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word about this city: first of all it is huge with a population of 22 million residents. It's also typical of India in that it's full of contrasts. For example, the restaurant where we ate last night was in a fancy mall. Across the street there's a slum of tin shanties. Beggars mix among the Jaguars and Mercedes. One street will be beautifully lined with gardens and the next one won't even have a sidewalk. And of course the traffic - unlike Bangkok - moves at a pace that defies logic. Cars and trucks and busses and taxis and rickshaws (motorized ones - the Indian equivalent of the Thai tuk-tuk) and motor bikes and scooters all jostling and honking but never actually touching one another as they negotiate the streets and lanes. Signs are recommendations only. For example, our driver took us out of the hotel grounds, and just beneath the no U-turn sign, he made his U-turn.
The day started with a visit to the first and last hotels in which the group I am accompanying will be staying. OMG! This takes opulence to a new level. In fact, I felt rather uncomfortable there, it was so posh. The manager came to greet us; the executive chef came to greet us, etc. etc. They have proven to be very, very accommodating to our needs. The chef took me on a tour of the kitchens and the stores, we examined ingredients and supplies. They have allocated us a special kitchen and our own banquet room for our breakfasts here (we are only having 2 breakfasts in the hotel and they are going so out of their way to please). After the meeting in hotel #1, the Taj Palace (and it sure lives up to its name) we went over to the hotel where we will be spending the last 3 nights. Well, if #1 was OMG posh, the only adjective I can use for this hotel, the Taj Mahal Hotel, is absolute splendor - incredibly beautiful in all things down to the smallest detail. And of course in all the hotels there are so many staff people! Having a population of 1.2 billion, India has probably as many working hands almost as China. So it's seems like that for every guest there are at least 4 staff people. They are all very polite, smiling, willing to help. I assume that behind much of it there is also the expectation of reward, but that is to be expected.
After our second very successful meeting, were taken us to a market to buy disposable things that we may need along the way to prepare packed lunches at a suitable level of service. After that we went to another pure veg place for lunch. The restaurant is attached to a pure veg sweet factory which they also took us to see behind the scenes. Fascinating! They produce the most intricate and amazing stuff without any gelatin whatsoever. It's all herbal and vegan. Incredible!
Then it was back to the hotel seeing as it was already an hour or so before Shabbat. So we rushed upstairs, showered and changed and met downstairs with 100 rupees in my pocket and the three of us crowded into a tuk tuk and whizzed off to the Central Market near the main railway station to find Chabad. The market is a series of alleyways and side streets, resembling Khaosan Road in Bangkok but far, far poorer looking, significantly dirtier and much more crowded, and we had general directions of where to go. Eventually the two things that were destined to happen, indeed happened - we met some Israelis who directed us further and then met the local Chabad shaliach who brought us into the building. Now that I think of it, it's much more like a dirty version of the shuk in the old city of Nablus than like Khaosan Road.
Wonderful hospitality in less than easy circumstances. Holy cow beneath the picture of the holy man!
Any of the Batei Chabad in Thailand is a palace in comparison to this place. But as was to be expected there we some Israelis there, a non-dati group that came for Kabbalah Shabbat and kiddush but didn't stay for supper, a small group of backpackers, two couples who were traveling each couple alone (for one couple this was their 4th time in India), a businessman and the three of us. Anyway, it was the usual Chabad hospitality, though nowhere near as lavish as in Thailand, with lots of singing and divrei Torah, most of it about the rebbe being mashiach, but all in good spirits and lovely. I intend to write about Chabad in general separately. After dinner we walked back to the hotel, about 25 minutes, past the beggars and the street people, the punks and the hip young folk coming out of discos and nightclubs, and arrived and went to bed.
The next day, Shabbat, was quiet. Got up leisurely, had coffee and cereal and then we walked to shul. Last night, on the way back to the hotel, we passed a man who had created a work of art in charcoal on the sidewalk, and had placed candles in strategic places so that the artwork looked like a religious symbol of some sort. On Shabbat morning as we walked by again in the opposite direction, we noticed that someone had brought a body out to the sidewalk and placed it at the head of this artwork (the body wasn't there when we walked back after lunch).
Other than that it was quiet. Had a good shloffafter lunch (and as a result had difficulty falling asleep last night), and after havdala I did some preparation work and then went down to the coffee shop to call you guys back home. This is our last night at this hotel and tomorrow we move over to the Taj Palace seeing as guests start arriving already during the night.
Sunday was pretty much a regular work day. After breakfast I packed up and we moved over to the Taj Palace, which, as I wrote the other day, is exactly as palatial as it sounds. I understand from the local gossip that the Israeli Embassy keeps some rooms here, or that all official guests stay here because the hotel has huge grounds around it and no buildings close by, so it's easy to protect.
Actually, the security around hotels looks rather impressive. Every time a car enters the hotel grounds it is stopped at the gate, mirrors are rolled under the car to check for whatever suspicious things might be there, the trunk is opened and the hood is lifted, and in some cases a dog is brought to sniff around as well.
This hotel also has a fleet of cars and chauffeurs ranging from Jaguars and Mercedes to jeeps, vans and Toyotas, to schlepp their guests. And everyone is so very polite and willing to help!
I met again with the executive chef, the head of food and beverage, the head of catering services, the chief butler (!) and the head of guest services - all at their request (!) to see how best they could cater to our needs. It has been quite an education.
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