Touring Delhi

cooksinindia
Today when I was coming home from Connaught Place, our driver, Tej Singh, took me on different route than we normally take home. We were in a neighborhood on the back side of the president's residence (we usually pass by on the front side.) We stopped for a minute and I looked over and saw this huge statue depicting Gandhi's famous salt march. In 1930, in protest of the British tax on salt Gandhi led several thousands of people on a march to the sea (the place on the sea was called Dandi.) When he arrived he evaporated sea water to (illegally) make salt. He was promptly arrested. It was an important part of his civil disobedience movement. I had seen pictures of this statue and the march but couldn't figure out where it was. I was very pleased to have been able to see it in person somewhat serendipitously. We watched the movie Gandhi this summer while we were waiting for our visas. I highly recommend it.

Speaking of movies, the newspapers and TV are all abuzz because Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (and their children) are here in India. She is filming a movie here about Daniel Pearl- the journalist from the Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan. Angelina will play his wife. They are staying in Pune which is near Mumbai. The poor family can't even leave their hotel because of all of the photographers. Today there was a photo of them taking an autorickshaw ride. I hope they get a chance to see some things. They are staying for a month. I'm sure every day the paper will have a new Brangelina update-the Indian people love celebrities as much as Americans.

Seems a bit trivial after talk of Gandhi...