a happy accident

Yesterday, my plans to go to Amritsar were thwarted and I ended up staying in Delhi instead. It turned out to be fortuitous and a great day.

I came home from the airport and caught a nap before heading out to do some touring in Delhi. Notwithstanding that I've been doing a lot of traveling in India, I have been delinquent in seeing all the sights in Delhi. I think it's because it is so easy to put off being a tourist in your own city, but I don't want to leave here without having at least visited most of the key sights. So, now that I have only 2 months left in India, I'm focused on making sure I spend more time sightseeing.

Yesterday, I focused on visiting memorials. I saw the Gandhi Smirti (the place where Mahatma Gandhi spent his last days and was assassinated), the Indira Gandhi Smirti (the place where Indira Gandhi lived her last days and was assassinated - with a memorial to her son Rajiv Gandhi - who was killed in a terrorist attack) and the Nehru memorial and museum (the place where the first prime minister lived/worked and died). Is there a theme here? I also went to Safdarjung's Tomb - a tomb built in the mid 18th Century built by his son (I guess this isn't doing anything to dispel the theme).

Each of the sites were on beautiful grounds and were interesting in their own right. I probably spent the least amount of time at the Gandhi Smirti since I've visited a few memorials to Gandhiji already and they each seem to contain the same information - yet I still get chills visiting places where Gandhiji had been.

Indira Gandhi's memorial gave me the impression of a family that had sacrificed so much for their country. In a way, the family history reminds me of the Kennedys. Father (Nehru) is Prime Minister of India, subsequently his daughter Indira is Prime Minister, the first son, Sanjay, probably groomed to follow in his mother's footsteps, died in an airplane accident, forcing Rajiv, the second son, into politics, only to be killed. His wife, Sonia is now the head of the Congress Party and their son Rahul is active in politics as well. A family legacy that lives on.

The Nehru memorial was not as well established as I would have expected for the first Prime Minister of India. I didn't find it as informative about the man himself and his struggles, but it was informative about the revolutionary movement here.

I'm glad that I got to visit these sites yesterday, but it was more than being able to be a tourist in Delhi that made yesterday a great day.

I stopped in at the Italian Cultural Institute for a bit of lunch and lo and behold ran into a couple of friends. After I left them, but before I left the Institute, I ran into another couple I knew. Now I know like 10 people in Delhi - it was so strange and yet so sweet that I would run into 4 people at one place (and seriously, Delhi is not a small place).

Later in the evening, I joined some friends at the Alliance Francaise (like the French Cultural Center) for some music. The amphitheater was full so a number of us (like 150 people) were standing outside listening to music (watching it on a screen) while sipping wine, eating pizza or some grilled chicken). It was such a nice evening, meeting new people, enjoying being outside and taking in some culture.

I'll take these change in plans any day.