More experiences of contrast

I had another of those wonderful weekends of contrasts that so aptly define Delhi. Friday night a few of us went to a club in Noida (a suburb of Delhi that feels 8 hours away but is really only an hour or so) to see the techno DJ Paul Oakenfold. Not really my type of music but others wanted to go. Doug and I got there first and got these blue wristbands when we entered that I assumed meant we were over 21. And since we'd never been to this club, we sorta wandered around going up every staircase we saw until we were on the third floor and decided to see what was behind the big black doors. Well- they let us in and we ended up in these private-ish rooms overlooking the other dance floors with huge ornate plush chairs and people kept bringing us free drinks. So presumably we were in the VIP section, but I don't know why. Concert was okay - good people watching - the young, hip, rich Delhi crowd. I just kept hoping they would stop playing techno but that's like hoping mozart would play some 50 Cent - it ain't gonna happen.

Saturday was normal, except for watching my cat play with a pigeon all day. Kali 1, Pigeon 0.

Sunday I was feeling like exploring Delhi - as opposed to sitting in an air conditioned room watching TV like my normal Sundays. So we went exploring in Mehrauli again. This is the place I went a while back that had the crazy step wells and cute kids covered in mud. Well this time the big step well actually had water in it - green, gross, trash-covered water ...but water! And there were all these young men swimming in it - many in their underwear. Not sure how they felt about a white woman with a camera entering this scene. So they started running up the steps to me -I have to admit, that was a bit scary. Like 50 of these dripping wet, mostly naked, skinny boys running towards you yelling in a language you don't understand but I quickly realized that they wanted me to take pictures of them jumping off of various levels - and some of them were jumping at least 5 or 6 stories. Wicked scary to watch (see the guy jumping in top of pic)! Then we wandered around the rest of the "dense jungle" as it's labeled on maps - it's a bunch of trees. Ruins everywhere - some pretty cool - like the boathouse some British guy built to overlook his man-made lake (his estate also overlooked the qtub minar, pictured). Signs accompanying indian monuments are notoriously unhelpful - they say only what you could observe. "This tomb was probably for someone important, is octagonal in shape and has some blue inlay work still visible". The signs on the boathouse said it was built by this Charles guy in the 1850s but when I googled him he left India about 1845 so that's not even possible.

Anyways, after stopping somewhere air conditioned for lunch we went sofa shopping in the other suburb of Delhi, Gurgaon. I had actually somehow managed to never go into a Gurgaon mall, of which there are MANY! So the first mall we went into had what appeared to be a walmart type store with groceries and home goods all in neat, organized, clean aisles that weren't all that packed with people. So that seemed like a good omen for the rest of the day - but the next similar place we went to, in another mall, was like that one after they put a big "everything is free today" sign up. Everything was all over the place - on the floor, in the wrong bins. The people were everywhere, banging into you at every turn. We finally reached the furniture mall and it was good to see options but damn, nice western things can be expensive here!

Capped the evening off with a reunion with a friend who I met my first year in Delhi, Polly - who also happens to be the daughter of my grad school professor. We also ended up in DC together a few years ago. She's now doing yoga in Mysore (an indian town I still haven't been to even though we work there) after doing a tour in Cambodia. It's always great to meet up with old friends!

I am still taken aback at how each element of this seems so normal but it seems like they shouldn't all happen in the same city. Famous techno DJs and VIP lounges where everyone is too cool to have fun, sweaty morning walks around stunning ruins and accompanied by very smiley children who haven't had enough to eat and dry their laundry by draping them over bushes, and chaotic malls with $1000 sofas and caramel popcorn.

PS. Hey - mangoes are in season!