July 20--On the way to, and in, Delhi

     First of all, let me say that I just uploaded a bunch of text for the entries regarding July 17, 18 and 19.  So go read that if you haven't yet.
     Today was almost all spent in the bus from Jaipur to Delhi, and it was pretty uneventful.  The bus driver’s daughter, Jothi (“light”), rode along with us because she needed to get to Delhi.  She was married about a year ago.  On the drive, the girls started singing and dancing as the driver held their phones up to the tour guide microphone.  It wasn’t exactly high quality sound, but they had a good time.  Then they put some Indian music on and Jothi started dancing Indian style.  It was really cool!  She taught the girls some Indian moves and that was fun.  But it was mostly sitting in the bus, staring out the window, or chatting with others in the group.

     When we got to Delhi we stopped at a modern mall, just as nice as anything you’ve ever seen in the U.S.  We got some food, including some tasty ice cream from an Indian version of Cold Stone.   They even had Twix bars to mix in.  It wasn’t cheap but it was yummy.

     Once we got checked in, we took the kids to a local shopping area.  We walked there, and it was a really long, unpleasant walk on busy streets with few sidewalks.  Along the way we passed under an overpass, where a small community of extremely poor people live.  They tried to get our attention to ask for money as we walked by.  I don’t think anyone could be much less fortunate than that group—no shelter except the overpass, with some meager beds and a few other possessions and that was it.  At the market, Lily bought some shirts, I think, and I got a few small gifts.  Some of the girls in the group got their hands professionally done by henna painters.  I can’t believe how fast they work!  They created these elaborate patterns about halfway up to the girls’ elbow in maybe 10 minutes.

     In the evening, our guide took me and two other people to Old Delhi to get some kebabs from a place that he said is legendary.  We drove about 45 minutes in crazy traffic.  Then the driver dropped us off, and our guide said we have to walk for a while.  We walked through the most crowded streets I have ever seen.  It was still as hot as a sauna.  It was almost 10:00 pm when we arrived, but the road was completely jammed.  There’s no way to describe the pandemonium.  Every vehicle imaginable—cars, little motorized three-wheel taxis, motorcycles, bicyclist-powered taxis, and scooters, all honking and shouting.  And thousands and thousands of people on foot, pushing and dodging every direction—men of various ages in groups, street vendors, beggars, families of all sizes, including lots of little kids in fancy, spangled clothes, some of whom were walking by themselves to my amazement.  The congestion really was unbelievable.

     When we reached the kebab place, it was tiny hole in the wall, maybe eight feet wide and 15 feet deep, with a searing hot charcoal fire across the entire front of the store and a little open area on one side.  The temperature near that fire was unbelievable.  The open side of the store was surrounded by shouting men trying to get service.  There was no concept of a line.  People were tugging on the sleeve of the proprietor, yelling at him, holding out money, gesturing and trying to convince him to serve them next.  To me it seemed like he was mostly ignoring everyone’s pleas and doling out the food to whoever he felt like it.  But there was probably some sort of customer pecking order, because our guide told us that it’s always crowded like that, and he wished that he could have arranged to bring another taxi driver he knows who’s a friend of the owner and can always get served right away.

     Sweat dripping down his face, our guide pushed and wheedled and tugged on the guy’s sleeve nonstop for maybe 10 minutes before finally getting a heaping plate of kebabs for us to share.  The kebab was coarsely ground beef full of fat and gristle, laden with spices and dripping with butter.  I’m not sure I’ve ever had anything less healthy to eat in my whole life.  The meat was pretty good, but not as good as the experience, which was honestly like nothing else I’ve ever seen in my life.  

     It was a takeout place and customers were just walking off with their food, but there was one grimy little table (no chairs), just big enough for four, that a friend of the proprietor pointed us to—I suspect because we were obviously foreigners.  We stood next to the table, ate our meat and drank our water bottles, mostly free from being pushed and jostled as we ate.  Afterward we walked around the area for maybe half an hour to scope it out.  It was the last night of Eid, and we were across the street from one of the biggest mosques in Delhi, so I thought it was crazy because of the holiday.  But our guide told me that it’s like that every night.  After walking around and taking it all in for a while, we headed back to the hotel.  I was exhausted and hit the sack after a very satisfying shower.  Seriously, I have never had better-feeling showers than I have in India.

Leftover photo from Agra.  A guy took this photo and sold it to us for about 30 cents after we were done.

 Nomadic cattle guy using the access road on the highway to move his cows

Random Delhi selfie with kids