Leaving Delhi... to Mathura

Our train from Delhi leaves for Mathura in about 2 hours. My health is almost back to 100% and I'm ready to continue this journey full force! =P

After our Ekal village visit fell through... and our Hindi teacher fell through... we ended up doing a lot of sight-seeing, a lot of meeting with different members involved with Ekal Vidyalay, and a lot of watching of Hindi movies.

First... the sightseeing... The Red Fort (right, first)... is just massive! It was built by the Mughals.. I believe during the Shah Jahan reign. During around the same time, the Jama Masjid was also built in Delhi. The Jama Masjid is the largest masjid in India. These two sites are pretty majestic. You can go up one of the minarets at the Jama Masjid for 10 rupees (if you're not a foreigner... foreigner's pay 30 rps.... so far, we've always gotten the local rate.. we can pull it off! =). The view from there is spectacular! The worst part, though.... I didn't have my camera with me! We were planning to go to watch a movie later that day, and the movie theatres are really strict about not allowing cameras into the theatre, so, on this day, I left my camera in the room. We also visited the Lotus Temple (Bahai - below, right)... and spent a good amt. of time there learning about the Bahai faith (and getting baked in the afternoon sun). We've been using the Metro to get around Delhi, often. The Metro is there new subway system, and it's just phenomenal! Better than any public transport system I've seen in the States so far. We've seen some other sites and stuff as well... but those three stand out in my mind.

The movies... we watched Mangal Pandey (4 stars out of 5), Barsaat (1 star out of 5), and No Entry (3 out of 5). We're hoping that our Hindi improves as we watch these movies....

The Ekal meetings. Originally, we thought we'd set up a visit to an Ekal village around Delhi. That didn't happen... but we were able to meet some really inspiring and interesting people. First we met Sat Narain Bandhuji. He's the head of one of the regional offices... and, therefore, wasn't used to working with visitors and setting up visits, etc. It was funny.. reminded me of Mit... he said that he felt pressure and a little worried when I emailed him and asked him to help set up a village visit for us. =P We, then, met Ajayji who works at the Ekal Central Office... the people that are more used to dealing with visitors, NRI's, etc. He spent a good 2-3 hours with us, and really broke down into detail the entire Ekal Vidyalay organization... and he was open to answering our questions, etc. We finally met Swamiji, who's the main guy who could set up these visits, and Basantji (from Atlanta.. who's the head of the Ekla Global Found.). Swamiji really understood where we were coming from, and right away said that he'd set up a program for us. We told him we'll be in Dehradun and then Kullu-Manali... and he said he'll set-up visits to ghams in that area. On the 30th... when we're back in Delhi for 2 hours... he's gonig to have the entire program for us, with local contact numbers, people picking us up, etc. As I learn more about Ekal Vidyalay by visiting their sites and stuff, I'll share my observations and opinions. For now, I'm excited at the opportunity of visiting these villages, which are located in, supposedly, just majestic locations!

And now, off to Mathura.... see Biggie and Prach and their families... spend Janmastami in the actual 'birthplace' of Krishna. It'll be special (and I'm sure quite chaotic!)