Poetry, parlaiment, wrapping up, silver- and tea-shopping, packing, departure, a night on the town? (Day 16)

This morning, we had a brief lecture on Urdu and muslim poetry. We had been assigned five short stories that depicted the indo-islamic and hindu-islamic relations in India both before and after partition and other important dates. After that, Nikky Singh's uncle, who is a member of Parlaiment and the chair of the human rights commission, came and spoke with us. Both speakers were good.

Then we had a wrap-up session with Cathy, Rick, Nikky, and Narayaniji. We talked about the pluses and minuses, what needed fixing, what was perfect, favorite points, suggestions, etc. This was followed by lunch.

After lunch, we had a little free time, and then Christy C, Lateka, Tony and I headed to the market. We first stopped by a good silver market, and got a few nice pieces. The girls working in the shop had the most unusual/enticing eyes and teeth, and were very attractive. We weren't sure if they were Indian, but they probably were (India is so diverse...) From there, we headed to a tea shop that Rick knew the owner of. I made massive purchases at what seemed like bargain-basement prices. The gave us samples, explanations, and suggestions. The wood boxes they make are made from left over ends from a furniture shop down the street, which I found very cool.

We then returnned to the guest house, and I started packing stuff up. People will be departing within the next three hours, and parting will of course be sweet sorrow...

After saying our goodbyes with the group members who were leaving that evening, Lee, Maria, Christy and I headed to Defence Colony market to meet with Megha and Savita (which I figured out is the consonantal inverse of a strain of marijuana) from Ogilvy. We met up at a place called MB's, and after 2 bottles of wine and some other drinks, great conversation, and a host of other guests joining us, we made plans for this weekend and departed. It was mucho fun-o! As the Americans had their semi-drunk munchies on, we went to pizza hut and scored some Indian pizza, then took a rickshaw home (with Lee and Maria riding on the bumper). Upon our arrival we met Cathy's daughter Alice, just in from Hong Kong. After chatting a while with her and Tony, we all headed to bed (except me, as I stayed up to write postcards for an hour.)