New Delhi

It's official, we have our new assignment and will be moving to New Delhi, India in the summer of 2014 via one year in Virginia learning Hindi.  I'm not going to claim it was my first choice, I was really hoping for something a little closer to home, but I am sure it is going to be a great adventure! 

Delhi or New Delhi? 
As I started researching our move I kept seeing references to both Delhi and New Delhi and this had me confused for a bit, so I'll explain it here.  The city of New Delhi has only about 350,000 permanent residents, and is completely surrounded by the city of Delhi. The administrative part of New Delhi was a planned district, designed in the early 20th century by a British architect. The government buildings there started filling up in the 1920s, and after the British left in 1947 New Delhi became the official seat of the Indian government. This is where the Indian Parliament building is, as well as all of the other federal government headquarters, and all the foreign embassies. I found this description of the diplomatic area of New Delhi on the lonely planet website:

This area is mostly spotless, with wide streets and lush lawns in front of many buildings. It’s an amazing contrast to all of Delhi that surrounds it, and if not for the legions of thieving monkeys (no joke) you’d forget you were in India. 

  

A little history on this city we are soon to call home. New Delhi is the capitol of India, the most populous country in the world at 1.24 billion people!  Delhi's total population is approximately 17 million residents, which makes it the 10th most populous city in the world, Shanghai is the most populous.  That is a little misleading though, because according to the UN, Delhi has the 2nd biggest urban agglomeration in the world with a population of 22 million people.  The term “urban agglomeration” refers to the population contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels. It usually incorporates the population in a city or town plus that in the suburban areas lying outside of, but adjacent to, the city boundaries. When you include the surrounding populations, Shanghai falls to #6 and only Tokyo has more people than Delhi.

At least eight and possibly as many at 11 cities have been founded around modern Delhi, dating back as far as 3400 b.c. and ending with the British Raj’s New Delhi, but they weren't all the capitol of India. The Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, constructed the seventh Delhi in the 17th century and shifted the Mughal capital from Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located) to Delhi.  The Capitol shifted away from Delhi again so in 1803 when the British captured Delhi and installed a British administrator, it was a critical commercial centre but not the capitol of India.  In 1911, the British announced the shifting of their capital from Kolkata and proceeded to build New Delhi. Construction wasn't completed, and the city officially inaugurated, until 1931. Only 16 years after the grand inauguration the British were booted out of India and Delhi became the capital of an independent India. Since Independence, Delhi has been the capital of modern India.

A map to give you some context...

A few of the first images that pop up when you search "New Delhi images" on google:


 

We will likely live in the diplomatic area of New Delhi described so nicely above, on the embassy compound with lots of other US diplomats. This is also where the boys will go to school, at the American Embassy School (http://aes.ac.in//splash.php) just across the street from the compound.

This looks like an amazing school, and Conor is particularly pleased that they offer robitics as an elective starting in 7th grade! (He will attend 7th, 8th and 9th grade there.)  They also have model UN, which he says he is interested in and theater tech (Where did that one come from? Has he been talking to EB when I didn't know it?)

  

An added bonus is that the American Embassy School live streams on the internet all of the school functions, so if/when Conor and/or Ryan is ever in a play, recital or ceremony, anyone at home will be able to watch it live! How cool is that?  We will have to figure out the time difference at some point and just hope that prime recital time in New Delhi isn't 2:00 am in California!

AES middle school home page picture

And for those of you on the fence about planning a trip to visit, National Geographic's Traveler Magazine describes Delhi as "one of the Ultimate Cities of a Lifetime to visit and explore."  And for Amy and Sue, I have heard that in addition to some amazing historical sites, there are many "pearl city" type markets to explore!  For some idea of what you could look forward to, Lonely Planet lists their top 20 things to do in Delhi.  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/delhi/travel-tips-and-articles/75873