Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Home Delivery

Thought I'd share how our kitchen gas has been delivered to us for the past three and a half years. Door to door service for compressed natural gas (CNG). We have two of these: one stored under our kitchen counter and a spare kept out on the back balcony.
 Of course with the addition of piped natural gas, these cylinders will be a thing of the past. Can you imagine the weight of one of these bicycles when they are fully loaded? No doubt these delivery guys have very strong legs!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Attack of the 100 ft Hanuman

Karol Bagh is a crowded marketplace in North Delhi. It's mostly known for the repair of mobile phones and for "cracking" US purchased iPhones. It is one of those a great places to explore once you have become a bit more comfortable with the characteristics of life in urban India. I had to make a trip up to Karol Bagh last week to have a replacement battery installed in Evan's first-Generation iPod Touch. The trip was a success, and relatively uneventful - not the first time I'd been up there. But this time I thought I'd share one of my favorite scenes along the the way to that part of Delhi - the giant statue of Hanuman.

For those not in the know - Hanuman is really the original superhero.  His story dates back thousands of years. Without going into much detail, Hindu's believe him to be the seventh incarnation of Vishnu - half human, half monkey. He is strong (known for lifting entire mountains), has the ability to fly and has a huge mace to smite his enemies with. Vishnu fights for the little guy - and despises cheats and thieves. He is a very inspiring character. The tales of Hanuman's exploits are filled with heroism and bravery...

But to see Hanuman standing in all his glory beside a highway flyover in North Delhi - I've got to say, this pretty much takes your breath away - especially when you're not expecting him to be standing there, towering over you. To give you an idea of the size of this particular statue - Hanuman's mace could probably reach from the ground to our second story balcony.

He's a big boy...