Shopper's Paradise

Before leaving for India I heard and read stories of how great it is to shop in India and how you can get great clothes at fantastic prices. I had braced myself for being disappointed by these grand expectations, and figured that being in a big city in Delhi the prices might not be as cheap as people claimed. I am so happy that the shopping reality here is better than the stories I have heard. After the colored festivities of Holi, I have made some ventures into Delhi's shopping selection. My first week here I went to the N-Block market in Greater Kailesh and surprised to find that I could buy an entire outfit for about $25. This deflated me a little because this was not the outrageous value that I was told India was going to offer. However, the shops in this market are Western style with showrooms and racks of clothes. I did a little more digging to find out where the locals shop.

Monday afternoon I spent the afternoon and evening at Sarojini Market, an authentic market where locals told me some great deals were to be found. As I started to wander the stalls of the array of kurtas and jewelry, I couldn't believe the beautiful colors and the amazing prices. Many of the prices for kurtas were 150 RS, about $3, and of course that's just the starting point for some hard haggling. The stores at N-Block market had kurtas starting from 600 RS, and those were fixed prices. I went from stall to stall, overwhelmed by the choices I had in style, fabric, and pattern. There was stall after stall along each lane, and then on each side of the lane when going further into the market. There were even more stores and stalls when navigating perpendicular to the main stalls. Stores were selling clothes, shoes, jewelry, scarves, pillows, saris, everything that could be worn or was made from fabric. I'm still getting my bearings on the array of different kurta styles and salwar kameez I could wear so I limited my shopping to necessities. For two skirts, two pairs of shoes, and two pairs of pants I paid about $14. Amazing!

Since I have been struck with a little Delhi belly on Tuesday, I've been taking it easy this week. Tuesday and Wednesday were classes as usual. After being cooped up for two days I decided it was time to find some more shopping. I've been hearing about Lajpat Nagar Central Market from locals so I decided that I had to check it out. I found even more stalls and stores filled with an even wider variety of items, including housewares and silverware. One thing I love about India are the truly gorgeous fabrics and colors and patterns that all the women wear so beautifully. One fabulous store had ribbons of these amazing fabrics and patterns, material to line curtains, sheets, clothes, everything. With all the different types of patterns and clothes, and a question from my language teacher about why I haven't started wearing Indian clothes, I decided it was time to start my collection of kurtas. Prices were a little more expensive here but I walked away with two kurtas, pyjami leggings, and a scarf for 770 RS, about $17.

Before leaving for India I also decided to learn how to sew so I could make some clothes for myself. I can be really picky when I know what I'm looking for, and often I've spent hours looking for something and giving up when not being able to find it. While researching for India, I learned that India has many great tailors and it is affordable to get custom tailoring. At different markets I've received quotes for a pair of pants to be $24, including fabric $9 if I provide the fabric. I haven't done much research at fabric stores, but I'm hoping that buying the fabric separately will make it even cheaper. Now I can have all those clothes that I've searched for!

I'm kicking myself now for not taking pictures of these markets thinking, oh I should savor the experience, and generally I don't take much pictures. But I'm realizing that since I'm leaving Delhi I should be better about taking pictures! I do have some videos from some of the rickshaw rides I've taken. Here is a fairly tame one although you can hear how important the horn is while driving.

Auto (as they are called):

My experience:

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.

Bring on the heat, Delhi!

After about 25 hours of traveling, and a fortuitous delay in Chicago which actually allowed me to be early and make my third flight, I am in New Delhi! There were three others on my flight from London who are also volunteering with VSO so we got picked up together and rode to the center with my luggage on top of the car. The AC in the car felt heavenly after hauling around luggage, have to get used to the heat! Volunteers and luggage all arrived at the center in one piece.

So far I have seen the airport, roads from the airport to the training center where I'm staying, and the four blocks I walked to get to this internet cafe, but from these 6 hours I can tell India is a place like no other. There is such an array of people and sights and smells, its an experience for all the senses. The lifestyle and pace of life is so different from the States, it does seem like another world. Never have I walked with the traffic with cars honking for reasons that I can't really discern. Delhi seems to be frozen in time between the traditional culture and the new technological culture. I walked past an outdoor market to reach this internet cafe which is a closet-size rectangular space with stations of computers next to each other.

Since I have been here less than 7 hours, and 4 of them were sleeping, I haven't experienced much but I can't wait to!

Not Really India Related

I know it's been a couple weeks since my last post and I won't be in India for another couple days so I thought I would share the news of a new addition to our family! While I was preparing to make dinner last night my parents came home with a new dog! She's so cute, her name is tentatively Daisy and she is a Cairn Terrier / Silky Terrier mix. She's very sweet and loves to follow us around, she needs to see what we're doing and likes to be involved.

Here are some pictures and then it's back to India posts I promise!

Daisy:

And of course I miss Kanye (and Robert):

Other than that I have arrived in San Diego, happy to wear flip flops again, and preparing to make my official departure. I have three days to unpack everything I moved from Kansas and then plan on what to repack for India.

Also, I meant to include the VSO website where you can learn more about VSO and donate if you would like. www.cuso-vso.org

Correction: Three Weeks Left!

Well, I guess I've already contradicted myself in my blog. A couple days after my first-ever blog post, I received an email saying that I will probably be delayed two weeks, which was confirmed the next day. I will now be leaving San Diego on March 13and arriving in New Delhi on March 15.

A little more detail: CUSO-VSO is the Canadian/North American arm of the larger VSO Federation. VSO sends volunteers from other countries such as the UK, Ireland, the Philippines, Australia, and others to more than 40 countries to volunteer. About 10-15 volunteers arrive in country to volunteer 3-4 times a year. Then the volunteers attend in-country orientation together before going to their individual volunteer placements.

The initial arrival date for volunteers going to India was March 3, but many volunteers (including myself) ran into some delays while trying to get visas (although I did finally get mine two days ago.) Enough volunteers were delayed that the program office in India decided to push back the arrival date to March 15. It doesn't really make sense to start orientation when half the volunteers would miss the first part and would trickle in halfway through orientation. So now I have an extra two weeks in Kansas!

One Week Left!

Hello all! Welcome to my attempt to keep a blog for my year-long experience in Mumbai. I'm not all that great at writing all my innermost thoughts and daily happenings onto blog form, but I'm hoping to get better! What makes it worse (or better) is that I generally don't read blogs (other than HuffPo) so this is going to have my own twist on what a travel blog looks like.

Right now I am in Kansas, wrapping up my last couple days with CalPERS and Robert (and Kanye), then heading off to San Diego where I will pack my one suitcase for a year in India. I leave San Diego March 1, and arrive in New Delhi on March 3. I'll spend a month there for in-country orientation, learning Hindi and learning to try to live like an Indian. From there I'll be spending the remaining 11 months in Mumbai.

In Mumbai I will be working as a Volunteer Management Associate with an organization that seeks to empower the marginalized population by becoming more politically active and economically secure. Their focus is working with the younger generation to become more knowledgeable and aware. I will be managing 2500 volunteers, mainly in the projects (slums) and the rural areas surrounding Mumbai.

Mumbai is the largest, most populous city in India, the second most populous in the world. It's home to Bollywood and has a relatively high standard of living as the commercial capital of one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The Bollywood celebrities and wealthy live in Mumbai, it's the Hollywood and New York of the US in one city. On the flip side, Mumbai has the largest slum in India, the second-largest in Asia with over 800,000 people. 42% of the 21 million people in Mumbai live in slums. If anything it will definitely be eye-opening.

I'm hoping to post lots of pictures and try to convey the truly unique experience of living in India on about $7 a day!

Kansas:

to Mumbai: