Margaret in Old Delhi

Mom and I took an auto-rickshaw down into Old Delhi, into the bowels of the city.  The contrast with life in the tree-lined boulevards of the Diplomatic Enclave where we live is always an onslaught to the senses.  Mom didn't seem  the least perturbed by it all.  I told her to act bored, as if having masses of humanity rub up against you was commonplace, a walk in the park.  The whole scene is aptly described on page four of this article in Travel + Leisure (Oct8)  



We took a bicycle rickshaw through the winding alleys of the silver market, the wedding and sari and brass markets.  Finally we ended up at Karim's, a favorite eating establishment in the shadow of India's largest mosque.  The traditional moghul cuisine is simply served but sublimely flavored - family recipes that go back four hundred years.  

In all the immensity and diversity and chaos of Delhi, Mom still managed to notice the only Catholic cathedral in the place, and so was set on getting to mass.  Mass? I thought this would be the ideal time to practice an ecumenical attitude and try praying at one of a dozen famous mosques, or temples, or ashrams, or shrines. There's a lot of scope for spirituality here, but I could see she had her heart set on the familiar.  So I found out that the Vatican Embassy holds a Sunday service and we entered the serene, renaissance scene of muted pastels and elegant statuary.  The priest must have been buoyed by the full congregation, nearly 50 people, as he spoke on and on about the words everyone was handed on small pieces of paper: "You alone, O Lord, have the words of Eternal life."  In this tiny island of Catholicism, surrounded by a billion Hindus, the words might better have been written: "You are not alone, young lord, for we've been talking eternal life for a few thousand years now." 

But the Christians have had a significant impact here especially for the lowest castes, the dahlits or untouchables.  For Hindus, eternal life must be reached through cycles of reincarnation, and your karma in this life determines how and whether you ever get out of the cycle (and achieve nirvana), and what form your reincarnation takes.  So, if you are an untouchable, that's your karma, a fate you must accept and hence perform the assigned duties as best you can (such as cleaning toilets and skinning and tanning hides, traditionally the stuff no one else wants to do).  When Evan heard this his reaction was, 'Quite a scam.' As he inferred, the upper castes have no incentive nor guilt to loosen the social strata to allow better opportunities for dahlits.  The Christians, on the other hand, offer a faster track to eternal life through acts of compassion and charity to all, equally. So, dahlits have been the primary beneficiaries of missionary work here, and they are the largest group to convert to Christianity. Their social status immediately improves, and who knows, perhaps their shot at eternal life does too.