Wednesday, October 25 Delhi City Tour, House Drama

Ok, so I did the unthinkable and went on a New Delhi City tour. It would be like me going on a Seattle tour, which I have done and actually if you go with Argosy, is really fun and interesting. That’s beside the point. Anyways, it was good because they take you to all the major sites in five hours, on a nice bus. It was run through the India Tourism Department. We started in Connaught Place and went to Jantar Mantar. It was smaller than its sister observatory in Jaipur. But what makes it interesting is that it is charged a bright red color, and lined with palmtrees. It is smack dab in the middle of downtown New Delhi, right next to the Delhi Municipal building, the Park Hotel, and the building that houses every international firm’s India arm. I was able to purchase an Indian national ticket at Jantar Mantar, but Humayun’s Tomb was more tricky. I did the usual, “Ek ticket”, “Where are you from, sir?”, “India, Assam”. They didn’t believe me, so they asked for my identity card, which I don’t have, so they asked me who the chief minister of Assam was. Caught completely off-guard, the only thing I could think of on the spot was “Gulab Jamun”, an Indian dessert. That would be like you asking a foreigner who claimed to be an American who the president was, and they said, "Apple Pie". Except I wouldn't be surprised in America. So, that obviously didn’t work. No loss, I’ve already seen Humayun’s Tomb. It’s really foggy today, which happens all winter in Delhi while it’s snowing in the Himalayas. The next stop on the circuit was the beautiful Baha’i Temple. It is absolutely stunning; white marble covers the flower-petal-looking façade, made to look like a lotus flower, synonymous to religions of India. It looks like it is floating on pools of turquoise water. My only encounter with the new Baha’i faith is seeing signs on the road where a congregation has adopted the highway. The religion sounded good; its mission is to foster unity and equality among all people, appreciate science, and tolerate other beliefs. The last stop of the circuit was the Qutb Minar in Meherauli, South Delhi. The way Delhi got its name originated at this site. Apparently in a pole is called a ‘Killi’, and someone died near it. So it was deemed inauspicious, and they moved it to a different spot. It was less stable because it was uprooted, so it waved from side to side. Instead of calling it a ‘Killi’, they called it a ‘Dilli’, thereby giving rise to the city’s name. This was the site of the first of the seven cities by Indo-Aryan Hindu rulers. I explored the Meherauli Archaeological Park, built in the early Islamic period. It contained a mix of sandstone rubble and ruins, intricately-carved archways, and pillars. The minaret, called the Qutb Minar, was pretty impressive, a leaning 200-foot tall pillar with ridges and carvings from the Quran. It used to be possible to climb it, but since there was a stampede and dozens of schoolchildren were killed, this is no longer possible. Of course, we stopped at an overpriced emporium on the way back. Then I hurried over to the Study Center for Hindi, and afterwards went home. Nikhil asked if I wanted to go to dinner at another 5-star hotel and when I asked how much it costed, he goes, “Oh, somewhere around like $40”. So I went with Ro and Puran to…drumroll please….Fiesta, for the first time in two months. It was a good old-fashioned taste of the good times. As a house, we had to pay a lot of money for electricity, so we reluctantly split the bill after arguing about how long everyone (meaning Nikhil) was here in October. Nikhil obviously lied about his trips because his story kept on changing, and direct quote: “Of the 15 day break, I was gone 10 days, and not here for 5”. Plus, the Jains and Rajesh saw him here the entire break, which Nikhil denied, with no hard evidence. The Jains share our communal exasperation over Nikhil. We went upstairs and basically had a huge fight. We called Nikhil out for: lying about smoking and stealing Ro’s cigarettes (Nikhil replied that’s because he doesn’t “like talking about smoking”), for lying about how his relative led a coup (when Mariel asked where, he answered, “In a far-off land”), for lying about being a founding father and member of Sig Ep (since he doesn’t know any of the Nationals Information or the secret handshake), for lying about not using the water heater (funny that it’s always left switched on when I walk in the bathroom), for dishonesty the time he stole an ice cream (from a vendor who wasn’t manning the pushcart), for attempting to steal a t-shirt (he gave only 20 Rs when there was a 50 Rs fixed rate), for treating servants and workers like animals, for getting mad about the apartment getting dirty at the party, and for consistently failing to pay his share of rent on time. Wish we could use this, but it would be so childish: So the other day I bought a plastic loofa scrubber for me to use in the shower, and without asking me he used it in the shower…on his naked body. Gross. Needless to say, when we brought up all these things, Nikhil got really defensive, but since he knew we were right, his only defense was to say “Oh my god, this is so cheap. I think you’re really out-of-line. So you’re calling me a liar?” He never admitted lying, and nothing really happened except that everyone has clearly ostracized him. I don’t know if he’ll move out or what will happen, but I doubt I’m that lucky. All I know is it’s going to be extremely awkward sharing a room with him. I’m afraid, since he’s obviously crazy, that he’s going to steal my stuff, mess up my things, or who knows, maybe even use my loofa in the shower. It’s going to be really awkward because Tara, Snehal, Luke, Nikhil, and I are planning on going on a camel safari and to Pushkar next week. This should be interesting.