3 months in Delhi

Just realized that today is my three month "anniversary" of moving here. Weird.

So Rachel Goldstein, whom many of you probably know, is coming to visit in a few weeks and as I was driving (read: being driven) to work this morning a few things dawned on me that I should probably warn her about that I thought you all might benefit from:

1) Swastikas don't have the same meaning here. The swastika, like the "om" symbol, is omni present. It's painted on walls, doors, cars, etc. This took me quite a while to adjust to because I had this visceral reaction to the symbol. In Hinduism it represents good luck and fortune so to paint it on your front door or the rear window of your car brings good luck. I understand that the direction of the symbol was reversed by the Nazis so it's not exactly the same. But for untrained eyes like mine, they look the same.

2) Never tell a taxi driver to go fast. I was picking up my friend Lu from the airport last weekend and didn't want to get lost so took a taxi instead of driving. Well the taxi was late (because the guy went to lunch before picking me up!!!) so I was worried that she'd be waiting and wouldn't know that I was coming - last minute change of plans. So I get in the taxi and tell him to go fast ("jaldi jaldi"). Oh.....my.....god. This is why I have jaw problems. Every muscle in my body was tense as we flew down the road in this old jeep honking constantely. Finally we hit a market area where I knew we'd hit a person so I told him to slow down.

For all of you who are in the snow storm, it's getting really hot here. It was 90 yesterday (cooler today) and getting light earlier so that when I leave the house at 6:30 to play squash it's still dark, but light by 7pm. You can laugh at me in a month when I can't bear the heat!