Today I rode the Delhi Metro (subway) system to travel from central Delhi to the southerly town of Gurgaon. I was attending a Meetup event for a book discussion on the famous Hindu mythology text, the Mahabharata. This is one of the two major, epic texts. The other being the Ramayana. I was first introduced to the Ramayana when I visited Yogyakarta in Indonesia, a few years ago. I then read the book after I knew I'd be moving to India. And in a recent conversation with my colleague before moving to Delhi, he suggested I also read the Mahabharata.
By coincidence then, I found this Meetup discussion on the book taking place right after I moved to the city. It seemed to be fate, and so I planned a trip.
I decided to take the metro to get to Gurgaon. Gurgaon is a newer town development south of Delhi. It is a bit more 'modern' with shopping centres, and high rise buildings for multi-national offices and residential apartments. Though the infrastructure there is very poorly planned and in many ways inadequate. In any case, it was a good opportunity to visit the area, as many people and offices are now located there. It is one option for me to find an apartment to live... though I highly doubt I'd like to live so far from the city centre.
See the slideshow embedded in the post. I took an auto-rickshaw from the IHC compound to the Jor Bagh metro station. This was about a five minute trip, and cost me 50 rupees (I probably paid too much!). I then entered the station and bought a smart card to store money and save time when riding the metro. I began my trip south.
I had to change trains at Qutab Minar -- an ancient monument in far south Delhi. I have not visited that monument before, and i'll have to plan to come back on another day to explore. I continued on my way to the MG Road metro station in Gurgaon. This station is flanked by modern shopping malls, and the road the runs under the elevated metro track was clogged with traffic and chirping with endless bursts of car horns. I walked along the road a ways to search for the Central Arcade shopping mall, where the book discussion group would be meeting in a cafe called Cafe Kantata -- named after the famous Bach piece about coffee addiction.
The discussion was OK. We ended up having to shift locations due to a 6 year old's birthday party being held at the same time in the same cafe. The noise from the children was not conducive to a discussion about Hindu mythology.
We found a suitable place and ended up having a short discussion. There were a number of people in attendance, all others being Indian. The matriarch of the group was an older woman who had a good knowledge of the book, having read it numerous times. She had some pre-prepared points to raise about the role of women in India society and how it has changed since the book was written; as well as some wild ideas about test-tube babies, and nuclear weapons. The main organizer of the group was nice and friendly. He also organizes some groups that make short trips to towns around Delhi. He was quite curious about the Kindle I had brought containing my copy of the Mahabharata. I also met a guy who works as an interaction designer for Samsung here in Delhi. We rode the metro back together after the meeting and he gave some good advice on finding my way around Delhi. And then there was another guy who was quite vocal in is opposition and hatred for the dominant political party in India, and his distaste for M Gandhi -- calling him a pig! I was very surprised, as I had thought Gandhi was universally beloved in India and around the world.
It was an interesting mix of people and a good experience. It is so fun to travel and meet people and have these normal-abnormal experiences of conversation across cultures. I look forward to many more stories in India.
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