Day One in Delhi.
It’s hot and dry in Delhi – no rain here for the past 10 days. Big billowy clouds overhead but not a drop.
We have a Sikh driver – turban, thin, speaks as much English as we speak Hindi. He drove us to Humayum’s tomb – a precursor to the Taj Mahal, in that it’s similar in design, but constructed in red sandstone with black marble accents.
Stopped by the India Gate – a huge arch the British built after WWI to commemorate the Indians who died fighting in the war. A great meeting place for tourists and locals with something to sell. Two young Rajasthani girls descended on me to paint my hand with henna – now I have a temporary tattoo covering my right hand and two fingers. At one point the tourist police pulled up to us and tried to shoo her away. I had to explain she was not bothering me, I was glad to have her company.
The highlight of the day was a stop at Gandhi’s Smitri -place of martyrdom. There’s an exhaustive museum of his life and last days. One interesting exhibit had a list of books he had read – Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Henry David Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience.”
Tomorrow AM we fly to Goa,
B and A