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Published: March 31st 2014
There is a large sign on the street a little way from here. It is there for no reason - it says ' every experience is designed to make you stronger'
Rohit is waiting for me on the street with the tuktuk driver. I had previously booked a guide with a car for this day, but I cancelled because I got to know Rohit yesterday when I agreed to come back at 3pm, to stop his pestering. Yesterday was my first day and I couldn’t do with the hastling and pushing to buy something or go somewhere and in all this craziness of the Karol Bagh area – it would be stupid to go somewhere that I didn’t know, in a city that I had only been awake in for one hour, with a man that I didn’t know – wouldn’t it?
But after 3pm, we walked around together and I got to trust him in my heart, so today, he is waiting for me on the street with the tuktuk driver and I will go to a place I have no knowledge of with a man I don’t know in a petrol driven tin can.
Maria comes too. She will be my camping partner and room mate for the next 2 weeks. The three of us squeeze onto the back seat – Maria and Rohit sitting back and me sitting forward to fit. It is 10am and already hot. The streets full of the sound of car and tuktuk horns, everyone pushing for a space on the over crowded road. Delhi is dusty, noisy, chaotic and quite simple. Everyone is going somewhere and they want to get there fast.
As we chug along with the breeze and heat whirling around something suddenly hits me – straight in my gut – it’s a feeling of absolute total freedom. No one knows where I am or where I am going and all at once, I feel it in my heart. I thought this feeling would never come, something that I have felt so many times through travel and with real people. I feel it because he has freed it in this hectic place.
The ride through Old Delhi is best seen from inside a moving vehicle – it looks a tough place to be. People and noise everywhere and
dirt and dust. We pass a man who made his bed in the trunk of a tree which is growing in the tiny central reservation of an area no wider than a normal road, date sellers lift tarps of their stalls – all sitting in the baking sun, a boy runs across the road, cannot wait, jumps between the cycle rider and his rickshaw, in front of the tuktuk and away – no one waits, the horn noise is endless. And today, Chandi Chowk market is closed and the red fort too because it’s Monday.
We whirl around and back and then onto India gate where I talk to a scabby dog and tourists take photos. It’s a walk in the breeze and heat. It is peace full at Lodi Garden where the breeze takes away the hustle and bustle of this city. The three of us walk gently round and Maria is tired so the driver takes her back to the hotel and Rohit and I go to the temples. At the bright reflected sun light in the Birla Mandir Hindu Temple, shoes off and head covered in the foreigner’s area then dazzled by the Gods
covered in bling. Rohit is a Hindu and explains the gods, head off, elephant head on, vermillion on the forehead for good luck from Krishna and giving marigolds to make a wish.
I made a wish to Krishna and will see if it comes true.
and, if you need a guide in Delhi - go here ROHIT his number is 0091 9873844550 and contact on
nihongirohit@gmail.com
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Dave Western
non-member comment
'Ello Traaacey Loov!
Good stuff! Glad you are enjoying it so far. There was a lovely little museum I went to called the craft museum. Hardly anyone there, beautiful collection...nice way to spend an hour or two out of the heat and hussle/hassle. While you're in Delhi, can you see if you can find out how to cook 'Subzi Punchmel'. I ate it a few times in Karol Bagh but haven't been able to find anything about it since!! Take care Traaace! D xx