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December 25, 2005
On our own in Delhi
The thought of being on ones own in any city in India is a pretty scary one. Christmas day in Delhi was pretty quiet though especially being a Sunday most shops were closed. However the Crafts Museum was open so we made the trip out to see the recreations of traditional housing from all over India, arts and crafts displays, watched artisans in action and even saw a traditional Kolkatta puppet show.
We also discovered an extensive collection of traditional arts and crafts on display tucked away inside a complex of buildings. A large collection of beautiful hand woven fabrics and ornate wood work were some of the most outstanding features.
After a bit of a rest back at the guest house, our driver collected us and took us to visit Sanjay and his family in a suburb just outside of Delhi called Gurgaon.
This was a pretty wild place, with rows upon row of enourmous new shopping malls. The city infrastructure bursting at the seams from the pressure. It took our driver half an hour to cross the road as we slowly worked our way first up one side of the divided road and then back down the other through bumper-to-bumper traffic heading into and out of the malls. Clearly the electricity grid wasn't coping with the pressure either, there were two power failures in the area while we were there. One blackout was in progress when we arrived at our friends place and then we experienced another whilst we were visiting the mall just next door.
We had dinner at a resaurant in the mall which was decorated in the style of a dhaba (a roadside eating place) from the north west states of India. It looked very exotic and the food was good too.
Posted by Shirley at December 25, 2005 03:06 PM