Qutub Minar pics 2

Qutub Minar pics

Lots of Pics via camera of YPA (it reminds me of IPA, mmm IPA).

Qutub Minar

I hadn't really heard of the Qutub Minar before I went. I got some idea about it in one of those hotel tourist type booklets. Yvonne pointed it out to me and we decided we might as well go see it while we were in Delhi. The fun thing about Delhi as opposed to some of India's other major cities is that it has a boatload of historical places. Another thing that is funny is that all the really amazing historical places around north India tend to be Islamic. What that means is that generally the "really old" stuff is actually only a few hundred years old. Most of the ruins found in Europe are far older. Of course, once you get a little bit outside the major islamic reach from a few hundred years back you can see much older Hindu temples. All that aside, the Qutub Minar is a really beautiful sight (and site). The main minar is a 24 sided tower, which from far off looks strikingly like a phallus. I had to walk around the main tower to count how many sides it had. The architecture was shocking. It was square sides interlaced with rounded "sides" all the way around on the bottom level. The bottom level rises up several meters (maybe 10-15) then there is another level, and yet another. I forget the actual height of the minar, but it's pretty alright. Also on the grounds are a mosque, a mausoleum and some other buildings. We decided not to rent the audio guide, but rather just look around and see it for ourselves. It's quite interesting.

Perhaps another interesting thing that the Qutub Minar provided for me is the idea that India is just not very subtle about it's (dis)like of tourists. The entrance fee for Indians is Rs 10, while the entrance price for foreigners is Rs 250. In case you're playing along at home that's 25 times the price for foreigners as for Indians. And despite my Indian salary, guess which price I had to pay...

I wish I had thought to carry my registration papers with me. This proved to be useful in jaipur, but before that, I got swindled, and swindled pretty badly.

Almost getting arrested

This is way out of sequence with the rest of the blog, but I figured I should write it down before I forget about it. Last night I stayed at my institute for a long time being an internet fiend. Chatting away with people, trying to stay up to catch the score of the Tennessee-Michigan State game. Well, I got heading home about 1:30 AM here. It takes me a while to walk home. Sadly, I couldn't catch a rickshaw. The only one that stopped for me asked for 4 times the price I was willing to pay. When he finally came down to twice the price I was more than halfway home. I hate those little yellow mosuito taxi drivers! So I finally made it back home about 2:45 AM. In front of my house, the gate is locked at night, and it's usually too dark to see the lock on the gate. For this reason, sometimes I just hop over the fence, and open the main door to my second floor apartment. Wouldn't you know it, for the first time in nearly 5 months of being abroad I saw a police officer in my neighborhood. He saw me hopping the fence and rode up on his motorcycle to harass me.

Are you kidding me!? I've never seen a PoPo in my neighborhood, not once. The first time I see you he harasses me for potential breaking and entering. Basically I had to show him and demonstrate for him that I actually had the correct keys to open the locks I claimed I had.

Once that happened, I told the piggy sorry and thanked him. Luckily, I didn't have to pay him off, I didn't have to wake up my landlords, I didn't have to worry about a police raid or any of the other threats that generally go with this sort of accused activity. Ugh! India, give me a break. Throw me a freaking bone.

Delhi Haat

I had real trouble finding this place. The big problem is the name. I kept thinking it was Delhi Heart. That's just not it. Until I saw it in print I didn't realize that I was saying it totally incorrectly. I think the real trouble is that I've gotten accustomed to people saying the English "r" as "ah". In any case, I think the name of this thing might not even be Delhi Haat, but perhaps Dilli Haat. I saw Dilli written a few times and I could've sworn people were saying "Delhi." Anyway, none of this is the point. The real point is that it's a big shopping center. The shopping to be done here, however, is not mall, shopping, but clothing and art. It reminded me greatly of the Pongal Bazaar that took place at Kalakshetra here in Chennai earlier in January. My friend told me that there are handicrafts from all parts of India available there. He was saying this from experience about 10-15 years ago. Now, there is food from all parts of India which is cool, but the VAST majority of shops are Kashmiris. Somehow, I'm not surprised. Those Kashmiris somehow end up everywhere there are shops in India. I think I finally offended one. I was busting his chops for trying to sell me something I didn't want at a price I wasn't willing to pay. What happened was I started making fun of him a little bit because he tried to tell me that he was rare as a kashmiri for having left. So I told him, everywhere I've been in India all the shops were run by Kashmiris and therefore I thought that very few people actually lived there.

Funny enough, over the rest of the course of the trip, I saw ever more Kashmiris. It turns out that there are lots of Tibetans around India too, but they are generally ONLY in touristy places, and kashmiris are everywhere.

Nonetheless, Delhi Haat was kind of fun. I bought a long Indian shirt. Not sure what I'm going to do with it in this heat, but it stills looks cool. Here are some fun pics.

More Lodhi Garden Pics

Lodhi Gardens in the springtime

This time visiting Delhi, I repeated a few visits from the first time. My friend lives close by to Lodhi Gardens, and so the three of us took a stroll in the nice springtime afternoon. We bought some beers from the local liquor store and sat outside, had a "picnic" of beer and roasted chick peas. Yvonne jumped out while my friend and I were hiding away our picnic from "authorities." So without further ado, here are some nice pics from Lodhi Gardens in the springtime (not so much fog this go around).