Not for the faint hearted, many animals were harmed in the making if this episode (but not by me....)
I moved to Gurgaon, had a day meeting people at school then a three day weekend for Eid celebrations, I could get used to a schedule like this. Anna and Paddy, who are living in the same building as me, and completing the same volunteer program as me, but working in a different school were invited to Old Delhi for a tour, by two muslim teachers, as this area is home to one of the world's oldest Mosques. Trying to pin point exactly how old was a little more tricky. ....our tour guides Shakil (the music teacher) and Aamir (the maths teacher) debated whether it had been there since 200 years before, or maybe 400 years before, or maybe it was built 1600....in any case it's pretty old.
As we have come to expect they were warm and welcoming hosts, helping us to get the best price e for chai in the market, ordering for us at lunch so we had the best food, and explain many of the rituals taking place. Old Delhi meets all the stereotypes i had of India, cycle rick shaws, tiny busy roads, wild electricity pylons, hundreds of people...I won't bore you with too much detail, except the slaughter of the goats....we had a wander round the markets on our own whilst Shakil and Aamir were in the Mosque praying. We had been told that it was a tradition for each family to buy a goat as a sacrifice, but we didn't expect to see so much evidence of it. We saw families trying to stuff themselves and a live goat into a tuk-tuk butchers covered in blood wielding large knives, fresh goat carcasses under tables, fresh goat skins piled at the side of the road, a goat market, children parading their goats down the street, some of them decorated with ribbons and flowers. As an outsider to the tradition it felt pretty grim, to everyone else a proud moment in the calendar.
I moved to Gurgaon, had a day meeting people at school then a three day weekend for Eid celebrations, I could get used to a schedule like this. Anna and Paddy, who are living in the same building as me, and completing the same volunteer program as me, but working in a different school were invited to Old Delhi for a tour, by two muslim teachers, as this area is home to one of the world's oldest Mosques. Trying to pin point exactly how old was a little more tricky. ....our tour guides Shakil (the music teacher) and Aamir (the maths teacher) debated whether it had been there since 200 years before, or maybe 400 years before, or maybe it was built 1600....in any case it's pretty old.
As we have come to expect they were warm and welcoming hosts, helping us to get the best price e for chai in the market, ordering for us at lunch so we had the best food, and explain many of the rituals taking place. Old Delhi meets all the stereotypes i had of India, cycle rick shaws, tiny busy roads, wild electricity pylons, hundreds of people...I won't bore you with too much detail, except the slaughter of the goats....we had a wander round the markets on our own whilst Shakil and Aamir were in the Mosque praying. We had been told that it was a tradition for each family to buy a goat as a sacrifice, but we didn't expect to see so much evidence of it. We saw families trying to stuff themselves and a live goat into a tuk-tuk butchers covered in blood wielding large knives, fresh goat carcasses under tables, fresh goat skins piled at the side of the road, a goat market, children parading their goats down the street, some of them decorated with ribbons and flowers. As an outsider to the tradition it felt pretty grim, to everyone else a proud moment in the calendar.
?
Not sure what BT would make of all those cables.!
ReplyDeleteNot sure what BT would make of all those cables.!
ReplyDelete