Pictures uploaded to Himachal Pradesh (and around Delhi)

Per my other note, apparently this blogger.com has had troubles off and on for a while now relating to inconsistency of uploading photos. Through another means, I discovered how to go around the back door - This brief note is to let you know that I've uploaded a few photos to the link for "A Journey to Himachal Pradesh" - an amazing and memorable trip to visit a high school in a remote village in the mountains ...

While you're visiting now, here's a few photos of around town in Delhi:


This street sign is an example of what all the road signs are like. This first line is in Hindi, the second is English (obviously) and the third line is Urdu:



This is one strip of several at Jan Path Market:









Me with jumbo prawns at the local Fish Market:
June 5th was "World Environment Day" -

I went to two major events around town (Delhi) on this particular Monday - one revolved around a focus on youth with a panel of distinguished speakers and various songs, skits, and presentations by students. The other related to "Corporate Responsibility on Environmental Protection" - Both were great events - I had a chance to also meet several VIPs during these occasions - partly because people take me by the hand and introduce me ("This is the American scholar from San Francisco State University who is doing research on youth programs with the Ministry of Environment and Forests") - pretty cool! Then suddenly I feel very important! (no pressure!) - And when other chances surface, I make sure I go up to these dignitaries and introduce myself - I got nothin' to lose and, so far, everyone has been very receptive to my presence (which is a good thing b/c you really never know) -


Delhi is definitely doing their part to keep up with environmental protection, etc. - All their city buses use natural gas, there are signs all over the city that say "Keep Delhi Green and Clean". Unfortunately few really seem to abide by this - Delhi, in general, is a filthy city with horrible air quality, terrible water quality ("drink only purified water"), and a horrendous waste management problem (I also saw a documentary where some of the poorest of the poor scrounge among the dump sites for any goods they can recover and try to sell on the streets - conversations revolved around how some people end up getting run over by the dump trucks b/c they don't see them or they don't care...) - I do see effort in many ways to "improve" the environment so I wish them luck!

I'm heading to Jaipur this weekend with R.P. Singh (my new friend and colleague from the Ministry of Environment and Forests) - We're taking the train down to Rajasthan for more interviews and we'll get a few tourist hours in to see the sites - I hear it is beautiful there!