Moments of 2010

Here it is, the end of 2010.
Some of its significant moments were even captured by camera.

2010: Good year.
Bring on the next one.

Fake and real

I drove through a part of the city today where they were setting up this strange display.

Talk about crazy mannequin sightings.

This is my favorite: Can you spot which one is the real thing?

Santa's spare time

In his spare moments, it seems, Santa is a helpful guy--or that's just a guy who stole his outfit. ;)

And here's one of Santa's elves who ate too many carrots or something.

Authenticity

I'd just like to point out that no real "American Hotdog Factory" would associate itself with vegetarian hotdogs.

Just sayin', India...

Tughlaq and his city

There used to be gold palaces and great armies here.
Not much is left.

When wars and intrigue left an opening for a slave to take over the throne of Delhi, he built his own city and named it after himself: Tughlaqabad.
But then, assassinated by his own son, Tughlaq and his city faded into ruins.

If you look beyond the mud and cricket players to imagine the glorious heyday of the city, maybe you can see a shimmer of gold from long ago.

Wide load

Eight water tanks on a bike.
Yup.
I do believe they are empty, though.

Here they come.

And there they go.

Huh?

Art that makes you say, "huh?"
That's what Wassily Kandinsky was all about.

I mean, what do you think of when you look at this?
I see a dangling, dancing spider; a badger with a kite tail and a little yellow beetle with a paint palette--I've had to personify everything in order to make sense of it.

One of my students likes to say that everything looks like cheese.
In this one, he's probably correct.

Wassily Kandinsky's art may raise eyebrows, but he had an excellent understanding of form.
They even made him a professor. He wrote books and gave hundreds of lectures on the elements of design, the stuff we've been studying for the last few months.
So really, what can we dare to say?

The forms we created today were a little more recognizable.
Lizards,
Snakes
and Turtles.

And a nice wild--excuse me--abstract background of shape, line and color for them to live in.

Shoe shine

"Shine, madame?"
The words caught my attention because I took my winter shoes out recently and, well, they were in need of some shine.
Delhi dirt and dust has not been kind to them.

So I stood there with one shoe on and one shoe off for a bit while he gave 'em a polishing.

And now they are all nice and shiny once more.

A pail of purple paint

A pail of purple paint.

Some wadded up butcher paper.

A shiny, metallic marker.

Some inspiration

from Paul Klee.

And behold: we have art.

(Hint on watching the video: Choose "autoplay" after it's fully loaded, under "More" on the far right.)

Let's try lilies

So this is the latest experiment: growing lilies on the balcony.
We'll see how that goes.

Not all of the previous test subjects survived.
That's last year's Christmas tree, you see, heading out with the trash. :(

By the way, that plant #5 that the plant selling man talked me in to buying, well that one has been the healthiest and hardiest of them all.
Go figure.

Shoes from above

This is one of the most unexpected things I've seen: shoes falling from the ceiling.

In the crowded "shoe mall", the woman shopper tells the shoe attendant guy what size she wants in what shoe.
That man tosses the shoe to the the guy with the earpiece.
Earpiece guy speaks some description and the size to a mysterious being in the ceiling and a shoebox falls into his hands.
Whoa.
Then he tosses the box to the shoe attendant who asked for it.

All the tossing back and forth.
All the calling out of shoe sizes and descriptions.
All the women demanding another size, another pair.

It all comes together in one of the most organized of chaotic messes.

Only in India...

Today's random traffic shot.

Scary mannequin exposé

This is an exposé on the scary mannequin's inhabiting the bazaars of Delhi. I've known small children to cry when they see some of them.

There are the sad children of war...

There's Miss Molded-head, who changes her clothes with the times but not her hair. Not to mention that she feels terribly marginalized because she looks nothing like the Indian women for whom she is modeling those clothes...

Miss Fallen, who has landed on her face so many times that her nose is scarred and she hides under her hat...

The dancing instructor--"Where should my feet go?"

And not to be left out: The freakishly excited, armless bride and her melancholy, bald bridesmaid.

Full saree experience

The push the shove, the stepping on toes--yes, this is the market.
And today: saree shopping.

The colors and cloth and sparkle were spread in great piles before me. Waiting for me to choose.
But alas, I can't wear those bright colors; I need something more subtle, so I moved on to another shop.
And another.
And another.

Finally, I found a nice jade green with enough sparkly-ness to satisfy most.
The shop keeper whispered the discount he would give me for this find and I accepted.

Now it was on to find the petticoat--'cause sarees have petticoats. And the man in the petticoat shop can find the shade to match perfectly with whatever you've bought. Skill.

Next stop was the tailor, who sewed the blouse for me.

All I've got left to do is to figure out how to wear it.
I've been watching videos to help me learn.
In this one, I appreciate that the Indian girl doesn't know what she's doing either!

Restoration elves

There is restoration happening at Humayan's Tomb.
Inconvenience regretted.

But that doesn't mean anything is closed, just don't mind them as you come through the entrance and walk around all the dirt and rubble.

And don't mind their boots in the walkway, either.

Avoid the scaffolding, though, it is probably not the safest.

Then there was the place behind the green screen where we could hear the sounds of elves with hammers.
Really, that's what it sounded like.
A dozen or so men with hammers, chiseling away at slabs of sandstone for the restoration work.

Photo photu

What's the tourist attraction?
Me.

Yes, this bold little girl's phone camera shot is not the only picture I was featured in today.
So I returned the favor.

There were also the children asking for their "photu" to be taken. They were cute and less demanding than many.

Humayan's tomb

It is (apparently) a common mistake of children, but Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with the Taj Mahal.

And I would add another warning: That Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with Akbar's tomb.

So, keep that in mind...

Airport upgrade

I was appreciating some airport upgrades.
Like how the airport now has those gangway things so that you don't have to walk on the tarmac (or out in the cold). Or how there are all kinds of new budget airlines flying in and out (cheaper prices).

The military still hangs out on the tarmac, though.
I don't think that will be changing for quite some time.