On saturday, because we stayed in Delhi this weekend, we went to the house of one of the Mobile Creches teachers, Simi. Getting to Simi's house took a while, and when we finally got to the neighborhood, we realized we had no idea where to go. The neighborhood we were in was like a giant maze. We walked through the cramped streets (if you could call them that, they were as wide as a sidewalk), past cows and goats, trying to find house 208, which was tough because the house numbers weren't nesecarily in order. Pretty soon, we had a group of 15-20 children and adults following us just trying to help us find our way. We were like celebrities, and it was wierd. All the same, we were thankful, and eventually found the house, which consisted of two small rooms (one of them open air because it didn't have a wall) on the third floor. The apartment was only a small part of the giant mass of apartments and apartment buildings that all kind of merge together into big globs of housing.
Once inside, we sat down and drank tea, but it was difficult to talk because Simi speaks little to no english, and we the same with Hindi. Eventually, Simi's brother in law put on dance music, and we all kind of danced goofily in this small room, eventually joined by Simi's two small kids. If that sounds awkward, its because it was. Still a fun experience though.
Today, I finally bought a Sitar, and it is amazing. I went to a store called Rhiki Rham, which is famous for its sitars. The owner and luthier is named Sanjay, and he is the guy who makes Sitars for Ravi Shankar, Paul Mcartney, and various other famous musicians. I got the cheapest one in the store, which was about 300 bucks (which would cost 1500 in the states). The instrument is beautiful, decorated with carved wood and camel bone inlays. I'll be sad to have to ship it home when I leave India for Israel; hopefully it will make it in one piece.
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