Day 2 - Sightseeing in New Delhi

Let’s see New Delhi!

We had a pretty early start today, it was our first day of sightseeing and we had a lot of places to see. We got ready and ate breakfast and were off. Breakfast consisted of some orange juice, toast, and Nutella and it was delicious. We had 3 spots we were going to hit today: Q’utub Minar, the Lotus Temple, and Humayun’s tomb. There was no guide or anything like that but the same driver that picked us all up from the airport would be taking us to these places and we would be able to do whatever we like once we got there.

           

Qut'b Minar. It is probably one of the most massive and most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. It is basically a huge tower built from red sandstone from the Mughal days (Muslim conquerors of India from the 1100s-1700s I believe). It was a watchtower for the Delhi Sultans who needed to keep an eye on possible threats to the kingdom. It is covered in Arabic script and the color of the stone combined with the sheer magnitude of the tower is absolutely breathtaking. 

Day 1 - First time in Delhi

Always Late

I didn’t go the normal route of flying straight to my program site in Delhi, since most of my family lived in Hyderabad and it was my favorite cousin’s birthday the day before my Orientation week started, I flew to Hyderabad first. After awesome birthday celebrations with my cousins and aunts and uncles, I flew to New Delhi early Monday morning. I had slept only a few hours before my aunt was waking me up to go to the airport. My sleep deprived, jet-lagged brain took it’s own time coming into consciousness and we ended up speeding to the airport and running to the gate. But I still made my SpiceJet flight and managed to nap on the plane, heck yea!

This was it, my first time in India SOLO. I had always been surrounded by my immediate and extended family whenever I visited India and this time I was in a completely new city, where I didn’t know the language (I speak Telugu, most of north India speaks Hindi and I could only understand a few phrases), and the only person I knew was the Program Director, Anantha Kumar, I had emailed back and forth with a few times. I had emailed them all my flight details and a driver was supposed to pick me up. As per the email I was supposed to walk out into the Arrivals pick-up area and I would see a guy holding up a sign with my name on it. There were guys and there were signs, but none of them happened to mine. Using my highly refined travel survival instincts I pulled out the local phone I had purchased the day before and the piece of paper with Ananta’s phone number, and dialed. A man picked up and identified himself as Ananta, thank god, and I introduced myself and told him of my predicament. He told me to sit tight while he called the driver. This was easier said than done, I was outside an airport terminal with luggage, in a completely new place, and for some reason, the only female around.