Law, Partially

These are the ruins of an ancient mosque south of Delhi called Qutab Minar. It was one of my favorite sites in India. It's built in an Afghan style, and this huge tower has Arabic script carved on parts of its surface -- but it's the background that's carved away, leaving the script to be protruding. I just liked the way this tower looked. It was in a different style than the tens of Mughal mausoleums (like the Taj) and forts I'd been visiting in Delhi and Agra. Qutab Minar is red, but there's not supposed to be such a pinkish tint in the bottom left. My camera is broken, and the accuracy of photos is erratic -- this is why I gave it to Amar. This is the Raj Ghat, the place where Gandhi was cremated in Delhi. I really liked this memorial. It's just a block of marble, and such a simple memorial seems fitting for the man. I also went to his house in Delhi. It's now a museum, and it was probably my favorite museum in India. This is Babalu, my driver in De...

My neighbor kind of looks like Gandhi. He's skinny, old, bald, and Indian. He usually wears loose fitting white pants and no shirt. He invited me in for breakfast and tea this morning. I'd already eaten breakfast, but I had some tea. It's my policy to nearly always accept invitations because you never know what may come of them, even though there is a chance that only awkwardness will come. This morning wasn't too awkward. My neighbor is called Aziz. He went to JJ Art School in Mumbai, which he says is the biggest art school in Mumbai. He said he'd worked many years as a graphic artist. The paintings lining his home looked like what I'll call Indian Impressionism -- bright colors, cloudy shapes, but with traditionally painted Indian people -- simplified facial features and bodies, big eyes. His children are in the U.S., and he lived in New Jersey for a number of years. He worked in a warehouse. It's hard to believe this because he showed me a picture of him ...

All six of my regular readers are probably wondering how my trip to Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi went. I am, however, flooded at work trying to finish this project in my last week and a half, and I just don't have the luxurious time to be writing these overly-extensive blog entries for which Law, Partially is renowned. But here goes... Jaipur is famous for its handicrafts. In Jaipur I spent the whole day hanging out with some middle age Indian men who took me workshops for all these handicrafts. This definitely is not on the normal tourist itinerary. I saw a jeweler make a ruby pendant. I saw rugs being knotted. I went to a private art gallery and an art college. I went to a cloth manufacturer. And I kind of missed out on exploring too much of the ancient walled city, but there just wasn't time for everything. I took an overnight bus to Agra and didn't sleep much because the ride was so rough. I man also got into bed with me, and I was like fine, there's enough room, but the...

Vinod, Mritunjay, and I went Punjabi tonight. Vinod and I each drank two Foster’s beers. That’s Australian for beer, maybe you heard. The restaurant was called Urban Tadka, a Punjabi “bestro” – that’s Indian English for you – contraction for best bistro. My friends described it as the kind of place one could pull off the highway to eat in Punjab. In my head I called it a Punjabi roadhouse. Before dinner, I ate some raw sugar cane. It was a small piece, cut from the large cane stalk. One must peel off the husk before munching on the innards. The cane is very woody, and you just chew out the juices and are left with some flattened woody strands. Then we had some spicy grilled vegetables. One eats spicy dishes first, and then the following dishes will be less spicy, to soothe the palate. We had rotis, including a buckwheat roti. Roti is the unleavened bread one uses to eat with – I’m not really into forks anymore – when in India, do as the Indians do. You just scoop up the slop with the b...

It is hot here. There is also just a general film in the air, probably dust and pollution, and this film makes you always want to be drinking water. Luckily, there seems to always be servant boys around to be bringing you water. Well, not everywhere, but at restaurants, at work, at my guesthouse, at my hotel. Pitchers and water glasses are a common fixture of rooms. As hot as it is here in Mumbai, it’s only a few degrees hotter than St. Louis during the hottest weeks of the year, and everyone around here says Delhi is about 5 degrees Celsius hotter than this. Suckers.