Sunday, October 29 Museums, Memorials, Tourist Shows

I got up early, and devoted the day to Delhi tourism. My first stop was the Indian Railways National Museum. I took the city bus. I actually am starting to really like the city bus. It goes everywhere, the conductors are helpful, it’s dirt cheap, it’s a seat, and they come every minute. The Railway Museum was tucked in a bunch of residential neighborhoods, so I had to ask an old man brushing his teeth where the museum was. The museum was really cool, especially since I am a trains buff. Basically when trains came to India, they were just boxes or tents on wheels. The idea was put into reality by the British East India Company, to create modes of transport and communication from coastal areas to the interior to facilitate the flow of people and goods, and later to govern the subcontinent. It turned out to be one of the best contributions made by the British Raj, and ultimately one of the worst for them. It also facilitated the spread of the Independence movement. The museum had a bunch of fun facts about Indian Railways. For example, Indian Railways is the whole system, broken down into 16 zonal groups. There are 14,534 trains running on 63,122 km of track, with 6,870 stations across the country. It carries 12.5 million passengers and 1.42 million tons of freight daily. It is the second-largest rail network in the world. It also said that since the Delhi Metro was built, it means that every year: 2,634 less buses on the roads, 517,000 less trips made by private vehicles, average speed increases by 4 km/hr, 927 accidents avoided, and 96.3 million litres of fuel saved. The museum also had an outdoor exhibit, with real locomotives, which were interesting to see and play on. Next, I headed over to the National Museum. It costs 1 Rs for a student ticket. I like that. The museum was really interesting. It started out with clay figures, seals, and a real burial from the Indus Valley Civilization 5,000 years ago. Then, there were lots of sculptures made of bronze and stone, depicting various Hindu gods with hands in different positions and jutted hips, and Buddhist statues, from the Mauryan, Chola, and Gupta periods. There was a huge collection of Mughal miniatures, and miniatures from Rajasthan and the Deccan. They were very intricately painted, with gold leaf and flowing calligraphy. Then they had a whole section on just coins, which got old. The instruments collection was interesting, and they had some really intricate sitars, with ivory and semi-precious stones inlaid. Then there was a whole exhibit on tribal peoples of NE India. Why do all “tribal” people, no matter where or when, all look similar? After the museum, I had some lunch and caught a rickshaw, who took me to some random emporium, so I ran away and caught the bus to the National Gallery of Modern Art. It was really interesting, too, because it was all Indian artists in the modern era. They had some really good iPod-style figurines, and collages. Some were weird, but I’m probably just too novice to understand the work. I used to despise modern art, thinking it took no talent, and was really weird. The good thing about Modern Art is that it takes creativity. You can’t do modern art without creativity. After that museum, I ran over to the Indira Gandhi Memorial, which was at her residence in the diplomatic enclave in New Delhi. Tons of Indians were there, looking at pictures of her and her family’s life. The memorial contained exhibits of her well-furnished rooms. It also housed the clothes she and her son Rajiv were wearing during their assassinations. It also had the crystalized path she was on when her Sikh bodyguard murdered her. For someone who massacred Sikhs, forced sterilizations, and led the economy down the tube, I’m surprised that Indians love her so much. Next, I went to the Nehru Library, Museum, and Planetarium. It was housed in a huge building, and had eternal flames for him, his daughter Indira, and his grandson Rajiv. It also had on display pictures and books of his. His rooms were also on display, including the one from which he used to rule the country. It was interesting, but again, I don’t think Nehru did all that good a job, either. His economic policies crippled the country from independence until the 1990s. I had to catch a rickshaw and ask five different people where the Parsi theatre was, because the number was disconnected, and I thought more people would know about these dances, considering it’s a huge tourist attraction. But after seeing the performance, I’m not surprised no one knows about it, since it’s horrible. I was one of about 50 foreign and only foreign tourists. The dance was hilarious. The audience sat in dirty old couches that look like they belong in a fraternity, and the actors were even better. Half were from the Northeast and looked Chinese, so half the dances were Manipuri. Those were actually really good, they did balancing dances with drums and sticks. The other half were just Chinese-looking people doing Indian dances. Picture a Korean woman doing the Rajasthani dance with stacks of buckets on her head; buckets that were empty and were glued together. Then they had to talk to each other on stage to figure out which dance they were doing. And they dropped one of the guys on stilts. For the Bhangra dance, they glued on beards to look like Sikhs. One drummer did the music for all of the acts. The whole time it was like 1) watching a figure-skater and hoping they don’t mess up, and 2) watching a magic show and trying to guess what their secret trick is, because you know it’s fake. I went over to the Red Fort to see the Sound and Light Show (really touristy). Besides the mosquitoes, it was actually really interesting. They had…sounds and…lights, of the Mughal leaders and of the freedom fighters, along with music. Afterwards, I had dinner in Chandni Chowk, and I saw a huge rat. I thought I was over rats, but apparently not. Now whenever I am walking at night, I’m always scared of rats, and trying to avoid little holes and nooks and crannies…which is a hard task, considering the streets here are in severe disrepair…all of them.