Delhi, pt. 1

I am learning (and making my peace with the fact) that everything takes much longer than I think it will here in India. Happily, this leaves me with plenty of time to do a proper post, with pictures, at long last!

For those of you keeping score at home, we just spent 5ish days in Delhi. My dad put us up at a great place which gave me and the kids a chance to rest and get our bearings before being thrown directly into the mix here in Benares. The hotel was adjacent to the Air Force School so each morning we were greated with a sight very much like this...

This was a blue day. There were also white days. Some kids arrived before 6:30am for soccer and basketball practice, which our friend Tanya (a school principal in Delhi) tells us is customary. Sports practice before school and then class from about 7 or 8 until 1 or 2. She says private tutors are very popular so kids have those in the afternoon. From what we could see there was a lot of recess too. Not at all my vision of what Indian school days would be!

We did a bit of sight-seeing early on, stopping at India Gate and the Parliment building. I think the kids like the monkeys better than the buildings. Quite lovely and impressive. (Both buildings and monkeys.)

A favorite was Pahargang, the backpacker ghetto and wild street scene.

And surprisingly, to quote the Big Lebowski, its as Jewish as F***ing Tevye.

These were our laundry guys. Note the preferred brand of incense.

And now, my children have run out of patience for the molasses slow pace so we must wait to post the hair cut pictures in favor of rousting out the biscuit-wallah and procuring massive quantities of sugar.