Tuesday at the Hanuman mandir

The Hanuman mandir in Delhi is just off of Connaught Place. Commonly known as "CP," the mostly high-end shopping and eating district is a magnet for tourists who want to buy department store goods, organic teas and socially-conscious clothing, and over-priced trinkets. Meanwhile, the mandir, since it doesn't appear in any guidebooks, doesn't get a single tourist. It does get plenty busy, though, on Tuesdays, which is Hanuman's day and a particularly auspicious day for Hanuman worship.

On Tuesdays, the grounds of Delhi's Hanuman mandir are teeming with people: those who have come to do puja in the temple, those who have goods to sell (religious trinkets, chaat, or fruit and flowers to offer the gods), and those who have come to beg. Just outside the temple itself sits a row of elderly beggars, who wait for offerings of food or rupee coins from pilgrims. Further down the courtyard are a row of lepers, who come out specifically on Tuesdays to hold out their ruined hands for money. Children also approach people to ask for rupees. It's overwhelming to be surrounded by so many people who have next to nothing when you have so much in comparison.

Around the back of the temple complex, the macaques hang out outside the police station and an apartment complex. While people wait for handouts at the temple, the monkeys are showered with prasad, including bananas, burfi, and strings of marigolds. Unlike the macaques up in Shimla, these guys are less robust, not as furry, and smaller in size, but they appear to be well-fed. They don't know any of the item-snatching tricks and are less fussed about humans looking at them (and taking their photos). They do know a banana when they see one, though, and aren't afraid to approach a human to claim it for themselves.

While we were exploring the vicinity, we ran into a langur-wallah, who is a fellow with a trained langur on a leash. They walk around, chasing off bothersome macaques. I'm not sure if this keeps the macaques from creating further problems because, while they seem nervous about the langur's presence, they don't stay away for very long.

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We've switched to Hotel Prince Polonia in Paharganj, which we like much better than Ess Gee's. It's a little more polluted and therefore stinkier in this neighborhood, but there's wireless: I can blog from the hotel room while listening to NPR on streaming radio! In a city of many frustrations and disappointments, this is a big deal to me.