Delhi with the expats

Saturday, March 28
Met with Kim early this afternoon with friends of hers, Natalie and Sanjay, after Kim had done her reading and picnic for kids in Lodi Garden, which we'll explore fully another day.
Kim's driver took me out into the roiling sea of Delhi traffic. Men pressed up against the Toyota's window holding magazines, sheathed in plastic, for sale. Elle, Vogue, another one with Michelle Obama on the cover.
The driver, Suresh, doesn't speak English, but he did turn his head when I saw the elephant and rider plodding along a sidewalk and said "Oh my God." My camera was ready for that one. Not too much further along, a beggar with a stump where one hand should have been banged on my window, smiling and motioning. He looked young, had a mustache and was smiling and dressed in something saffron-colored. His teeth did not look all that bad; he kept smiling and nodding and I shook my head "no" and looked away. The scams that we all saw and were horrified by in "Slumdog" are real. Kim has had all manner of infirmities bang on her window, and the blindings and maimings of children do happen. The other reality is that there are expats who hire poor Indians for somewhat decent wages, poor Indians who work for the equivalent of $20 a day and, I'm making a guess here, Indians who do not work at all. I saw two women today, dressed in saris, working at construction sites, digging. If you are a poor woman, your child is with you. And there must be so many realities in between.
The thing is, and I cannot say this with any extensive knowledge whatsoever, is how can there be a middle class when there are so many, many, many people(1.5 Billion, and those are the ones who have been counted) trying to live on one patch of the planet's earth? Maybe as a 10-day visitor, I shouldn't be asking that question.
Kim has been writing children's books and after lunch at Lodi Garden restaurant, which is a lovely treed area with banana and (I think) magnolias hung with lanterns and tables sitting atop pea gravel, we went to a going-away party also in New Friends Colony, where Kim lives, for Dharmi Bradley, the woman who has been illustrating the books and a first-generation Brit of Indian parents. She and her husband, who works for Agence France-Press, were headed to Paris for his new posting. The hosts were Brits who had previously lived in Madagascar, one working for the World Bank. Another guest, very nice but I did not get his name, designs cruise ships.
It is fascinating to see how the world lives, especially when you are so often confined to one little part of it. I am constantly amazed at the extracurricular I guess is the word, talents and interests of my coworkers and when you meet people who are so far away from what you do, you begin to realize, truly, what an interdependent and connected place the planet it. An Indian ex-pat designs the ships that folks from all over the Western World climb on for cruises and buffets. Not that he's the only one, but it does make you stop and think about where the built world comes from.
There was to be another party tonight, but a short nap turned into and hour and a spectacular thunderstorm rolled in. Kim was exhausted and I was happy not to be among strangers again, so we stayed in and talked. On Wednesday we'll head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Sunday, tomorrow, Kim has deadline work for her latest book. We'll have brunch and then her driver will take me to India Gate and the Red Fort. I'm including in today's post a picture of the elephant.