by Bob Van Leer 

  (NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 7, 1995) - Our first day in India happened to be Sunday, so we spent the day looking at monuments.

  We arrived in Delhi at 11:00 p.m. the night before after a 14 hour flight from New York, with a stopover at Heathrow Airport in London.

  My start of the trip was actually Thursday, May 4, when I left Gold Beach for Medford. My flight to New York left at 6:40 a.m., May 5, too early to drive over in the morning.

   At JFK airport in New York, I met the other three members of our delegation for the trip to India. The four of us are representing the National Newspaper Association on the trip put together at the invitation of the Indian government.

  My partners are: Jim Kelly, publisher of the Hood River News, Hood River, Oregon; Sam Kennedy, Kennedy Newspaper Company, Columbia, Tennessee; and Ken Rhoades, Enterprise Newspapers, Blair, Nebraska.

  Boarding the Air India flight at JFK was interesting by itself. I've never seen passengers check so much baggage aboard. They would have as many as a half-dozen large bags each and the check-in line took more than an hour to get through. They needed an express line for, say, two bags or less.

  Security was tighter than I've seen it for a long time. First, there was the usual x-ray checking machine and the walk-through metal detector. Then, all carry-on baggage was individually inspected. And finally, every passenger was given a sweep with a hand-held detector.

10 DAY PROGRAM

  The Indians have arranged a program for us for a 10-day trip in which we spend the first half in New Delhi, the capital of India, for the first five days, and the balance in Bangalore, a southern city in the high-tech manufacturing area; and Bombay, on the west coast, India's largest city and its industrial and financial capital.

  India is a large nation with a land area about 2/3 the size of the U.S. and the second largest population of any nation, exceeded only by China. The population is estimated at about 900 million persons, compared to 250 million for the U.S.

  We stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel, an excellent five-star hotel in downtown Delhi. Our internal clocks are all off. Jet lag is a problem because we are 12.5 hours ahead of Gold Beach time. When it is 8:00 p.m. at home, it is 8:30 a.m. the next day in India.

  Our guides picked us up at 10:00 a.m. for a tour of Delhi monuments. They are: Hans, a retired diplomat; and Mani, a tourism ministry official. We were joined at the first monument by K. Gopakumaran, assistant superintendent archaeological engineer of the Archaeological Survey of India. The survey has custody of 144 monuments.

TRAFFIC FIERCE

  Traffic is fierce and drivers use their horns more than their brakes. Much of the traffic is little three-wheeled taxis on a motor scooter frame called "rickshaws". They carry two people and the driver.

  The most impressive of the monuments was the Qutb-Minar, a sandstone and marble tower with a height of 72.5 meters, the highest stone tower in India. It is 379 steps to the top, but we did not go there. It was built as a minaret for an adjoining Muslim mosque and as a victory tower. Qutb is a World Heritage Monument. The tower was started in the year 1196.

  Its courtyard contains an iron pillar dating to the fourth century. The pillar is polished white in an area about three feet up. The reason for this is a constant procession of people who back up to the pillar and try to touch their hands behind it. Our guides said the local legend is if you can do this, your wish will come true. I was able to touch my hands at the back of the pillar, with a little help.

  Another impressive monument is Humayun's tomb. The first substantial example of the Mughal architecture which culminated in the Taj Mahal. The Mughals were a Muslim tribe that swept out of central Asia in about the 13th century and dominated most of India for three hundred years. It is built of red sandstone highlighted with white and black marble.

  Another building we visited was the Baha'i temple, a magnificent example of modern architecture. Baha'i is a world-wide, but small, religion with its beginning in India but its world headquarters now in Israel. There is a Baha'i temple in the U.S. at Chicago.

  Tomorrow we will start to work with meetings with government officials all day ending in a formal dinner in the evening hosted by R. B. Mardhekar, joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs.