A Winter in India

We woke at noon to the sound of the call to Moslem prayer. And our first real sight of Delhi is the one pictured here, from the veranda of our hotel. Beautiful, flowering trees, all decorated with lights for the upcoming Hindu holiday, Divali, and right across the street, a mosque. Shows the contrasts present at every moment here. This being the last Friday of Ramadan (Eid is next week), there was a big crowd worshipping at the mosque, and about 25,000 men left on foot two hours later, filling the street (where you see the bicycle rickshaws in the picture) for more than 20 minutes.

When the street cleared, we were collected by a driver from USEFI and taken to their offices, where we were delighted to meet Girish, Bharathi and Varratika in person, after months of correspondence with them since our initial acceptance as Fulbright Fellows by the US State Department last November 2004. Then we went over to Maulana Azad Dental College to meet Dean Mahesh Verma, our official host. We had been corresponding with him for over two years, as the first part of a Fulbright application is to locate an Indian institution willing to sponsor you. He is a ball of energy and made us very welcome.