No Pastrami in the Delhi

After some breakfast and tea at Rahul's it was off to Delhi. I had to Coordinate with Vivek's parents to figure out where I where they live and when to meet them, but that was pretty quick and easy and then Rahul's driver brought me to Nizamoudin station. Well as with the first time I drove with him it was like a scary roller coaster, but we did get there safe and sound. Well I was going to Nizamoudin station to cancel my original ticket to Patankot, which I had tried to cancel in Jaipur to facilitate my going to Delhi's first comic convention. Well the people at Nizamoudin ended up telling me that I needed to go to New Delhi station to process a credit card return. The endless chase....

Well I wasn't going to Vivek's parents house until the evening so I had a bunch of time to kill, so even though I was completely burdened with my bag I figured I'd walk around the city and just kind of make my way to the new Delhi station. Delhi wasn't like Jaipur, but it also was no Pondy. I walked from the station which was a bit of a jungle itself and started walking down what seemed like an interesting path, I saw some nice people selling who knows what with a stray dog staying in their proximity and when I walked by the dog lunged out at me and started barking, now me with my pack and lumbar bag just bursted with energy and skedaddled right out of there. I then just kept walking. I eventually found myself resting on the wall outside of the courts and smelled all sorts smells, but I still managed to pull out my lonely planet and try to figure out where to go. I decided on the Museum of modern art, which was quite close by. I made my way inside through their lovely artistic entry way. My bag couldn't fit in their lockers, but the guard was super nice and let me put it on top of the lockers. It was really quite nice to no longer be burdened with the weight of the bag. I walked around and they had this really amazing show of orks by Anish Kapoor, which was really quite nice. However I couldn't stay there all day and I was quite hungry and their food was quite lacking and I might add quite expensive for what it was, so headed out after trying to get a good idea of where to go. I decided on a tea shop located in a book shop. It was surprisingly difficult to actually find the place and on entering they wanted to hold onto my bag, and by protesting and mentioning that I had a laptop in it, they relented. They had some really great tea, I had this amazing Darjeeling first flush and as per the books recommendation a muffin.

It was then time to finally make my way to the station. Now I should have known this better by this point, but no one really knows anything in India, but will have no problem telling you something. So following the map I though I was going the right way but ended up being confronted with a no entry and had to completely re route. I then made my to the tourist office and I told them why I was there and they told me to wait online. When it was finally my turn I was told yet again that I was in the wrong place as they could not process credit cards. Finally I found where I was supposed to go and managed to get the credit. I then had to find a place to recharge my phone, which was simply put an exercise in patience. I then called up Vivek's parents to figure out how to get to their place, Vivek's mother told me to take a cab, I would learn pretty quickly that I could have just taken the metro, but whatever. I found a cab stand, which seemed very confused where to go and the driver then seemed even more confused, so I tried to help by using my phone which I had marked down Vivek's house on maverick, well maverick had found the wrong location and I directed us completely the wrong way, well no completely, about a 10 minute walk. The driver then tried to charge me more money than was agreed upon for what was actually a shorter drive than what it should have been, I refused to pay the extra money. Well I gave Vivek's parents a call and luckily his father was nice enough to come and pick me up, well with a little help from a very nice Indian man who walked with me to a meeting point. On the way to meeting Vivek's father the man told me how he walked every day to work I believe 7 miles every day (at this point I can't remember the specifics too well). On arriving at there home after very kindly being driven by Vivek's father I was amazingly well fed, both with food and superb conversation with Vivek's parents. Vivek's father is a mechanical engineer who specializes in renewable forms of energy in many ways and his mother is a former school teacher who now designs the curriculum for much of the delhi school system. Not meaning to cut things short, but after some lengthy discussion I had to excuse myself for a shower and sleep.

In the morning I was fed some lovely food, including toast and cheese, which really is one of my favorite foods, some potato porotta with indian pickles and Dahi. After getting my fill of food I went off to try and find an internet cafe listed in one of the deli books that Vivek's mother had given me, but I couldn't manage to find it, even though it was in Hauz Kaz Village, which seemed to be where I was staying. I then managed to find the metro station and my way to the national gallery, which in all honesty was a bit of a let down, but the metro was amazing. They had some very interesting items at the national gallery, but it was very poorly organized and set up. There was a lovely if not overly ordinate display provided by the Thai government for housing the bones of Sidartha, which seemed most antithetical to the Buddha's ideals. I then went back to the station to try and buy 20 single ride tokens to the cheapest station I could find, they would sell them to me so I bought to, this started my game of trying to obtain as many tokens and cards as possible. I then made my way to the Indira Gandhi arts center, which had an interesting even going on, but honestly it was not that interesting or worthwhile of an adventure. I then made my way over to Khan market, which was a dirty expensive market, where I essentially hoped to simply find some internet. I ended up finding a McDonald's, which I don't even eat in the US, but I decided to try their vegi burger, which though looked very very un appealing was actually one of the better vegi burgers I'd ever had. And that ended up pretty much being the end of my day, well I then grabbed some great dinner and conversation at Vivek's parents' home.

Off to the red fort, I'd say more Pink, but first some internet. After that up to the red fort, which honestly was nice, but not amazing. They charge tourists much more money for tickets, but you get a shorter line, which I suppose is nice. I then went off to the location that Gandhi was assassinated and where he stayed when he was in Delhi. This was actually one of my favorite places in Delhi and it had come highly recommended by Vivek's father. There was an interesting media installation going on as well as some great history about Gandhi. The place was filled with monks who seemed to be making a pilgrimage there. It was one of the most sedate places I had seen in India up to that point. I then went back to Vivek's where I met up with his father so that we could go to an Indian poetry reading. Specifically the reading was all in Hindi as it has become common in India for such pursuits to be done in English. I ended up excusing myself half way through.

The next day was my last day in Delhi and with it came going to the comic convention, I'd been trying to get in contact with Rahul to no avail, but finally I got through to him and he informed me that he had been in a car accident. He was fine as was fine, but his car was destroyed, this was vaguely ironic as I had just complimented his driving especially because he doesn't honk so much, but the honking might have stopped the truck from backing over his front end. The convention was interesting if not more sedate than previous ones I've attended, but you could feel a very positive energy. I then headed back to Vivek's had a quick dinner with Vivek's father and then made my way to the station where madness began. First off I lost a towel, not a huge deal, but I quickly figured out that something was wrong with my ticket as even though it said NDS I was supposed to go to old delhi, well I panicked (always a bad idea) and tried to get a cab, forgetting that I could have taken the metro. I was immediately accosted by a horde of drivers who essentially wouldn't let me leave and gave me no room for bargaining, essentially they took almost all of my cash in my pocket, I luckily had a bit more, but not really much. I ended up getting to the station just by a hair and got on the train in a state of anger, much worse than panic.

Every time dishonesty dishonesty is leveled against me I become a little more disgusting.

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Crash-

How much can a tree take?
Be a tree of Iron

I am but an echo through time and space
Of what I am, what I will be, and what I was

Oh to be a Vulcan
Life would be so much easier
No qualms or hesitation
Only one road to take
But what would be the joy in life?

always in a rush, never there
a little bit of patience, always here.