'Delhi is an exciting place'

During her recent visit to Delhi, senior lecturer of music therapy at a university in London, Eleanor Richards was pleased to see the ''dynamic changes'' and infrastructure development that have taken place in the City during the recent years.

Eleanor, who visited the City to attend music therapy sessions in various universities, was completely impressed by the efficient working of the Delhi metro.

“I am glad to visit India. I have not got a chance to explore the cosmopolitan culture of Delhi. But I can clearly witness dynamic changes that have taken place in Delhi. It was exciting to travel by metro which is very efficient and convenient,” said Eleanor, who qualified as a music therapist in 1991. Since 2002, she has been giving lectures on music therapy at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

Fond of daal and namkeens, Eleanor loves the environment and people of the City, whom she describes as helpful and cheerful. “I absolutely love the environment here and the people around are very helpful and cheerful. I like the food here and I am very fond of daal. Also, I like the variety of namkeens. I will surely take some of them back home,” she shared.

However helpful she finds the people here, Eleanor always comes to India with a list of do’s and don’ts prepared with the help of her friends. “My friends who had visited India earlier were a great help as I did have some preconceived notions about India and its people before my first visit. So I came well equipped with a list of do’s and don’ts,” said Eleanor, who visited Delhi earlier in 2009.

While she enjoys Indian classical music, Eleanor is not able to watch many Hindi movies because of the language barrier. “I have watched some Indian movies subtitled in English. But not many, because I do not understand Hindi. But yes I am very fond of Indian music. Indian music is indeed a wonderful thing to listen to,” said Eleanor, also a psychoanalytic.

During her two-day visit to Delhi, Eleanor visited some old temples of the City and Chandhi Chowk to shop for gifts for her family and friends.