Day 239 - Lotus Temple - Dosas for Lunch - Rotary Meeting
Sunday, March 3rd, 2019.
Today we had to be out of the house by 11:00am because the cleaning boy was coming. I think it was a good idea to get us out of the house in the morning. When we came out of the cave, we realized that it was chilly and rainy!
We took an Uber to visit the Lotus temple, which is a Baha'i temple. The only reason I know about this religion is that I had a Baha'i friend back home.
The Bahá'í Faith is a religion teaching the essential worth of all religions, and the unity and equality of all people. Established by Bahá'u'lláh in 1863, it initially grew in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception.Wikipedia
The temple is shaped like a Lotus and it looks very beautiful from the outside. It is in a big green park which is well-maintained. Everything was well organized and they let us in in small groups at a time. We had to take off our shoes but they provided a bag where we could put them. The inside of the temple doesn't have any images or statues, nothing. It is just a simple open space to meditate. We stayed for the ten-minute service which was in English, Hindi, and Arabic, they read from different holy books!
After the service, to warm up, we went to the information center which was more like a museum. We learned the story of the creator of Baha'i and how it has grown internationally. I think we spend a good hour there. Afterward, we took an Uber back to our neighborhood where we wanted to go out for lunch. We ended up at the Carnatic Cafe where they served all kinds of dosa, which was new to us, but delicious!
After lunch, we went to the grocery store and then we walked back home on the street since there is no sidewalk. Did I mention that they use the horn for everything? Probably as bad as Egypt so if I come home with hearing loss it's because of my stay in Delhi. Sunshine and I stayed home because she had homework to finish and start working on her Gold Award project for the Girl Scouts. Gregory took Daniel to get a haircut. The poor kid got a really bad one in Ethiopia where the girl had never cut faranja hair.
We spend the rest of the afternoon writing the blog and figuring out where we are staying in Rishikesh! Gregory went to his Rotary meeting. I admire him for that, he finds where they meet, takes an Uber, and just like that walks into different clubs to meet Rotarians. I prefer to stay at home (in an unknown country) with my kiddos!
Good night!
Gregory's evening
Just to pick it up from there, I found about 40 Rotary clubs in Delhi. Even on Saturday, there are about 10 that meet. I found a couple in the Meridien hotel, but I opted for a meeting at the Oberoi Maiden's hotel, which is a famous old hotel. I meant to get there early, but the rain meant the normally 30 minute ride took an hour.
When I arrived at the hotel, the room was actually well marked. But when I looked inside, I only saw 3 people standing at a tall table. There were a bunch of chairs set up for what looked like a conference.
"Rrotaree?" I asked in my best Indian accent.
The 3 looked up and pointed down the hall. I walked down to the end, where I found a small restaurant. I stood there. No one looked up. Finally a waiter came.
"Rrotaree?" I asked.
The waiter pointed me back in the direction I had come from, to the original room I had entered. I walked back. Now, there were 4 people in the room, and it was 15 minutes after the posted starting time.
"Rrrotarreee?" I asked again. Maybe I had pronounced it wrong the first time. I pointed to my pin.
This time, I got a head wobble and noticed that one of the men was wearing a Rotary pin. The introduced themselves and offered me a drink. After that, they returned to their conversation.
I sipped my beer as a few more members started trickling in. The room was certainly grand and it looked set for a lecture on one side and a banquet on the other.
By now it was past 9, and maybe a dozen members had shown up. None spoke English very well, and I found myself left alone again and again. I kept joining groups of people who would say hello and then wander off. Not Western hospitality, that was for sure!
The meeting started around 10. They seated me in the front row, and after singing the national anthem and opening the meeting, they called me up to say a few words. I did, and that was the extent of the English spoken at the meeting. When I got back to my seat, I was the only one in the row -- the others had all disappeared. Then, the speaker came up. He was a well-known poet, who waxed poetic (in Hindi) for over an hour. I heard "Pakistan" a lot, and frequent applause -- they told me later that he was talking nationalistic smack about nasty Pakistan, which was being mean to Mother India. I also heard words like "Krishna", "Arjuna", "Laxmi" and a few more gods. So he had moved on from politics to religion, still to great applause. I started to wonder what kind of Rotary meeting this was.
Finally, he ended and the meeting part was over -- it was time for food. A woman came over to me and gave me a 10-second summary, which was pretty much what I had gathered. She told me the meetings usually ended around 1am after the banquet...!
I tried to speak to a few more people, I had one man try to convert me, and I tried most of the 24 [vegetarian] dishes -- each one delicious. It was midnight and I decided it was time to go.
My phone wasn't connecting to data, so I woke the hotel receptionist to ask for a Wifi code. He asked if I was a guest, and I told him I was there for the Rotary meeting, which has been happening here for over a decade. Sorry, he said, no room, no Wifi. Where the hell did he think he was, Dubai? I wrote the manager the next day to complain, which got me a note saying how sorry he was and how that should not have happened. I told him where he could stick his apology.
Anyway, another hotel clerk called Uber for me and I had an uneventful ride home, with a lower opinion of the Oberoi hotel and Indian Rotary clubs.
Today we had to be out of the house by 11:00am because the cleaning boy was coming. I think it was a good idea to get us out of the house in the morning. When we came out of the cave, we realized that it was chilly and rainy!
We took an Uber to visit the Lotus temple, which is a Baha'i temple. The only reason I know about this religion is that I had a Baha'i friend back home.
The Bahá'í Faith is a religion teaching the essential worth of all religions, and the unity and equality of all people. Established by Bahá'u'lláh in 1863, it initially grew in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception.Wikipedia
The temple is shaped like a Lotus and it looks very beautiful from the outside. It is in a big green park which is well-maintained. Everything was well organized and they let us in in small groups at a time. We had to take off our shoes but they provided a bag where we could put them. The inside of the temple doesn't have any images or statues, nothing. It is just a simple open space to meditate. We stayed for the ten-minute service which was in English, Hindi, and Arabic, they read from different holy books!
After the service, to warm up, we went to the information center which was more like a museum. We learned the story of the creator of Baha'i and how it has grown internationally. I think we spend a good hour there. Afterward, we took an Uber back to our neighborhood where we wanted to go out for lunch. We ended up at the Carnatic Cafe where they served all kinds of dosa, which was new to us, but delicious!
After lunch, we went to the grocery store and then we walked back home on the street since there is no sidewalk. Did I mention that they use the horn for everything? Probably as bad as Egypt so if I come home with hearing loss it's because of my stay in Delhi. Sunshine and I stayed home because she had homework to finish and start working on her Gold Award project for the Girl Scouts. Gregory took Daniel to get a haircut. The poor kid got a really bad one in Ethiopia where the girl had never cut faranja hair.
We spend the rest of the afternoon writing the blog and figuring out where we are staying in Rishikesh! Gregory went to his Rotary meeting. I admire him for that, he finds where they meet, takes an Uber, and just like that walks into different clubs to meet Rotarians. I prefer to stay at home (in an unknown country) with my kiddos!
Good night!
Gregory's evening
Just to pick it up from there, I found about 40 Rotary clubs in Delhi. Even on Saturday, there are about 10 that meet. I found a couple in the Meridien hotel, but I opted for a meeting at the Oberoi Maiden's hotel, which is a famous old hotel. I meant to get there early, but the rain meant the normally 30 minute ride took an hour.
When I arrived at the hotel, the room was actually well marked. But when I looked inside, I only saw 3 people standing at a tall table. There were a bunch of chairs set up for what looked like a conference.
"Rrotaree?" I asked in my best Indian accent.
The 3 looked up and pointed down the hall. I walked down to the end, where I found a small restaurant. I stood there. No one looked up. Finally a waiter came.
"Rrotaree?" I asked.
The waiter pointed me back in the direction I had come from, to the original room I had entered. I walked back. Now, there were 4 people in the room, and it was 15 minutes after the posted starting time.
"Rrrotarreee?" I asked again. Maybe I had pronounced it wrong the first time. I pointed to my pin.
This time, I got a head wobble and noticed that one of the men was wearing a Rotary pin. The introduced themselves and offered me a drink. After that, they returned to their conversation.
I sipped my beer as a few more members started trickling in. The room was certainly grand and it looked set for a lecture on one side and a banquet on the other.
By now it was past 9, and maybe a dozen members had shown up. None spoke English very well, and I found myself left alone again and again. I kept joining groups of people who would say hello and then wander off. Not Western hospitality, that was for sure!
The meeting started around 10. They seated me in the front row, and after singing the national anthem and opening the meeting, they called me up to say a few words. I did, and that was the extent of the English spoken at the meeting. When I got back to my seat, I was the only one in the row -- the others had all disappeared. Then, the speaker came up. He was a well-known poet, who waxed poetic (in Hindi) for over an hour. I heard "Pakistan" a lot, and frequent applause -- they told me later that he was talking nationalistic smack about nasty Pakistan, which was being mean to Mother India. I also heard words like "Krishna", "Arjuna", "Laxmi" and a few more gods. So he had moved on from politics to religion, still to great applause. I started to wonder what kind of Rotary meeting this was.
Finally, he ended and the meeting part was over -- it was time for food. A woman came over to me and gave me a 10-second summary, which was pretty much what I had gathered. She told me the meetings usually ended around 1am after the banquet...!
I tried to speak to a few more people, I had one man try to convert me, and I tried most of the 24 [vegetarian] dishes -- each one delicious. It was midnight and I decided it was time to go.
My phone wasn't connecting to data, so I woke the hotel receptionist to ask for a Wifi code. He asked if I was a guest, and I told him I was there for the Rotary meeting, which has been happening here for over a decade. Sorry, he said, no room, no Wifi. Where the hell did he think he was, Dubai? I wrote the manager the next day to complain, which got me a note saying how sorry he was and how that should not have happened. I told him where he could stick his apology.
Anyway, another hotel clerk called Uber for me and I had an uneventful ride home, with a lower opinion of the Oberoi hotel and Indian Rotary clubs.
Comments
Post a Comment