Back from Delhi

Hi all. This is John making my first post.

I recently had a chance to spend some time in Delhi, where I attended a 3-day conference sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. It was a great conference. One evening as part of the conference, the U.S. Ambassador hosted a reception at his official residence, which strangely enough, is like a mini version of the Kennedy Center. The highlight of the evening was a performance by a Sufi band from the Punjab, an area in Northwest India near Pakistan. It was very lively, wonderful music.

In the front row, you can see the keyboardists and vocalists. The brown boxes are like accordians in a box. You push and pull the front of the box to pump the air into the instrument, and they have keyboards inside.

The back row is the drummers, who are clearly the most important part of the band.

The woman on the left wearing red is the Director General of the Foreign Service, and the man to her right is the acting U.S. Ambassador to India. Just in case you were suffering from the delusion that diplomats are bunch of stodgy, stuffy, stuck up sticks in the mud, take note of  how they are, dare I say it, moving to the music.  

Another highlight of the conference was a walking tour of a poor neighborhood in Delhi given by the Salaam Balak Trust. It was very touching and eye opening. Our tour guide was a young man by the name of Iqbal. He told us that his earliest memories are of being beaten so badly by his parents that he hurt all over his body and could not sleep at night. One day, he had had enough and ran away. He jumped on a train and found himself in Delhi. He lived on the streets in Delhi for several years before being taken in by the Salaam Balak Trust, which gave him a place to live, a high school education, and helped him get into college. He is now studying to become a software engineer. He was so young when he ran away that he does not know where he was born, his age, or even his given name. He chose his name when he started a new life, and he is now quite a well-spoken, hopeful young man. I was impressed by his courage and optimism.

Iqbal showing us a wall in the neighborhood. There are various images of religious figures along the wall. Take a guess as to why the images are there. I'll give you a hint. There are no public restrooms in the neighborhood, and the images are supposed to prevent something. Figure it out? Iqbal said the images are actually pretty successful.

This is looking the other way in the same alley. The sideways sign is for a hotel. The buildings are so close together that people go from building to building by taking a step out the window.

Another part of the neighborhood. Check out the power lines.

Street kids love to hang out at video game shops like this one. Movies are also very popular.

I saw this man ironing in the street. I thought his iron was beautiful and asked him if I could take a picture. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he agreed to let me take the picture.

Kids at one of the Salaam Balak Trust centers.

They were thrilled to have visitors and joked with us.

I wondered when we started the tour how people in the neighborhood would react to us. We found that everyone was polite and friendly. At the very worst, we got indifference from people who were busy going about their work and paid no attention to us at all. Not a single person was rude to us during the entire 2-hour tour.  

To sign off, I have to post one more picture. Having grown up in North Dakota, I couldn't resist taking a picture of a gentleman who was on the same plane from Delhi back to Chennai. And let me just say that it was extremely hot and humid in Delhi and Chennai.    

Hello!? Dude, what would you do if you actually experienced cold?