MTM is in Delhi!!

Namaste!

Got to Delhi this evening- just took a short spin, but the buildings look like London, the boulevards like Paris, and the driving is still crazy. I know i am going on and on about the traffic, but, you know people told me that people who live in a country with a billion plus people have a different sense of personal space. I got that, but i really didn't understand that the vehicles would too. I mean it is so close, the yielding and blending that these vehicles are doing blows my mind. but i just keep breathing because there is no road kill to speak of and i have only seen two minor accidents and a million cars. So when my taxi stopped on the wrong side of the street for dinner, i confidently said, "no worry" and skipped (more like dodged) across the street. and why is there no cursing? Are my drivers just trying to put on a good act for the country?- even my taxi driver made no sounds- just the horn, lots of horns. (BTW, 4 adults and a little kid (w/o seat belts or helmets) can ride quite comfortably on a motorcycle- what the hell do we ever have to complain about?)

So the US thinks it is diverse? I am just thinking this country is flowing in diversity; and groups of people have come and gone and come again and made their presence known in the architecture, the food, the art, religion, language, the government, etc. They are living together a bunch of them in a democracy. I have a lot more to learn i'm sure, but it is an interesting country to study for those reasons.

I am constantly having Mary Tyler Moore moments, wanting to throw my tam in the air, twirl around on the sidewalk in a little plaid skirt with(were those) knee high boots? I just can't believe i'm here in India! In the capital of India at that. I keep hearing, "you're going to make it after all." Crazy, how MTM seemed so universally accessible and believable even to a little black girl from B-more.

I know i am going to love Delhi. i was here for only one hour before some Indian guys in my swanky hotel said they thought i was beautiful and another Indian women liked my US modified Indian outfit. You know you never know with beauty; it's like humor- you just never know how you will be regarded from culture to culture- fine and funny or hideous and humorless. (Didn't albert brooks do a film recently on being a comedian in a Muslim country?)I remember training in Bangkok and China and Germany, and wondering if i was going to be funny cause so much of my training involves humor. I did okay. Lots of lawyers in Bangkok are young women and they giggle a lot anyway (sweet and deferential), so i could never be sure there. The Chinese, i couldn't tell if they were laughing with or at me. In Germany, i got some laughs which was a big deal because i was doing anti-sexual harassment training (Ha! Ha!).

I have great pictures but are having trouble posting them even in this lovely Park hotel. Tomorrow is all day touring Delhi and then onto the Palace Train for 7 days to Rajastan and Agra (TAJ!!!), etc. I hope i have some internet but it will probably be spotty.


All comments welcomed- including letting me know if i am somehow insulting folks.

V.