India Gate at Night

Tonight I have been relegated to the back room while Sister Stevens teaches the young women in our branch how to make banana bread.  So while she is having a good time baking, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on the blog. 



India Gate (looks suspiously like
the Arc de Triomphe in Paris France)

In April, we had a chance to go to the India Gate at night.  India Gate is a very recognizable monument in the center of the governmental section of New Delhi.  It is dedicated to fallen soldiers of war and has an "eternal flame"  It is blocked off to tourists and there is no place to park, but at night it provides a great "Kodak" moment from across the street in a large park-like area.   Night life in New Delhi is very vibrant.  Shops generally do not open until 11 am or later, but they are open until late at night.  On the way to India Gate, you pass many open street markets with lot foot traffic.  In the park there are lots of street vendors hocking their wares, mostly very cheap items that light up at night - twirling helicopers, spinning tops, devil's horns, etc.  It was perfect weather, the vendors were respectful and we had ice cream - another great India adventure.

Sister Sackley making her best deal with the "devils"

Part of street market on the way to the India Gate

The only free standing mail box I have seen in Delhi

No idea why this is lit.  It was bright
enough to light up the whole street

 

Father's Day in India

We had a somewhat unusual Father's Day celebration on Saturday.  Because we work in the office, Saturday is our preparation day rather than on Monday for the young missionaries.  Generally we wear our missionary attire, but today after going to the local market to get fresh fruits and vegetables, we stayed in our shirts and jeans to go to lunch at Chili's at the Ambience Mall.  It's a short auto(rickshaw) trip of about 4 km.  For the most part (other than the beef) Chili's here is the same as the States, so it feels like home. 

After lunch, we checked out a new restaurant that we hadn't noticed before right next door.   It has just opened and very typical to India, they gave us a "tour" of the restaurant and then told us the new "Director's Cut" movie theater next door was owned by the same company.  We don't go to the movies much (1 time in the last 6 months) - a combination of lots of reasons including finding one worth going to and then finding it in English.  When we checked what was playing, we were in luck.  They were showing the new Superman movie.  We should have known based on the ticket price that we were some place special.  While against my "cheap" nature, I was too embarrassed to back out after telling them we wanted two tickets, so I paid the price.  We were given assigned seats (I wouldn't expect less based on what we paid).  When we walked in we both agreed that we have never seen any theater like it anywhere (maybe we need to get out more often).  Angela called it "the business class of movie theaters".  From the pictures below, you can see what she means.  We got our own mini bottles of water and Litchi (a fruit that is in season right now for about a month), a blanket, and pillow, a fully automatic recliner and a full service menu.  The movie was good, but not nearly as good as the experience.   Happy Father's Day. 

 

District Conference

This past weekend we had District Conference.  For those not familiar with our meetings, District or Stake Conference is when all the congregations in a geographic area (they are called branches and wards) meet together to be instructed by our local leaders.  In New Delhi, because of the cost of land and construction, we don't have a building where all the members of the district could attend, so we rented a building for the day.  The building is generally located in the center of the district to minimize travel and cost for the members.  Even with this, most of the time the district hires buses because members are generally too poor to pay for transportation.


Angela with the Mission President's wife and
the daughter of our mission office finance employee
at District Conference

We met in a large auditorium that held about 1500 people.  Our group of 400 seemed small in comparison.  Members are excited to be asked to speak in District Conference (???).  One of the sisters (what we call women members in the church), said it was her lifelong dream to talk in district conference.  So as you would expect, the 4 speakers before the district leaders took an hour and 15 minutes of a 2 hour meeting, leaving little time for the entire district presidency (3 people), and the mission president and his wife.  A new member of the district presidency said he had never spoken in District Conference in the 22 years he had been in the church and was disappointed that he could not speak the 30 minutes he had planned (he was given 10 minutes). 

We also had a choir that sang one number (first I've seen since we've been here).  Angela and I decided to sing with them.  We started 2 weeks before the conference with no music (the song was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir version of "Have I Done Any Good in The World Today").  It's a pretty song, but doesn't follow the hymn book.   We thought the other members were singing it wrong because they had no music.  Wrong - most don't read music and were singing the hymnbook version based on memory.  Right before the meeting our pianist (who is very good), hands me a microphone for the men (We had 4 in total, the one on my left cannot read English well and the one on the right is tone-deaf).  I just gave him that look that said "you've got to be kidding".  I took it and when he left, I laid it down on the seat in front of me when we stood.  We didn't need any more "help".  Overall, we did okay for only 3 practices and different people showing up at each practice.  Another memorable experience we will take way with us when we leave India. 

Me with the John family.  There's a lot of
picture taking after District Conference

 

Mahatma Gandhi Museum

Last week, we were able to go to the Mahatma Gandhi Museum located here in New Delhi.  As you might suppose, it was as austere as his life.  When he was assassinated in 1948 at the age of 79, what few items of his life were collected and placed in the museum.  There wasn't much there, but what there was was interesting, especially how he chose to live his life and the influence he had on the India nation.    

Gandhi was trained in law and spent much of his early life in South Africa (from age 24-45) as a lawyer and fighting for the civil rights.  He then moved back to India and is known as the Father of the Nation for helping get India their Independence from Great Britain through non-violent disobedience.  As you might expect, he wasn't great friends with Winston Churchill. 

So much for the history lesson.  On to the pictures... I took a few pictures inside the museum until I was told very nicely that pictures were not allowed.

Statue depicts the 241 mile march by Gandhi and
78 selected associates on March 12, 1830 to protest
the British imposed ban on making salt



Sounds pretty good to me, but then truth is truth
wherever you find it

With his wife

Gandhi's bedroom in one of his homes on the
museum grounds. 

Ben Kingsley... huh, no this one is

Mahatma Gandhi

More Interesting Things of India

As we celebrate 1 year in the mission field, I thought I would provide some additional pictures of interesting things we find in our new adopted home. 

Hose Connection

Electrical wiring is very
representative of everything in India. 

Our Internet connection box.  Open in the
middle of an alley.

Typical mall parking - Cars are left in neutral with the
doors unlocked and if someone needs to get out, the
attendants move all the cars that are in the way manually

This is a Delonix Regia tree (thanks Google), commonly
called a Flame tree. It blooms with bright red flowers
during April and May. 

The local scooter mechanic shop - on the
sidewalk on the way to church 

The most common flowering plant in New Delhi is the bougainvillea in all kinds of colors

It's How Hot?

I took this screen shot of a weather app on my iPad.  May and June are the hottest months in New Delhi.  It seems like it wasn't too long ago we were enjoying the cool 90s of April.  It's going to be sunny all week, which is very typical.  July and August are the "monsoon" months, where Delhi will get about 20 of it's 30 inches annually (Sept gets another 5 inches).  The temperature drops to about 95-100 and is very humid (much like Houston).  But for most of the year it's very dry.   On the whole, Delhi is very livable, if you work indoors.  The months of Nov-Mar were quite pleasant (although Angela says it was cold).  Are we ever happy with the weather?
 

Elder Neil L. Andersen's Visit to Delhi

Elder and Sister Andersen and Elder and Sister Watson (Area President)
with the India missionaries. 

Sunday night, we in the India New Delhi Mission and the New Delhi District had a rare opportunity to hear from Elder Andersen and his wife.  They are touring the Asia Area (primarily Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Beijing, China), but they took time to come to India to meet some of the Saints and to visit the Taj Mahal, along with our Area President, Elder Watson and his wife.  This was Elder and Sister Andersen's first visit to India. 

We have a greater appreciation of what it takes to prepare for the visit from a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.  Itineraries, agendas, security checks, reservations, etc. which change multiple times and are not finalized until they are actually here.  But all the preparation was worth it.  Several members of the district were asked to film short vignettes with Elder Andersen in a simulated branch council meeting.  Then the missionaries had an intimate meeting with Elder Andersen on the stage of the auditorium we rented for the occasion.  That was followed by a meeting with district members.   Including the missionaries there were about 400 in attendance.  Everyone had an opportunity to meet him and shake hands at the end of the meeting.  It was a quick trip, but the members that attended (including us) will remember his visit for years to come.