Well, dear friends, you might ask what happened in India today? India is a big place so I will confine my ramblings to what happened to the tiny bit of India where the Bakers took oxygen today. The picture above is the fountain in the middle of the round-a-bout which constitutes Bengali Market, the little corner of New Delhi that we call home. I wish that the water was turned on, there are so many water jets that I bet it is really beautiful when activated. Of course, the last time it was energized could have been when Jawaharlal Nehru (d.1964) was still PM. In defense of the government there is only so much money and providing infrastructure to a rapidly expanding population is a daunting task. New Delhi is rapidly building a brand new subway system and an extensive highway pattern. We were here in 1998 and in comparison New Delhi today has become choked with automobiles. All the cars look very new so India’s recent prosperity seems to have been translated into the words of LBJ, “a car in every garage and a chicken curry in everyone’s pot.”
Saturday is a half-day work day at the university, just like in 1966 my freshman year at Bates College. The last activity was an excellent lecture by the Dean on a basic dental procedure. From the dental college we hopped in his chauffeured car and went over to the Imperial Hotel on Tolstoy Marg (avenue). What a beautiful hotel. It was originally a grand hotel during the British Raj period (independence happened in 1947). The workmanship in marble and wood is phenomenal. You too can stay here for $200-$300 per night for a room, or $375-$1000 for a suite. As our host put it, “this hotel has become a warehouse for all the beautiful Indian antiques in New Delhi.” Our host who was a guest in the hotel is the Chairman of Restorative Dentistry at Tufts University Dental School in Boston. He is originally Indian but has lived in Wellesley, Massachusetts so long that the Red Sox have replaced the Indian National Cricket Team as the central focus of his sports universe. He and Dean Verma were laying the groundwork for a future collaboration between Tufts and Maulana Azad dental schools!! Think about it. A lecture given at 8 AM in Boston could be viewed live via video streaming over the internet in New Delhi at 6:30 PM. Or that lecture could be recorded and viewed the next day by dental students at a more convenient time. But suppose you were a graduate practicing dentist in New Delhi and wanted to become qualified for a U.S. dental license. You could finish your workday caring for your patients then go over to the dental school and continue your education by listening to a live lecture from Boston!! As Tom Friedman has described it, “it has become a flat world.”
Well, tomorrow we are finally going to continue our lifelong practice of being a tourist/traveler. We have consumed our days trying to wait for holidays to end and getting settled in our apartment and our university routine, but tomorrow, guide book in hand, we are going to Old Delhi to see Shah Jahan’s Red Fort and mosque Jama Masjid.
He had these two phenomenal buildings constructed at the same time my ancestors were trying to figure out how to grow corn and knit woolies in chilly New England.
