Namaste (hello)
Second day of Yoga and surprisingly (not) only 6 students went. I am loving it and can switch off from the Yoga Nazi critique. As he sais I am "not doing yoga, just learning yoga".
An hour of Hindi lesson was fun and we have learnt some of the basics including writing some Hindi script. I am still waiting to learn the rude words and how to order a gin and tonic, but I'll get that before I leave India.
We travelled across New Delhi today and first visited a Baoli step well. It is 5000 years old and is 60 meters long and 40 meters deep, 15 meters wide. The well used to supply fresh water to the locals. They could simply walk down the steps to whatever level the water was to collect their water for the day. It no longer has any water as the ground water is now too low to reach this well, but apparently in other areas there are some step wells that are still used. This structure was amazing and in such great condition. In India there are not gates and fences at these structures so you can wonder all over it very carefully.
Then we went to Mahatmar Ghandis house, it is also the place of his assassination. It was a fantastic place to be and you can't help but reflect on the incredible life of this amazing man. His bedroom is still there and left exactly as he left it with his very few possessions. I just stood here on my own and breathed in the serenity of this place. I've always quoted this man but was unfamiliar with the breadth of his knowledge and influence he had on India and the world.
Ghandi led the change in India for compulsory education for all children, females included. He strived for an equality of the sexes and felt that "India was partially paralysed" with females being excluded from the workforce and all other offices. He pushed for females to be educated in many ways including sexual education and the right to not be discriminated. "Why should we be so concerned with the chastity of women when we do not question the chastity of Indian men".
There was a cartoon hung on the wall in the museum that I loved. It portrayed Ghandi talking to Martin Luther King. It said "It amuses me Dr King that the assassin thinks he killed us".
Back on our bus and we were again transported to our own time and we visited an IT industry that are world leaders in Research and Analytics, working with fortune 500 companies. Very interesting (but then I am a computer geek).
It was the birthday of one of our tour group members so it was off to an Indian/Japanese restaurant to celebrate. It was happy hour so double the Mai Tai's :-). A fun night of celebrations followed by dancing in the bus as we drove back thru Delhi to our hotel. This was very entertaining for the surrounding traffic, we are happy to perform.
# it is not good to fall asleep on the bus as there will be photos taken with photo bombers around you. Our tour leader fell asleep last night so a great photo was taken with us all around her...She'll learn...haha
Alvida (goodbye).
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