First whole day in Delhi

My first day in Delhi started at 4am as the result of jetlag and very loud air conditioning. My hotel room has marble floors and no less than 6 floresent lights and no window. A shaker of curry powder sits on the coffee table.
At 6am I ventured out to first check out my new workplace, at 11A Niti Bagh. The motor cycle cab took me down a series of streets making abrupt turns until I had lost all sense of direction. Niti Bagh is a wide lane lined with trees and large houses, some private homes, some apartments and offices. Needless to say my office would not be open at six thirty.
The next stop was a second hotel that was recommended by the nonprofit I am working with. I wanted to see all my options before resigning to live without windows, which is baaad, from experiences living in a Brooklyn basement a few years ago. The hotel room offered was cave like, and bigger than my New York apartment. It had sliding doors to the outside, where a small strip of lawn is fenced off from the street. However there is no internet.
I decided to take a walk from this second hotel for some coffee. Coffee day, a chain store was the only shop open in the small square I found. After the coffee, I headed for a third hotel choice found in my guidebook.
This third hotel was in this garden paradise with pool and free internet. It is a little pricey given my budget so I only stayed for breakfast. I had chai and sat across from a girl reading Midnight's Children. Should really head to a bookstore. The four story and essay books I brought with me seem very out of place.
Heading back to the offices of CBGA, we were stuck in traffic a lot.
When I arrived at the offices, I was informed that my contact person Bhumika will be out with a cold. After speaking with the director and Bhumika on the phone, I was sent off with a half dozen publications and binder of relevant materials.
Back in my windowless hotel room, I made lunch arrangements with Apu at the Defense Colony Market. AND I was transfered to a room with 3 windows!
White cows everywhere! walking, napping, standing around in a group, crossing the street very slowly! and dogs too! But all the dogs are really big and strong looking. Unfortunately my cab had driven across one that was hit by a car in the morning.
Lunch was good and vegetarian! Can I live without meat for 2 weeks? It occured to me that I could try.
Apu grew up in Delhi, and she is getting Married! We are so old! She met her future husband in a coffee shop in the south where she was working. I hadn't seen her since college, where we confined ourselves to neutral colored clothing, or mostly black things. She was wearing orange! The women in Delhi are little color explosions dotted along the streets and shops. Each women in bright multicolored dresses, tunics and saris. There are people wearing like 80 different colors, and it looks great.
We went to a old fort by the market, where couples were on dates, and kids flew kites and climbed trees - insert pictures here.










Then shopping, I bought maybe too many cushion covers, and a set of sheets for the hotel.
Then pouring rain and traffic and flood and very loud horns and some fighting later, I am back in my room with a slight cold where I remembered my pile of reading!
Cheap room service!
Very long first day. . .