Delhi was chilly and foggy; the fog felt like normal fog but
after two days I was developing a chesty cough and glad to move on. It must be trying to live in! My hotel was very pleasant (due to a mistake
on their part about the airport transfer I was upgraded to a suite which is
about the same size as my apartment at home!
I love heated tile floors!): it was easy to get to my meetings from and
very near a metro station.
India Gate, closed off for Republic Day celebrations
After one of my meetings I was driven past the India Gate (a
?Edwardian monument) and the Parliament buildings. Because of the upcoming Republic Day celebrations
(26 Jan), this year to be graced by Barak Obama, security was tight and my
driver was unable to get very close. That,
combined with the fog, didn’t lead to very good pictures.
Parliament building
I saw a small flock of hawks (I think: definitely Birds of Prey
of some sort) – they were grazing on a pavement as pigeons do in other
cities. Impressive!
On both Thursday and Friday evenings I met up with my
friend, D: it was great to see her again and to see a little bit of her
city. D loves to shop and is an expert
on where to find good things to buy. She
is on a shopping diet at the moment (possibly something I should consider too!)
but she very kindly took me to two markets.
The first has vendors from all over India: they have stalls for two
weeks at a time. There were also regional
dancers and food from all over India.
The chai was served in little terracotta pots and was delicious. There were a lot of shawls, kurtas (tunics),
and household linens as well as leather goods, stone tableware, lamps, paper
goods, bags, brass – all kinds of amazing treasures!
Rajastani dancers – one woman is dancing with FIVE pots on her head!
The second night we went to a more upmarket shopping area:
from the street there didn’t appear to be many shops: most of them were
upstairs, you have to know which doorways to open! It was lovely pottering around a whole range
of treasures: lovely-smelling ayuvedic skin products, jewellery, paper goods,
book shops, Indian-style clothes (jewel-bright kurtas and kurtees (short
tunics) and beautiful saris of all
colours – I wish I had more need for them, and more skill draping them!), and
restaurants, all tucked away!
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