Report from India, Part 5: Day 1, Part 3 To be or not to be (a tourist attraction)

No, we were not in Stratford upon Avon. And actually there was no Shakespeare about it. But there was tourism of multiple kinds. Here we are at the 4^th and final stop of the day:

We both 'touristed' and were 'touristed upon'? We visited the Red Fort, which used to be the Mughal emperor's residence in Delhi. It therefore had both military buildings, as well as parks and other functional buildings. Several have been converted to museums. We got to see some cool swords, a back scratcher for use while wearing your armor, etc. Enthralled young Indians could tell that F was animatedly explaining more about the swords to me..unfortunately it was in German. So they could only see the slashing motions and the light of excitement in F's eyes.

We walked around the parks and then sat down on the grass, as many others had done. We had been sitting there for a while when a little girl walked up with her father and extended her hand to me. We shook hands and she said “Hello”. I responded in kind. Her family laughed happily and she then said “Thanks”, giggled and walked off. She had successfully used her 2 words of English. Well done, brave little girl!

Not long after that, a young woman came over with her friends and asked if they could take a photo with us. We agreed, not yet knowing what precedent we were setting. A few minutes later, a young man came with 3 of his friends and said that, although they were shy, his friends would like a picture with us (F points out, actually with me. But they let him be in the picture too :) ). We laughed, were photographed and shook hands all around.

We then walked through another small museum, were amused at the blatant ignoring of “The Rules” (see a great comic by Itchy Feet). “No photos” it says? No worries. Cell phone photos are probably allowed. “Keep silenc”? Nevermind, just keep talking.

Once outside, we sat down on a nearby bench—and proceeded to become another of the tourist attractions. (Now, we did see 4 other white people....although only 4. And there were 100s of Indians.) First a man with a Muslim skull cap came and asked to be photographed with us.

Then a series of families successively stuck their children on the bench with us. We were such a draw that, while one group was taking pictures with us, two more were lining up behind them. I only managed to get one photo in return, but we were in about 8 random group's photos. And no, we weren't photo-bombing. We were supposed to be there.

For the psychology of the reason behind these requests....no idea. We don't know. We were amused. They seemed delighted. Good times had all around. And little did we know that this experience was to be repeated.

And then, in further explorations, an educational gem! One of these functional buildings was now definitely out of commission (many were) and there was something written on the wall inside. I looked closer and realized it was an English nursery rhyme (ah, the Brits)--but with an Indian twist.

Rain, rain go away

Come again another day

Little Rajam wants to play

Rain, rain go away

And, here is the alphabet 

and “I'm a Little Teapot”

You may have noticed that, in this account, we seem to have been magically transported from one location to the next. Although they make carpets here, we didn't buy a flying one. However, that we arrived at each succeeding location, sometimes did seem supernatural. But the traffic deserves a post of its own. 

Stay tuned!