Friday September 16th - Sunday September 18th
Every so often the teams here have an outing. We had our DC outing on Friday, September 16th. We weren't given to much advance warning. I think they told us on Wednesday. But I knew I couldn't miss it. I had heard a lot about past parties and this one definitely lived up to all the hype. Everyone goes crazy. The party was supposed to start at 8pm but because of bad weather that day everyone was late. I got there after most people had been there for an hour and they were dancing like crazy when I got there. They kept pulling me out on the dance floor to dance with them. The party was a lot of fun and actually a really great deal. It was rupees 500 (~$12) if you wanted to drink and only rupees 350 if you didn't drink. Drinks in Delhi are SO expensive. A glass of wine at the minimum is about $10 and that doesn't include the taxes, which is 25%. Not to many of the SCAs drank but the ones that did sure did go overboard! It was funny to come into the office on Monday because everyone was all grouped around talking about Friday night.
Emily, me, Jamie, and Folake. Jamie and I are the only DC SMEs in the picture but we invited all the other SMEs to party with us.
Abhishek and Rinku getting down
Group eating dinner.
Pawanm, Jayesh, Faiyaz, and Neeraj.
Ramandeep and Abbas. Ramandeep works with the Woodlands. He is so smart and might even know more than me when it comes to payments and YBR.
Group getting down.
Saturday night out - Neysha, Folake, and Chris.
The following Sunday we went to Old Delhi. This was my first site seeing adventure in Delhi. First stop was the splendid mosque Jama Masjid built in the typical Mughal style with two minarets and three domes. It is the country's largest mosque, built in 1656, where thousands of Muslims offer prayers. It lies opposite the Red Fort and is surrounded by a large number of shops, which deal in a variety of goods. The great mosque of Old Delhi is both the largest in India and the final architectural extravagance of Shah Jahan (guy who designed Taj Mahal) with a courtyard capable of holding 25,000 devotees. When we first got there they were in the middle of prayer so we had to wait a bit before we could go in.
View from one of the minarets at Jama Masjid - you can see Red Fort in the background.
View from the courtyard of Jama Masjid.
Both men and women had to cover their legs. The cover they gave combined w/ Abbas' shirt made him look more Scottish/Irish than Indian!
Rules for climbing minaret - thought some of them were interesting.
View from minaret.
View of people praying on our way up to top of minaret.
Women had to cover their heads to enter the Mosque - don't I fit right in!! :o) We had to pay to walk up to the top of the Miniret but it was worth it because it provided a really nice view. When we first got to the top it wasn't that crowded but there wasn't much space either. By the time we spent about 5 minutes looking around more people had gotten to the top and I was actually starting to get nervous it was so crowded. By the time we tried to head down the stairs we could barley move and it was real hard to get down to the first step to head down. Even though it was a cool day I was dripping with sweat by the time we got to the bottom.
View from entry of Jama Masjid. You can see how crowded Old Delhi is!
The next stop on our Old Delhi tour was to find a restaurant to feed the poor and/or homeless. Abbas had done this in Mumbai with his family so he wanted to do it in Delhi as well. Beth, Abbas, and myself each gave 500 rupees and feed 150 people. Basically we just asked around for a restaurant that did this and asked how much per person. The place we stopped at was great. We basically just pulled our bicycle rickshaw up right in front of the restaurant and sat there and watched as they organized things. When we pulled up there was all ready people sitting outside waiting to eat. Once we arranged everything they just started piling people into the restaurant. They were coming out of no where. The owner of the restaurant was there and I nicknamed him 'The Godfather'. He was very big guy with an all white outfit on, the rings and everything. He basically asked if we wanted anything and he got us a coke and then they were making Nann (my favorite bread) right in front of us so he got us some of the bread. Also at the next place over they were making some Sheermal which is now my new favorite bread. It is basically a sweet Nann. Once the food was ready and they started giving it out 'the Godfather' was handing me the food so I could give it to some of the kids. It was an amazing experience. Some of the people were so appreciative and gave big smiles.
You can see where they were making the Nann in the background and a little bit of 'The Godfather'.
Me handing foot out.
One of the cute little boys we gave food to.
restauranthe resturant.
They have these phone chargers in arestaurantse resturants in India - I found it interesting so I took a picture.
Monkeys hanging out on the side of the road on our way home.
Every so often the teams here have an outing. We had our DC outing on Friday, September 16th. We weren't given to much advance warning. I think they told us on Wednesday. But I knew I couldn't miss it. I had heard a lot about past parties and this one definitely lived up to all the hype. Everyone goes crazy. The party was supposed to start at 8pm but because of bad weather that day everyone was late. I got there after most people had been there for an hour and they were dancing like crazy when I got there. They kept pulling me out on the dance floor to dance with them. The party was a lot of fun and actually a really great deal. It was rupees 500 (~$12) if you wanted to drink and only rupees 350 if you didn't drink. Drinks in Delhi are SO expensive. A glass of wine at the minimum is about $10 and that doesn't include the taxes, which is 25%. Not to many of the SCAs drank but the ones that did sure did go overboard! It was funny to come into the office on Monday because everyone was all grouped around talking about Friday night.
Emily, me, Jamie, and Folake. Jamie and I are the only DC SMEs in the picture but we invited all the other SMEs to party with us.
Abhishek and Rinku getting down
Group eating dinner.
Pawanm, Jayesh, Faiyaz, and Neeraj.
Ramandeep and Abbas. Ramandeep works with the Woodlands. He is so smart and might even know more than me when it comes to payments and YBR.
Group getting down.
Saturday night out - Neysha, Folake, and Chris.
The following Sunday we went to Old Delhi. This was my first site seeing adventure in Delhi. First stop was the splendid mosque Jama Masjid built in the typical Mughal style with two minarets and three domes. It is the country's largest mosque, built in 1656, where thousands of Muslims offer prayers. It lies opposite the Red Fort and is surrounded by a large number of shops, which deal in a variety of goods. The great mosque of Old Delhi is both the largest in India and the final architectural extravagance of Shah Jahan (guy who designed Taj Mahal) with a courtyard capable of holding 25,000 devotees. When we first got there they were in the middle of prayer so we had to wait a bit before we could go in.
View from one of the minarets at Jama Masjid - you can see Red Fort in the background.
View from the courtyard of Jama Masjid.
Both men and women had to cover their legs. The cover they gave combined w/ Abbas' shirt made him look more Scottish/Irish than Indian!
Rules for climbing minaret - thought some of them were interesting.
View from minaret.
View of people praying on our way up to top of minaret.
Women had to cover their heads to enter the Mosque - don't I fit right in!! :o) We had to pay to walk up to the top of the Miniret but it was worth it because it provided a really nice view. When we first got to the top it wasn't that crowded but there wasn't much space either. By the time we spent about 5 minutes looking around more people had gotten to the top and I was actually starting to get nervous it was so crowded. By the time we tried to head down the stairs we could barley move and it was real hard to get down to the first step to head down. Even though it was a cool day I was dripping with sweat by the time we got to the bottom.
View from entry of Jama Masjid. You can see how crowded Old Delhi is!
The next stop on our Old Delhi tour was to find a restaurant to feed the poor and/or homeless. Abbas had done this in Mumbai with his family so he wanted to do it in Delhi as well. Beth, Abbas, and myself each gave 500 rupees and feed 150 people. Basically we just asked around for a restaurant that did this and asked how much per person. The place we stopped at was great. We basically just pulled our bicycle rickshaw up right in front of the restaurant and sat there and watched as they organized things. When we pulled up there was all ready people sitting outside waiting to eat. Once we arranged everything they just started piling people into the restaurant. They were coming out of no where. The owner of the restaurant was there and I nicknamed him 'The Godfather'. He was very big guy with an all white outfit on, the rings and everything. He basically asked if we wanted anything and he got us a coke and then they were making Nann (my favorite bread) right in front of us so he got us some of the bread. Also at the next place over they were making some Sheermal which is now my new favorite bread. It is basically a sweet Nann. Once the food was ready and they started giving it out 'the Godfather' was handing me the food so I could give it to some of the kids. It was an amazing experience. Some of the people were so appreciative and gave big smiles.
You can see where they were making the Nann in the background and a little bit of 'The Godfather'.
Me handing foot out.
One of the cute little boys we gave food to.
restauranthe resturant.
They have these phone chargers in arestaurantse resturants in India - I found it interesting so I took a picture.
Monkeys hanging out on the side of the road on our way home.
posted by Angela Cooley at 7:33 AM
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