The Way of Violence

Oh man, I am bagged. In the middle of the night I was awoken by a man screaming obscenities at a woman somewhere in the hotel. He sounded drunkenly murderously enraged and it was horrifying. He had easily the loudest human voice I have ever heard and it went on for a very long time. Even after he stopped, relaxing sleep was nowhere to be found. Today the AAP party officially won the Delhi state elections so it will be fireworks all around.

Then we spent a day on a tour of Delhi sights we didn't see last year. First we went to the Rajghat where Gandhi was cremated. It was in the midst of beautiful gardens surrounded by trees planted by foreign dignitaries. Apparently Obama planted one there week before last. The monument itself is a platform, inscribed with the Hindi words for "Hey Ram" or "Oh God," Gandhi's last words. The platform is decorated daily with marigold, chrysanthemum and a few rose petals with an eternal flame next to the head.

We, along with approximately eleven billion giggling schoolchildren, went to Humayun's Tomb. It was a beautiful piece of Moghul architecture pre-dating the Taj Mahal by a century. The Moghuls took their tombs seriously.

After a way too late lunch, we wound it up at Gandhi Smitri - the place where Gandhi was assassinated. There were information boards everywhere and multi-media displays and everything you ever wanted to know about Gandhi. I was quite taken by the simplicity of the room he had been staying in up to the day he died. That was the room from which he walked out to pray one day with two young relatives and was shot by a Hindu man. The path with raised footprints winds from the door, along the garden path and now ends at a monument to his martyrdom - the place where he was shot. It was both sobering and yet peaceful to stand there in a beautiful garden next to the monument to the death of a man who held the dreams to a country. Not everyone was happy with Gandhi but people did hope he could have a role in creating peace between the faiths.

It's been an intense day.