Tuesday 31 January 2012

Sights and Sounds of Delhi


This is the view from our hotel balcony, with bands gathering across the street and a truckload of young men in party mode heading the other way.

On Monday morning we set off on a long walk which our guide seems to favour. Our target was the Metro station and we were given instructions on using tokens to get on, separating into ladies and gents as there are separate carriages. Not everyone seemed to stick to that rule. The Metro was quite modern, very security conscious and extremely crowded. Despite their best efforts the men didn't lose the ladies and we set off again to the Red Fort, just to look at the outside. This was followed by time inside the Jama Masjid Mosque. While our guide Dushyant looked after the shoes and belongings the ladies were issued with large garments a bit like painting smocks for grown-ups - a perfect photo opportunity. After watching Earthflight in India, we were very conscious of the birds flying around and sure enough there were pigeons galore with kites ready to pick them off. No one seems to mind us taking pictures and there were plenty of pictures taken.

We set off down some more back streets where the locals and Bollywood stars shop for decorative ribbons and accessories to enhance their costumes. For those who like bling it would be paradise. Our final stop for the morning was the Sikh Temple where we were given a un ique (for us) opportunity to take part in the daily rituals of preparing food and feeding the thousands of people who come to the temple for food. After covering our heads and leaving our shoes and socks behind we had to wash our hands and feet before entering the temple, where we observed the ritual of sitting quietly for a couple of minutes during the service, before going through to the kitchens.

All the food is donated and all the workers who prepare and serve it are volunteers. It's doubtful if our amateurish contributions were much help, but we certainly provided the more experienced helpers with some amusement and entertainment. Mostly we rolled out chapattis and flipped them on the enormous griddle, stirred gigantic cooking pots full of vegetables and generally got in the way. Finally we joined hundreds of other people sitting on long mats in a large hall to be served dal, vegetables and chappattis.

After lunch we set off in auto rickshaws to visit a project which G Adventures supports. The traffic is mad, noisier and more impatient than Vietnam with a mixture of auto and cycle rickshaws, bullock carts, buses, taxis, cars both ancient and modern and even carts pulled by hand. The loads are huge in some cases with cycles pulling up to ten or a dozen gas canisters.

The project was set up in 1988 to help street children and has been supported further by funding from Slumdog Millionaire. We met up with a group of boys as they were receiving clothes distributed by a volunteer. We were encouraged to engage with them and although their English was limited it was easy to have a game of pat-a-cake. We were told success stories of children who had gone on to succeed as photographers and dancers, take university degrees or become entrepreneurs.

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