Metro trip to Old Delhi

After school, a couple teachers took me on a trip to Old Delhi. We took the Metro. Despite there being a stop about 7 minutes from where I work, this was my first trip. The Delhi Metro is very new. Most of it was completed in time for the Commonwealth Games, about a year ago. It was clean, efficient and crowded. We were so packed in that a random man rested his chin on my shoulder. Let me ease your burden, random man.

Then we jumped out at Chawri Bazaar in the heart of Old Delhi. Wow, what a difference. Where New Delhi is full of wide avenues, green trees and relative peacefulness, Old Delhi is a brown jostle of shops, electric wires and throngs of people. The most popular way to travel seems to be bicycle rickshaw, and this definitely worked for us.

After visiting a famous mosque (Jama Masjid), we followed the stream through narrow, ancient corridors lined with every service and bauble imaginable.

I found this trip refreshing and energizing. There's so much out there to see, and I have considerably increased my pace since this trip.

adventures

Hello faithful readers. As you may have surmised, I have been busy getting set up here. But fun and adventure has been has. I blogged about this in the last post, but here is the great fort that is now a resort that I stayed in in August.

October is bursting with holidays here. Last Monday, our school kicked off the Dusherra holiday with a visiting performance of Ramlilla, a Hindu epic. A group of disadvantaged and disabled schoolchildren performed the ballet, and it was a smash hit.

Following the Ramlilla, we took our students outside to witness the burning of Ravana. This stories-high effigy is a representation of evil, and burning him brings on the good fortune.

Here he goes!

No one told me he was also stuffed with firecrackers, and it was quite startling. One interesting concept I have thought about is the positive destroyer. I had always assumed that Shiva the Destroyer was a baddie, but soon after arriving in India, an Indian person told me that destruction must take place in order to create. Food for thought! The study of the Hindu religion and culture are very interesting to me, I hope to learn more soon.