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Thanksgiving -- But, No TurkeyBy Karen Fawcett
Unfortunately, most of India’s population of over 1 billion people will never eat a dinner such as we enjoyed. Twenty-five percent live under the poverty level. What we spend in a day could support their families for a year.
The country is growing and changing so rapidly that its infrastructure can’t begin to keep up. Roads once built for carts and rickshaws are carrying streams of vehicles of all types -- hordes of green and yellow “tuk-tuks” (three wheel motorized rickshaws), buses, taxis, cars, scooters and motorcycles and bikes. Add to that the pedestrians darting in all directions through the traffic…you get the idea.
Is India everyone’s dream vacation? Not at all. Many people are overwhelmed by the poverty most especially when you get out into the countryside. Some Bonjour Paris : Travel, Hotels, Food, Wine, Restaurants, Paris France would find it not to their liking and there are many travelers who end up with Montezuma’s revenge even when following all of the “what you can eat rules.” Delhi is a city filled with treasures. One that impacted me the most was the simple, bare room where Mahatma Gandhi lived. One of his quotes that I’ll always remember, “The force generated by nonviolence is infinitely greater than force of all the arms invented by man’s ingenuity.” A friend so aptly summed it up by saying. “India may not be a place you’d want to live. But, you can’t help but learn if you choose to visit. © Karen Fawcett |
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TM
This Thanksgiving was like none I’d ever experienced.
Rather than eating turkey and all the usual accompaniments in Paris or in
Washington, DC, we celebrated the holiday in Delhi, India. We gathered at my
daughter-in-law’s family home and ate succulent lamb that was cooked on a spit
over an open fire. Wonderful curries, different sauces and plates of desserts
were bountiful. We have lots for which to give thanks. My 2-1/2 year old
granddaughter Saira was the center of attention. She was thriving from her time
living in her Indian extended family and is, naturally, the most adorable little
girl in the world.
You can read all that’s written about India but until you
experience it, you can’t imagine the sensory overload. Old Delhi’s scruffy
streets and teeming people…New Delhi’s elegant upscale neighborhoods flanked by
tent cities of street people…great marble temples and monuments… and tiny stores
apparently all selling the same goods. The old rich and new rich in their
Mercedes…and everywhere else you look, the poor.
Sightseeing left me with the impression that the rich are
getting richer while the poor are condemned. Many parents prefer that their
children work – or beg -- rather than attend school. There is an emerging middle
class and the IT sector is booming: it shows in the proliferation of high-end
stores catering to the glittery young.
When our flight arrived in Delhi at 1:15 am, we were among
the swarm of people waiting to get through immigration. Continental Airlines
introduced a non-stop flight from Newark on November 1, 2005 and American
Airlines joined force on the 15th with a non-stop from Chicago. There were no
barriers to funnel people into lines and it took nearly two hours to clear
customs. Happily, we were greeted by a driver and a black-suited “airport
officer” from the Taj Mahal Hotel (a member of the leading Taj group of deluxe
hotels in India). During that early morning drive, it was already evident that
Delhi is a city with so many layers that you could spend years here and never
understand its multitudinous cultures or its diversity. You’ll hear much more
about our travels in the coming weeks.
In Paris, I’m an advocate of not staying in 5* deluxe
hotels unless you have money to burn. In India, I don’t feel that way. Even
sophisticated travelers need the services of an experienced hotel staff. Since
tourism has grown by nearly 70% in the past two years, hotel rooms are at a
premium. More deluxe hotels are slated to be built to accommodate the demand.
