June 8 day 113
We slept in to make up for our bus trip, had a good breakfast and got some work done. We found another giant cockroach in the bathroom and let the hotel know about it and they said they'd clean the room while we were out.
We were going to two sites in the neighbourhood that were short walks around. Tuktuk drivers constantly slowed down and asked us a barrage of questions about where we were going and one person started talking to us and following us which made us suspicious when he said he was a student practicing English, this guy was not in the least bit young.
We arrived at jantor mantor after about 10 minutes. This was an area of huge astrological observance structures constructed in the 18th century. Admission was much more for foreigners ($5), which seemed fair and there wee only a few people on site.
The structures were truly huge and strange shapes, similar to some of Escher's drawings. One had a series of curved semicircles, two weer ultra-complicated sundials with the central bowl cut up in precise ways, one in the middle had a tall tower flanked by two almost as tall structures that were supposed to be dark inside other than a pinhole whose light you could track. At the back were two cylindrical structures resembling the Colosseum with the floor of them sliced into rays like a wagon wheel, apparently to check the angle of the sun, moon and stars by measuring the light through various windows. There were explanations for each type of structure but not in enough detail to completely figure them out. We found some strips of calibration on the first structure and it looked like you could measure things really precisely. Puzzling over and exploring these structures was well worth the visit.
As we left the area we were able to walk past a park that provided nice shade for us although a few touts followed us and tried to tell us where we wanted to go.
About 15 minutes later we arrived at a step well tucked in a residential neighbourhood. The steps went straight down, as opposed to along the side of ones I'd seen photographed before. It was still impressive, as it had over 100 steps and would have been enormous when full. It was completely dry now, and when you looked up into the tower you saw clusters of bats on the ceiling and pigeons everywhere else. A few people were there but it was by no means busy.
We rested outside it before heading to Connaught Square proper. Once we got there, the touts attached themselves to us and were hard to shake. If you acknowledged them at all, they would stick with you, always directing you to a "government tourist office" or telling you that places were closed. They acted like they were being helpful and often acted indignantly if you didn't go along with their schemes.
In one of our readings on India it was mentioned that the people here use older words that don't pop up in other English-speaking countries much, our favourite being "bamboozled". Meg was repeating the word over to herself but I told a particularly persistent tout, "sir, you are trying to bamboozle me", when he told me an erroneous location for a tourist office.
We tucked into an underground mall that seemed less fancy than Connaught Place and where more normal items could be had. Meg checked out some scarves but couldn't find one to her liking so we headed back to the main street and grabbed some cold drinks at an overpriced, faux-Portuguese place. After that we went to a bakery recommended by the guidebook which was good but not exceptional. After that it was a short walk back to our hotel in the heat, retreating once again to our air-conditioned room.
Another half-dead roach was dying in the bathroom when we returned and so the hotel offered to shift us to another room while they dealt with the problem. This took a while but it beat walking up to the third floor, where all of the other rooms were. Once settled Meg napped and I caught up with some stuff. Apurna called and said that she'd be picking us up at 5pm instead of 4 pm because of the heat.
She met us at 5 and we got into the car with her parents, who wanted to meet us. Her mom is an elementary schoolteacher who can retire after next year and both of them had some English.
We drove to a local Sikh temple, covered our heads, dropped off our shoes and toured around. It was larger in space than the Golden Temple but not as singular. There was much devotion and a pool beside the temple that had supposed healing powers, again. A Sikh explained the temple (created in honour of some early hold man who cured a local plague) and many points about the religion. His phrasing was refreshing, as he talked about "beliefs" when referring to his own religion, which was quite a concession.
We looked around and were fed a sweet substance before getting ready to leave. At the shoe depot, Meg and Apurna's dad had to wait as their shoes were being polished while they visited the temple, some service! When Meg made a donation she was given a handful of candy, too.
We then were driving to a sound and light show at a recently built temple. On the way, Apurna's mom wanted to do some shopping at a wholesale store that Apurna could use because she had a GST number because of her charity work. any bargains could be had but you had to buy in bulk, we couldn't get water unless we got a case of 12. We did get some apples, imported from the US and New Zealand.
When we got to the temple at 7 for the 7:30 show we saw that the last entry was at 6:30 so it wasn't going to happen. Meg mentioned that she'd wanted to see a Bollywood film and Apurna suggested the new Salmon Khan flick and so we headed to the cinema.
Traffic was brutal and t took forever to get there. We showed up a little late but didn't miss much. The film was an older guy fighting to keep his store and thinking back to his past history on his birthday. It touched on the horrors of Parition, which separated his family, had a circus bit, a middle eastern oil worker bit, a ship crew bit with Somali pirates and lots of songs, mainly from his daydreams. The audience was on their phones through a lot of it and chatted happily away. Apurna translated what Hindi she could but there was a lot of English interspersed in the conversation and most of the film was fairly predictable. We took guesses as to how the film would end and which family member he would be reunited with. It was stereotypical but not boring in the least.
At intermission we picked out some food that was delivered to our seat once the film started again. When the Indian national anthem was played in the film, everyone stood up and sang along. There wasn't as much audience involvement as we thought
We slept in to make up for our bus trip, had a good breakfast and got some work done. We found another giant cockroach in the bathroom and let the hotel know about it and they said they'd clean the room while we were out.
We were going to two sites in the neighbourhood that were short walks around. Tuktuk drivers constantly slowed down and asked us a barrage of questions about where we were going and one person started talking to us and following us which made us suspicious when he said he was a student practicing English, this guy was not in the least bit young.
We arrived at jantor mantor after about 10 minutes. This was an area of huge astrological observance structures constructed in the 18th century. Admission was much more for foreigners ($5), which seemed fair and there wee only a few people on site.
The structures were truly huge and strange shapes, similar to some of Escher's drawings. One had a series of curved semicircles, two weer ultra-complicated sundials with the central bowl cut up in precise ways, one in the middle had a tall tower flanked by two almost as tall structures that were supposed to be dark inside other than a pinhole whose light you could track. At the back were two cylindrical structures resembling the Colosseum with the floor of them sliced into rays like a wagon wheel, apparently to check the angle of the sun, moon and stars by measuring the light through various windows. There were explanations for each type of structure but not in enough detail to completely figure them out. We found some strips of calibration on the first structure and it looked like you could measure things really precisely. Puzzling over and exploring these structures was well worth the visit.
As we left the area we were able to walk past a park that provided nice shade for us although a few touts followed us and tried to tell us where we wanted to go.
About 15 minutes later we arrived at a step well tucked in a residential neighbourhood. The steps went straight down, as opposed to along the side of ones I'd seen photographed before. It was still impressive, as it had over 100 steps and would have been enormous when full. It was completely dry now, and when you looked up into the tower you saw clusters of bats on the ceiling and pigeons everywhere else. A few people were there but it was by no means busy.
We rested outside it before heading to Connaught Square proper. Once we got there, the touts attached themselves to us and were hard to shake. If you acknowledged them at all, they would stick with you, always directing you to a "government tourist office" or telling you that places were closed. They acted like they were being helpful and often acted indignantly if you didn't go along with their schemes.
In one of our readings on India it was mentioned that the people here use older words that don't pop up in other English-speaking countries much, our favourite being "bamboozled". Meg was repeating the word over to herself but I told a particularly persistent tout, "sir, you are trying to bamboozle me", when he told me an erroneous location for a tourist office.
We tucked into an underground mall that seemed less fancy than Connaught Place and where more normal items could be had. Meg checked out some scarves but couldn't find one to her liking so we headed back to the main street and grabbed some cold drinks at an overpriced, faux-Portuguese place. After that we went to a bakery recommended by the guidebook which was good but not exceptional. After that it was a short walk back to our hotel in the heat, retreating once again to our air-conditioned room.
Another half-dead roach was dying in the bathroom when we returned and so the hotel offered to shift us to another room while they dealt with the problem. This took a while but it beat walking up to the third floor, where all of the other rooms were. Once settled Meg napped and I caught up with some stuff. Apurna called and said that she'd be picking us up at 5pm instead of 4 pm because of the heat.
She met us at 5 and we got into the car with her parents, who wanted to meet us. Her mom is an elementary schoolteacher who can retire after next year and both of them had some English.
We drove to a local Sikh temple, covered our heads, dropped off our shoes and toured around. It was larger in space than the Golden Temple but not as singular. There was much devotion and a pool beside the temple that had supposed healing powers, again. A Sikh explained the temple (created in honour of some early hold man who cured a local plague) and many points about the religion. His phrasing was refreshing, as he talked about "beliefs" when referring to his own religion, which was quite a concession.
We looked around and were fed a sweet substance before getting ready to leave. At the shoe depot, Meg and Apurna's dad had to wait as their shoes were being polished while they visited the temple, some service! When Meg made a donation she was given a handful of candy, too.
We then were driving to a sound and light show at a recently built temple. On the way, Apurna's mom wanted to do some shopping at a wholesale store that Apurna could use because she had a GST number because of her charity work. any bargains could be had but you had to buy in bulk, we couldn't get water unless we got a case of 12. We did get some apples, imported from the US and New Zealand.
When we got to the temple at 7 for the 7:30 show we saw that the last entry was at 6:30 so it wasn't going to happen. Meg mentioned that she'd wanted to see a Bollywood film and Apurna suggested the new Salmon Khan flick and so we headed to the cinema.
Traffic was brutal and t took forever to get there. We showed up a little late but didn't miss much. The film was an older guy fighting to keep his store and thinking back to his past history on his birthday. It touched on the horrors of Parition, which separated his family, had a circus bit, a middle eastern oil worker bit, a ship crew bit with Somali pirates and lots of songs, mainly from his daydreams. The audience was on their phones through a lot of it and chatted happily away. Apurna translated what Hindi she could but there was a lot of English interspersed in the conversation and most of the film was fairly predictable. We took guesses as to how the film would end and which family member he would be reunited with. It was stereotypical but not boring in the least.
At intermission we picked out some food that was delivered to our seat once the film started again. When the Indian national anthem was played in the film, everyone stood up and sang along. There wasn't as much audience involvement as we thought
but it was a fun night out.
Apurna got us into a cab using an Uber-like app and we got home around midnight, tired from our busy evening.
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| One of the cool astrological buildings in Delhi. |
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| Meg at the top of the stepwell. |
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| With Apurna and parents at the shoe pick up in the Sikh temple. |
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