We headed to Delhi over the weekend. Marvel had some work and the girls and I tagged along. Even though we have been here for 9 months everyday life has taken a hold of us and we have not had a chance to travel as much as we would have liked. We assure ourselves there will be many more visits to India and many more chances to travel. But as we are stuck neither here nor there, a visit to Delhi seemed like a good way to spend part of our last 3 weeks in India.
We arrived the day after the blackout of the Northern Grid, so we were quite lucky the power had been restored. Unfortunately for Marvel, though, the traffic was still horrid. He traveled 8 km in an hour and a half and missed his first meeting. The concierge in our fancy shmancy hotel advised the girls and I to stay put and not venture out. We were only too happy to comply. We swam. We ate lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant and followed it up with a nap. At 5, I tried to convince them out for a walk but they firmly protested and spent the next 2 hours splashing in the bathtub. It had been 3 months since they had been in a tub and obviously that was too long.
The next day we ventured out in a hired car and faced the traffic which thankfully wasn't as bad as the day before. It was a holiday, Rakhi, so perhaps that helped. Rakhi is a festival which celebrates the relationship between a brother and a sister. The sister ties a sacred string (or a shiny string with a trinket these days) on the brother's wrist and the brother gives sweets or chocolates to the sister. The feeling of the festival was really driven home when we drove past the large prison in Delhi. The outer wall was lined with women for almost a km waiting to get the chance to tie rahki for their brothers.
The following day I convinced the girls to take a Metro ride with me down to India Gate. We bought our tokens, found the correct train and hopped on the last car just as our train was pulling out. It was crowded but we had done crowded in Japan. But then more and more and more people got on. As the Metro had be immobilized by the blackout I was determined to stay near the door in case another blackout happened. I did not want to be stuck in the middle of the car. And still more people than I possibly imagined continued to get on the car. But thankfully due to my white skin or my 2 adorable girls, we rode with a 6 inch buffer that no one seemed to want to cross. As we traveled we heard the announcement about the "Ladies Car" being the first car on the train. It was then that I looked around and noticed every other person in the car with us was male. Not that it really matters to me, because I have found in India, when I am with my children I am never approached or made to feel uncomfortable. I am seen as a mother and men go out of their way to be nice or to help me. But as more and more stinky, sweaty men crowded into our car I decided the "Ladies Car" was the way to go on the way home.
We landed at Ragiv Chowk and Star's mouth dropped when she saw all the people moving around the station. She asked me, "Did you know there was going to be this many people in Delhi?" We slowly made our way to India Gate via an extremely expensive auto rickshaw. As Star's cheeks redden from the heat and sweat beaded on her nose and Flip's body hung limply on my hip, I insisted that we stand in the blazing heat and admire the beauty of India gate for at least 3 minutes, and then we retreated to the shade to find a white dad and 2 girls doing the same.
The mom joined and we started chatting. I offered them banana bread. They offered us cold water. We learned the mom and dad were teachers and lived in Tamil Nadu for 3 years while working at an International School. Their eldest daughter was born in India and they had brought her back to see her birth place. They were on a whirlwind 2 week trip around India which reminded me so much of our whirlwind trip around Japan. After both families had recovered from the sun and the heat, we said good bye and walked away. I told Star, that is what I love about traveling. We were in the same place at the same time. We shared a moment and now we both disappear back into the world.
Our trip home on the Metro was definitely less crowded as we rode in the "Ladies Car". And it was a beautiful sight to see our hotel just outside the metro stop gates. As we walked up the hill back to the hotel little Flip said, "We will be alright once we get back into the hotel." I might be raising worldly kids, but they are still soft.
We arrived the day after the blackout of the Northern Grid, so we were quite lucky the power had been restored. Unfortunately for Marvel, though, the traffic was still horrid. He traveled 8 km in an hour and a half and missed his first meeting. The concierge in our fancy shmancy hotel advised the girls and I to stay put and not venture out. We were only too happy to comply. We swam. We ate lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant and followed it up with a nap. At 5, I tried to convince them out for a walk but they firmly protested and spent the next 2 hours splashing in the bathtub. It had been 3 months since they had been in a tub and obviously that was too long.
The next day we ventured out in a hired car and faced the traffic which thankfully wasn't as bad as the day before. It was a holiday, Rakhi, so perhaps that helped. Rakhi is a festival which celebrates the relationship between a brother and a sister. The sister ties a sacred string (or a shiny string with a trinket these days) on the brother's wrist and the brother gives sweets or chocolates to the sister. The feeling of the festival was really driven home when we drove past the large prison in Delhi. The outer wall was lined with women for almost a km waiting to get the chance to tie rahki for their brothers.
The following day I convinced the girls to take a Metro ride with me down to India Gate. We bought our tokens, found the correct train and hopped on the last car just as our train was pulling out. It was crowded but we had done crowded in Japan. But then more and more and more people got on. As the Metro had be immobilized by the blackout I was determined to stay near the door in case another blackout happened. I did not want to be stuck in the middle of the car. And still more people than I possibly imagined continued to get on the car. But thankfully due to my white skin or my 2 adorable girls, we rode with a 6 inch buffer that no one seemed to want to cross. As we traveled we heard the announcement about the "Ladies Car" being the first car on the train. It was then that I looked around and noticed every other person in the car with us was male. Not that it really matters to me, because I have found in India, when I am with my children I am never approached or made to feel uncomfortable. I am seen as a mother and men go out of their way to be nice or to help me. But as more and more stinky, sweaty men crowded into our car I decided the "Ladies Car" was the way to go on the way home.
We landed at Ragiv Chowk and Star's mouth dropped when she saw all the people moving around the station. She asked me, "Did you know there was going to be this many people in Delhi?" We slowly made our way to India Gate via an extremely expensive auto rickshaw. As Star's cheeks redden from the heat and sweat beaded on her nose and Flip's body hung limply on my hip, I insisted that we stand in the blazing heat and admire the beauty of India gate for at least 3 minutes, and then we retreated to the shade to find a white dad and 2 girls doing the same.
The mom joined and we started chatting. I offered them banana bread. They offered us cold water. We learned the mom and dad were teachers and lived in Tamil Nadu for 3 years while working at an International School. Their eldest daughter was born in India and they had brought her back to see her birth place. They were on a whirlwind 2 week trip around India which reminded me so much of our whirlwind trip around Japan. After both families had recovered from the sun and the heat, we said good bye and walked away. I told Star, that is what I love about traveling. We were in the same place at the same time. We shared a moment and now we both disappear back into the world.
Our trip home on the Metro was definitely less crowded as we rode in the "Ladies Car". And it was a beautiful sight to see our hotel just outside the metro stop gates. As we walked up the hill back to the hotel little Flip said, "We will be alright once we get back into the hotel." I might be raising worldly kids, but they are still soft.
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