Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I've dreamed of AGRA

Who hasn't, as a child finding out there was such a place, and tomorrow, I will be there to stand in front of the Taj Mahal and get my picture took. I wish I had a few days more to look forward to it, but our apartment hunting appointment for tomorrow cancelled and that's all we had, and after seeing the Delhi train station today there's no way we're making a day trip on the train down there and back, we called Kuldeep he's doing nothing tomorrow 630am pickup and we'll be home by dark. I have just got my indian wardrobe complete tonight, and it's laid out, white kurta (long sleeved, long long shirt, embroidered in white), white pyjamas (loose cotton pants with a drawstring) and 2 large cotton handkerchiefs I've learned to put on my head just so to keep the sun off and sweat from dripping in my eyes, watch for pics.

Today we feeling pretty low energy after the heat and excitment of the chowk yesterday, so after breakfast we called Kuldeep he's open and can be around to pick us up by 10:00, and he is right on time. As we head down to the U.S.A. Embassy (Julie needs to register) I ask Kuldeep what about the budget the finance minister unveiled last night? More money for poor people for food sounds like a great idea, eh? It's to give the poorest couple hundred million people a guarantee of 25kilos of rice per month at 3 rupees per kilo... so about $1.25 per month will get them 50 lbs of rice. That will help them stay alive, anyway. Yeah, but, says Kuldeep, sounds good on paper but if there is 100 rupees in the budget to feed the poor, 99 rupees will go for the minister or this, the commissioner of that, and 1 rupee will end up going for food to the poor, that's just the way it is, sounds good, but the budgets are for the rich people, the ones with money and positions will get it all, for people like me there will be no change. Wow do we have it sooooooooooooo good. This is a smart, hardworking, honest person who earns about what we pay for tv, internet, and phone service a month (maybe less).


Anyway, on to the embassy, where once our driver is banished to the far parking lot, we walk past the machine guns and guards and join the line to find Julie has her camera! You must now go down to gate 5 and leave the camera, then come back says the guard, in not too bad english. So we bake a few minutes down and back, of course trees or any foliage to create shade would also introduce a haven for people to hide, so it's hot sun on hard pavement. Back to the cue, then we're sent into a waiting room (outdoor, no fans, but in the shade), it's only about 100 so far, it looks like the DMV line on a Saturday morning, pitiful as you wait for number 385 to come up now serving number 12... we meek up to the head of the line and get a nice surprise American Citizens? Yes, you don't need to wait, go around the corner there first door on the left. Wahooo! We're there, in the AC room with no line! We do our stuff, and they offer a notarized letter to Julie to help her get into school for only $30... yes back in the good ole usa for a minute, we're paying our driver $20 for the whole day. Can you help us with housing and medical recommendations? No sorry, we don't have any information on anything like that, we have everything we need for the state dept employees right here on the compound... you are on your own, check the internet!

So we are done and back on the pavement to collect the camera and find the driver, which happens before we are too lathered. Now to the Delhi train station, which as it's connected to the new, modern, air conditioned metro at Connaught Place I figure it will be a spectacular marvel like those in Paris... oh.. boy... was I wrong. The parking lot is gravel and dirt and dust, cars parked an inch apart but nobody has cars anyway. People everywhere, it's open air, no ac, not even any fans I saw. The 2nd class cue is like the racetrack betting windows before a big race... packed! Kuldeep leads us past the sleeping people laying around everywhere, dogs, what have you, up stairs to the Foreigners office, where we will get preferential treatment. It is air conditioned! No, no timetable, says the greeter at the door, now this place is a 50 year old office room with scoop type plastic chairs maybe purple brown or some such, yello dingy ceiling tiles and lights, and maybe a dozen people sitting around the perimeter at like folding tables and maybe a desk or two, a couple 20 year old computers I guess they actually print your ticket out, though the reservation form you fill out is a bad faded copy off the copy machine, and the clerks actually are using carbon paper to make receipt copies, by hand! No, no timetables, she goes on... they're going to be changing the schedule. OK, so when will you have schedule books, I ask? She shrugs... and points to a huge white board (that's like board, not whiteboard like we know, it's a board, painted white, with the trains out of Delhi painted on in black (express is painted in red), like with a paint by number paint brush. OH wow... but it works, we decipher the board and get a couple reservation sheets, and Kuldeep points out the boss, so I start over that way to ask "should I reserve on the internet" or not, because on the internet, from the USA it looks like it would work, but here..... I get intercepted by a trio of next in lines, 3 gents working together, and they combine to let me know yes I can book online, and maybe pay online, but maybe not I should fill out a form by hand and come in to the office to confirm my reservation and payment have been properly posted anyway! Ok I am so glad we came here... no way are we taking the train to Agra anytime soon, could you imagine a day trip starting at that train station, hours on the train, a hassle in the heat to get to see the Taj and Fort and Masjid, and then back to that train station to hassle in the heat and dust to get a tuk tuk home? uh uhhhh.

So next we go to a nice restaurant and invite Kuldeep to eat with us, spicy indian food authentic veg great cheap cricket on the tv all is great. Julie buys a soapstone carved elephant from the hawkers outside and I buy a couple post card books, we're on to get a sim card for my phone so to avoid 250 a minute ATT ripoff... but that doesn't go so well either the phones locked no they don't know how to unlock go see samsung or go online thank you bye!

Driving down to the Qtub Minar we stop at the Lodhi Gardens and tomb on the way, it's a beautiful spot but so ungodly hot you move as slow as possible from one shade to another too hot to take the path to the lilly or lotus pond, actually enveying the dogs laying in the puddle the workman is making with the watering hose to keep the trees from dying. Cold water vendor doing a good business we get 3 bottles a litre each and join the traffic heading out of town to the Qtub.

It is so hot there every single person has a cap, hat, hankerchief, washtowel, newspaper, or something on their head... ok not everyone, many indian people have thick black hair... they are doing OK. I love this place it is a fantastic ancient ruin from around 1200 or so it was started, the iron post still without rust the oldest around with this metal technology... anyway, it's tooooo hot for Julie they are restoring the whole mosque that was here, rebuilding it stone by stone, by hand, just the way it was built, tens of workers, hand tools, chiseling, mortaring, heat notwithstanding the work must go on!

And so almost ends our day. A stop for postaqe stamps we're back in the 30's again, the post office hidden back behind a wall off the road Kuldeep drops me off at the gate I walk up it's outdoor, the counter, no ac, a dark little room maybe 10x15... no one there just papers on a desk yellow light, yellowing peeling paint, oho! anyone in there... some guy comes out of the back room I must have woke him up... it takes a few minutes but I get my 20 stamps at 12 rupees each I only have a 500 he uses his desk calculator to figure 240, then the 500..... he only has 2 100's, so the other 60 I get 12 5 rupee stamps... thank you!

Now we are back at the room Kuldeep on his way home but I have to go to Lajpat Nagar to exchange 2 Kurtas I got that are too small for my growing belly... Julie doesn't want to go she'll nap so I put on the one Kurta long yellow with a brown headband and head out, this kurta is below my knees keeps getting wrapped up in my legs as I walk... the tuk tuk boys won't give me a ride give me a dirty look "no, uh!" whatever that mean, OK boy... I'll hoof it a while, up a few block to the main road here's a guy don't know what's up with the others... he get's me to Lajpat Nagar straightaway, Central Market, yes... the market is half dark and shops are closing up it's almost 9 by now and they close about 930 anyway but with the power out to most of the market... now the market goes on for like 10 blocks one way and about 3 the other, and it's not square, it's a big place of stalls and alleys and shops and tents... so it takes me a while to find my place I am sure they re going to be closed but finally I find them I have a good sweat...Kuldeep doesn't think they'll exchange 160 rupee kurtas but I say I have to try they won't fit, too tight. The see the old man, he must be the boss, and the young smily face fellow who sold me the 6 pieces Sunday night (they're closed on Monday). I just love this kurta, I say... smiling, you have great stuff.. yes, yes he nods, as I bring up the bag to the counter and take out the other 2... these 2, are too tight, I motion and say... need the next bigger size and I'm sure I'll love them just as much! Har a hay a yalla yalla tay he says to the boy.. one white, one green I think he says cause next thing you know there they are just perfect the smily guy has them out of the bag holding them up to my back, thees will be OK, he says... smiles all around and he looks at my pants, how you like? Oh I love them too, do you have a pair in navy blue? No no blue, but we have gray, dark brown, kakhi, white, yellow, green, as he tosses a half dozen pairs on the counter in front of me... no blue... one size fits all, he says... these are nice (the grey) nahh... but these greens will go great with this kurta... how much? 160... deal.

I find a cold bottle of soda and have to walk out to the road to get a tuk tuk, everyone is leaving the market now all the tuk tuks are full, rickshaws won't help I have too far to go. Finally get one and I'm home. Marian called to say the plumber has fixed the broken water line to the frig only $100... but a big hassle. Hmmmmmm, well, it's only money and can't be helped... and tomorrow, we'll spend about the same, to see the Taj Majal!

No comments: