Delhi Round Up.

There is a lot to report on. Shopping bazaars. Poverty. AMAZING historic sites. The bliss of eating anything (no we have not been sick, not once). This strange brew that is Delhi, a true clash of east meets west and past meets present at a scale that is not fathomable in the United States. Commercials for the morning after pill ("Nah unexpected pregnancy. Nah abortion," says the voiceover at the end of the ad, and a young woman's expression shifts from panic to relief).

We're working on posting about our various experiences and observations. We've got digital photos and a few digital recordings (of the traffic described in the post below), and hopefully we'll be able to post some of these soon.

We've been in Delhi since Saturday night (May 23) and we leave tomorrow morning (Thursday, May 28). We'll take a bus to Chandigarh, which is the capital city in the state of Punjab. We'll visit with my dad's brother, two of my mom's sisters and my cousin's husband who is in Chandigarh trying to get to her in the states. We'll also explore the many gardens and Le Corbusier's architectural legacy. From there, we head into the hill stations of the Himalayan Mountains where we'll get some relief from the heat (107 degrees F/42 degrees C today!).

Here is a fact - the joke about Indians running on IST time is no joke. Days do not get started until 11 a.m.; though people seem to wake early, they ease into the day. Nights end around 1 or 2 a.m. (I think that I could actually get used to days that run on this schedule.) IST, it seems to me, is a mentality, and it spills over into the rate at which business is conducted, how efficiently tasks are completed (like obtaining a cell phone), etc.

Well, it's 12:30 p.m., so I guess we better get our day started! Maybe we'll pause for some hot chai first. We are having a wonderful time, and I can already tell that it feels as if we'll need another month.