President's House and Parliament

Starting on Republic Day and ending 3 days later with the “Beating Retreat” ceremony, the President’s House and Parliament are lit up in lights. I completely missed this spectacle last year, so I was determined to see it this year. The top of India Gate is also lit with green, white and orange lights – forming the Indian flag.
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I didn't actually see the ceremony, only the lights, but that was cool enough. The ceremony signifies the retreat by armed forces after a day at the battlefront and is accompanied by armed forces bands and bagpipers.

By the way, until last week, I thought that the President’s House was Parliament. It turns out that Parliament is the round building NEXT to the President's House. Anyway, it made sense because the building sits at the end of a long road a pedestrian avenue called Rajpath (a la the US Capitol and the National Mall) and I never thought that a president would need a house that big.

Me, Sarkozy and the Taj Mahal

My cousin Lewis made a brief visit to Delhi on Friday and Saturday after spending a few days in Bangalore for work. The French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, threaten to ruin our plans since his visit to India (without Carla Bruni) coincided with Lewis's visit. But we managed to not let him get in our way.

On Friday evening, we ventured to Old Delhi, giving Lewis the chance to take in the “real” India. After picking up wedding invitations, we took a cycle rickshaw to the main street, Chandni Chowk. There were eat street food, dahi bhalla and tikki, before going to Haldiram’s to load up on (and taste) Indian sweets. ccccCCCCCCCccOn a cycle rickshaw in Old Delhi

Stocking up before the dry day!

Haldiram's Sweet Shop

Enjoying Street Food

Later on, we went to our favorite restaurant in town, Smokehouse Grill. We managed to get there just in time to enjoy one drink with dinner – restaurants and bars stopped serving alcohol at 11:30pm because the following day was a dry day due to the Republic Day holiday.

On Saturday, Lewis and I battled road closures, awful roads and even the French president, but we prevailed and managed to see the Taj Mahal, if only briefly. We planned to leave Delhi at 6am, but our driver claimed he couldn’t make it through town because many roads were blocked for the Republic Day parade through the center of town. Of course, roads were still open, but you had to go around the action.

Ani spent the next hour or two on the phone trying to locate another cab for us. Fortunately for us, he was successful and we finally left the apartment around 8:30am. Unfortunately for us, this also meant that we would arrive in Agra at just about the same time as Sarkozy. And that’s exactly what happened.

As we were approaching one of the side entrances to the Taj, we noticed that the road was blocked up ahead. They had stopped traffic for Sarkozy’s motorcade. At first we though he was leaving, but instead, he was running late and was just arriving at the Taj Mahal.

On a side note, Sarkozy was the guest of honor at the Republic Day parade and flew to Agra from Delhi - a 30 minute flight. It takes me longer to even get to the airport, and that doesn’t include the wait time just to enter the airport!

Agra Fort

Because the Taj Mahal was closed for a “private viewing,” we made our way to Agra Fort, along with every other tourist in Agra. Despite the crowds, it was a nice visit and my first. At about 4:30pm we finally made our way to the Taj, again, along with everyone else in Delhi. The lines were enormous and I waited for almost an hour in the “female” security line, while Lewis’s “male” line went much faster. Once inside, we made a mad dash around the structure. We needed to get back to Delhi because Lewis’s international flight was to depart at 3am and we had no idea how traffic would be on the return.

Me and Lewis at the Taj Mahal

I promised Lewis he would see the Taj and I delivered. I was very worried on Thursday when I realized that Sarkozy planned to visit the same day. And I was even more worried when I realized that roads would be closed on Saturday morning. But we found a way and while the visit was brief, it was well worth it.

How cute are they?

A Welcomed Change to Shopping in Delhi

I'm sad to admit it, but I was so excited when I recently visited a newly opened mall in Delhi. There's one mall near my house that was the first one in Delhi, and it looks like it. It's old, crowded and not that exciting. Most other malls are out in the suburbs, so I've never visited them. But thanks to Delhi's emerging middle class and booming development, new malls are popping up across the city.

CityWalk mall in Saket is amazing! My excitement started when we pulled into the garage, or rather, we tried to pull into the garage and had to wait in line to get an electronic ticket. Ani was immediately annoyed and ranted that it was a mistake to come because it was too much of a hassle. A hassle because you have to wait in line and park in an orderly fashion, I asked?

Once I stepped into the mall, I was even more excited. It was huge, clean and filled with nice stores. Levi's, Nike, Calvin Klein, Clinique, Bennetton, Guess, Puma and many others. To our surprised, we stayed in the mall for quite some time and even ate dinner at one of the new restaurants. On several occasions, I actually forgot where I was.

More than anything else, it's really nice to be able to go to one place and do all of your shopping. Normally, you visit one store in a particular market and then travel to another store in another market for something else. While Ani may not be looking forward to our next visit, I certainly am.

Why I Hate India...

...bad traffic, worse roads and even worse drivers!

The past week was Road Safety in Delhi and it feature even more corny slogans than normal to encourage safe driving. Some of my favorites are: "Get off the phone or get off the road," "Lane driving is safe driving" and "Speed thrills by kills."

You might be confused at the thought of having to remind people to drive in the lane because that's just how driving is done. But not in India. As anyone who has traveled here will agree, lanes are merely a suggestion and not required at all. In Delhi, it's completely normal to drive in the middle of two lanes.

I've talked to several friends and colleagues about the situation on the roads and it boils down to the fact that driving is viewed as a right and not a privilege here. The only concern anyone has is getting to where he needs to go and not for the person in the car behind him or the person trying to cross the road. People say it's slowly getting better. Today for instance, Ani and I were driving through the market and a car was trying to turn around in front of us blocking the way. The driver signaled for us to wait a minute. Ani patiently waited and never honked the horn. And finally, once the driver passed us, he waved 'thank you.' How nice and civilized.

Of course traffic is complicated because it's not just cars and buses on the road. You also have to compete with trucks, auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles, hand carts, people and cows on the roads. Everyone is telling me that I should start to drive here, but there's no way I'm ready to do that - especially since I can't really drive manual and I've never driven on the left side of the road.

For now, I will just remain petrified of Indian roads and dependent on others for my transportation needs.

Why I Love India...

...because everything comes to you!

This morning as I was leaving for work, I realized that there wasn't anymore cereal. Feeling bad that Ani would have nothing to eat for breakfast, I remembered that I could call my local grocery store and have everything delivered to the apartment! So, when I got to work, I called to order cereal, milk, eggs, orange juice and Coke. (I figured if I was placing an order, I might as well save myself a trip to the store this weekend).

And miraculously within 30 minutes everything was delivered to the apartment. I love India!

A Postal Adventure

I went to an Indian post office for the first time on Monday...There's a post office right in my market and I walk by it almost daily. But I haven't never really had a reason to go. I usually mail things from the office or give them to Ani. But I had a stack of late Christmas cards in my apartment and I was anxious to finally get them in the mail.

The post office wasn't that bad, but it definitely was a little confusing. After waiting for the woman at the counter to acknowledge me, I asked for stamps to send 14 cards to the US. After tearing off the right amount of stamps and inaccurately totaling the cost, she handed over several strips of stamps to me.

I found a little side table in the post office and started to apply the stamps to each envelope. After licking the first stamp, I noticed that it wasn't actually sticking to the envelope. And then I realized that there's not glue on the stamps. Fortunately, I noticed the bowl of "glue" also sitting on the table and I realized that I was supposed to apply this to the stamps (with my fingers?). In any case, I got the job done and made a bit of a mess on the envelopes.

Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that the stamps will stay in their places and that my belated Christmas cards will arrive in a few weeks.

The no-glue discovery also helps me understand why there is no glue on envelopes here either. As a result all of my Christmas cards are taped closed - sorry.

So even though it's been over a year since I first arrived in India, almost every day offers new challenges and things I just don't understand. My next adventure...a visit to my local bank. Wish me luck.