We kept our schedule pretty breezy for our first couple of days in Delhi because we knew we were going to need time to recover from jet lag. One of the things we did during those first couple of days was visit a local craft market. Dilli Haat is a craft market that allows you to ease into shopping in India because there is a small entrance fee which eliminates the hawkers and riff-raff that are commonly found in the open markets. Rather than being bombarded by people trying to sell us crappy souvenirs, Ella was bombarded by people that were dying to have a photo taken with her.
  

India has a deep-rooted belief in reincarnation. It is a subject that I don’t really know much about, but I think Ella might have been a rock star in a former life! Everywhere we went in India we were constantly approached by people that wanted to have their picture taken with Ella. It was the strangest thing, but we generally obliged. As a result, Ella is most likely plastered on Facebook pages across the world.

  
 It seriously happened everywhere we went! It didn’t matter if we were checking out the sites, or checking into our hotel! At restaurants, our waiters wanted to carry Ella around the restaurant or show her the kitchen. People would just reach out to her with open arms and say “Come.” And off Ella went. She often came back with gifts from whomever she was visiting.

If strangers approached our daughter while at home in the US, it seems unlikely that we would be so willing to just let some random person walk away with our baby. But in India…it seemed ok. Of course we weren’t completely negligent parents. We never let her completely out of our site, even if she did get 50 feet away. Has anyone ever experienced a phenomenon like this elsewhere while traveling? And were you as willing as we were to let strangers take selfies with your toddler?