Seen on my walk home

Isn't it lovely? That's such a great thing about Delhi--you're just strolling or driving along and BOOM! five-hundred year Mughal architecture coming at ya! 

Signage

What kind of business do we think this is a sign for? Kindergarten? Brothel? Spa? Doctor's office? I'll tell you right now I don't have the answer to this question--but might need to do some further investigation next time I'm walking down this street.

On a related note--this signage is right across the street from a very prominent sign reading "Government Approved Abortion Clinic" (which I didn't photograph as I thought the folks waiting within might be a bit sensitive to that).  Makes you wonder if abortion clinics that aren't government approved are just "Abortion Clinic", or simply unsigned. . .

A selection of some of my favorite street dogs

I find the street dogs of Delhi exceptionally cute. Don't believe me? See for yourself!

Generally these guys do a lot of sleeping during the day and are sweet as can be. But you don't want to mess around with a street dog at night because they get kind of vicious. In fact, in some neighborhoods which are overrun by feisty street dogs it's a good idea to carry a stick at night so you can parry if any of the dogs attacks you.

I tend not to walk around at night, so I haven't really had much problems with the aggressive street dogs. There was one quite scary encounter though, where a dog galloped full speed at me and then jumped up all over me. Fortunately for yours truly he was a friendly guy and was looking for a good pat-down, not a fight.

My neighborhood has very few street dogs, which is good for when I'm coming home late at night. Lately, though, I've noticed that Shmoozie--the dog my flatmates and I have sort of adopted--has been palling around with this handsome tramp from around the way. When I came home last the other night Mr. Tramp actually had the audacity to snap at me, but Shmoozie shut him up in short order and then, just to teach him a lesson, pranced right on into our house, leaving a sad Mr. Tramp outside to nurse his wounded pride.

[Because Delhi buildings tend to be open you'll find lots of street dogs who have snuck inside. Some I think are pretty well cared for by the shop-owners]

[These are two puppies who live in the neighborhood where I work. I have no idea how a street puppy survives--their mom must be one tough bitch]

[This is my favorite street dog, I call him "Old Man Dog". He sleeps outside my office door every day and NEVER moves. I have no idea how he gets food or water. But he really just gives me the feeling of an old man, hanging out on the porch, watching the world go by]

On vacation!

Apologies for the lack of posts this week--I've been on vacation in the Himalayas. My blog will resume as per usual in the next few days, so please check back in soon!

A life with dignity

The other day my boss, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, told me that he believes the main difference between the developed nations of the west and India is that in the west people treat others with dignity, whereas in India, they don't. Well, the first thing my mind flashed to was those selfies taken by idiotic American teenagers posing with homeless people behind them and I was inclined to disagree with my boss--but the more I thought about it the more I think he has a point (though I am still not sure if I agree with him completely).

Whether or not some jerks do it, it is socially unacceptable to treat domestic servants, waiters, janitors and other folk with low status jobs (or no jobs) in the USA rudely. But even more than that, I think very few people in the USA would stand by a person who had truly violated another's dignity, by forcing a person who keeps certain religious dietary restrictions to eat taboo foods, for example.  But I've heard examples of this happening in India and, depending on the status of the transgressor, s/he is not always castigated in the court of public opinion for his or her actions.

The most obvious example of this was the hullabaloo that erupted last year when the USA arrested an Indian diplomat for trafficking her domestic servant.  The Indian government and much of the Indian population freaked out about the apparent disrespect paid to their high status diplomat and there was, in fact, real diplomatic retaliation. (All Indian guards were withdrawn from protection of the American Embassy, the American Embassy School lost some of its privileges, and it became harder for American citizens to get visas.) There was very little attention paid here, however, to whether these charges were actually true and the plight of the Indian diplomat's domestic servant. Everyone was talking about the dignity of the diplomat, but no one mentioned the dignity of the servant.

I've seen quite a few interactions here between high and low status individuals that strike me as totally disrespectful--I've seen those sort of interactions in the USA too, of course, but not with quite the same frequency or with the high status individual's assumption that his/her behavior will be condoned by all of the other high status individuals around him/her. I've seen customers erupt at cashiers, heard about friends-of-friends who have fired their drivers for keeping the AC on while the driver waited in 100+ degree heat for their passengers' return, and so on and so forth.

But the interesting flip side of the coin is that I've also seen lots of behavior from low status individuals which strikes me as uncomfortably subservient--though in fact what I'm observing might just be different cultural norms here. For example, traditionally youngsters touch the feet of elders here to show respect, which tradition is kept up in more conservative households. I often have my feet touched by beggars, which really, really makes me feel uncomfortable.

So yeah, I think in India the right of low status person to live a life with dignity is very much under assault because of the relationship between different classes of persons is often marked by disrespect. I suspect this is a legacy of the caste system, where untouchables were literally considered lower forms of life, and I hope this is changing with the advent of India's new middle class, and greater social mobility generally.

Basically, what I think India needs is for a dignity revolution to occur--and let's be honest, it wouldn't be such a bad thing if such revolutionary fervor ignited every country in the world. But in the meantime I'll just aim not to piss off any Indian diplomats.

Hauz Khas

I really love my neighborhood, Hauz Khas, because it's safe, quiet, clean and within walking distance of the cool restaurant and bar area of Delhi. Maybe in a later post I'll explain exactly what makes my neighborhood so awesome (with pictures), but in this post I'm only going to focus on one aspect of Hauz Khas's awesomness--the randomness with which you can stumble across a 700 year old monument.

I already knew about the old beheading tower that stands on my corner and the ruined mosque which is just down my street, but I wanted to learn about what other random monuments might be around. So, last weekend I went on a walking tour of my neighborhood.

First up were the entire Hauz Khas Complex (14th century), which includes the ruins of an old university and dorms  the emperor Firuz Shah's tomb (he wanted to be buried amid scholars), and the manmade reservoir meant to bring drinking water to the city.

 

[This is one of my roommates,  by the way]

 As dusk fell, we then made our way through Deer Park (accurately named for the number of deer who live there) and ran across several more tombs. I've seen some of these tombs in the daylight and they're always swarming with couples making out. But, by dusk the park empties out so it was really cool to see these monuments lit up, and all to ourselves. (Don't worry, mom, the tour group had a security guard with it). 

Seeing all of these monuments was pretty cool, but what came next was really special . . .

Dinner at the temple

 [Inside the temple gates]

After we finished walking around the monuments in the Hauz Khas area, our guide led us to the Jagannath Temple close to my house. I had often passed this temple but never had the courage to go in because I've heard that foreigners are prohibited from certain temples, women are prohibited from entering certain mosques, and basically I'm just scared that I'm going to try to enter some religious building and someone is going to start yelling at me. (As it turned out, this temple was a replica of a famous temple in Orissa which foreigners are not allowed to enter, but fortunately the Delhi branch is somewhat more inclusive. And, wtf Indian temples who don't let foreigners in! How do you know that I'm not Hindu? I mean, I could be! And why would you let in an Indian who isn't Hindu? Really, I find this No Foreigners Allowed policy pretty objectionable). 

Anyway, I had to take off my shoes at the entrance of the temple, but the floors were made of clean, cool white marble so it was a pretty nice experience. The majority of the temple complex is outside, with smaller shrines shielding the individual deities. In case anyone was wondering, this is what the main three deities look like. 

And this is what they look like when they get taken on parade (which, apparently, was what was happening a few weeks ago when I stumbled into that big celebration outside the temple. You remember, the one where all of the crazypeople were getting tattoos done by the side of the road?)

We arrived just in time to witness the opening of the deities' shrine, which basically felt similar to when Jews open the Holy Ark in the synagogue, except there was lots of loud drumming and people stamping their feet and throwing their hands up in the air. I couldn't see very well, but it also looked like the monks were doing some ritual with incense or a candle or something).

I was just getting into the foot-stomping business when my guide motioned for us to go, and then lead us down to the lower level of the temple where we were going to eat dinner. And what a dinner it was! Easily once of the top five meals in India, not just for the super interesting ambiance--I've never eaten in a temple before--but also because the food was AMAZING!

Here's how it works. The monks lay out long strips of carpets which everyone sits on cross-legged. You also get a disposal plate and a metal water glass, but no utensils because everyone eats with their hands. The monks then come around with buckets of food and water (literally, they serve from large buckets), and slop some rice, dal, and three other vegetable based dishes onto your place. Then you shovel food as fast as you can into your mouth, hoping to clear your plate before the monks come back with round 2 or 3. Yep, it's an all you can eat deal, folks. 

[Bucket o' deliciousness]

And the food is So Good. My favorite dishes were this sweet pickled mango thing, which I must have had like 4 servings of, and the rice pudding dessert which tasted just like dulce de leche. Oh god, I'm drooling just thinking about it.  

[That unassuming brown stuff on the right hand side of the plate blew my mind!]

Also, guess how much it costs? No, go on guess! If you guessed more than $1, you'd be wrong!

The only downside to the temple dining experience is that, after having eaten yourself silly all you want to do is lie down on that delightful white marble and sleep. But the monks will have none of it. Damn, those dudes function like a well-oiled machine! Once the eating from the first group dies down (about 20 min?) they spill all of the undrunk water from the water cups onto the floor and use it to mop down the area before inviting the next round of diners in. Seriously, even your average midtown NYC deli-worker, whom I believe to be the paragon of efficiency in this unkempt world, would be impressed by these guys.

I'll be back.