Sunday, March 20, 2011

Happy Holi!

Happy Holi! I have only been in Delhi for a week and I am lucky to be here for Holi. Holi is a festival of colors and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Holi is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other. Bonfires are lit the on the eve of the festival in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when the Demoness Holika carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion. Walking the streets the past few days carried the likelihood of having colored powder at you, which is easily washed off. Yesterday while shopping for some electronic goods at Nehru Place, there was a fantastic mini-performance of two girls dancing to a group of men drumming. The people were happy and enjoying the holiday, while participating and being covered in colored powder. That night there was a performance by famous classical singer, Shubha Mudgal. The music was beautiful and it was followed by performance illustrating the reasons for celebrating Holi.

As for earlier in the week, I have spent time going to various markets in search of ear plugs and clothes. At Khan market on Thursday I was able to find some earplugs for 125 RS which is about $2.75. I thought that was an outrageous price to pay for ear plugs but understood the markup as this was the first store that had them out of the many that I visited. I decided that was too expensive and wandered to six more stalls before finding another seller who sold me four pairs of ear plugs at 15 RS a pair. What a bargain! I'm glad my persistence paid off. This was also the first market we found alcohol so we each bought a beer to drink back at the residence to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. One thing I've had to get used to is that the cars drive on the left side of the road. As there are few streets that have defined pedestrian crossing, I've had to learn to look the other way when crossing the street. It's taken a few closer than comfortable calls for me to know to look right first, not left.

Friday was another day for exploration, this time at Defence Colony, which had nice restaurants. We found a bar there with happy hour and spent hours on the rooftop talking. What a great way to end the week.

On Saturday, I was exhausted from not yet having a full night's sleep. I guess my 25 hour flying time and 12.5 time difference is doing a number on my jet lag and sleeping patterns. However I was able to pull it together long enough for a quick nap in the morning before heading out for my most jam-packed day yet. Back to Nehru Place, where this post begins, we started by buying some electronic gadgets. I now have Internet! From there we decided to go to Chandni Chowk, one of the busiest markets in Old Delhi. Chandni Chowk is truly an experience. There is a crush of people walking from stall to stall, and there are a variety of different kinds of stores and smells. I was on a mission to find some great clothes and fabrics but the sheer number of people deterred my efforts. What I did see was amazing and I'm looking forward to going back to get some beautiful fabric. Chandni Chowk is across the street from the Red Fort, a grand building that was completed in 1648. From there we wandered for a bit but realized we had to return home for the concert we were attending that night.

From this first week in Delhi, the most significant impression in my mind is how culturally rich and diverse India is. I know you hear this about India all the time, because I certainly did, but it really is the truth. I don't know of any other country where the Western and American culture has had such little impact. The movie theaters have more Bollywood movies than Hollywood movies. Women walk around in saris and salwar kameez, not jeans and shirts. I've heard Hindi music on the street, the only Western song I heard was a Justin Bieber song in the background for about 5 seconds. Even the cars driven by bachelors blast Hindi music with deep bass beats. I very much admire and love that India's culture is so rich and deeply-rooted that it is still as prevalent today as it has always been. And then there's the diversity, as the many religions that were started here can prove. Each city and state have its own culture, food, dress, way of life. It could take lifetimes to experience all that India has to offer.

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