India: Hyderabad- Hussein Sagar

November 10-13: After spending a long time in Delhi, I decided to leave for Hyderabad for a few days. This is a city in the south, that now has plenty of IT centres and call centres, earning the name Cyberabad. I stayed with my cousin and her husband, both of whome work in these industries. This part of the trip consisted of hanging out and sightseeing.

Photo: At Hussein Sagar lake, there is a huge statue of Buddha made out of a single piece of marble (biggest in the country). The story is that after construction, if fell in the lake, and had fallen too deep to be removed so they left it. Then it came to the surface by itself. Not too sure about the truth of this. You have to take a boat out to the middle of the lake to see it.




















Photo: Base of the statue.














Photo: The lake with the statue at a distance (the middle of the skyline, where there are a few lights).














Hussein Sagar has a boardwalk with lots of restaurants and a kids park with small roller coasters, carousels, and rides. This is where they had a bomb blast a few months ago, August 2007. They have heightened security, though just for image, because I saw a ton of people walk in through the exit (right next to the security guys) and nobody blinked.

India: Diwali

November 9th: Spent Diwali with some distant cousins in Gurgaon, near Delhi. This is the biggest holiday in India, comparable to Christmas. During the day they have religious ceremonies (pujas) and at night they light fireworks.

Photo: Rangoli, used to decorate the front driveway.














Photo: Me with two of my cousins.

India: Goonj

The little NGO work I did in Delhi was for Goonj. They have a couple of campaigns/ programs they're working on. Their original idea was to take donated old clothes and make sanitary napkins for rural village women who had nothing. Now they redistribute clothing to rural villages, bring school supplies from affluent schools to poorer ones, and recycle unusable clothes into products they sell, such as purses and rugs.

Photo: They hired people to do a street play for a school. Their campaign is to not buy fireworks for Diwali, because it causes pollution, and instead use that money to buy school supplies for underprivileged kids.














Photo: Kids at the school, paying attention?

India: Marketplace

Saturday, November 3: I went with Mala, my cousin who I'm now staying with, to the Karol Bagh marketplace.
Photo: Mala, shopping for fabrics.









It was extremely crowded because the 9th is Diwali, the biggest festival in India.

Photo: A shot of the crowded market.








Here, there is no concept of a weekend, like we have. Most people work 6 days a week, easily. They also might get rotational days off, so it's not always on Saturday and Sunday. That means the marketplaces are constantly busy.

Photo: They can dye fabrics to match any color, within an hour. Here, they are dyeing cloth outside the store.

India: Lal Qilla

Friday, November 2: Kaushik took me to Lal Qilla, or Red Fort, in Old Delhi, Chandini Chowk. It is where the Moghul kings lived. The British attacked it and took it over, removing all the jewels used to decorate the walls, and building barracks, etc. that are now called an "eyesore" to the monument. Life in those days must've been quite luxurious.

Photo: View from the front of part of the Red Fort.










Photo: Inside one of the rooms, where royalty lived.











Photo: The gardens outside of the Fort.










Photo: The walls inside- they're completely bare, instead of being bejewelled, as in the past.










Photo: Inside the rooms where the Shah Jahan lived. The lowered pathways used to have flowing water, from the nearby Jamuna River (which has since moved quite a distance), for aesthetic reasons.

India: Random

Photo: My old room, at Keshav's grandmother's house.









Photo: An autorickshaw, a common way to get around. It's scary when they drive, traffic here is insane!!









Photo: A monkey family I saw on top of the movie theater (PVR Rivoli in CP) we went to. Saw "Jab We Met", very cute, a romantic comedy. I took a picture of this monkey, and the flash freaked him out. I didn't want to risk getting attacked, so I didn't get a picture of all of the family. Security is high at the movies, metro, mall, etc. There are a lot of terrorist threats here, from nearby countries, especially during holiday seasons, like Diwali (upcoming weekend).









Photo: One of the malls in Noida, outside of Delhi. Something new from the last time I was here. Pretty modern, and somewhat comparable to our malls.

India: My family

OK- all my Amsterdam pictures are up and ready for you to enjoy. Here are my India pictures up till now.

Photo: My cousin, Dhananjay, who was my escort during my first week in Delhi.









Photo: Dr. Shambhavi, my cousin (dad's brother's daughter), who I'm seeing after almost 15 years.









Photo: Vijaya (her sister), in Engineering school.









Photo: Amritesh and my cousin, goofing around Cannaught Place.

Pictures!!

Success! OK guys, I've finally found a location where my connection is fast enough to allow me to post pictures!! I'll put up as many as I can tonight, but it's already after midnight. Hopefully, by tomorrow, they'll all be up!