaining! And i hardly reconised the woman that emerged 3hrs later! I got back and headed to a local mall with the hosts daugther and nephew for coffee. Im happy to have avoided the starbucks and super malls for the past few months but it was great to go, just to see how far delhi's come since i was last here 10 odd years back.
Back then, i was young, impressionable and naive which explains why my sister and i initial refused to ever return, but even then, I remmeber enough of how it WAS to know that it has come a LONG WAY since. HAving studied alongside many DElhi-ites at LSE and hearing friends tlak about how great delhi is, i was keen to see what all the fuss was about. I defnitely saw it within a few days of being there! They've got a metro system- cleaner and more efficient than than the tube, skyscrapers and luxury malls, exclusive clubs and restaurants- all you couldnt want you can now get. Of course, the wealth is disproportionate and the distinction between rich and poor is still, if not more, prevalent but a middle class is definitely emerging. A country once known for its backwardness is now zipping ahead of the rest. In many ways its great for national pride and economic development. For the lower castes and classes to be surrounded by the wealth of others, it is an impetus for them to want to better thesleves and their families. No longer is caste the sole indicator of one's identity. Money and economid standing can help alleviate one's social standing and quality of life. But of course there are sgnificant drawbacks- the loss of tradition being one of them. One can quite clearly see the influence of Western consumerism on these people who were once happy to wear a pair of BATA's but now can only be seen in this season's PRADAs. for cities like DElhi though, as one politician i met and spoke with explained to me, a big problem is rural-urban migration. So many villagers on the outskirts and beyond Delhi are catching sight of the bright city lights and moving towards it in search of a better ife. Fair play to them but with so many doing it, there's not enough of the city to go around. Over population is a big issue and the city's services and utlities are increasingly pressured.The lady i spoke with worked with the COngress Party and was helping tacle the prblem by encouraging misguided an uneducated youth to undertake voational courses to gain the skills they needed to develop their traditional work back home. Despite these good deeds, the fact is you can't force people to go home. Even the wealthy elite were once mgrants in delhi and so upon that basis how can you order a new arrival to retreat??
So econo-socio-political rant over, I went to a mall, drank coffee imported from the West and then wined and dined at a plush restaurant called "zest"- oh so humanitarian of me don't you think!??!~
Nov 4th
Decided to visit the Akshardam Temple, a huge Swaminarayan mandir that has been built recently along the banks of the Yamuna river.It has become a popular tourist attraction also. A girl on my previous tour highly recommended it,and though i wasnt all that keen to go, i thought what the hell, i might as well since my host further recommended it. (i also did it for Shell, my devout swaminarayann friend back home!). I ended up thoroughly enjoying it surprisingly! the temple is absolutely beautiful, though they tend to be wit the amount of money the orgainsation has to pump into them. FYI- for those who arent' familiar with this religious chat, Swaminarayans are a religous sect of Hinduism that built the famous temple in Neasden, London- my god that is a horrifically scant explanation but you now at least know the scale on which im talking about this temple. It is HUGE, beautiful and incredibly well organised. Exclude the 15min security frisk going in and it was well worth it. My jaw dropped to the floor as i marvelled at the intricate stone and amrble carvings. how could this take only 5years to build? 100s of different elephant statues stood proudly at the foot of the temple- each carved out of one single piece of stone and weighing 5 times more than a real elephant!
I went to a great 2 hr exhibition- not your boring museum but interactive Disneyland-esque boat rides and films that were very interestng and entertaining. It was a bit cheesy of course but it was fantastcally executed and organised- a tough call in INdia!One didnt feel indoctrinated either which was nice but obviosuly their basic aim was to educaet others on their philosopphy. It was nice to see SIkhs, Muslims, all types of people, in attendance also.
It got quite late by the time i finished the exhbition and did a puja/darshan, so i grabbed a batch of fresh eggless cakes and sweets from the inhouse cafe and headed home. We spent a quite night in and watched Bridget Jones' Diary (my firt time! Shocking considering my Hugh Grant obsession i know!). Good thing we got an early night as we had to be up at 5am the next morning for our day trip to....
