The Joys of being in India – Part III DELHI
OK, so now I am back in Delhi – The capitol of India. This is my territory 🙂 I grew up here. 
Why is Delhi not a vacation for me? Well for starters, because you can’t really call a place where you grew up a vacation spot 🙂 Both Gagan and I have large families and extended families ALL of them settled in Delhi. Have you seen the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”? Well it’s sort of that AND MORE! Everyone is in everyone’s life and nothing is ever a secret. It is impossible to have a small gathering. We just don’t do it.
Which is why, when we found out that my sister in law is pregnant, my father decided to celebrate in a big way. He was already psyched that I was there and on top of that, he was going to become a grandfather. Now, before we go any further, there is something else you should know about India. Religion is it’s backbone. From affluent to the poor, everyone bows to the “big guy” in their own way weather it’s a happy day or a sad one. It’s what keeps Indians grounded and safe. And it’s customary to dress up whenever you are praying, as a token of respect. So my dad organized this big ceremony at home where you chant the holy “Ramayana” non stop for 24 hours. Yes, even at night. We all took turns reading it. Because it was day 5 of my trip, my throat was already hoarse from all the talking so I gave up only after reading for about an hour or so. We had over 100 people in the house who came to pray with us.
You remember my husband’s grandmother – Dadima – my favorite! She wanted us to go to this famous temple 3 hours away from Delhi. She has been asking us to go for the last 5 years and this year Gagan and I decided to go. Unfortuntely she was not well enough to accompany us but Gagan’s parents went. It was a really fun drive out to the country. We packed some sandwiches and decided to picnic on the way. On our way back we even bought some onions from a farm stand! My father in law is really adventurous. He wanted to get there sooner so instead of taking the highway, he followed a map and discovered the back roads. Of course this was not before we got lost a few times. But we still got there much sooner than anyone else. All thanks to my FIL! We won’t talk about the useless map though 😉
That’s Gagan, trying to figure out where we were! The big map was no help either.
We finally get there. That’s the temple in the back. Because it’s so hot there, I only wear cottons when I go there. I was super comfortable in this salwar kameez.
The wish tree! 
In my next post, I’ll talk about my shopping experience in Delhi… Stay tuned.
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