Ruins

The next day was playing tourist at Mehrauli Archaeological Park with Marko, Dunja, and Adrian. We had a guide arranged by Ashwin, Raghav. He was very friendly and unlike typical guides, was a good guy to have a conversation with. He used to study in edinburgh and was doing this over his summer break . He took us around the area, showing us several ruins and explaining the history, their significance. As soon as he realized I was born in Pakistan, his narrative became a little unsure. He knew what he was talking about, but knew that I was much more aware of the culture that he was telling us about. It was funny to see him look at me approvingly after mentioning every fact. Along the way, there were some open areas near some of the ruins. there were lot of kids playing cricket. I found that uplifting. This place was historically important, but dead. The kids made it still alive. Raghav didn't share that opinion. He seemed upset by people playing cricket all over which also meant that they would come for picnics, throw garbage, all without having any sense of the history of the place. The Archaeological Survey of India isn't doing much to protect this place mostly because it doesn't get much tourists. There is no fee to get in, and people don't seem to care. As we were looking in one of the tombs, some indians walked by, peeking in . One woman looked in the compound and said, ah, there's nothing in there; just some old, torn down houses. They entertained themselves with climbing trees instead. Thomas Metcalfe seems to be an interesting character.

The afternoon was lunch at Ashwin, a friend of Marko and Dunja's who is now at IBM Research in Delh. It turned out that Atul, who had just joined our lab in bangalore, was a friend and colleague of his. Christmas Eve was a relaxed time at the hotel with Dunja, Marko and Adrian, listening to music, playing with Adrian, and watching Indian santas.