A Quiet Day...

That afternoon I met a woman in the hotel while writing my postcards. She was Canadian and traveling with her sister. Leslie (the Canadian) and I spent quite a while that afternoon chatting about various things, including our beloved kitties at home. Leslie's sister was at the airport that afternoon trying to send a musical instrument of some kind safely on its way to her husband. She was taking longer than expected, and Leslie was beginning to wonder why she'd let her go on her own... After I met her, I *really* wondered why she had. Susan is a wonderful, kind woman, but completely unsuited to traveling alone. She had been badgered into purchasing things she didn't want, harassed by grabby men, and generally bothered in ways that I never experienced... It's a good thing her sister was with her.

When Susan finally came back from the airport, we were joined by a couple from Majorca (a Spanish island) who the sisters had helped to find a hotel room earlier in the day. This is about the time that Susan started giving out presents. (I mentioned earlier that she'd purchased more than she'd planned, didn't I?) She gave me a beautiful purple and gold outfit as well as a bracelet. I was stunned. I'd known her less than an hour. Later, they did something even more wonderful for me, they let me use the shower in their room. My room just had a faucet and a bucket, so I hadn't taken a proper shower since Bangkok. It felt *soo* wonderful.

The five of us decided to walk around the corner to go to dinner at Nirula's. It was a very nice dinner, and we had a great time. Leslie and Susan managed to make friends with just about everyone in the place, including our waiter and his cohorts...

After dinner I asked them if they'd come with me to buy some ice cream for Maya. It was my last night in Delhi until a week and a half later when I came back through town on my way home. Maya had been asking for ice cream, but she'd been asking during the early morning hours when there was none available. Leslie suggested that we have an "ice cream party" for the local street children. So, the five of us pooled our money together to buy the ice cream. The ice cream parlor was also owned by Nirula's, and was downstairs. Whenever it was open, the lines were huge. So, our waiter offered (or maybe we asked, I forget) to get the ice cream for us. We ended up with 2 liters of vanilla ice cream, a bunch of paper bowls, some cones, and spoons.

While we were waiting for the ice cream, Leslie told me that her sister had gathered a few of the children. "Oh no!" I thought! I asked her to wait for the ice cream, and went rushing over to where Susan was waiting with the 4 or 5 children she'd gathered. I knew that if she started gathering children together, things could quickly get out of hand, and we (and more importantly the children) could get harassed by the police who were nearby. I had intended to get the ice cream and then walk to the next street corner (Maya's home base). As we continued waiting, the 4 or 5 children were quietly waiting with us. Unfortunately, a police officer who had been hired for crowd control (at an ice cream shop, can you believe it?) decided that the children were bothering us. He came up, started yelling at the children, and hitting them on the heads. They were clearly terrified, and scattered quickly. Susan and I in turn shouted at him, telling him that it was okay, to leave them alone... Of course it didn't do any good...

We quickly set up shop across the street, and were surrounded by people. I was doing the scooping, so I crouched down to get to work. Chaos reigned. We kept having to remind people to step back and to not crowd. I had to watch that I was giving only one serving to each person... Can't blame 'em, though... How often is it that they're going to get a chance to have ice cream, much less in a fashion such as this... (Such strange tourists we were...) I saw a couple of children that I recognized and asked for Maya. She was soon dragged toward me, practically still asleep. (It was fairly late by this time, which is why I'd asked my friends to join me in this wild venture.) It was a bit worrisome, because it took quite a bit to wake her up. But, before long, she realized what was going on, and was beaming at the opportunity to have ice cream. We then spent some time "talking" to some of the people there, using the few Hindi words we'd learned, sign language, and translation when we could find someone willing to help.