Sunshine, Breezes and a hilarious Encounter with the Basket Pedaler

We have been blessed with a breeze! Don't imagine cool breeze, just a warm wind to move the air ever so slightly, just enough to make the heat nearly tolerable. I was able to sit on our front balcony, overlooking the park, for 20 whole minutes (I wore sunscreen, ma) while I drank tea and ate fresh mango in dahi (Hindi for yogurt...yum!).

I was able to borrow Shayam for an hour this morning (the family has an appointment, and didn't need him until mid-morning) and visit Lodi Gardens. I had just enough time to do a quick loop, and take some photos. It is a beautiful sanctuary between Vasant Vihar and Central Delhi, with ponds and paths and birds that could make a real "birder" outta me (holla, Mike and Jess). And best of all, there are several old tombs and monuments from the 15th and 16th centuries that are just awe-inspiring.
While it is about 20 minutes from our house in traffic, I can easily get there on my own by taking a rickshaw. It is a dirty and hot ride, yes, but only about 40-50 Rupees, the equivilant of about $.80-$1.

I was admiring the birds near the water, when a middle-aged Indian woman approached me and began telling me about the park, the birds, the flowers. She was a volunteer who worked with the public green spaces to preserve the areas, including the wildlife. We got to talking, and it turns out she works with maternal and child health initiatives. She gave me her email address, and offered to connect me with organizations with which I can volunteer. In addition, her daughter is moving back from Scotland in the fall, and wants to travel around India. She offered her up as a travel companion, so we'll see what her daughter thinks of that! I was so grateful! All of the Indians I have met are so gracious and hostpitable.

So, yesterday was quite eventful and Katie and I had a lot of laughs:

1. Cooking with "Spices":

Our dear housekeeper, Dolma, has done a little bit of cooking for us. She is Tibetan, and so much of her cooking is very similar to Chinese food. Two nights back, she made us fried rice and stir-fried noodles (I didn't try those). The food tasted fine, but in a "after a long night of carousing in college" way. None of our bellies felt great after that, and we concluded that it was because she cooks with a tremendous amount of sunflower oil. Katie politely asked Dolma the next morning, yesterday, about the way she is cooking, and planned to nicely tell her that we would prefer she use less oil. Instead, Dolma's eyes lit up and she pulled out a baggy of white powder, appearing similar to salt. Katie questioned the substance, and Dolma called it by it's Hindi name, "Ajinimoto". Katie shook her head, not understanding. Dolma said, "Chinese Salt! When you have no meat, you add it to the food and it makes it taste good." Katie came to me, recounted the story, and said, "I think Dolma is using MSG in our food!" I used my handy iPhone, and sure enough, we were consuming MSG. We quickly, yet politely, put the kaibash on that practice. We are going to ask Dolma to cook traditional Indian food, and hope that she can. In the meantime, last night, Katie cooked delicious prawns, rice, and I made an avocado and tomato chutney - a deliciously light meal.

2. Haggling:

Katie and I have been admiring these sweet, little, hand-woven stools that are sold from bike rickshaws along the road. We told our driver, and he said he would tell the bike rickshaw to come to our house with his load.

Sidenote: The amount of stuff bikes carry around here is just incredible - whole families, pipes, loads of fruit, etc.

Anyway, the man comes over in the middle of the day (and meanwhile we have two electricians who speak very little English in the house, investigating why electrical appliances are giving us serious shocks when we touch them. Their solution? Wear shoes when you touch the DVD player, cable box, iPod dock...). There is no breeze, and the sun is high in the sky. It is blistering hot. The man is sweating from riding his bike carrying hundreds of pounds of woven baskets, and tables and stools and chairs, and we are sweating just from standing there. Dolma came outside with us to bargain our prices, and the bartering process begins to get very heated and they are snapping back and forth in Hindi. Then, the man says he won't sell us anything, and tries to re-tie his items on the bike in their precarious stacks. Dolma grabs the woven basket and says, "100 Rupees" and he grabs is back and says, "400 Rupees", and back and forth like this. Finally, we settle on a fair price for 2 laundry hampers and a stool. I am upstairs when Katie gives him the money. He kisses it and says, "You are my God. You are my God. You are my first customer of the day. Now I can eat...etc." Katie says, "Goddess, I am a woman," and goes inside. Five minutes later I answer the door, and there is the man, red paan juice dripping from his lips. He hands me a basket for fruit and says, "My present, my present," and with his hands in namascar, he bows and leaves.

3. An Indian home:

We had the interesting experience of visiting the home of an Indian family who has lived in Vasant Vihar since 1975 (the colony only started in the late 60's). Charlotte's friend from school in Boston just so happens to live in Vasant Vihar during the summers with her mother, brother and father's parents. This being the small world that it is, they only live about a 5 minute walk from us! This was quite an experience. We were welcomed into the formal entertaining area, and the children were expected to go with the ayahs (Indian nannies) right away. We were promptly served chai, and traditional Indian snacks by the "staff". This family has 2 ayahs for the children (one a piece), one cook, one house manager/housekeeper, one "Man Friday" (from the description, I imagine him to be sort of a companion for the patriarch of the household, though I am not sure), and a driver. Mind you, 10 months of the year, the mother and her children live in Boston, so this is a staff (probably less the two ayahs) of 4 for 2 adults!

They were lovely people, and full of information. They told us to tell shopkeepers that we know them so not to get ripped off in their stores. The mother also brought us around our local market and introduced us to her butcher, fruit/veg seller, baker and grocer, which means we won't get ripped off by them either. The "who you know" is quite powerful, as I suppose is the case anywhere you go.

Some other things of note, our power goes out several times throughout the day, but only for short periods of time. And once, while I was in the shower, the water stopped running. Hair lathered with shampoo, I was able to rinse with the remaining dribblings coming through the pipes. It came back on about an hour later, which probably meant the more assertive neighbors noticed and had the water truck deliver more.

The yoga classes that I hope to register for begin on July 24th, and I am looking forward to that. It is a quick walk to the studio, so I won't need to rely on a driver to get there. Katie and I may also have an instructor come to us once or twice a week.

In the meantime, I still do my morning walk/run in the park near our house. I considered joining a gym because the heat is unbearable, and there is nothing to do in the mornings before we have the driver (things don't open until about 10/10:30, which is right around the time Shayam returns from bringing Steve to work). I decided that I like my morning ritual in the park, walking and running the circle among the older Indian gentlemen. Yesterday, a kind older man engaged me in conversation, and it turns out he went to Harvard and then Wharton, and spent time in Rhode Island as a former Admiral with the Navy. He told me that next time we meet, he will show me the different ways that the Indians, British, Americans and Italians walk. I look forward to that. My other daily interaction is with an older Indian woman who walks slowly, just a few laps, and then does yoga-esque exercises on a bench. She is so kind and always greets me and chats about the day, the weather, the rain that won't come. I also admire a group of older women convene on the benches in beautiful Salwar Kameez to do some sort of clapping and stretching ritual, something yogic I am sure.

And so, in short, my morning in the park is quite lovely, and as long as I am an early riser, the heat is tolerable. Some mornings I may go by rickshaw out to Lodi or Nehru to run as well. The women wear shorts there, and I am dying to exercise in shorts! And above all, it's just plain breathtaking over there.

Namaste, Friends.