I am going to freestyle here becasue it is late (again) and I need to get to bed to get a(nother) flight early in the morning.
What I did want to post before I disappaear off the grid for a while, was post 2 pictures that are stuck on Stevie's camera. The first is from Tokyo and is of this Shibya girl—picture blonded hair, designer clothes and fancy boots, rounded out with sparkly glasses, all attitude—riding a Harley Davidson. The second would be either an entire family of 4 riding a coughing and spluttering moped/scooter, or a haggard man pedaling a tricycle rickshaw with boxes stacked on the back.
You get the picture.
I thought I had seen chaoitic choas in places like Bolivia, but nothing compared to here. When riding home in the back of rickshaw this evening I was trying to formalise my impressions of Delhi and what I came up with reads something along the lines of... Delhi seems like a city that is being squat in. Nothing that I have witnessed yet is new, the pungent aroma of urine pervades the streets almost constantly, and the soundtrack is one of car horns and people hacking and spitting. Poverty? Yeah it is here, but at least thus far, it hasn't overwhelmingly presented itself.
We ventered down to Connaught Place and then over to Chandni Chowk which was where we really fell into the deep end. We passed through the watch district, then the battery district, camera, cashew, cookware, silk, saree, kite, rope, and everything else you can imagine district, all for sale and all sold by boisterous vendors.
The redeeming part of the day, however, was the traffic jam caused by a loud parade along Chandni Chowk. For all the horns and and revving engines, all the drivers and passengers chatted amongst themselves as we waited to move through it. Now I can't be sure, but given the immense number of people in this city, I can't believe that everyone knew everyone else, yet they conversed and grinned and no one was impatient.
The jury, or at least my jury is still out on Dehli, but that was my first impression.
As some what of a disclaimer for the next few weeks, I am headed to Gulmarg in Kashmir. Very little internet, if any, things might be a little quiet here for a while. But I'll be back online. I think...