More ruins, soccer at midnight and mall rats

This weekend was full of contrasts. 

Sat morning, Cathy and I went back to Mehrauli Archaeological Park as well as the village/colony of Mehrauli next door.  The park was much more deserted than last weekend, for some reason.  I think the gardener at Metcalf’s Folly recognized me as the white lady who gave him lychees last weekend.  Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to offer him this time.  Can’t be easy watering the grass in these conditions all day, presumably every day. 

 We climbed down these big steps to the bottom of what used to be a bathing tank and then back up some narrow crumbly secret staircases, which was all fun until the uniformed guard, who had followed us around offering a few facts, names and dates, demanded money.  The same thing had happened at the Jamali Kamali mosque a few minutes earlier and we refused to comply in both cases.  At this point, it’s just part of a larger pattern of making foreigners pay extra.  Typical entry fee for a tourist attraction is Rs 30 for an Indian and Rs 250 for a foreigner.  I don’t really have a problem when it comes to official tourist attractions, but even here at the ashram, Cathy and I pay Rs 300 per night for a dorm bed and Indians pay Rs 200 and, to make matters worse, Cathy and I are routinely the only visitors that actually contribute our one hour a day of work for the ashram.  And when we went swimming the pool charged Indians Rs 30 and foreigners Rs 120.  Not surprising then, that when institutions charge foreigners extra, it makes sense for everyone else to do so too, hence every guard, auto-rickshaw driver, fruit stall vendor, you name it.   You just have to take it in stride, do your best to bargain a bit of a compromise and keep a perspective on the exchange rate.

  

Thanks to Linda (above, left), a German colleague of ours at the Digital Empowerment Foundation, we scored an invitation to watch the Portugal/Germany European Cup soccer game on the big screen in the garden of the Portugese Ambassador’s residence on Saturday evening.  Given the time change, the game started after midnight.  At least for me, it was a big score.  I don’t know about Cathy.  She’s not a football fan so I don’t know how much she got out of it.  It was also Portugal Day so the garden trees and cactuses (cactii?)were all decked out in like Christmas trees. 

To be honest, it wasn’t the best soccer game I’ve ever seen and definitely not the best introduction to the game for Cathy, but I was just happy to be there.  Now I have to figure out how I can manage to see moer games, especially given the time change. 

Even being able to stay out that late was a treat for Cathy and I b/c the ashram has a 10:30pm curfew and a no-tolerance policy regarding being out late.  In fact, the ashram has an awful lot of rules.  On the one hand, it can seem an idyllic and harmonious and friendly place.  On the other hand, there are all these rules running under the surface and gatekeepers (by which I mean control-freaks and enforcers) on the watch for serious infractions like opening the windows or using the wrong tray/bowl/mug in the dining hall.  So we armed ourselves with an excuse about having to attend a work function that would run late blah blah blah blah, just in case, and snuck out the front door when there was a diversion at the reception desk.  Honestly, at my age this shouldn’t be necessary.  It’s been a long time since I’ve lived under this kind of scrutiny, so I  have to laugh.  In any event, I think we got away with it (touch wood) because Hansa-Didi, the gatekeeper of all gatekeepers, just popped her head in the dorm looking for the cleaning lady and she didn’t question me about last night at all.

We stayed at Linda’s apartment Saturday evening and then, Sunday morning, went straight to a shopping mall to buy something.  Killed time before the shops opened with an excellent cappuccino (I’ve barely had a coffee since I got here, can you believe it).  Had to get past the usual rifle-toting armed guards, body friskers and luggage scanners to get in, which is not uncommon in Delhi: you have to pass through the same just to get on the metro.  In the case of the mall, I’m sure the security also serves the double function of keeping out the riff-raff.  As you can see, the mall looked pretty much like malls everywhere.  Shopping done, we headed back to the ashram by auto-rickshaw and snuck in through the back door so we wouldn’t be seen by the authorities (I know, we’re pathetic). 

High of 40 degrees today, a few degrees down from a week ago.  Strangely, it didn’t seem so bad, but maybe that was because I spent last night in an air conditioned apartment and this morning in an air conditioned mall.  Also, I’m getting better at staying out of the sun for the hottest part of the afternoon.  At least now I’ve lost my old lady swollen ankles and the heat rash on my wrist from my watch.

We opted for fish curry and okra masala at a nearby restaurant with our friend Anil tonight instead of the usual rice, daal (pureed lentils or some other similar) and potato/veg curry at the ashram - what my brothers wall call ‘gum food’.  The fish curry was dee-lish.