More Than One Delhi

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This is a post that deals with the two visits we have made to Delhi. We came here first for a few days on the way from Siliguri through to Rajasthan, went off there for a time and then back to Delhi for a few days before we head out on a flight to Istanbul. So I will deal with the whole Delhi experience here. I will also do a bit of a whole of country wrap up so this could turn into a long post.

The train trip in to Delhi from Siliguri was on the Rajhani Express. After I extolled virtues of the Indian Railway system with every train being on time and relatively smooth our train was late and came in at a different platform to the one that most people expected. Admittedly, no one had actually officially and specifically said that it would come in on the particular platform we were standing on, but everyone was there. All the freight was stacked up, all of the queues were formed all was in order. The train was late by 35 minutes. 10 minutes before it arrived there was a sudden flurry, announcements came over that were not clear to us but the friends we had developed in the hour or so on the platform told us where we should go.

Other than the timing issue the train was good. No sellers were permitted on board but all food was supplied and it was ok. There were vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. I have become vegetarian for India. Can get pretty samey and you can get tired of mush but crook meat can be more of an issue than crook vegies. Noted that most people were veg on this trip. There was a young soldier in our compartment who was determinedly non veg. I have to say he seemed to get better in the morning when he scored an omelette while we veg eaters scored daal, curds and chappatis, yet again.

You tend to meet people on trains. On this one there was a family travelling in and around our allocated spots. There was the father/grandfather who was an retired postmaster from a town in Rajasthan, his wife, son, son in law, daughter and a couple of grandkids. The old guy, 66 years old so not that old, spoke pretty good English. He was a lovely bloke with a nice sense of humour and a friendly and charming manner. He spoke to me, at considerable length about a range of matters. We dealt with the situation between India and Pakistan, the need for the US to engage with India to sort out Pakistan - he believed that Partition was the major mistake and that it simply needed to be aborted with Pakistan again becoming part of India. We went on to a discussion about family and divorce. He was pretty strongly against divorce and pretty certain that marriage was really about alliances between families. Slid into politics for a while and dealt with the election. All interesting stuff.

While the discussion was underway, assorted members of the family were delegated, I think by the wife, to try to slow the old bloke down. No success whatsoever but eventually he needed a feed. It turned out, after Pat sat with the ladies for a fair while the next morning that the family were on their way home from an engagement party where the son was a main player. He clearly did not want to be engaged, or at least to the girl picked out. Very upset about the whole thing. Everyone else was pretty happy though and they were very friendly and welcoming to us.

There were plenty of warnings about all manner of scams and touts at the Delhi Railway Station. We didn't find it that bad at all. Nowhere near as difficult to get out as it was in Hanoi. Obviously, still dirty and more dirty than it needs to be but at least a better entry to the city than Kolkata. We walked with our packs to the hotel Rama Inn in Paha Gang which was only a couple of blocks from the railway station.

Paha Gang is a pretty divey sort of area but not too bad. Has the advantage of being within reasonable striking distance of both 'Old' Delhi and 'New' Delhi which is really just one big city. The names become important when you are organising trains. New Delhi station is in Old Delhi as is Old Delhi station but they are some kms apart. We did have one minor issue where we came in at the wrong station.

Delhi was always going to be about shopping for some. Rugs were on the agenda close to the top but there was a range of other items that were to be sought out.

Found ourselves caught on the horns of a bit of a dilemma. We have had an intention to purchase a couple of carpets. We like the silk ones but also don't mind the woollen ones. Most of the good ones are made in Kashmir or by Kashmiris or by people who were taught by Kashmiris … all of whom were taught originally by the Persians. There are a lot of places that you can buy these carpets. We had a look at some nice ones in Bangalore at a flash shop and we have looked at them at many places since. Because the silk ones are expensive you either need to get a very good deal, shift the focus to wool or make a decision to spend the money.

The complicating factor is the manufacture of the carpets. You buy these things by the design and by the knots. Basically, although we have been told all sorts of stories, it is pretty clear that the more knots the square inch the more expensive. You can tie more knots per square inch in silk than you can in wool. Now to tie small knots you either need a very skilled artisan who is likely to command a higher fee or, perhaps, you need a less skilled artisan, but one with very small fingers, who doesn't command such a high fee.

In buying carpets you are expected to bargain. We are not that used to bargaining and, I suspect, are pretty easy meat for a lot of the traders. At the same time, if we are bargaining for carpets, then the seller of a carpet produced by small fingered children must have more room to move than one who is selling a carpet produced by a more costly skilled artisan. So, if we get a great deal there has to be a real chance that, as pretty poor and inexperienced bargainers, we have a carpet produced by children. On the other hand, if we pay a lot then we are just as likely to have been dudded as to have paid a reasonable price.

What to do? We bought some carpets in Uzbekistan a few years ago. We can look at them every day and remember the women we saw making them in a workshop in Samarkand as part of a community development project. We bought another one in Kyrgystan in a similar place. They weren't the best possible quality but we feel good about them. We would like to be able to look at our new carpets and feel ok about them.

We haven't become too pure about all of this but we did find something of a solution. The government of India has set up an arrangement by which all States establish an emporium for the sale of their arts, crafts and other goods in one area. We visited the Kashmir emporium and purchased carpets with guarantees that they are produced by artisans who are paid for their work and are not children. We were not able to bargain to any extent in this government store and we have almost certainly paid more than we would if we go to other carpet sellers. But we will not look at our carpets with that little suspicion that they were produced by child labour. As for the price, I at least will forget that almost immediately. I find it a very useful habit but one that, I think, sometimes drives Pat mad.

Apart from the shops there are the things that Delhi has for tourists. We visited the Red Fort one morning. It looked like a reasonable distance on the map so we decided to walk. The best route seemed to go through a market so that seemed to be a way of giving the shoppers some diversion while those who simply wanted a walk would have their needs met as well. It didn't work out all that well.

The walk towards the Red Fort from Pahar Gang takes you through full on squalor including a garbage dump that sits alongside a major street. The stench from there is developed a little further by the many horses stabled along the road along with assorted cows and other animals. A nice place asa things are getting moving in the morning. Bracing!

On this walk we were hit again - we are very slow learners in this area - with the Indian phenomenon of not opening most of their shops until late, 9.30 is early with most opening around 11.00 am. Chandni Chowk, the market we were looking for was not actually operating in sales mode. In fact, it was in buying mode with all manner of goods being delivered. A lot of traffic, big, heavy traffic and a lot of noise. Even a Maccas we happened across didn't open for its early morning breakfast trade until 9.30 am

There are, of course, a few 'Delhis'. The seedier area around Paha Gang is not representative of Delhi as whole just as the squalor of the area leading to Chandni Chowk is not representative. For a taste of the other side we are indebted to a friend of friend, Pankaj, who was asked to show us something different.

We got ourselves into a cab and headed for the Ashoka Hotel. There was a little trepidation here. The Ashoka either is, or until recently was, the flashest hotel in India. Now we can handle flash as a general rule but our packs don't really contain the kit for really flash. The women did as well as they could and did well. The blokes … well we wore what we always do. Turned out we were not actually going to the Ashoka Hotel. It was just a landmark near where we were going.

Where we were going was much better than the Ashoka Hotel. We went to a Bahkti Urti concert in a lovely park. I wont try to describe the music. Suffice to say that the passion developed by people sitting on the floor of the stage was enough to make us sad to leave. A choir of young women led the proceedings followed by a Bengali group and then 5 men from Rajasthan. A folk singer was going when we had to leave and there some more acts to follow. We picked up a couple of Cdsof previous such concerts and they will bring back great memories.

The Delhi that attended the concert was different to the one we had been dealing with in the other areas. The people here were clearly well off with a high quality of life. They live in apartments and houses that, in a lot of cases, would provide a much more opulent existence than a similar level funds would provide in western countries. And there are not just a few people living like this. Large areas of Delhi are not unlike major cities all over the world.

Delhi will be different as the transport system becomes better. A new metro system is being developed and, when this is more established, it should help deal with the chronic traffic problems in a lot of the city. It is hard to see, though, how traffic will flow more freely until they do something either drastic or innovative about the ox carts, rickshaws, auto rickshaws and the overall very relaxed view about rules and regulations. Just to day there was a massive jam in the Main Bazaar just around the corner, more or less, from where we live. It was caused by a bloke in a van who had decided to chuck a U turn. The street was skinny. It would only just accommodate the van sideways so it was never going to be a 3 point turn. Add 50 rickshaws, autos, a few cars and a bullock cart along with a press of people. Some people became quite stressed but not the bloke in the van. He just kept going forward and back.

I am not sure that you 'enjoy' Delhi but we can say that we have enjoyed experiences that we have had here. It is not an easy city but it is possible to get around and to get used to it all. I had to carry my pack today - on the way to the post office - and was immediately reminded of how tiresome some of the touts can be. This time though I was able to just joke with them and it was a lot easier.

Oh, and by the way, the Delhi GPO is not as well organised as the Chennai GPO. The old bloke doing the wrapping of the parcels was very, very slow. Didn't he get off his bike when a young bloke was called in to assist? Fingers were flying, and not just with the needles either.

And I almost forgot, we went to see the Taj yesterday. There isn't much that I can say about the Taj Mahal. It has to rate as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, a testament to the designers and architect, the artisans and the workers. Its purpose is another matter. A mausoleum built at tremendous cost with taxes that could have done some public good. All well and good to be upset that your wife has died but, in a country where things often go over the top, this must take the cake. The Shah Jihan, who presided over this construction, was keen to build a mausoleum out of black marble for himself on an adjoinging site. The people of the area must have been thankful that the Shah's son decided that tax should be used for other purposes and locked the old bloke up for a few years stopping all work on the construction.

We spent the day in Agra taking a train at 6.15 and getting back at 10.30pm. Saw the Taj, the so-called Baby Taj and the Agra Fort. The Baby Taj was really not worth bothering with. It needs a lot of restoration work and care. The fort was as spectacular as most forts but then we have seen a few by now and, while it is good, it is not as good as Jodphur, Jaisalmer or Ajmer.

The rest of the town of Agra will now fade in our memories and that will be a good thing.

INDIA OVERALL - CONTRADICTIONS

The India Tourism campaign slogan is “Incredible India”. It is all of that. You simply don't dare move around without a camera. But, with slightly less hype, we think a better summary is “India - Country of Contradiction”.

Rubbish
Personal space is kept very clean. There is constant washing, brushing and sweeping to try to keep the dust and litter out of living spaces and even off the footpath in front of a shop. Most individuals keep themselves clean paying a great deal of attention to personal grooming and cleanliness and most people look great.

This doesn't translate to the wider environment. In most places the wider environment starts at the front door. Rubbish is sometimes piled in to heaps along the street but, for the most part is just dumped. It mixes in with cow shit and piss and, frequently, human piss with any decent wall, that is not a house, becoming a urinal.

In some places the streets are swept and kept clean. Around some tourist facilities, in the better parts of towns there is an effot made and paid for but in others it becomes a sort of rolling tip.

Help
Touts can become the bane of a tourist or travellers life. They often speak excellent English, come across as very helpful and friendly, have some good and funny lines that they run. Everyone seems to operate on a commission or the hope of a commission from someone. Pick up an auto or a taxi and ask to be taken to a hotel or shop and be prepared to be taken to another one that is cheaper, better, cleaner or whatever. It may well be all of those things but when you are also slugged for the commission it isn't. So, basically, you get to a point where you trust no one.

But then you are walking along and ask some random person where something is and a bloke who is clearly engaged in something else will immediately stop whatever it is he is doing and either spend time talking to you or walk with you a considerable distance to make sure you are on the right road. No money, nothing - just a smile.

Or you buy a couple of batteries in a shop and then the shopkeeper spends half an hour searching for small screws to use to fix your camera. Finds one and makes it a lot better but takes no money.

Or your hotel happily allows you to use a room for the day after check out time for nothing because you have a late train.

And, of course, people who have given up large amounts of their time to help us, show us around and look after us never having met us before.

Touts can be a nuisance but they are simply trying to get along. They have a job to do and they need to be aggressive to do it. As with a lot of things here, there is nothing personal in it all.

Smells
We will miss the smells of spices as we move through the markets and smells of cooking as we walk along the streets. It was what we expected of India and no one could be disappointed.

Unfortunately, other smells we wont miss. Urine predominates. Along streets or at particular sections of streets, passing drains or simply walking past a toilet that is not operating well. Animals, particularly cattle, and people, particularly men, urinate indiscriminately and, sometimes it seems, more often than others beasts.

Cows
Sacred. Cannot be killed or eaten by Hindus. They should have a charmed life, and perhaps some do. But not the ones in the cities. They get to wander the concrete and tar all day, poking through the garbage, disrupting the traffic, pissing and shitting all over the place. Either that or they get to work pulling carts. Feed seems to consist of the occasional stale chappati along with some green grass carted in from the country side by enterprising villagers.

I should say that some of the oxen used to pull carts around Delhi are in better condition than I have seen anywhere else. Interestingly, the cows on the streets around Old Delhi seem also to be in better condition. It might simply be that there is more garbage around here.

Railways
Get on one and there will be a constant stream of sellers of all manner of food, drinks, trinkets and anything else you might or might not want. Next one, no sellers but the train staff provide drinks, tea, and all meals pretty well cooked and at times when you might be looking for a feed. No charge. Just a tip that is asked for at the end of the trip and which everyone happily pays.

Then another train. Very few if any sellers but no evident food provision. Food eventually provided at 11.00pm as an evening meal consisting of very watery daal, yoghurt, paneer and some rice that is all right. No breakfast and no sellers.

Trains can generally be relied on to leave their terminal on time. Some will be spot on for the rest of the journey. Others get delayed, an hour, 4 hours, 6 hours and there was an apology broadcast the other night for one that was 16 hours late.

Work and Enterprise
People work and some work very hard. Just don't walk into a post office before 10.00 am even if the official opening time is 9.00am and then be prepared to hang around while they go off for a cup of tea or lunch at the appointed time.

Families cooperate and you often find that a series of shops will work together in an area to maximise the benefit for all. But at the same time you get the impression that this is about the limit. Everyone is competing with everyone else to try to get a bit more. We had a driver in Agra and a guide attached himself to us. He was pretty reasonable as guides go. He was working in cahoots with the driver but went to considerable effort to organise a way so that he could get a tip from us and then get the driver to pay him out of his take.

You don't see as much evidence of the massive projects that you might see in China where the use of mass labour sets up a project that would otherwise be impossible. In India the impression is that everyone is an entrepeneur and everyone is having a go for themselves or their family. The rest of the country can look after itself.

Farmland is predominantly small fields and the villages are obviously poor. Where there are what appear to be larger farms there is a more professional approach taken.

Religion
Don't know whether this is really a contradiction. Religion is everywhere. Temples, people who genuflect or do the thing when they pass a shrine, paintings, photos are all over the place. But it all seems to be for the benefit of the individual rather than the greater good. That may just be a feature of the Hindu religion though. It does seem to be considered lucky to give something to beggars outside temples.

There are those that need help and some clearly get it. There are people who are highly motivated to help others and they do a wonderful job. I am not sure, though, that this attitude and behaviour on the part of some comes from a religious belief. It seems, in the people I have met, to come more from a moral perspective and feeling for others rather than any religion. Although Mother Teresa would stand as a counterpoint.

Corruption
An intensely bureacratic country. You buy a ticket one place and 20 meters away a person will check that you have one. Through the facility your ticket will be checked a number of times.

Government seems to work on strict compartmentalisation with resultant personal power structures becoming very important. To get an approval for a licence or some other concession you will either need to pay to get through these power compartments or will take you chances and spend a lot of time. Payments required wont necessarily be high but unless you pay them life will be difficult.

There are anti corruption offices but these also get accused of being corrupt. Who knows? Clearly many people care but in a country this size it must be very difficult to keep a handle on everythng without a very good system in place.

A shopkeeper will often go to considerable lengths to get you a small amount of change. But in a post office you have to check your change every time. They seem to always hold back at least 100/-.

Beauty and Pollution
Around every corner there is something amazing. Architecture in a temple or a palace, a street of multi coloured houses, a road gang that looks like a flock of multi coloured birds, a massive expressway roaring over the top of a suburb.

But most of the time you are flat out seeing it through the smog which will be, unfortunately, one of the things that will stick in my mind. I have worn my contact lenses just 2 days out of the 6 weeks we have been here. One day to try them - it took 3 days for my eyes to recover - and the next in the desert where the air was clean.

Food
We came here looking forward to the food. Some of it has lived up to every expectation.

Unfortunately, for me at least, a few nasty experiences and I made the decision to go vego for the rest of India. Refrigeration is obviously not that good in some places and you don't have to go to many markets to appreciate that eating meat is courageous.

Vego food can be good but, as has been demonstrated by many over the last 6 weeks, it can be pretty hopeless and become pretty boring. Price can be a determinant of quality but it is not consistent. Cheap food is often better than the more high priced. You can be served the most watery daal in a flash place just as easily as you might be served something wonderful. Just last night we had a vegetable makhani and a biryani with an alu paratha that was as good as we have ever had. You can never tell.

I am not the best commentator on food though. There is a post on food being developed but perhaps the developer is still busy eating.

I do think that I was ruined for many of the restaurants that we later have eaten in by the experience of the home cooked food in the first days of our visit.

Culture Shock
It is certainly an incredible country and one to which we could well return. Before I came here I was apprehensive. But I haven't found India particularly confronting. The cultural difference is there but, I haven't found it difficult. There are definitely times when I have felt that I would like to help fix things - partly because, at least initially, the problem and the solution are pretty clear - but I pretty quickly decide that this is not really up to me, or people like me, but rather to Indians. I would love to give the system a bit of a shake but, again, when Indians decide that the system should be changed, they seem to have the power to do so. Up to them.

We are off to Turkey now and fly out very early on the morning of 17 April. We fly through Dohar on Qatar Airlines and will arrive in Istanbul after about 10 hours flying time.

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Photos

Riding on the Roof
It is a little less comfortable and cheaper but you still get there - unless you take a roll down the mountain.

Ladies on the Train
who tried hard to save me from the lectures on a range of matters. I actually enjoyed it but I suspect they had heard it all before.

Delhi Train Station
Doesn't really do it justice

Red Fort
in Delhi and after a long walk through the Chandni Chowk

Red Fort
Marble. A very nice building material

Red Fort
They still have blokes with guns around here

Trish Paying Tribute
To perhaps the greatest of all Indians - Mahatma Gandhi

Happy Beggar
Not Barnes, look at the other bloke.

Bakhti Upsav
the first group

Third Group
Loved these Rajasthani blokes and could they sing!

Front Gate of Taj
Just to prove that we all went there

The Taj
For those of you who haven't seen the classic photo. Didn't think I would be as impressed as I was.

Even at the Taj
they stil flood irrigate.

Leaning Minarets
Actually designed this way so that in an earthquake they do not fall on the Taj itself

Taj Carving
The work that went in took 20,000 workers going night and day for 22 years. But they did do some wonderful work. Shah's son wouldn't let him have a second one built. I am with the son.

Taj is for Lovers
so said our guide and he insisted that we have this taken - so we did.

Baby Taj
where everyone other than Shah Jahan's favourite wife were buried. Much smaller place and not well looked after.

And Again But
this time with a lady carrying sticks in the foreground.
Question - would her life now be better if the money and effort that went into this edifice was spent differently?

Comments

[Janet]

Reflections
Your commentary on India has brought back so many memories of my time there with Rachel. We had a slightly different experience than you but I too was tentative about going and would definitely go back. Looking forward to reading about your Turkey experiences which will also bring back memories of my time there with Rachel and Barb.

[Sarah]

Pictures?
Great post, I really liked the country of contradictions bit! Sadly, the photos aren't showing up for me... but I guess I'll see them in a couple of years when you make it home.

[Slowfeet]

pictures?
Mine seem to have disappeared as well. not sure what is going on.

[Slowfeet]

Photos
There was a problem with a server and transfers of photos apparently. I have now gone back and re-done the photos for the affected posts so they should all be ok I think.

[Sarah]

Yay photos!

[Raman]

hi there
hi, I'm a design student and an architect here in India and I'm researching on the problems that tourists face while finding there way in Indian Cities. Please mail me your comments, ideas, observations on this. I'm based in Delhi and this research is for the improvement of signage systems in the city. Thanks Raman