28) Delhi - the metropolis of contrasts

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Finally it had to be - we were on our way to the Indian capital. We arrived at Delhi’s outskirts at a reasonable hour - 6 p.m. - and thought we would again se a hotel at daylight. How wrong we were! From there to the bus stand in Old Delhi it took us another three hours! We have no idea about the actual distance we covered in that time, but the roads were terribly congested most of the time. Maybe the situation will get better because they are building a lot of multi-lane roads into the city as well as new underground lines. By the time we really arrived, we were already exhausted, but this was not the end of our odyssey yet. The bus stand was like no one we had seen before in whole India - deserted. Hardly any other travellers, no shops, no vendors, no touts, no hawks, no rickshaws - all had been banned. Well, interesting. We shouldered our bags and left the bus stand, hired the first rickshaw we set eyes on, bargained it down to an acceptable price and were on our way. We had chosen a hotel close to the main bazaar, where most of the budget hotels are situated, but had again opted for a (hopefully) quiet side street. Delhi is a huge city and unfortunately the driver did not know his way. He stopped again and again to ask, came to the railway station and from there we had to drive the whole length of the main bazaar, very busy at that late hour. We could hardly advance, and all the driver’s hooting was to no avail. But we did arrive, drenched in sweat and quite worn out. The hotel room was quite ok, apart from the fact that it had been freshly painted and still smelled very strongly. In the morning we woke up with quite a headache and nausea and insisted on changing rooms, which also worked in the end.

We had come to Delhi not only for tourism, but also for health reasons, we hoped to get certain medicaments and treatments for Klaudia here in the big city. She still has problems with her left shoulder, it sometimes hurts and the freedom of movement is rather limited. She will try to go on with the treatment she interrupted in Germany when leaving. We asked about a doctor at large in the hotel, they were very helpful and sent somebody to take us there and we did not have to go far, just a bit further down the street. The doctor’s surgery was a small room without doors, open to the street, two benches for the patients and a second small room behind for special examinations, separated by a curtain. The doctor himself was already advanced in age, probably in his sixties, with a round belly and an easy laugh. He examined Klaudia in the waiting room, quickly came to the correct diagnosis of “stiff shoulder”, then asked her behind the curtain and mixed the first injection for her. Actually, this was a doctor cum pharmacy, he had an incredible supply of all kinds of pills and ointments at his disposition. He never closed his surgery, not even on Sunday, saying that his patients were not to blame for falling ill on a Sunday. He was very nice and easy to talk to and had undeniably gathered a huge medical experience in his long life. Klaudia went to se him every day for a week, and each time he gave her slightly different pills and injections. To cut a long story short, Klaudia felt well treated.

In addition to this treatment, the doctor sent her to a physiotherapy clinic, practically situated around the corner. Over there, another doctor examined Klaudia and chided her fro neglecting her treatment. Klaudia felt treated a little unfairly, but decided not to contradict him and to wait what treatment he was going to offer her. This doctor was much younger than the other one, wearing impressive turbans in bright colours, but Klaudia found him rather harsh and haughty. But he lost no time and proscribed her to come even twice a day. The clinic was rather small, with three rooms filled with diverse instruments, one room for the doctor for consultation and an entry corridor used as waiting room. Two other people apart from the doctor worked there, one man and a nice young woman, who was very shy. The first part of the treatment consisted of diatherapy, followed by ultrasound and laser treatment, all in all rather relaxing. The other part consisted of different exercises, and usually Klaudia was allowed to do these as long as she wished or until she was exhausted. And exhausting they were!

Klaudia also needed more test strips for blood sugar measuring, she couldn’t get enough in Germany until the end of the year. These strips are fairly expensive and we want to try - with the help of a prescription - to get some refund from our insurance company. We would need to contact a specialist, so we asked the hotel again and again they were very helpful. We had an appointment on a Saturday evening, the doctor would be available up to 8 p.m. We immediately took a rickshaw, as it was already 6 p.m. and we had no idea how long it would take us to a place by the strange name “Defence Colony”. Actually, it was very far, we passed the India Gate, which looks a bit like the mini version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the National Museum of Modern Art and saw the Parliament in a further distance. Defence Colony turned out to be quite a posh district of New Delhi, and the diabetologist turned out to work in the Apollo Hospital, an internationally renowned clinic. What a striking difference to the old doctor’s crowded small room in Old Delhi! A modern house, where everything was polished and squeaky clean, we were greeted by an assistant and asked to wait. Then the doctor himself, quite young, in his mid-forties perhaps, clad in a perfect dark business suit and speaking impeccable English with a distinct American accent. His business card teemed with unfamiliar abbreviations and titles from American medical schools. When Klaudia uttered her request, he was very astonished and almost shocked that she measured her blood sugar five times a day. He declared three measurements a day the maximum and would have called her crazy and irresponsible to go on such a long journey without medical checking, if he had not been so professional. This was the absolute contrary of what Klaudia had been told in Europe, where she was taught to live freely with her diabetes. She had hoped to get away with a prescription quickly, but it should become even worse. The doctor asked her whether she took any medicine for her blood pressure or for the kidneys, whereupon Klaudia protested that there was no need to, that she had been checked before our departure and everything had been fine. He was not satisfied at all and said that prophylactic measures had to be taken from a certain age (uff!), immediately prescribed something and measured Klaudia’s blood pressure. It seemed to have been fine in spite of Klaudia’s being upset because he didn’t utter a word on it. Finally she got her prescription, though not for the amount she had wished, and was happy to get away. The doctor brought us into contact with the whole-seller of the test strips, who even came to our hotel, and Klaudia got what she needed without further complications.

We decided to explore the Defence Colony a bit and dismissed the rickshaw. This place was so different from the main bazaar, where it was aggressive, loud and dirty. Here it was clean and relatively quiet for India, one stylish restaurant beside the other. We found a coffee shop selling real espresso, Klaudia’s bliss. There we saw girls in mini skirts and high heels, each of them chatting on their newest mobile phone. For the first time in India we felt dressed rather shabbily. We also discovered department stores selling all kinds of cosmetics and perfumes at incredible prices, and beautiful flower shops. The prices in these restaurants were so high that we decided to drive back to our favourite place close to the main bazaar. But we could not resist two shining green apples, and they tasted delicious indeed! We had caught a glimpse of modern, well-off India and were even more surprised about the striking contrasts, which we had already partly seen in other places.

As already mentioned before, we had problems with the camera. In Jaipur Stephan had got an address of a digital camera repair shop in Delhi. The shop was at Connaught Place, a huge subterranean bazaar area, where you can shop until you drop. We walked around on the surface a bit, would have liked to go to the movies, but found only one cinema showing films in Hindi, and had sensational ice cream in a shop that was almost as cold as the product it was selling. We went there on a Saturday, and compared to the main bazaar the area was actually civilised. The camera repair shop was on the first floor of a tiny clothes shop, to be reached by a steep and narrow staircase. As a matter of fact, the camera could not be repaired the same day, we had to wait till Monday evening to get it back. As we had planned to use the Sunday (without physiotherapy) for sightseeing, the pictures of certain monuments will be missing in this entry.

On Sunday we hired a rickshaw and planned to visit three monuments in a row. First on our list was Delhi’s newest attraction, the Lotus Temple, inaugurated only in 1986. In fact it is not a temple, but a Baha’i House of Worship. The Baha’i faith was founded by a Persian in the mid-19th century, their houses are dedicated to the worship of God, for peoples of all races, religions and castes and its principles are directed towards the unification of the human race and the establishment of a permanent universal peace. Architecturally, the Baha’i Temple is a remarkably striking building, built out of white marble and in the shape of a lotus flower. It is a simple design, brilliantly executed and very elegant in form, the light-flooded interior immediately covers the newcomer in an aura of peace and serenity. Klaudia was feeling well and at ease inside and both of us were reminded of the nave of an old cathedral. On we drove to Humayun’s Tomb, of the second Mughal emperor, a dynasty that ruled over India from the beginning of the 16th century until the arrival of the British. It is the first mausoleum making use of domes and also the first example of the garden tomb concept, where water plays an essential role. It is of red sandstone with some white marble to highlight the lines of the building. Although the tomb was austere inside, from the outside it was impressive and we enjoyed the walk in the beautiful garden very much. We still had enough time for another visit left and drove to another Muslim monument, the Qutb Minar (= Tower of Victory). This is an incredible building from the beginning of the 13th century, a 73 metres high tower tapering at the top, and was also destined as a minaret. Consisting of five storeys, it is the first building that makes use of the contrasting of red sandstone with elements in white marble. Inscriptions tell that “ the tower was erected to cast the shadow of God over both east and west”’ it marked the eastern limit of the empire of the One God, its western counterpart being the Giralda Tower built in Seville. When we arrived, though, there was huge police presence and we were told that today the entry was reserved for VIPs. This was the weekend when the Pakistani president Musharraf had come to Delhi for the last game in the cricket series (and for political reasons, definitely). We had calculated that most of the Indians would be glued to the TV and that the sights would be emptier. Unfortunately we had not counted on Mrs. Musharraf, who exchanged cricket against a stuffed cultural programme. So we could only see it from outside, and should we come back to Delhi on this or another trip, we would like to go inside and take a closer look.

Then we finally got the digital camera back and went to test in on Old Delhi’s monuments, the Jama Masjid mosque and the Red Fort. But the weather was against us, it being the pre-monsoon season, which means that the sky is often heavily overcast and a grey sky is not nice on pictures. We saw other mosques and forts before and afterwards as well and have to say that these in Delhi were by far not the most beautiful or most impressive examples. Big parts of the Red Fort are still used by the army, when entering you have to pass a metal detector and also your pockets are searched. In addition to this, there is an armed guard standing right after the entrance, with a pointed gun, which does not give you a very comfortable feeling! We did not stay very long and decide to discover Old Delhi on foot. We walked through incredibly narrow streets full of shops or workshops, where just a motorbike can pass beside the pedestrians. When the products are finished, e.g. folders or notebooks, men carry huge packs of them on their heads onto the shops selling them on the bigger streets. We discovered some beautiful old houses, watched business cards being printed and had to turn back several times because the streets simply ended. Still we advanced, what did not happen so easily on the bigger streets, which were often clogged. India is a country of contrasts, but never have we seen them bigger than in Delhi. On one side, Old Delhi’s narrow, dusty and crowded streets, chaotic as can be, on the other side New Delhi’s broad streets with several lanes where traffic is almost ordered.

Then it was time for us to go and we headed for the New Delhi train station to catch a train to Agra. We approximately knew the timetable and also arrived in due time, but this station was the most chaotic and disorganised one we had seen so far. Although the train we wanted to catch was in the station and we had already found seats, it was impossible to buy tickets and when people told us that we would be heavily fined when travelling without tickets, we had to get off the train again. We were really angry, but on the platform we met Mark, an experienced English traveller whose train was 6 hours (!) delayed and talked to him for a long time. In the end, our anger had cooled down and we drove to another train station where everything worked smoothly and we finally got on the train to Agra.

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Photos

Old Delhi street chaos
Even without cars the traffic didn't move

Street shop
One cannot deny that Indians do have a sense of colour

Nan baking (preparation)
The dough is stretched like a small pizza bottom

Nan baking
The stretched dough is put on a cushion and then stuck onto the walls of a tandoori oven on which the baker is actually squatting

Nan ready for selling
After 1 minute the baker detaches the nan with a metal stick from the oven's wall and throws it on the shelf

Market goat
Animals will find "food" everywhere, also close to hardware shops

Tool shop
Indian form of the typical do-it-yourself store

I have everything you need
Typical Indian statement, even if you can't see it right away

Jama Masjid
The lying position of the photographer is responsible for the distortion, but with photoshop one might be able to fix it

Delhi Red Fort entrance
Probably the most visited sight in Delhi. However, there is better to be found within the country

Hall of public audience
The hall of public audience is the farthest you would get as a normal citizen to see the ruler

Marble throne
The emperor would listen from this marble throne and give his decision

Hall of private audience
Ambassadors and other VIPs would be allowed to penetrate until the hall of private audience

Stone inlays in the hall of private audience
One wonders what the guard is protecting since most of the semi precious stones have already disappeared

Jali screen
Wonderfully carved screen, however seriously damaged

Pearl mosque
Of course the emperor had his private mosque to pray

Comments

[Mridula]

Hi
I live in quite close to Delhi (Gurgaon) and I enjoyed reading about your visit so much. What we get used to, it is amazing to read about it from another perspective.