India, Chapter Two.

Pre-festivities weekend:

Saturday morning. My 35th birthday. Stumble out of bed towards the living space, and realize the first amazing aspect of life in Delhi: servants. Seriously. Jugdeesh was our main man, who served us breakfast, lunch and dinner, filled our tea and coffee, brought filtered water, ironed shirts, and kept everything tip-top on our floor.

We had a fabulous meal (though the Nescafe instant coffee did NOT satisfy, and I'm just not a fan of tea, sadly), and were not allowed to clear our own dishes, or refill our own drinks. I hate to admit how quickly this became the norm...when we tried to serve ourselves, it seemed to fluster poor Jugdeesh more than it satisfied our need to do our own work!

Ashish and his sister Anu and brother Sameer joined us and we started the trek to Fab India at GK (Greater Kailash), a mere hour drive mid-morning, through that same traffic we already discussed...

We spent some time gleefully feeling the myriad textures and soaking in the colors of three floors of clothing...and purchased a few items while we were at it, of course! For me, a purple tunic top (~$8) and a lehenga choli (skirt and blouse set with scarf) to wear to one of the wedding parties (~$20); for Dan and my father, 100% silk kurta pyjamas (long shirts with pants) (~$50). You will see the pictures in a future post!

After shopping, we headed across the street to the Turtle Cafe for lunch, and Ashish's brother Mukul and his wife Deepa joined us as well, and for my birthday presented me with two books on India: The Indians and India After Ghandi. I look forward to learning more about my sister's adopted country!

We divided forces after this, and Dan, Ashish, Anna, Sameer and I went in search of jooti (dress shoes) for Ashish and Dan, and for a jacket for Sameer. One of the more interesting elements of our visit for me was the variation in dress: you saw everything from jeans and tee shirts to saris, and of course every permutation in between. We found jooti at Janpath (located on one of the spokes radiating out of Connaught Place (CP)), and dined across the street at Saravana Bhavan, which Dan and I decided was our new favorite place (thankfully, they are all over the world now: Sunnydale, CA, here we come!). The main food? Masala Dosa, which was served with four delicious sauces. I think I could have stayed there in my seat for the next ten days...

We also circled CP (one of the premier shopping areas of Delhi):

 in search of the perfect jacket for Sameer - he settled on a cordoroy one, and we headed back to Sham Nath Villa.

As like most nights, we stayed up chatting at the dining room table, sipping Kingfisher and Black Label beers until ungodly hours...(like 3 am)...before settling into our rock-hard bed.

Sunday morning we dined, and then headed on the metro to the home of Ashish and his family (from Civil Lines on the yellow line to Kohat Enclave on the red line, if you care for a visual). I have traveled enough to have taken many metros around the world...but the security of the Delhi Metro was a first for me...

After purchasing a Prox Card for each of us, we went through a metal detector, segregated by gender. A matched-gender security officer then "wanded" each of us, and did a quick pat-down, after which we put bags through the x-ray machine, waved our cards, and finally accessed the metro.

Ah, if only the trip were so simple! We no sooner boarded the train (my mom, dad, Dan, Anna and me), than the men-folk started staring at Anna and me. I knew this was a likely possibility, as I've heard Anna's stories over the last few years. However, I was still unprepared for the rude, tactless stare-down that occurred. I will admit, I look at people, but when they catch my eye, I smile and immediately turn my head...not so The Delhi Men. If I caught their eye, they continued to stare, with no hesitation, no embarrassment, and no attempt to disguise it. On this particular metro ride (Anna warned us we were out of tourist zones, and in to "no white folk" territory), I think every man in the vicinity (oh, six or so?) was staring at the two of us...Anna, well accustomed to such vulgarity by now, told our father to ask the closest (most slack-jawed) guy what he was staring at. In one of my most memorable moments from this trip, my dad did just that: he turned to the guy, and asked quite forcefully, "What are you looking at?" The man turned three shades of red, turned his head, and never looked over again!! Around the same time, Dan gave another guy a look that turned him away as well. Go Chuck and Dan!

At the family home, we joined with Anu, Sameer, Deepa and Mukul, and also met Ashish's mother and father. We enjoyed tea and snacks, and Mom and I were gifted beautiful silk saris. Here we are originally trying it out:

 

And after my blouse was complete (got the pallu a tad short - oops):

 

(the blue part is the sari - the gold blouse was actually made-to-order later for me...more on that in a later post!)

Upon return to Sham Nath, we headed across the street to the Embassy Restaurant, where the wait was long...my parents' neighbors from Homer, AK had just arrived for the festivities, and were joining us for dinner. We opted to order out, and returned to Sham Nath Villa (just across the street) to dine.

In the company of friends, old and new, we ended the pre-wedding weekend...

To be continued, again.