At night we went to Connaught Place, a major hang-out in the well-groomed New Delhi (British), which looks quite a bit different from the Old Delhi (Mughal). We ended up at Café Coffee Day, which is the Starbucks of India. It’s a pretty cool place with good coffee - as with any non-Indian drink (or food) anywhere else in India, it is best to ask for the sugar on the side; if they’ve put it in for you it’s like drinking Fruit Loops – and pretty good music, though sometimes more befitting a nightclub. We just hung out, people watched, and such. We had a very tasty dinner at Nizam’s Kathi Kebab – cheap and good. We headed back to the Ministers of Parliament Guest Complex, where we were staying – Madh’s uncle has connections. These guys drank some vodka straight from the bottle while I sniffled and sneezed with a cold and slept early.The next day was the parade – we got up early and walked about 4km along with thousands of people (tight security, roads closed to autos) to Rajpath boulevard, carried our invitations (not in our names – I practiced saying “Sri Venkat” over and over in line, though it turned out they didn’t ask), went through tight security
where our pens were confiscated, and on to the bleachers. What ensued was a 3-hour military and cultural parade, mostly meant to show off the country’s might. We saw umpteen regiments march in perfect unison, arms swinging and rifles held straight up. One of them was carrying skis - they patrol the Himalayas and are the highest elevation permanent defense regiment in the world. Tanks, reconnaissance vehicles, missiles and their launchers, etc. all went by. This was followed by floats from most of the country’s 30 or so states depicting local culture/economy, which were mostly very well done. It finished with an air show, including a demonstration of mid-air fueling and a rapid acceleration formation (like a budding flower) of India’s most advanced fighter jets. If we were militaristic, it would have been more thrilling; nonetheless, it was our first such parade and was quite interesting. The next couple days we met close family friends for breakfast, then Madh and I met up with Geeta, a wonderful and youthful middle-aged woman who heads the microbiology department of a Delhi medical school and was Madh’s classmate in Berkeley’s public health program. She took us to the International Center, an exclusive club of the intelligentsia, for lunch. It was pretty interesting to sip tea in a room with writers, artists, prominent professors, and politicians (the second in charge of Kashmir was in the room). We tried to be appropriately proper and stimulating.
That night we hung out in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi’s main street, which is a must see for any visitor to India.
I’ll never forget my first experience there 3 years ago, when my parents, Madh’s family and I tried to cross the street from the Red Fort onto Chandni Chowk towards Jama Masjid at dusk. In one of the most harrowing experiences of my life, we were nearly carried across the street by a swarm of humanity that criss-crossed in every direction while we dodged every type of vehicle and animal trying to zoom in front of us. This time, it was similarly crowded, though that intersection has cooled off a bit with the addition of some functional crosswalks. We took some bicycle-rickshaws through alleys and streets that transported us back to the 19th century en route to a hundred-year-old local institution called Karim’s for a great dinner. The next day Pallavi and Sriram went back to the South, but we convinced Vikram to stay with us for the adventure of a lifetime – he couldn’t refuse, so we were off to Kolkata (Calcutta) that afternoon.
Before leaving we sampled some important places in Delhi, like Humayun’s tomb and Indira Ghandi’s and Nehru’s homes, all of which are full of history and well worth seeing. We were off to the airport and a night of waiting while baking.
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