Friday, December 1 Chandni Chowk, Jami Masjid, Palika Bazaar

Today I woke up early and went to the study center to take care of some work/Facebook. Then I went to Chandni Chowk to try the famous Parantha-Walla, a favorite of Nehru’s. It was actually not impressive. They give you a thali that you eat with thin parantha, deep-fried in ghee. I like non-greasy thick paratha. Then I walked through Chandni Chowk’s winding bazaars, to Jami Masjid, meaning ‘Friday Mosque’. Friday is the holy day for Muslims, and they are supposed to all come to mosque to pray. Jami Masjid is supposed to be closed to non-Muslims, but I was able to walk in without them even saying anything. It was a spectacle. Thousands of people were gathered in the courtyard for 1 o’clock worship. There were rows upon rows of men uniformly dressed in white kurta and matching round kofia. The small number of women in veils and chadors were relegated to the vacant back of the mosque, from where I took pictures and watched as the immense crowd prostrated, bowed, and stood facing west towards Mecca, as the loudspeaker sang, “Allah, Akbar, Allah”. After ten minutes or so, everyone filed out of the three entry gates and walked down the huge stairs back to their daily lives in Chandni Chowk. I did some shopping in Meena Bazaar, meaning “Womens’ Bazaar”, and got a burqa for a rainy day when someone needs to wear black to cover their entire bodies, instead of a miniskirt and spaghetti-strap dress that is basically the uniform in the US. After shopping for a while, I went to the spice bazaar near Fatehpuri Mosque, at the end of Chandni Chowk. Every shop had bags of colorful spices, nuts, masala, and dried fruits. I got some saffron and an assortment of other masala, which would make good gifts for culinary enthusiasts. After that, I walked through the hectic bazaar, which seemed like it was in a time warp hundred years ago, with cows, wheel porters, monkeys, bicycle rickshaws, beggars, and tons of traffic. I ate some food at Haldiram’s, which was busy as usual. Then I took a bicycle rickshaw to Chawari Bazaar in back of Jami Masjid. Being the paper district of Delhi, I looked around for some nice stationery. They had cheap-looking Hindu greeting cards, beautiful Urdu calligraphic cards, and modern and classy-looking handmade paper cards. I ended up getting a simple red set with Ganesh on the front. It looks really nice and like it would be used as a menu in a sleek restaurant. I walked back through the maze of delapidated streets to the Metro Station, and met up with Luke at Palika Bazaar. We shopped for pirated DVD’s forever. They wouldn’t budge, and we had to go to several places. Apparently because of Sealing in Delhi, they’ve shut down most of the DVD shops, and now we had to go into a sketchy shop behind a closed garage door. They kept asking if we wanted porn, and we kept saying “No”, until I decided it would be funny to give as gifts, so we started walking up to stores asking for, “Porn only”. I got a bunch of good Hindi and English movies, including Friends, Jaws, Naked Gun, Indiana Jones, and American Pie. Apparently I’m a good bargainer; all it takes is for you to just be mean and in a hurry, realizing that you buy each thing at the very next shop, if the shop owner tries to cheat you. I went with Luke to get his tailored suit, and asked about tuxedos, which the guy said could be made in three days, for $100, so he took my measurements and I’m officially getting a tux….baller. We ate at Big Chill in Khan Market, which was good. Once we left, it was a big chill outside. Delhi is freezing cold at nights, and it was too cold to even take a rickshaw home, so we caught a taxi, whose rapid-fire meter we just stared at for the entire ride. We hurried to get inside the house, but since it has marble floors and no heating, it was just as cold inside. So, what’s the logical answer? Start a fire. And we have an abundance of perfect firewood: Landour Language School Hindi textbooks. I finally burned mine, which was thoroughly satisfying, considering I hate Mussoorie and that book. Apparently in Seattle, the high was 27 degrees, so I should shut up.