More naan, please.

I'm back from India. It was a crazy, crazy place - completely different from anything that I have experienced before. All I can tell people when they ask is that the movie Slumdog Millionaire, with its images of complete poverty and complete wealth, is not really too far off the mark. Not really far off at all. India is a country that is so alive with growth. Bursting at the seems with economic growth, and its people are being dragged along with it, but in anyone's estimation without appropriate infrastructure or social services. I won't get into much social commentary here, but you just look at the roadsides lined with mounds of trash, packs of dogs, random pigs and a few cows thrown in, and then see, among all of that, families living right in the thick of it, and you start to think, "How can this be helped? What can we be doing to help?" Hundreds of motorbikes, some with four passengers loaded on (three without helmets), zoom down the road, and when someone needs to use the restroom they pull over to the side of the roadway, hop off, zip down their pants and just go. Right there. Into the mounds of trash that the family cows and pigs and stray dogs rifle through looking for food, and onto someone's front "yard." And then they get back on and zoom away. We spent a lot of time driving in my seventy-four hours in and around Delhi, and I saw this a lot. A lot more than I would have liked. And yet, I would go back there. I'd go back because it's a fascinating place. Eye-opening. An experience like none other you might have. Truly another world for me, and it's something that you'd have to see in order to really believe.

You see things like this:

And like this:

Motorbikes (and cars and trucks, too!) driving in all directions down the street, weaving in and out of cars and people and bikes, and animals. Cows hanging out on the side of the street. Vendors selling their wares or food from a cart that they'll then hook up to a tractor, or bike, or motorbike, and drive down the highway yes) to another location. Three-wheeled vehicles, either as trucks or taxis or whatever, with sides open, weaving around the bikes. And everywhere - people. So many people. India has a billion people, with over 12 million in Delhi alone (and over 22 million in the larger National Capital Region), and so you are just struck by how many people there are. And they get so close to you. Personal space? That's a very Western concept. There isn't any in Delhi.

But you'll get luxury in India, too, like at my hotel, which when compared to other luxury resorts is probably low on the totem pole. I stayed at the Aman New Delhi, and I've already told you about some of its amenities, like the private pool that each suite gets, and the settee in the sitting area of the suite, and the warm and cozy bed that gets nightly turn-down service by your assigned butler. And then you get meals like this delivered to you by your butler. That was paneer makhani, which I ate twice in India, and which I'll have to seek out now that I'm back here. Little cheese squares in a rich, buttery, tomato-based sauce, with Indian spices mixed in. Oh wow, was that a good meal. And the naan, even in the hotel, was delicious. Wonderful. I wish I had had naan with every meal. I didn't mind having a limited diet while there (no raw vegetables or fruits, no water from the tap, no ice-cubes, no fish, and be wary of the meats...) because the food like this was just delicious.

And I didn't mind seeing sights like this, either: The Taj Mahal was a must-see, and we saw it. Didn't matter that it took about three hours to get there and about five hours to get back, or that we rode a cart being pulled by a camel wearing a diaper in order to get from where our car dropped us off to where we were frisked and pretty much interrogated in order to get into the Taj entrance. It was a site to see. Maybe one day I'll see it again, or maybe I'll get to Rajasthan or to Kerala, two other states in India definitely worthy of a visit. I'd go again to India, only this time not with work. There's so much more to see than the inside of an office building, or the highway on the way to the office building from the hotel. It's that other part of India that I want to see again, the crazy you've-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it part. And next time I hope to ride in one of those three-wheeled taxis, only I hope to not be the passenger who has to hang on to the back.