Travel Companion

My friend Ben Teller and I have now had two full days of being together in Delhi. We have been travelling together since 1973, most notable in Indonesia (1973), Europe (1976) and China (2001). By and large we are good travel companions. We have a similar level of curiosity but are interests are somewhat different. Ben is very interested in language and is learning Hindi. I am more interested in high culture and monuments. We spend time apart and then take the other to see any treasures we have discovered. This afternoon we are exploring Old Delhi together. We had one exploratory walk through the stationery and sari markets on his first day here, but are going to spend more time up there today.

It has been interesting adjusting to Ben's presence. In the past, we have had spectacular fights -- a famous one in Hong Kong Bay where we shouted at each other from passing Star Ferries, and a particularly terrible one the day after 9/11 in a hotel lobby in Dali, China. However, growing old helps. We are more solicitous of each other now and are both fairly comfortable in India. I am hoping to get through the month without screaming at him in some crowded venue.

My writing has suffered a little bit since he arrived, but I hope to get back into the groove. I get up earlier than he does so I hope to do my writing in the morning, as I am doing now. We have had two full days. The first day there was some organizing, figuring out how to fit into a fairly small hotel room. A larger one was available but we chose quiet over space. Then we had to get Ben's cell phone operational in India. Cell phones have made traveling so much easier. In the past I have had to search for telephone booths which are not always easy to find and which don't always work well. Now I can call concert venues, etc., any time I want. I have made reservatinos for a hotel in Varanasi. Cell phones also eliminate those annoying moments when you are looking for each other and are very close, but still can't find each other. I am very fond of my cell phone. Indians are just getting use to them. They can't seem to understand the concept of turning them off during a concert even though there are repeated pleas at the beginning of every event. They not only ring, but people answer and talk. People tend to talk more during concerts here anyway. It takes some getting use to. They also will sing along from time to time.

After the organizing, we took the short walk I mentioned in Old Delhi, had a snack and went to an interesting lecture on the survival of Urdu in Delhi. Urdu and Hindi are basically the same language, but they use different scripts and Urdu has more Persian words and Hindi more Sanskrit. What is Urdu and what is Hindi is a highly charged question. The lecture had long examples in Urdu, some recorded, some filmed and some read by an actor whom I had seen before at the Urdu epic evening. He's very good and some sense of what he is saying comes across through his facial expressions and body language. At the end, a professor recited something from the 19th century which had the audience in stitches and was very entertaining to watch.

Yesterday, we went to a doctor in Khan Market in an upscale area of South Delhi. The doctor was about my age. I introduced Ben as Dr. Teller and they traded credentials (Ben is a retired psychiatrist). The doctor was very affable and reassuring. He thinks I am recovering but my chronic irritable bowel syndrome is slowing the process. I see him again tomorrow. The first visit cost $10.00 and the second will probably cost less. He has given my some probiotics to take to restore my stomach bacteria after the antibiotics and taken my off of my antimalaria pill for a while to make sure my stomach upset is not due to that pill. It is not malaria season in Delhi and I have not seen a mosquito yet so that's o.k. Then we had lunch in Khan market, not a successful meal, but I was getting hungry and cranky so we didn't have a lot of time to make a choice.

Then I took Ben to Lodi gardens, my favorite spot in Delhi. Then it was back to the hotel for a nap and a concert in the evening. It was a three-parter which is not my favorite. They outlast my attention span and they save the best until last, but it was interesting. The first part was supposed to be bhajans, Hindu devotional songs, but the singer was ill so she was replaced by an 11-year old girl who sang two short bhajans. She was nervous at first, but came around. It was her first public appearance and she was very charming. Then there was a sitar player who was a middle-aged man beginning his performing career. I think he has a ways to go, but the audience was very encouraging. (The evening was put on my an organization that encourages performers who are starting their careers.) Finally, there was a vocalist who was my favorite, but by then Ben was over it and I was fading fast. So we eventually beat a retreat and looked for a restaurant in Paharganj. The first restaurant we were looking for seems no longer to exist and it took us a while to find the second, but I retained my good humor and we had a good meal in different surroundings than the more upscale restaurants we have been eating in near our hotel.

This morning I walked up to Paharganj again. It was such a pleasure. I am part of India and, inpite of the intense vehicular traffic, India walks. A young Indian saw Ben and I turning down a taxi and he said to us "eleven," which took us awhile to understand, but it turns out that he meant that two legs look like an eleven, so "eleven" is a synonym for walking. I am at my new favorite Internet cafe which is in the basement of a hotel and has a pool room attached. The bathrooms aren't as good as the one at my old favorite, but the room is even more spacious even though I can't see the street. It is also cheaper by about 30 cents an hour.

So I have been rambling on. Where's the local color? Where's the incisive comment on contemporary Indian life? Today at some point I going to look at one thing very carefully and tell you about it. And now I am very sleepy. I think I am going to head back to the hotel and take a short nap before we head out for the day.