Read Your Indulgence

Monday, October 24

Lets see India!!  The night before, we slept a bit late- until 8:30am 😉  A gorgeous young lady was waiting for us in our lobby for a 9:00am departure to see Delhi.  Her name was Priti and she was certainly pretty.  Dressed in a gorgeous burnt orange Saree with a smile that would make any boy melt.  Josh and I instantly had an instant connection with Pritti.  It was going to be a good day!  Priti had an extreme sense of warm energy.  She was knowedgeable, worldy and truly inteactibe.  She believes in Karma and she is spiritual.  She looked at Josh and I and she told us that we were great together.  As we drove to Old Delhi, we prepared ourselves for complete chaos, filth and mayhem.  Why? Because everyone form the US told us so.  However, Priti assured us that we were going to love it.  

Our luxury mini van rolls into Old Delhi.  As we drove by herds of people selling various items, 2 white boys rolling through their city is certainly something foreign.  It was as if we were well known celebrities arriving at a concert.  Our fans were waving at us, everyone locked eyes with us, and they approached our car to have a look.  We were just interested in the local people as well.  Their eyes were filled with curiosity.  Eye contact would only be broken if an object came between the two of us as we drove by. 

Our first stop was the Jama Majid, the largest Muslim Mosque in India.  We removed our shoes and climbed the steps of this stunningly hand designed edifice.  Priti told us stories of decadence, religion and energy.   

 On our way out, there was a group of Muslim priests standing outside of the mosque.  I asked Priti if I could snap a photo, they said surely.  With a big smile, I oplaced my hands together in front of my chest and bowed.  I snapped the photo. Suddenly, the lesd priest quickly walked over to me… I got anervous.  He looked me in the eye and firmly placed is hand on my head.  He had blessed me.  Chills went through my body.  I started to understand this city and the respect of its people and religion as well as the way of life…

The way of life in Old Delhi is fast and firing with energy.  As we enetered into the Old Delhi, Priti hired two rikshaws to follow us through the narrow streets so we can hop in them when we were ready.  A cute young poor boy approached me and asked me for some money.  He was too cute to resist.  Priti looked at me and said, your gonna start something here… She tried to shoo him away, threatening to get the police, as he was incessant on requesting cash from us.  He said to her—Go ahead, get the cops, I don’t care.  That’s when I gave him cash, I loved ho cheeky he was.  He ran away.  Suddenly, there were more.  This one girl litirally grabbed me begging for money. She was a bit dirty and her eyes were  strange—I didn’t believe her.  I wanted her off of me.  She hung from my arms, , my shirt, and messed me all up.  I almost didn’t mind dragging her around, but enough was enough.  None of us could comvince her that I was not going to give her cash.  I even tried body check her against a car—didn’t work…. We got our riksaw drivers and enlisted them to be our security drivers, they screamed in a threatening voice and she scurried away.

  Walking through the streets was an experience.  One row was devoted to bracelets, the next alley to spices, the next to incenses.  We arrived on the After purchasing bags of Indian bangles for pennies on the dollar, we arrived on the Saree street.  We were invited in… shoes off, tea served and we sat on the floor and shopped as colorful materials were brought our way.  We selcted our fabric and passed over the amex.  We bowed graciously and hopped on our Rikshaws.  After a visit to Mahatma Ghandi’s memorial, we met our new Indian family of friends.  We said our goodbyes and headed back to our gorgeous hotel for a relaxing evening.  What a day of contrast and experience.  We said goodbye to Priti—we will see her again when we return to Delhi for our last day.