Didn’t Modi Know We Were Coming?? Exploring Delhi During Week Two at Bharti Foundation

After an exciting first week settling in at the office, we were all raring to get out and explore. Friday night we found ourselves back at the familiar Cyberhub. Drinks in Cyberhub are only slightly cheaper than Britain, however be warned as Sam wasn’t too happy to find that his basic beer was more expensive than the girls’ fancy cocktails.

On Saturday we took the very easy to use metro into Delhi-every hour is rush hour on the metro so be prepared to get extra close to the locals. When we got out of the station we were bombarded with rickshaw drivers and taxi drivers insisting on us taking their cab. We got talking to one overly friendly driver who convinced us to walk with him down several shady side streets to his “cab” before we eventually came to our senses and remembered the golden rule our parents had drilled into us from a young age… An Ola cab (very similar to Uber) later and we finally got to do some sightseeing-our first destination was India Gate. We experienced lots of staring and are featuring in many an Indian family photo. The buzz of Indian fame quickly wore off just as the heavens opened and once again we were umbrella-less and drenched to the bone-refreshing though! We’d been advised to go and see the President’s House so ordered an Ola and were on our way. We rocked up to the high security gates and rolled down the window to ask them to open them for us but we were saddened to learn you need permission from the Prime Minister to get in??????? Didn’t Modi know we were coming?????

A couple of hours undergoing the chaos in Delhi absolutely drained us so we called it a day and went back to the hotel and got Dunkin Donuts delivered instead. Baby steps to sight seeing in Delhi…

Back to work on the Monday saw us do a mini practice research project which involved us making questionnaires and then giving another presentation. We also got to enjoy all the June birthdays in the office with a little party downstairs with lots of cake and nibbles which allowed us to mix with the rest of the Bharti employees. Later in the week we went back to Ambience Mall to go try out an Indian cinema-they have spicy popcorn!! As we all got comfy in our fancy recliner chairs an announcement was made, “ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the national anthem!” All taken aback by this we were slow to make it our feet but did so awkwardly and confused whilst everyone around us belted out the Indian song…it was a funny experience.

We’ve been given our official project details so the hard work has begun and 2 weeks of field work to look forward to get us out and exploring more rural India- so no more donut deliveries for us…

-Annie