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Published: February 2nd 2007
To a great degree, I am at a loss as to how to put Delhi into words. Delhi is everything I imagined it would be, but at the same time so much more intensely real and complex than I imagined. Jeff and I stepped out of the airport at 7 in the morning the day of our arrival--having not slept at all--into a crowd of honking taxis and sputtering rickshaws, climbed into a rickety taxi van, and took off down the left side of a crumbling road where taxis, cars, busses, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, mopeds holding entire families, and pedestrians all fought for a space, ignoring the lane lines entirely. We passed wandering cows, endless shantytowns, people carrying impossible loads on their bycycles, wide-eyed children pleading for money at every red light, stray dogs darting through traffic and tons of curious people staring and smiling. My head was spinning by the time we arrived at our guesthouse, which Harmeet had set up for us. Completely exhausted from the traveling and our first 15 minutes of Delhi, we ate a quick breakfast and then took a three-hour nap, before we were able to muster up the energy to begin to take
in the city.
Our guest house is a very welcome oasis in the middle of a hectic city. There are five simple rooms, a shared commmon area with a small kitchen and bathroom, and a sunny deck scattered with statues and potted plants. The woman who owns it is very welcoming and friendly. We're served a nice breakfast every morning at whatever time we request. It has been so nice to have a peaceful place to come back to after every adventure: Delhi is a lot of things, but never really serene.
After our nap we met Harmeet at a coffee shop near our guest house. He is incredibly knowledgeable about India, very funny and great to talk to. A friend of his, Abhishek, who he met through couchsurfing.com, came to join us at the coffee shop. The two of them are a great pair--always disagreeing but it's easy to tell they in fact thorougly enjoy each other's company. After coffee Harmeet drove the four of us to Delhi's political center: the president's house and the surrounding government buildings. They were covered in white lights in celebration of Republic Day (India's independence day), and we walked amongst hundreds
peanuts
This man has been selling peanuts from this spot for 40 years.of familes there to look at the lights and enjoy the holiday. I was struck by the diversity of the people--sikhs, hindus, muslims and jains intermingled peacefully. Despite Jeff and I clearly standing out, we felt welcome there by everyone.
After that Harmeet drove us to a place to have some real Indian food for dinner... It was a tiny hole-in-the-wall place, but the food was positively fantastic. Harmeet and Abhishek instructed us on eating properly in India--use your hands and don't be shy--and talked to us about various particularies of India that would certainly be relevant very soon--how to use Indian bathrooms, what bobbing the head means (can be yes or no, unfortunately), how much to tip. We went to another coffee shop afterwards to chat, and I learned a great deal about sikhism, Harmeet's religion. Jeff and I went to bed that night completely revved up and extremely excited to wake up in India and get to explore the next day.
The next day we woke up, ate breakfast, and began exploring the area around our guesthouse, walking around with cameras, trying to get a feel for the city and the people. I realized immediately--and I
have not changed my opinion--that the people of India (or at least Delhi) are some of the most friendly and smiley I have ever come across. Everyone stared at us, but everyone also smiled. I got waves and grins from one person after another. The people here are beautiful and diverse and their eyes and faces are so expressive, but I wasn't sure how they would feel about having an enormous camera in their faces... But in fact, many many people, upon seeing our cameras, stopped what they were doing (be it driving, walking, cooking, whatever) to ask us to take a picture of them. We always ask before taking pictures of people, and probably 95% of people say yes, most of them very happily. Even with our cameras put away, nearly everyone seems eager to say hi and ask where we're from. Within minutes of walking around the neighborhood I fell in love with India. We had lunch for under a dollar for the two of us at a roadside stand cooking fresh flatbread (nan) served with a couple types of vegetarian sauces. Amazing to eat so well and so cheaply.
The next day our main goal was
to visit the Bahai Lotus Temple, which is one of the few temples of the Bahai religion in the world, and the only one shaped like a blooming lotus flower. We took an auto rickshaw--my first rickshaw experience. Aside from the engine pumping out exhaust, it's a good way to get around the city. Even on a Sunday the temple was very crowded with visitors, mostly Indian but certainly some international like ourselves. People were dressed up for the occasion, which meant the usual colorfulness of the crowd was even more impressive than usual. Inside the temple was cool and open, and we were all asked to remain silent, so it was remarkably peaceful and serene despite the crowd of visitors. We met a number of curious people there, many of whom asked us to take their photos. Again, as always, everyone was friendly and smiled at us. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.
For dinner we splurged a little, and went to an Indian place with exquisite detail put into everything, especially the decor but the food was very good also. There were potted trees running through the restaurant, and everything was hardwood and lit
with red lanterns. We could hear fireworks exploding constantly during dinner, which we learned later were in celebration of a wedding nearby. When we left the restaurant to walk back to our guest house we saw and heard, a block down, a procession with lights and a brass band. We went to check it out, and saw that it was a wedding procession, moving slowly down the street, the band playing in front and people dancing joyfully behind. The women were dressed in bright, ornamented saris, and the men were in suits, and everyone was laughing. I felt lucky to get to share in their celebration for a few minutes, even if we just watched from the side of the road.
Today was our last full day in Delhi, and we decided to spend the day at the Old Delhi market. We took an auto rickshaw, and after spending half an hour stuck in traffic and choking on fumes, we were dropped off in the midst of the most crowded and overwhelming place I have ever been. Everywhere were tiny but overflowing shops selling absolutely everything, wandering goats, piles of trash, rickshaws nearly colliding with each other, stacks of
boxes and odds and ends, fumes of cooking and garbage and motor oil, wide-eyed kids, noises of machines and power generators, and mostly people and more people, the majority of whom stared at us unabashedly and constantly. For the time we were in Old Delhi, there were between five and 20 people following us at all times, staring at our cameras, my hair, our clothes, our skin. Although people stared everywhere else as well, the sheer numbers of people took a little while to get used to. We had a map Harmeet had given us, pointing out particular shops and places to go, but we ended up getting completely lost and just wandering aimlessly through endless alleys. I had hoped to buy some clothes but we never even found the clothing section (each alley specializes in one particular item). We got some good photos and eventually found a huge mosque, supposedly the 2nd largest in the world. We went inside (after putting on cotton robes to cover our exposed legs and taking off our shoes), where there were a number of other tourists as well as a few Muslims there to pray. We somehow ended up with a tour guide,
who didn't speak a word of english but pointed to things and gestured and shoed away the kids that followed behind us... We didn't exactly need a guide, but everyone has to make a living and he was very friendly so we let him show us around for a small fee. After the mosque we realized that we were exhausted and ready to get away from staring eyes, so we grabbed an auto rickshaw and returned to our guest house.
We met Harmeet and Abhishek for dinner again, this time going to three separate places (restaurant hopping) and eating just a little at each place. Once again, we had great conversation. I am so thankful to both of them for agreeing to meet up with us and show us around in Delhi. Harmeet even bought our train tickets for us for tomorrow morning. We leave at 11:30 a.m., heading to Bharatpur, a nature reserve near Agra (home of the Taj Mahal), which is famed for its variety and quantity of bird species. We plan to stay there a few days, with one day-trip to the Taj (probably for sunrise). Although I thorougly enjoyed Delhi, it will be nice to
escape from the pollution, endless honking, and neverending crowds, and spend a few days surrounded by nature instead.
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Cassandra
non-member comment
Thank You
I just wanted to thank you for providing me with 30 minutes of relief from my Physics homework. Thanks to you and your detailed story-telling and exquisite picture-taking, I may possibly not finish in time. Haha, just kidding, well about the finishing part. But, looks like you are having a most wonderful time, so it was worth it! I miss you dearest roommate!