Appreciating Delhi

I've finished my first complete bottle of malaria pills, and have returned to Delhi from traveling for the (second to) last time. We have been traveling all over the place for the past month and a half, and seeing a lot more of India than just its capital city, Delhi. As I came back to Delhi last week (from an overnight 18-hour train from Jaisalmer...which sounds awful but sleeper trains are awesome and we get bunk beds), taking the metro from the train station back to Vasant Kunj, I found myself feeling something surprisingly bordering on comfortable, and happy to be back. This week, I've been traveling all over the city interviewing various people (and, let's face it, doing a bunch of shopping) and feeling cosmopolitan. I sat outside at Dilli Haat today, drinking a lime soda and reading, and it was kind of the pretentious people-watching-y cafe experience that I never thought I would find in Delhi.

Someone is a bit too excited about sleeper car bunk
 bedsat 2 in the morning—SPOILER ALERT: it's me 

This is a marked change from the first few weeks in Delhi, which honestly kind of feel like you're being beaten over the head all day. The city is GIGANTIC, and has piles of trash everywhere, and packs of stray dogs roaming the streets fighting each other. There are so many people, and so many cars, and so many honking noises and just plain so many. Due to its size, Delhi is definitely not a walking city—to get anywhere except your own immediate neighborhood off a main road, you have to take a combination of metro and rickshaw rides. Usually a rickshaw to the metro station, a quick, efficient, AIR-CONDITIONED WITH CELL SERVICE metro ride, and then another rickshaw to your actual destination.

Getting on the ladies car of the metro because I am a lady

Walking to your destination from metro stations is possible of course (I usually walk from my home to the metro), but is a bit more fraught with obstacles than just taking a stroll down the street. Delhi is not a place where you can just kind of zone out—it keeps you on your toes. Literally. You have to remain alert to dodge things like cars, rickshaws, bicycles, that guy taking a video of you on his phone and street hawkers, constantly watching your feet to make sure you don't step on that dog "sleeping" (hopefully) over there, or trip over that cow randomly lying next to the road, or fall into one of many pits full of grey sludge.

Now I know what people mean when they say "grey sludge"

Then there's the actual task of getting where you mean to go. As a person in a constant state of being lost, never knowing where I'm going isn't really a new thing, but Delhi is something else. I've just kind of relied on rickshaw drivers knowing road names and landmarks that I tell them, and that seems to work pretty well ("pretty well" is a relative term).

If you haven't noticed, a considerable amount of blog entry content is about public transportation, so you can see what occupies my mind most of the time.

The city is arranged like no other city I've ever been in (in my VAST EXPERIENCE in cities): there are big neighborhoods all over the city connected by metro stations and main roads, and they're all fairly spread out—for example, I feel like its hard to get anywhere within a half hour, but that might be me.  Off the main road, you get the actual houses, shops and markets of the neighborhoods. And here's where I get to what's great about Delhi: all of the things! I don't know what else to say besides that there are so many things here! You could find ANYTHING in Delhi I'm sure of it—the thing is you have to know where to look. Including things like Pizza Hut, although you'll find "paneer masala" as a topping option here. SIDE NOTE: Pizza hut is infinitely better than Dominos here, which is actually disgusting and occasionally contains "liquid cheese," something that should never touch food ever.

Also, appearances are deceiving—while it may look dirty and run-down and have a bunch of guys spitting red paan-juice and gambling for something in front of it, the actual building may be sparkling and beautiful. For example, I was in the Spanish Cultural Center last night watching my host sister's classical Indian dance performance. Firstly, there's a Spanish Cultural Center here, and they host dance performances. Secondly, we were on this back alley in Connaught Place behind a glittering Hanuman Temple, and there were sketchy groups of what I think were religious asectics? (they had matted hair, and that's supposed to be a cue, but I'm also not a great judge of this) hanging around the gate. But once inside, it was a fabulous facility where everything was white white white and shiny and they had great lecture halls and auditoriums. The outside appearances of anything—neighborhoods, markets, restaurants—doesn't belie in the least what's inside.

An example of "Clean Delhi-Green Delhi," a phrase on signs all over
 the city. Also, notice the "Cheer Up Point" in the center of this photo. 

I'm pretty sure it's been said before, but that's because it's true—Delhi is a city of contrasts. Grimy shopfronts conceal slick electronic stores, bumpy rides in (again) grimy rickshaws lead you to the greatest and cleanest metro I've ever seen, stands with piles of clothes all over the place actually sell beautiful handmade fabric and beneath a sky that orange-ish colored from all types of pollution, the city is full of greenery. This includes people—while you will see a lot of women in saris and salwar-kamizes (all traditional Indian clothing...more on that to come), you'll also see a ton of girls my age wearing western clothes. I mean, there are an awful lot of people in outfits we were consider a bit strange, like loose-fitting jeans, Teva-like sandals and age-inappropriate t-shirts that say things like "Girls just wanna have fun!" in bubble letters or weird TV show references like "F.R.I.E.N.D.S...if you buy me a diamond," but still.

This brings me to another feeling I had upon returning to Delhi: it's so modern here. I can get food from any part of the world here, and I won't feel horribly out-of-place (I said "horribly") if I'm not in a sari.  I never thought I would think that Delhi is modern, but after seeing more of India, its very clear how cosmopolitan and worldly Delhi is.

While the city is certainly easy to hate, there are so many thing that are wonderful about Delhi—if you go looking for them. Delhi isn't going to just open up to you; you have to make an effort. And once you do, you'll realize that there is always something great to do here: there's always a performance (usually free!) to go to, a restuarant to eat at, or yet another really really old monument or temple or an entire fortress-city (what up Tuglaqabad on the outskirts of South Delhi) to see. At least this is where I'm at in "my relationship with Delhi" right now. It'll probably stay that way cause I'm leaving for Chennai in a week and a half—which has been called the "Detroit" of India. We'll see how that goes.