Delhi

I spent 3 days in Delhi; during which time I finished my program with CCS and joined Imaginative Tours. Both groups took me sightseeing in Delhi; some of what I was able to visit included: Humayun’s Tomb, India Gate, the Lotus Temple, a Hindu Temple, a Sikh Temple and Gandhi’s Memorial. We observed great architecture from all through the ages and rulers of India. I am getting particularly attached to visiting Temples. The Lotus Temple is the most modern one I’ve seen and it looks exactly like a lotus flower.
Delhi, like all big cities in India, was very busy and chaotic. It was fun to watch and see all that goes on, but I was usually glad to escape into a quiet store or tea shop, or even a Taxi to rest from all the bustle. I found in more hectic than shopping at Christmas in Toronto. Cars, cows, bicycles, oxen, carts, rigshaws, dogs, people etc are all over the streets in one big free for all.
Of course to add to my confusion, people knew I was a foreigner and thus I was constantly being approached and surrounded by beggars and merchants trying to get some money or my business. We were advised not make eye contact with the beggars, and that even a “no thank-you” to a merchant would be taken as a maybe, and he wouldn’t likely give up very soon. Since begging is huge exploitive business in India, our hosts really do not want it encouraged. It was very hard to ignore the children. They grab at you, want a pen or money or food. Our travel company has arranged for us to give money to charities that work to save children from this exploitation, so this eased my conscience a bit.
I caught a glimpse of my first charmed cobras in Delhi. A man was playing his flute and they were moving in time to the music. But I didn’t watch (again an exploitive business), but also I am a big chicken when it comes to snakes and I walked as far away as fast as I could from them. Since then I’ve been on cobra watch at all tourist spots so that I can successfully avoid them. When I was at the Gandhi Memorial I saw a man playing a flute; I took one look at him and turned away and walked very fast in the opposite direction. He must have seen my face because I heard him say “ma’am no cobra, no cobra ma’am, no cobra”...poor man was just playing his flute.