Dehli: A strangemix of new and old

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So this is it! tonight we are flying out for Bangkok then on to australia. It's sad really to be leaving such a culturally beautiful place, one that completely crushes australia in this perspective. Our time here has been amazing and most of us will be back whether its in a year or 30 years or many times withing the next 60 years. India has been such a contrast and it will be hard to return to such a materialistic and routined lifestyle.

We arrived in Delhi about a week ago by train another 15 hrs from Varanasi but due to india being india this trip turned into a 20hr ordeal! When we got to New Delhi station we went straight to the YMCA, our home for the next week. For the rest 9f the day we did a bit of exploring, found a great bangle market!, then crashed.

The next day we went on a full day city tour of New Delhi and Old Delhi. We visited many places such as red fort once again built by akbar the great and then to jamma masjid, india's largest mosque with a 20,000 person capacity. Sadlywe weren't allowed to watch at prayer time which would have been very powerful with 20,000 people directing their prayer to the west, to mecca. On the way to the masjid we took a bicycle pulled rickshaw ride throught the street markets of old Dehli. We went through the silver street, nothing but silver and the gold market, nothing but "gold". The most interesting area we were taken through was the wedding section so colourful. Indian weddings must be amazing to go to. After the mosque we visited the tomb of Humayan which is a massive building quite similar to the taj however not made of marble and lacking minarettes the sheer size of this building was amazing and prepared us for the majesty of the taj. Also afterward we visited rajghat the sight of muhatama ghandi's cremation. This scene at tyhis monument was so quiet. It was probebly the most quietplace we visited. A beautifully simple tribute to a great man.

The next day we visited agra.

The following say we went to an NGO called SARDAC which dealt legally with breach of political rights of adult indian citizens. Ravi the head of the foundation was an amazingly smart man with many years in the business. It was also great to hear about 10 aussie voices. Ravi takes on many international law students for a few weeks or months which helps give them credit toward their degree. Afterwards we went to Chetanalya for a quick briefing.

Chetanalya is a branch of the catholic church that works with the poorest of the worlds poor in the slums of dehli. Chetanalya means awareness house in hindi and sets up vocational training creches for the children of ragpickers and informal schools for the children of the slums. We we given presentations by a man named thomas anthony and sister mary, both very motivated and compassionate people, about what chetanalya is doing and what is has achieved thus far. The next day we spent a full day in the formal slum or jahanghipuri in the outskirts of delhi. We visited Chetanalya's creches schools and voc ed schools and met many happy people. At one stage we drew a massive crowd of interested people of hundreds and hundreds of people. We were completely surrounded and being stared at, definately not something you would see in australia. The day in the slum is one we will never forget.

Our last day in india included a visit to the gandhi museum and the place where gandhi was assasinated. These exhibits were very detailed and you could tell the was alot of national pride. Some of the more obscure items that were on display included the bullets used to assasinate gandhi and the bloodstained clothes he was wearing at the final moment.

So that was india i thank you all so much for reading the blogs and commenting and having an interest in our trip. It has been great and im sure you will be told a heck of alot more when we get back! For the final time thankyou and see you all soon.
Gerard and thwe india team.

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