A Monument-al Week (sorry.)

It has been a week mostly of monuments, and learning how to say “What time is it?” and a lot of paneer. Paneer is quite good. And Badminton!

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After returning from Agra, we had a free(ish) day, and I spent it doing a delicious nothing. And then Wednesday we had class and went to Humayan's tomb (the second Mughal emperor, although there are a variety of other bodies burried there) which had the red sandstones and ornate ceilings and probably-once-spectacular waterworks that are now defunct and all that hullaballoo. On Thursday we had class and then cooking class (Tandoori Chicken, Paneer Tika, and Naan, although my contribution ended up being rolling precisely one piece of dough into a sphere, and not a very good one). On Friday we had class and went to the Red Fort (it had the red sandstones, but the fort in Agra was totally better. The Red Fort had a bedroom called “Dreamland,” though, so that is good. And there was a collection of shops immediately upon entering it, which included the usual Indian trinkets and also some plastic barbie dolls and the like, which was a curious thing to find in the wall of a 400 year old army base). And then my hostmother took us to see a Jain temple and the Quttab Manir which is an excellent tower and ruins of an old palace with the best stonework I've seen yet and a temple complex that I am not right now remembering the name of but which had a statue of Hanuman the monkey king that was probably about 50 ft tall and a wonderfully garish orange hue. And that brings us to Saturday: we had class, and then went to the superamerican mall (I bought some maple syrup, which was pretty exciting) and later had Korean food.

And that's my week! I hope your week was good too!

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Of note, though, this week I joined the local badminton club! And by club, I mean squad of people that every night hang out and play badminton on the street outside my house, starting around 6:30 and continuing until as late as 10:30! It is so much badminton. And a curious cast of characters!

You have Lakshmi, now established as the nine (almost 10! Just another month! She is quite excited) year-old daughter of our driver, whose name continues to escape me. And then there is Arty, who is 13(?) and lives down the street a little bit, a rambunctious young chap. And then Thonbi, our maid, who mostly sits and watches and claims she doesn't know how to play but can totally play but she could use some work on her serve. And then Shristi, who mostly sits and watches but is also 2 years old, so that is probably forgivable. She called me Mataji (meaning Mother) the other day in the biggest case of mistaken identity I've ever been involved in, but I think that has been resolved. Her grandmother also hangs out, but I know her only by the name Auntie-ji. And then there is a collection of middle-aged men that also play and are pretty friendly, all living somewhere on the block. It is a quite fun thing, but rather exhausting and I usually end up unfortunately drenched in sweat, and I only stay for a small portion of the game.

I will come back a pro at badminton.

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Also: five of us took a single rickshaw this week. Clown car style. It was the most uncomfortable ride I've ever been on (the pointy metal meter box was digging into my back and I had to desperately brace myself against it so as not too just fall out). I think next time we are going for all 10 of us.