In Delhi

All 60 or so of us doing CLS in India landed in Delhi last weekend to have our in-country orientation. We visited the AIIS headquarters in Gurgaon, outside of Delhi, where there is an impressive collection of ethnomusicology sound recordings, archeological documents and literature from India. Amidst many hours of orientation, we were able to squeeze in a little sight seeing. We went to the Qutb Minar in Delhi, which is an ancient astrological instrument (it’s actually an enormous sundial). The minar is well-preserved, but some of the surrounding grounds are in ruins. The whole sight was very beautiful.

After our tour of AIIS Gurgaon, they took us to the Kingdom of Dreams, which is probably the closest thing India has to Disney World, minus the rides. It’s this immaculate fake castle, and on the inside they have shops and restaurants from nearly every state. I think they took us there just because it was close to AIIS (Gurgaon is a business-oriented suburb of Delhi where the ultra-rich live amongst towering headquartes of Multinationals and shantytowns of construction workers and other service people). Anyways, it was disappointed to have to spend two or three hours in the Kingdom of Dreams, which is a pathetically unrealistic representation of the country, when we could have been exploring Delhi and its real monuments.

Luckily we did have Monday afternoon free to go wherever we chose. I went with two guys from the Urdu program to Old Delhi. We went on the metro, which is one of India’s prouder recent achievements. The whole system was built, with the help of funding and technical support from the Japanese government (India is the biggest recipient of Japanese foreign aid), on time, within budget, and without any corruption scandals. There are five or six lines, and the trains are clean, fast, and air-conditioned. I was very impressed. By comparison, Kolkata’s metro system, which was built in the 80’s, has only one line, which runs from North to South (though they have recently expanded it further south, and are in the process of building an East-West line), and is un-air conditioned. It also generally runs on time, and for a fraction of the price. A ticket on the Kolkata metro costs from Rs 4-8 while in Delhi it’s Rs. 15-30 or so. Double the number to get the approximate American cost, in cents (a 4 Rupee ticket is about 8 American cents (though it’s actually probably closer to 9)).

We got out of the metro and basically guessed where to go, walking around until we could see the top of the Red Fort. When we got up to the gate, we realized that it was closed, as most monuments and museums in India are on Mondays. We looked at it through the gate, and then, in a roundabout way, eventually found the Jamuna Masjid. It was absolutely beautiful, though we declined to pay the Rs 200 entrance fee, so, like the Red Fort, we only saw it from the outside. After that, we wandered through some of the alleys in bazaar of Old Delhi before heading back to the metro. All in all, it was a fun afternoon, and it was nice to finally get out on my own, and be able to choose where I was going, rather than being ushered around.

On Tuesday morning, we all left for our different program locations.

The pictures of me at the Qutb Minar, the bazaar in Old Delhi, and inside the Kingdom of Dreams.