After some lovely, well-deserved sleep, we were picked up by taxi to go to lunch. We had our first views of the street life here with its crazy driving, auto rickshaws, tent slums, and roadside stands. It is not all unfamiliar to me since we saw similar sights in China and Thailand but I know that for some on our trip it's a bizarre and fascinating sight.
We went to a restaurant called "Drool" which made me drool! All I could think was how sad I was that Stevie wasn't here with me enjoying this fantastic Indian spread. We asked Abhishek to order for us and he ordered enough to feed half of Delhi. My favorites were the potato and cheese kafta and the grilled paneer. Really, though, it was all delicious! I'm a happy girl!
After lunch, we were taken to the Catalyst house which houses he Catalyst offices, the Diversion house and the Horizon house. Look up Catalyst.org to see all that they do. We were greeted at the door by two of the girls holding a tray with what looked light a burning pepper, a small mound of turmeric or saffron? and a small pile of cooked rice. One by one they welcomed us by smearing a little spice and a little rice between our eyebrows.
Abhishek gave us a wonderful overview of all that he and his wife do and all the many programs and businesses they run and allowed us to ask unlimited questions of him. There's too much they do for my little fingers to type on my iPad, so I'll write about it more when I have a true keyboard.
After our time with Abhishek, we got to go upstairs to the Diversion house to meet the girls and play some games with them. They were all so enthusiastic and excited that we were there and especially excited to see Beth who had met them last year. There was such amazing joy and laughter in this room full of girls and women who were strangers yet immediate friends. As Jessica said later, I'm going to leave part of my heart in India when we leave.
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