Arrival in Delhi

I reached Delhi the morning of Sunday, February 3rd on a non-stop flight from Bangalore. The cool and overcast weather was the first clear indication I had that I was no longer in Bangalore, where daytime temperatures were reaching the high 20's with sunny skies. In Delhi, the daytime temperatures were hovering in the low teen's and there was a dusty, smoky haziness that permeated the air.

This began the first leg of my journey on my own, without family. I have a cousin in Delhi, but since I was staying for over two weeks in the city, I didn't want to burden her and her family for such a long time. Also, I had my grant money, and needed to spend it! So, I stayed at a guesthouse in the Defence Colony neighborhood of Delhi, a fairly nice enclave made up of many retired Indian military officials. I had a taxi driver hired by the guesthouse pick me up, and it was the first time I ever landed at an airport and had someone hold up a placard with my name on it - "Dr. Ajit Pyati." That felt good.

I spent the first day feeling pretty tired, and just walked around the neighborhood. I spent some time at the Defence Colony Market, which had a few chain restaurants (Subway, etc.) and other eateries and shops. It was nice to be in a neighborhood where I could walk and get groceries and food, which was also relatively peaceful. The guesthouse had wireless Internet, and I started the process of getting in touch with my Delhi contacts. As the capital, Delhi is a center of a lot of activity, and I was looking forward to meeting the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Lov Verma, as well as the chairwoman of the NKC Working Group on Libraries, Ms. Kalpana Dasgupta.

My trip to Delhi would prove to be fairly fruitful....