New Delhi

October 24, 2015

This one is just sleeping

We've been waiting for the wifi to come back on here at hotel.  Things are a little hit and miss, to say the least.  But hey, what can you expect from a $20 a night hotel in one of the biggest cities in the world.  As we heard from almost everyone we met today - including an Assistant Bank Manager from Amritsar who showed us the way to a street stall where we could get an omelette, and then insisted on paying for our meals despite not having anything to eat himself - we are living in one of the worst slum areas of New Delhi.  And certainly it's pretty grotty.  Indeed, as we were walking back to our hotel this afternoon we saw a dead man - that's a first for me, but Doug says it's his fifth, not counting the ones in coffins.  It's pretty sobering.

 

As we were having lunch in an Indian 'restaurant' (we tend not to frequent the places that cater to Western people and serve Western food), I looked out on the street teaming with people and thought about the fact that for some reason, despite the garbage and filth, the people dressed in rags or worse, the beggars, and the press of unwashed and hopeless humanity, I love India.  Maybe it's because India forces you/me to confront reality in a way that no other place does.  This is how most of the world lives.  Westerners live in a fantasy world where everything is clean and we can pretty much have whatever we want whenever we want it.  We take it all for granted.  I appreciate the kick in the ass that India gives me.  India wakes me up, reminds me of my humanity.

 

We couldn't eat all of our lunch - should have ordered one 'kulchi' (a stuffed naan bread) between us.  So I wrapped up the left-overs in a couple of napkins and looked for a beggar kid to give them to.  Wouldn't you know it that we walked around for quite a while and didn't see any beggar kids.  Then saw a blind old man standing in the middle of the road, hands out for .... whatever.  I gave him the kulchis.  He was so appreciative, kept looking at me and 'Namaste-ing' me (putting his hands together in prayer and motioning towards me.  Then of course we came across several beggar kids and other desperately hungry-looking people.  Some of whom will likely end up, and maybe not too long from now, like the guy we saw a little later lying dead in the street.

 

Anyway now we're hanging out in our $20 room.  Doug just went downstairs to order some food to be brought up to the room.  (It's not a particularly good or safe area to walk around in at night.  And I haven't carried my camera around with me yet, not that there is anything I would want to take pictures of - it would just feel too crass.)  Apparently there was quite a lot of excitement in the lobby as all of the houseboys (they have four or five people working where we might have one) were running around trying to catch a rat by throwing a cloth over it.  They did manage to get it and were carrying it out to put it out on the road (there's a real aversion to killing anything here, including rats).  Doug suggested they take it to another hotel.  They thought that was hilarious (of course).  Indians do have a very good sense of humour.

 

What I can't believe they haven't killed yet (or still) are all the stray dogs.  Thousands of them, everywhere.  Scavenging like the rats and cats and other vermin.  So far none of them have been aggressive, but a lot of them are pretty scruffy looking - and of course very thin.  Dogs kill children in India with alarming regularity.  When we were last here, nine years ago, we'd read about these dog attacks in the local papers.  Awful.

 

Tomorrow we're heading for Simla, an old British hill station where those who were stationed in places like Delhi, or anywhere else where it was insufferably hot during the summer months, would pack themselves up and literally 'head for the hills'.  Sometimes just the women and children would stay, the men 'commuting' as often as they could.  Simla should be quite a change - cool, green, and maybe even quiet???  

We bought a India Rail information book that not only gives the schedules for all of the trains in what is the largest train system in the world (and one of the best), but also tells you exactly what meal you are going to get (veg, non-veg) including how many grams of each item, including sachets of ketchup, etc. will be in your meal.  Because we are traveling 'Executive Class' we get a welcome drink of real fruit juice, morning tea (tea/coffee kit, a digestive biscuit, and a refreshing tissue), and breakfast (cornflakes or oats with milk and sugar, slices white/brown bread, marmalade/jam sachets, butter chiplet, (2) stuffed paratha and branded curd (100 grams each) and pickle (15 grams), 2 kulcha channa and branded curd (100 grams each) and pickle (15 grams), 2 veg cutlets (50 grams each) with finger chips and boiled vegetables (25 grams), assorted fruits (banana/orange/apple), 1 tomato ketchup sachet (15 grams), 1 salt and pepper sachet each, and tea/coffee kit.  We assume these are choices.  

With any luck we won't be coming back to Delhi, 'New' or not.