Saturday Adventures

First, let me make a very important note about the internet situation. It has become hellish again.
So it randomly stopped working at our apartment. The first excuse we got from the phone company was that a cable had been stolen...which didn't make a whole lot of sense. After several days we were finally able to get someone from the phone company to come and take a look and he said we need a new router. We were told that internet-guy will be coming today (Monday) with a new router (we are skeptical, but hopeful). So all of you lucky Americans may be wondering why we haven't just gone to a coffee shop and used the wifi; simple enough solution. Well even though nearly every big coffee chain and numerous small cafes in India advertizes wifi, none of them actually have it. Its either: "we don't have an activation card", "it doesn't work", "it costs 650 rupees per hour" (BS! that is $17!), "no we don't have it at this location", "a cow ate the cable" (just kidding, that is my cynic talking).
AH!
I am falling in love with this country, but the technology situation aggravates me at times.

Anyway. On to our Saturday adventure....oh wait it actually all started because of our internet issues, I remember.

We sat at the bottom of the stairs. It is 9:58am. You learn not to arrive early to most things in India. You just end up waiting around. As time-paranoid Americans who had not had internet at home for 4 days we were eager, early and waiting around. 10:10am. The internet cafe was supposed to open at 10! As two time-honoring Americans who had not had internet at home for 4 days this was aggravating. We must have appeared forlorn, aggravated and/or out of place, to me, anything but approachable, but I think the elderly live outside of the realm of normal social conventions.

The gentleman we now know as Dadaji (dear grandpa) came up to us and asked what we were waiting for. The internet cafe we said. We got into a conversation, explaining why we were there and such, and he offered to let us use the internet at his home. But just as he said that, the men who run the cafe showed up. We thanked Dadaji, and promised that we would come visit him and Dadiji (dear grandma) soon as he had requested, since we reminded him of his two granddaughters.
As we were typing hurried emails to our families, we got a call saying that an internet-fixing man would come by at noon. We had some spare time and as time-consuming Americans we decided to use that time to go visit Dadaji and Dadiji.
They had a very nice apartment. The living room was completely lined with couches, as if it were designed for the sole purpose of entertain guests (especially adopted grandchildren). They were both very sweet. Dadaji was very curious about us and how it was that two (young) girls have made this trip all on their own, were financially supporting themselves, and were traveling around in a completely different country with no problem. We were quite an anomaly in their world.
It was a grand time. After our tea and chatting we said we had to leave to meet with the internet man. We promised we would be back Monday night for a visit.

Back home at F-601 we found internet man waiting. This part of the day is fairly uninteresting so I'll be brief. Luckily we had our dear, sweet and amazing Laxmi there to translate what he was saying--which was that the router was out (no stolen cable, wow) and he would be back on Monday at 4 to replace it. This means that we will have to leave work early, missing our teaching time with the kids...it better be fixed.

By now it was 1pm, but we decided to press on with our original plans for the day: take the metro and visit Old Delhi.

We caught a rickshaw to the nearest metro station and descended into a sort of modernity to rival New York, the UK and DC.
The New Delhi metro is stunning. It is clean, sleek, modern AND has a women's only section. Talk about awesome!
(It looks like Barbie made the sign)

Upon arriving in Old Delhi I felt I had discovered the type of hot, smell-filled, and crowded that people usually talk about when describing India. It was quite hot, extreme smell-filled and very crowded. It also seems that most of the more exotic fruit is sold here. We saw the best looking pomegranates (anar) we've seen yet, lychee, and then these...










The Persians know what I am talking about, mmmm :)

We first found a place suggested by the guide book to lunch. It was good. And crowded. Then we decided to head to the main attraction of Old Delhi: the Red Fort.
Here is a picture of the outside, we didn't actually make it inside. At most tourist attractions in India there is a foreigner price and and Indian price, which is about 100 times smaller.
When we first got to the ticket area, we were asked what country we were from, we looked at each other, unsure of what to say (we live in Delhi, look Indian, don't speak Hindi, are American and really want to pay the 10 rupee Indian fee rather than the 250 rupee foreigner fee). We finally admitted we were not India and started to walk off, not wanting to pay that much when we could easily come back with an Indian friend and get in cheap. But as were leaving the guard called us back and motioned for us to get in the India line. We figured this meant they had made an exception for us. The line took forever, but when we finally got to the booth I said "Doh tickets" (two tickets) and handed the man 20 rupees. He shoved the money aside and said "30". At that I snapped "30?! Why? It says 10 per person."
Somehow this must have given us away (my lack of an accent?) and he said "Foreigner line!"
I attempted to hand over 30, but he had moved on by that point.
Whatever.
We walked off, were trailed by a curious guard full of questions, who we quickly scurried away from and decided to make our way home since it was all too hot and too crowded.

I suppose I should mention the allure of Old Delhi. It is home to numerous ancient sights and it is a brillant and large market, with alleyways like veins snaking through the body of city. There is supposedly a street for everything: clothes, spices (masala), stationary, car parts, etc. The guide book says your goal in Old Delhi is to try at get lost in it all.

All we managed to do was find the light fixture alley and wander by one-to-many open urinal-style bathroom stalls for men, yeah right there on the street with only a mid-back-high wall blocking the view.

We boarded the wonderful metro and began our journey home.




One thing I have been thinking about here in India (which will be totally relevant in a moment) is etiquette, specifically when showing gratitude and random acts of kindness.
Yvette and I, being American-training, say "thank you" constantly; to the rickshaw drivers, to Laxmi, to the guys at the office (Ajay, Sandeep, Mintu, or Vihkram) who bring us water and chai, to shop keepers, etc. But it seems we are alone in this. Once we were about to get on an escalator and there was an old women hesitating at the bottom. I stood along side here, gave her my arm to hold on too and helped her on. She clutched my arm the entire way up and at the top she stepped off and just walked on without even a glance in my direction, as if I was a hand railing. I was a bit hurt. Then on the metro we Yvette and I gave up our seats to a middle aged women and again, nothing. We also waited endlessly for someone from the office to invite us over to use their internet, but nothing happened. I was beginning to lose hope, or get comfortable with the fact that gratitude is not verbally expressed.

Then Saturday happened. First Dadaji (dear grandpa) offered his internet, then on the metro ride home, two blue-clad smiling women scooted over to make room for us. I emphasis smiling because one thing I have noticed is that people, especially women don't just walk around in public with a smile on their face, but the minute you make a connection with them they turn into the most friendly and warm people you have ever met. Well these women were smiling even before we had broken though the usual veneer. Yvette and I think it had something to do with the women's only environment.
After a couple of stops two men entered the women's section and stood there for a good 3 minutes before they realized what was going on. All the women had a coy little smile at this, we had a good laugh with the blue-clad women next to us. Soon they tried to talk to us, but it seemed they only spoke Hindi. Luckily the women on the other side of us was a teacher and was able to translate. We spent the rest of the ride chatting with this women, who was a Ph.D student studying feminism.

Saturday was a good day :)