Our first day in Delhi we ventured off to see some of the sites. Luke and family were off in Bali but they kindly allowed us to use their apartment at the Embassy School as our base camp for the Delhi parts of our expedition.
The house where Gandhi spent the last days of his life before being assassinated in its garden, has become one of many memorials to the father of India. It was interesting in particular as I have taught lots about India and Gandhi in relation to colonization, nationalist movements and decolonization.
Part of the house where he was staying.
Footprints showing his final steps from his bedroom to the back garden.
Lots of interesting blown up images, press clippings and descriptions of his life.
Ada at the beginning of his final walk
Where he was shot by disgruntled Hindu extremist for "submitting" (although he predicted very accurately the conflict that would ensue) to demands for an independent Pakistan and thus the partition of India.
Quite a few of these old cars still out and about India.
His bedroom/office
His stuff.
Girls ringing the peace gong
Afterwards we went to a market that highlighted goods from the various provinces of India. Emmerson had the neat idea of us doing a secret Santa gift exchange as we were not going to have our traditional Christmas. The girls were rather concerned about this so we tried to accomodate with some alternatives. We took advantage of this opportunity to get each other our secret Santa gifts. I selected Ada and got her a satchel. I bought a scarf for myself and was shown by the vendor and a friendly Indian gentleman how to wear it VIP style. VIP was a common theme throughout the trip. I wore the scarf VIP style the entire trip and actually had a waiter at Christmas morn breakfast, state completely unprompted how impressive it looked!
Looming something craftish.
As the sign says.
Emmerson's take on Delhi's traffic. It is amazing - and that's coming from someone who has driven daily in Jakarta and Manila ....
Ada with her new wooly mives/glittens marveling at her sister and/or the traffic. Emmerson wore the Santa hat for several days.
Grounds of the American Embassy School where we stayed while in Delhi
Good sized banyan tree in the schools playground.
No comments:
Post a Comment