Sunday Drive in Dehli

The events described take place Sunday, June 27 in Dehli. We had gone to see the Taj Mahal and now had a day in the city before flying back to our respective job sites in Chennai and Bangalore.

Today Val was threatened with a cobra bite.
It was the kind of day where so much happened that being threatened with a poisonous animal was something that you didn't even really think about until much later. It didn't really register as outragous or even that dangerous at the time.
But let me back up a step.
We started the day with breakfast at the hotel and a checkout. We had told Harpeet to meet us at 9. He groaned a bit at this after the grueling drive but showed up promptly. It was we who were regretting not taking his suggestion to start at 10. But off we went to see whatever Dehli had to offer.
Being the capitol, our first stop was the seat of government. We saw the presidential palace, congress and some financial buildings.

They were fine, sprawling affairs that showed the influence of the Raj. Overall nice, but not that interesting. A short ways away was the India Gate. It's a monument to those who died in World War I and Afghanistan for the British. After Independence it becaome a tomb to the unknowns as well. There is a black granite tomb at the base with an eternal flame going.

The scaffolding you see is because they are sprucing things up in anticipation of the Goodwill Games which are here later this summer. The area is surrounded by parks where kids play cricket and football. Harpeet dropped us off and we waded into the throng of hawkers.

The big item for sale was these helipcoter "souvenirs". Basically whirlygigs you launch in the air with a rubber band. They must have fallen off a truck because everybody had them for sale. These guys were easy to avoid because they would launch their things in the air and when they ran to go chase them down you could take off.

Then the guy at the begining of this post showed up with a backpack.

He popped onto the scene and ninja-style whipped a small wicker basket out of the backpack. He dips inside it and suddenly a king cobra was in our midst. He whipped it around and smacked it on the back of the head to make it flare out the hood. Cool! I started snapping away. I was perhaps 6 feet from the cobra.

After a few snaps he curls it back into the basket and asks for the loot. "Good picture! Good picture" he barks. Good picture indeed, I agree and pay what he asked.

We turn to go but I don't see that he is up on Val now. She took a photo too and now the snake keeper wanted his fee. But without the cobra in front of him, this guy looks like everybody else asking you for money and Val shoos him away and keeps walking.

Snakey sticks with her and makes it plain: "You take picture of snake. You pay." Val offers him 200, but he wants 5. "No! 500!" he barks "The snake- it might bite you" he menaced, gesturing to the bag and then pantomiming a snake biting his cheek with his hand. His finger-snake bit both of his cheeks repeatedly in fast motion. Bite bite bite. By this time the rest of us are catching wind that that something is going on and the handler seems to want to get done. Perhaps throwing cobras at tourists at a national monument is illegal or something. Val thrusts the 200 ruppes at him, he takes it and leaves.

We forget all about Snakey and head to the Old Dehli Bazaar. It was an amazing glot of humanity. Each area seemed to have organized itself by product; men sold socks here, books there, lemons there. It was like a mall that happened to be on the sidewalk.

I took many pictures of this place from the car. They are all about like these; out of focus, full of life and not quite composed right. Somehow they both tell the story for me and miss the point. We were astounded by this place, but its life, chaos, organization and excitement. I both wanted to get out and explore and stay in the safety of the car. There was a lot to see.

The area is very Muslim. You could see stalls selling burkas and the square hats guys like this wear. The bazaar ended near the entrance to a large mosque. Was it Jama Masjid? I don't know, we didn't get to go in.

We drove by it, the Jain bird sanctuary and the Red Fort. All very popular tourist attractions, but we would have been happy to just drive around looking at the bazaar.

Fortunately, our next stop was up to the challenge of entertaining us; the spectacular Qutub Minar, constructed by our old friend Akbar's grandson.

Next: we visit the ruins and wind up the trip