Humayun's Tomb is worth a visit

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Let the conferences begin! After a productive morning of presentations and discussion, our group departed for lunch. We were going to Veda, a restaurant in what seemed to be the heart of Delhi, Connaught Place. It was unbelievably busy on the street when we got off of the bus and I was relieved to get into the cool, dark quiet of the restaurant. Apparently labeled as one of Conde Nast's Traveler's best up and coming restaurants, Veda boasts only a small dining room. Tall benches with deep, soft cushions line the walls, and I was lucky to snag one of these seats as our intimate group of 24 filed in for lunch. The decor was like nothing I had seen before, with dark red accents, low lighting, and large groupings of mirrors and chandeliers. The restaurant is the new venture for Suvir Saran, who is considered to be a super chef in India. Labeled as a "nouvelle cuisine curry house," the restaurant brings together a variety of Indian home cuisines.

Again, there was a LOT of food. One of our hosts explained that this is always the case in India, whether you are dining out, or in someone's home. She told us that there is a lot of care taken with Indian food, with each ingredient having a certain meaning to the dish. The names of the various foods were all totally foreign to me, and I only tried a few things, including a chicken starter and a mutton starter. I also enjoyed what seemed to be garlic naan bread. This was about all the food I could handle, but there was also rice, fish tikka, more chicken, vegetable dishes, salads, sauces and more. Dessert was an Indian ice cream, that looked to be some sort of egg base, with maybe green vegetables in it, topped with cooked noodles. My adventurous side was in hiding today, so I didn't try that either. But I did enjoy my coconut colada mocktail, which was very refreshing!

Then, it was off to Humayun's Tomb, which was not far away. We arrived in the parking area and disembarked, walking over to the gate with mean-looking security guards. Once our tour guide bought the tickets, we were spirited through the gates with no trouble. Inside the gates, it was like another world. The weather here today was gorgeous, in the seventies and sunny, with a soft breeze. And within the gates, we couldn't hear the honking traffic or see the throngs of people (there are 15 million people in New Delhi, and it seems that I may have seen all of them at one point). It was incredibly peaceful. We walked along a long path, past another tomb, and through the gateway, where we gazed on Humayun's Tomb for the first time. Built 100 years before the Taj Mahal, it is considered to be its inspiration, and when we laid eyes on it, that was obvious. I think I almost preferred this monument, because although the sandstone is considered to be a cheaper material, the red tone gave it such warmth and life. Of course, the blue skies didn't hurt either!

For some background, Humayun's Tomb is designed in the Mughal style, like the Taj Mahal. Humayun was the second Mughal emperor, and this tomb was built for him by his wife, and designed by Persian architect, Mirak Mirza Ghiyas. The Mughal architecture seems to be the most beautiful and well-known architecture in India, and I can understand why. We continued up the long path and stood in the shade of a tree and the shadow of Humayun's Tomb as our tour guide provided us with its background. Walking up to the monument itself, we had to climb a set of extremely steep stairs to get to the first level. Here, it was possible to slip into little alcoves with what seemed to be similar tombs to the ones we saw at the Taj. The cutouts in the sandstone threw intricate shadows on the floor, and the whole area was really quite peaceful. This was the most unique part of the whole experience - the peace there. The Taj Mahal is so popular, that it seems to be as busy as the rest of the country. Here, everywhere we go, people are on the go - either in their cars, swerving around and honking, or zipping around in auto-rickshaws, weaving through traffic on their bikes and motorcycles, or walking somewhere, carrying or pushing something, just always busy and always moving. And with fifteen million people in the city, and about 1 billion in the country, the humanity can be overwhelming. But hidden away on the grounds of Humayun's Tomb, you can find peace - birds are chirping and only a small number of people are wandering around, just enjoying the quiet and the scenery. It was really superb.

Walking out, I had another unique Indian experience - I've been told by a few of our lawyers that if you are walking on the street, many a local will come up to talk to you or try to get you to do business with them (usually an auto-rickshaw driver). So I had a guy come up to me to ask me my name - this has been a funny experience here for me, because my name is so difficult to pronounce for some Indians, and is nothing like an Indian name. Generally when I give my name to an unfamiliar person here (the young man in housekeeping, this guy today), they then smile and nod at me. Very funny.

We boarded the bus again and headed then to Qutub Minar, which is India's highest single tower. It was about 25 minutes away and only some of that was because of traffic. My good mood brought about by Humayun's Tomb was soon dashed as we drove along the streets. It was quite interesting to see all of the infrastructure work they are doing, in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in 2010, but next to all of this progress were more of the tiny shanty towns and large amounts of garbage. The poverty of this country struck me again, although the situation is certainly better in Delhi than the areas we saw on our trip back and forth to Agra the other day. It was again disheartening and devastating. For instance, the bus paused at a red light at one point and I saw movement from the corner of my eye. When I turned my head, a little girl, wearing a very dusty sweater and pants, was performing gymnastic tricks in hopes of getting some money. Her face was painted a little, and she looked as though she was a jaded, bitter woman, trapped in a child's body. It was almost as if she had no life in her. It was incredibly sad. Someone asked our host how many people in New Delhi are homeless, and he said about two to three million, but that they're not *really* homeless because they have these corrugated metal shacks or plastic tents to live in. But that's not a home to me.

We eventually arrived at Qutub Minar and the group walked over to the gates while our tour guide bought our tickets. Again, we passed by another mean-looking guard and entered a set of beautiful grounds. It was busier here though, so it wasn't quite as peaceful. The Qutub Minar is from the 11th century, and apparently, it marks the site of the first Muslim kingdom in North India. The tower was built by three separate people and has five sections. The first section was built by one man, and then another man came and built two additonal sections. Following this, a storm hit and lightning struck the Qutub Minar, knocking one of the sections off (must have been one heck of a lightning strike!). The monument was finally finished by a third man. While it is impressive, I was more interested in the surrounding ruins. The columns were incredibly beautiful, and some had quite intricate detailing on them. It was an interesting place to wander around and explore.

Here, I met up with some other native Indians - these women were captivated by my hair! One of them spoke better English than the other, and came over to ask me my name. When I told her, she wanted to know what kind of shampoo I used. She had never heard of it (Pantene), but I later overheard her repeating it to her friend as if to remember it. I tried to tell them that my hair wasn't it's natural color, but I'm not sure they understood what I was saying. They asked if I put any oils on it, and I said no, and one of the women said that she thought it was very silky. One of our hosts could see that I was getting uncomfortable, especially after they asked if she was my mother!, so she sort of smiled at them and pushed me away. I was grateful for her assistance, because they were so nice, and I didn't know how I was going to extract myself from the conversation!!

Everyone was rather tired, so we got back on the bus to return to the hotel. Some of the group went on with one of our hosts to a family farmhouse, and the rest of us were grateful for a short break. Dinner this evening was at Le Belvedere at the Meridian Hotel. Unfortunately, we have had a few hotel-related meals, which is not normally something we like to do on our trips. However, these restaurants came highly recommended by our events planners, and were supported by our hosts. Tonight's was probably favored because it turns out that our host was married there! The Meridian is just across the street (sort of) to our hotel, so technically, we could have walked. However, because of the traffic situation, our events planners recommended that we take a coach instead. (As an aside, I would like to *highly* recommend our events planning company, Creative Travel, who have been really superior, attentive, and enthusiastic. I thought more than once today that I was happy to have chosen them over the other company who had given us a proposal.) The coach was late, but we eventually got over to the hotel. The Meridian reminded me of the Marriott Marquis in New York City - that's a bit of a disappointment, especially if you're staying there, because then, how is it any different than staying in New York, except for the constant loud honking from outside? The lobby was overwhelming, and had way too many televisions tuned into the Cartoon Network for my taste. It was extremely modern and fancy, and reminiscent of the Marquis in that the center of the hotel was a huge atrium. So on each floor, you could walk along the hallway with the rooms and walls on one side, and a view to the bottom of the lobby on the other.

Our meal was on the 20th floor, with a beautiful view of the city. I made it up in the windowed elevator with no freaking out, so that was a plus, and then sat one seat away from the window - with a large barrier between the window and the air, I felt relatively safe. The city looked almost like a European city at night from that height, and being in such a Western-style hotel almost made me forget what city we're staying in. Dinner would have been pleasant except for the band that was playing. Someone said that they were very much like lounge singers, and that really hits the nail on the head, except that I should add that they weren't even any good. We had cards on our tables to request certain songs, but I was afraid that if I requested something and they sang it badly, then I could never listen to that song again! There's also something else I've noticed here - anywhere that is playing American music is not playing the song by the original artist...they're all remakes. It's very strange, and it happens both here in our hotel, and even today at lunch, so I'm not sure what that's all about.

Dinner was extremely Western as well, which for me, was perfect because I needed a regular meal. Especially when I'm gearing up for tomorrow's lunch which will be very Indian. The food was what you would expect from a hotel restaurant, slightly too salty, but definitely edible. I actually really liked the star-shaped ravioli I had for my main course. And they were also a hit because they had Pepsi instead of Coke there, which kept me awake through dinner. Tonight, everyone seemed really beat, in part because last night was a late night for many people and I think that some of us are still fighting jet lag. I'm just not getting enough sleep myself and I find that being here is stressing me in a number of different ways - partially because the hotel is incompetent, and I get frustrated with trying to make things run smoothly, partially because certain parts of the country have been freaking me out a little (although I do feel better about New Delhi after today, a little), and partially because I always get stressed by these meetings, and I'll just be happy when I'm home again, and off on my vacation. But for those reasons, I also think that I'll give the ayurvedic massage a try on Saturday, so I can report back on that as well.

Now it's definitely time for some sleep before the big push tomorrow to end the conference with a bang. We're off to see Old Delhi in the afternoon, including the Red Fort, which I hear is beautiful, and the place of Ghandi's cremation, Rajghat, which I think will be interesting as well!

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