Day 21

So my dad left yesterday afternoon back for home, and I'll be leaving for Singapore tomorrow morning. It's different and a first staying with my grandparents alone. My grandmother sits out in the front in the sun for hours. People here treasure the sun.. whenever we went to someone's house, I would ask where the sun comes. I only started asking bc I realized just about eveyrone knows! They know the location of the sun at certain times in respect to their house. Well it's nice, I just finished eating a pomegranate. But I mean I get restless, and being overly carefree makes me uncomfortable sometimes lol.
My grandfather (my Baba) reads the newspapers and magazines outside. Hes always reading something. Or he's always talking. Last night he told me all these random stories and all the countries he has been to. He's actually been to North Korea! (if you don't know, rarely do people leave or get in.. its listed as one of the most isolated countries in the world) Him and another prof were invited to visit, more like given tours of fake hospitals fake markets fake universities to make a good impression. My grandfather said they weren't allowed to leave the house without an escort, weren't allowed contact with locals, and couldn't wander around. Letters were screened and didn't even reach my grandmother til after he had already returned. People are barely allowed any contact with the outisde world.. phones are limited. Professors are pretty much told what to teach and when my grandfather started praising a professor he had met, the professor said stop, I will get in trouble, only praise the Great Leader. How hardcore is that! way sketch.
My grandfather is well-known in lots of places, he's extremely accomplished. He ranked first in the entire state of Uttar Pradesh in International Commerce when he was 19. He became a professor of commerce & international business and then became Director of the Delhi School of Economics. He has been invited to many embassies in Delhi- I was looking at his business card holders and there are business cards of ambassadors of algeria, japan, suriname, netherlands, australia blah blah. He's retired now, and so when I asked why he won't move to the US, he says that his network is here. Old students and other retired profs come over all the time to talk.. i have had to meet many during this trip. (the teacher-student relationship here is way more revered here than in the US.) All the gate people stand up and address him every day. I can tell things like that make him happy haha he definitely likes being recognized. But he's extremely disorganized, doesn't listen, and is an even worse debater. He'll tell a story to anyone who listens. Well you don't even have to be listening, I was watching a movie and he was still talking! Haha slightly annoying but what are you gonna do.

Day 18

You dont realize how eventful a year has been until you really start to think about it. And while youre thinking through it all, you also realize how long a year is lord. Naturally I tried to trick myself into not thinking about the sucky stuff. I have enough lists to remind me. But I found lots of good and neat things of the 07.. like I flew 21 times and travelled in 11 countries! not including random stopovers lol. and Taj was his cutest this year, especially since he talks alot more now.. I guess there was only one other year to compare to but still. anyways I'm beyond excited for the beginning half of this year haha. Happy New Years!
I had to rewrite this bc as I was writing it yesterday, the power went out and the backup electricity or whatever doesnt think the computer is necessary. LAME.

Day 15

Everytime we walk past a market, which is like everywhere, I stop and start seeing things I want. You could spend twice the amount of time in one market than at like fashion show mall. yesterday I got some more jewelry but i've had to limit myself on the shawls and stolls. the only reason things are less expensive here is bc it costs less to make it bc labor is so cheap. hence why all things we use in america are made in countries like china. One aunty said "benefits of an immensely populated country". for sure.
I love taking rickshaws everywhere. i figure the 10 rupees/25 cents im adding to the economy is worth me not walking. We've only used the 3-wheeler auto rickshaws a few times since there's the metro now. and the roads are scary no doubt. People all have drivers bc i would imagine its very tiring. You have to look in all directions bc there are no lanes and its constant stop and go. people only drive manuals and honking is used for warning. Just about every car has the side view mirrors broken off or folded inwards bc it takes up too much space, and there are no seatbelts in the backseats. Some cars have belts in the back, but no buckles..
Kids aren't put in carseats either. I was like hot damn.
oh how could i forget the not-so-shocking yet shocking assassination of ms. Benazir Bhutto. Its been on the news 24/7 here. So it was evening time and my dad and I were walking in the market when we overheard a guy saying "the bhutto lady was killed". He was telling someone this in hindi and I heard "bhutta lady". Bhutta is corn on the cob, and i just got some from the lady at the end of the market road. I was shocked and kept saying are you sure are you sure we just bought corn from her! Yeah i felt dumb. but anyways Bhutto was a very intelligent woman, harvard AND oxford educated. she was Pakistan's prime minister twice, but then her and her husband were both exiled many times for fraud and embezzlement. Her kids live in dubai and everytime they play a slideshow, there's this one side picture of her with glasses that have a big fat Chanel symbol haha. Her and her family's history is pretty interesting. it's sad to see pakistan crumble everytime there seems to be hope.. oh that musharaff... tsk tsk.

Day 13

I love bollywood movies and hindi songs. i pretty much watched om shanti om again, its so good omg. At some parts the girl looks like an indian Rachael McAdams no joke. DVDs come out here like 2 weeks after the movie does in theaters.
I got my eyebrows threaded for the first time. It feels strange, definitely doesnt hurt as much as waxing. i think it takes a lot of skill.. the lady did it fast but like still so precise. I was like wow who came up with this?

oh and I LOVE WAG SEASON 5. by far the greatest season of will & grace. I love Will but not as much as i love karen in this season jesus christ she's hilarious. (i watch before I go to bed sometimes bc my grandmother snores like no other.)

Day 12

It seemed like today turned out to be dedicated to all religions? My dad rented a car and driver this morning so we could go around to a couple of spots I wanted to see. By the end of the day, I had gone to a Hindu temple, Sikh temple, Jain temple, Baha'i temple, and Muslim mosque.
The hindu mandir was a beautiful complex with different open rooms. All the walls were covered in mantras, lines from texts, or symbol meanings, like the om, swastika, lotus etc.
Then we went to a big Sikh gurudwara. the music and songs at a gurudwara beats all others haha they use tablas and accordians. every temple gives you some food thing after prayer, like an indian sweet, but gurudwaras give a full meal after prayer. I think the guy next to us ate like 5 breads no joke, but he was probably a hardcore laborer who needed it.
The Baha'i temple is called the Lotus temple. The baha'i faith started in Persia, and now they have "places of worship" around the world. Actually baha'i-ism? is illegal in Iran. The baha'i faith is interesting, but too conflicting for me. Here everyone calls it the Lotus temple, because it's a huge huge lotus shaped building, very pretty. the lotus is obviously an important symbol in many religions.
The jain temple was by far the most serene. At the very top of a hill was a 42ish ton marble statue of Lord Mahavir, the main guru of Jainism. Jainism is circled around the idea of ahimsa- sanskrit for nonviolence. Sure every religion says violence is bad, but Jainism is the most radical, it's THE base principle. as a group, jains are probably the most nonviolent and extreme in things like giving up material objects or vegetarianism. Jains are pure vegetarians, they don't even eat roots bc it does harm (no onion!, ginger, carrots etc). Some don't eat after the sun sets. There's an even more extreme devout group that don't wear clothes bc they are materialistic. They all live together in an ashram of course (that was the first thing i asked).
K im getting tired, this is long. But anywyas, I feel that India (well at least delhi) is one of very few places I can think where hundreds of tiny or big religions live all together in relative peace. how nice.

Day 11

Who knew that getting into a movie theater here is worse than trying to get through airport security. First of all, it seems like every Indian sees every Indian movie. Last night, which was a monday, the movie we wanted to see was sold out! I guess it just opened 4 days ago, but still. So today, the 25th, the guy in front of us was buying 2 tickets for that same movie for the 31st. I was like lord. So you go through a metal detector and then get patted by your respective sex and then get your bag checked very thoroughly. She took away my swiss army knife and made sure my camera was a camera. but anyways we saw an awesome movie today, good songs good people- om shanti om. It was playing in SD i think. (katie, its funny but i dont think you'll looove it bc its all about like making fun of old indian movies and actors).

Day 7

Today I noticed that since I've been here, I've had chai at least 3 times a day, sometimes 4. Chai is the one thing every single person in india has in common i would say. The poorest of the poor still drink chai and the richest of the rich do too. it's definitely good for you, and i think it helps with aging. there have been so many times here where I guess someone's age and they are actually like 10 years older. I was hanging out with this girl for 2 days, and during those 2 days I had been asking her about school stuff and her major blah blah. So i ask my aunt how old she is later, and my aunts like oh she's 32 or 33. I'm like come again. then we went to an uncle's house whose son we visited in holland. it was clear he was old, but i'm thinking like 70. He's actually 89ish and still going. but he makes herbal medicines and such so im sure that has helped. Also people here eat meat very rarely, if at all. 70 to 80% of the population (about 1.2 Billion) of India is vegetarian. That definitely contributes. I barely eat meat at home, but even I'm missing chicken a bit.

Day 3

We took the metro back to old delhi this morning. It's definitely something you won't see anywhere else. You walk up the stairs out of the station and all of a sudden a million people are bustling in every available space. Cars, rickshaws, bikes, people, cows, goats. Moving things just everywhere and I'm always like, where is everyone going? I wonder that when I'm in traffic on a freeway too. It was hard to walk, so we jumped in a rickshaw towards Jama Masjid. Its weird how locals walk through the streets knowing where every pothole is or pole is without even looking. Even on rickshaws, they automatically avoid potholes without even looking down. What a talent! Here I have to constantly look in every direction since traffic doesn't always follow stop lights or anything.
Jama Masjid is beautiful. You climb up steps, take off your shoes, and walk through the arched entrance to a huge courtyard where up to 25000 people can pray. There is a fountain in the middle and tons of pigeons eating seeds. And then you find out Shah Jahan built it, and the Taj Mahal like architecture makes sense. He was known for his architectual intellect. We climbed up 121! steps to the top of one of two minarets and got a great view of the surrounding area. There were lots of european tourists. Pictures aren't allowed in the mosque.. unless you pay the guy who stops you haha. As we were walking out through the metal detector, a police man was sitting on the desk copying out names from a notebook called "Characters to Watch For". I laughed at the name. My dad asked what it meant, and he said people who have misbehaved or pickpocketed in the masjid are written down and watched for so they don't come back. I guess the police know what the men look like?

Day 2

So it might have been all the random food I ate the day before or just the overwhelming nature of delhi in general, but either way I got really sick this morning. I threw up a few times and stayed in bed for the entire morning. So my dad called a doctor in the neighborhood who told my grandfather to get some meds. I took one white pill and was completely fine in 15 minutes. it was amazing, i was so glad. American medicine has to be the weakest.. you get the strong stuff everywhere else in the world. Here the pharmacist is called a Chemist and you don't really need prescriptions. You go tell him what's wrong and he'll either pull something out right away or make something haha they are very smart people.
Since I felt fine during the afternoon, we decided to go out at night with my dad's cousin and his family. We went to this new place in delhi called Metro Walk. Its like a big outdoor mall like the vegas outlets or fashion valley. Theres an amusement park attached with a man made lake. On sundays it's way packed with families or our age kids hanging around. Hyundai is releasing a new car here, so as a promotion they had a dj out and everything. at first I was just walking and I started singing britney spears toxic and I was like wait.. where is that coming from. We turn the corner and I see groups of guys dancing together. definitely strange, but im pretty sure its normal.. boys are more touchy than girls even. They put their arm around each others shoulders and link arms and everything lol. At orientation, they told us "not to be shocked" when we noticed this in singapore haha.

Day 1 still

I just got home from a long day out. After my 27-turned-42 hour flight, I woke up pretty early this morning so we took advantage of my non jetlaggedness. We took the Delhi's new Metro to the center of town. My grandfather's house is perfectly situated between 2 stations. The metro started about 3 years ago, and it seriously is the best thing to happen to India next to cell phones. I think it's the exact system that Paris uses. It has mobilized people immensely. Even more than that, the metro seems to transform people. The second you enter the station, trash disappears, people aren't loud, and no one spits out tobacco on the floor. On the train, men quickly get up from a seat if there's an old lady or a mom with a baby. Everyone's proud. The best thing is watching the people at the escalator. Many that have lived in old delhi all their lives have never been on one. There were 3 old muslim ladies in full burkhas standing at the bottom of the escalator just staring, and so as my dad was about to get on, they asked him to let them hold his arm haha they giggled all the way up. Old delhi is where Jama Masjid is- the largest mosque in India built in the 1600s. So naturally, the community is mostly Indian muslims who never really travelled outside that area.. until the Metro! The only thing is that the metro hasn't relieved car and people traffic in delhi like I anticipated, but rather increased it. There is a clear contrast when you look through the big glass windows on the above ground metros; as much as delhi has developed, there still exists extreme poverty everywhere you go.

Day 1

So I wake up to a few things on my first morning in delhi- 1) my grandfather praying godly loud, 2) my grandmother singing to a song playing on the radio in the same room I'm sleeping in, and 3) a strong lemony fresh smell from this cleaning girl hand-scrubbing the floor next to my bed. I get up and realize all this happens starting at 5 in the morning. By 7, a lady on a bike delivers a bag of milk in the mailbox and by 8, men are screaming through the neighborhood names of vegetables and fruits that are for sale. You seriously never have to walk out of your house, everything comes to you! Actually it might just be the case in this neighborhood bc it's a colony especially for retired professors. Basically old people living alone because their kids are all in the US and europe. A lady, Maya, comes evreyday to cook for my grandparents (and about 5 other houses) because they are getting old and my grandmother can't see exactly what she's cutting. Labor is relatively inexpensive because there's not much work available. The milk lady is paid 100 rupees/$3 a month for delivering milk every day, cleaning lady is paid 700 rupees/$18, the cook gets 800 rupees/$20, the gaurd who sits outside our house from 8 pm to 8 am gets 200 rupees/$5. And all of those are monthly costs for people who come to work every day. I was way shocked.