all kinds of tourist

In the past few days I've been checking out some of the Mughal and Muslim areas of Delhi, which is something I've been wanting to do since my arrival. A couple of days back, my friend Lambert and his friend took me to the Red Fort in Delhi (built by Shah Jehan who built the Taj Mahal) where we explored for a bit in the evening, and then we went to check out the largest spice market in the world (the smell of spices is incredibly overwhelming; I couldn't stop coughing, the air was just choked with chillis), ate some delicious parathas, and just checked out north delhi from the back of a cycle rickshaw. North and South Delhi are like two different cities. In a way, the south is the suburbs, more posh, more malls, highways, and primarily residential. The north has tiny winding alleys that cycle rickshaws can't even enter, tons of tiny little shops, little food stands, and masses and masses of people. What's amazing about Old delhi is that the gorgeous air-conditioned and efficient Metro runs all over the north part of the city, while it won't be completed in the south until 2010 (we can only hope). The shock of stepping up into Chandni Chowk (where the fort and spice market are) from this new, fancy metro is pretty spectacular. Apparently the metro has eased up a ton of traffic in the north areas- I bet folks can't wait for it to come to the south, where traffic is pretty awful around rush hours.

After the spice market, we went back to the fort for the sound and light show. I didn't know what to expect from this show, other than the fact that it would explain some of the Mughal history of Delhi. And that is exactly what it was. For one hour we listened to an oral history of the ruling empires in India up to independence, with sound effects, music, and fantastic dialogue, while different structures around the fort were lit up with colored lights. If you can imagine small town American tourist kitsch, try placing it in the context of forts and tombs built in the 1500s. The only thing it was missing was some animatronic soldiers fighting in the distance... We enjoyed it thoroughly, despite the masses of mosquitoes that made dinner out of us (there were only 4 other people there, so I guess they had few options).

Today I checked out Humayun's Tomb, where the headless body of Shah Jehan's favorite son, Dara, was brought after his brother Aurangzeb, the last major Mughal ruler (and a horrible jealous person, put very simply), had him killed. Humayun's tomb is very impressive, though the best part about being a tourist in the summer is that there are so few people there. I managed to dance with the dead in various chambers, climb to the terrace of the mosque, and just take in the sites (and the heat) on my own.





Beyond the typical tourism stuff, I'm learning more and more about the ins and outs of the Delhi legal system. Still haven't made it to the prison yet, but today I was shown around one of the lower courts, and on Monday I'll be meeting with a professor at Delhi University who specializes in women and prison. The more I learn about the Indian criminal justice system, the more that I realize how pervasive it is. I'm learning that I can't just study the prison, but I have to learn about the courts, and the police, and the services that exist (or fail to exist) for individuals upon release from prison. The legal system in the US is pretty tangled up, but it is absolutely nothing compared to what I've seen in India so far. More than that, in order to get anything (and really, anything) done, money needs to be paid. From 5 dollars to clerks for getting forms in on time, to 5000 dollars to judges for dismissing cases that need to be held, or creating false cases to implicate innocent people. It's strange to see all of the lawyers walking around in black jackets and white collars (even the few women lawyers wear black jackets over their sarees or salwaar kameez suits), looking like they've come straight from colonial British times. The court system has not been adjusted since the British. Neither has the jail manual. In fact, in 2007, the ministry of Jails convened a panal to start thinking about changing the jail manual which hasn't been updated since 1894. It's amazing to see a country that is changing at warped speed in some sectors, moving at an absolute snail pace in others. I suppose progress is determined by who can benefit from what. I know that the US legal system is nowhere near perfect-- just learned that the US has put to death 10 of the 19 juveniles who have received the death sentence worldwide since the 1970s-- but still... Delhi courts hold special court on Thursdays for 'old cases' that haven't been completed yet. The 'old cases' start from 1986! Perhaps this backlog explains how 90% of inmates in Tihar Prison are undertrials who have not been convicted yet? There's nearly 11,000 people in the prison that has the capacity for about 6,000. They are currently building two new facilities, and for the most part I am completely against the construction of new prisons, but there's such a backlog of cases, and the living conditions are so cramped, that it unfortunately makes sense to build these new facilities, as it doesn't look like the courts are going to speed up any time soon. I'm trying to be cautious about making too many judgments, as it's only been a few weeks, and I've only read a few books, but there are some things that are just plain clear. And sadly, those things are not really on many people's priority list issues to change..

Still, there is definitely a positive side to the Delhi criminal justice system... For all the government infrastructure it lacks, when Dr. Kiran Bedi served her 2 year tenure as Director General of Delhi prisons (1993-1995), she invited the community in. Though there were once 200 NGOs working in Tihar, and now only 54, that is still a substantial amount of community involvement. The NGO I work for, Family Vision, does some pretty great work in counseling, education, and work with children and crime-affected foster kids. More on the positive side of things later- because of course there's always a silver lining...!