Darwinian Delhi

India-whew! In many ways it's appropriate that this is our last new country of the trip, as it seems like we'll have to marshal everything that we've learned about traveling in order to get by here.

Delhi was our first stop in India- admittedly not one its easier cities, with lots of people, traffic, dirt, heat, and general chaos and hassle. Rachel said that India so far feels positively Darwinian, with so many people just struggling to survive.

Any guesses as to which country we've visited most resembles India? Yup, it's Egypt (probably didn't take most of you long). The similarities are multiple: very hot (it's over 100 here) and dry, ridiculous traffic, and almost every interaction being difficult in some way (haggling over the price of transport, trying to stay away from people out to scam tourists, having to have the exact small change for a transaction...). I can see why India has such great spiritual traditions- you need something to take you away from the chaos (and less humorlessly, the poverty) of everyday life here.

On our ride from the airport in an ancient taxi (may have even predated the Cairo dinosaur models), we passed a few cows along the urban roadside on our way to the Gandhi Peace Foundation, where a Servas host Babulal arranged for us to stay. We ate dinner in the "canteen" for about 75 cents each-- here it's common to eat everything (rice, beans, etc.) with your (right) hand, so I gave that a try. We then retired to our room--simple, as fits the Gandhian tradition, but already here I think our standards for what's acceptable have changed. In a place where there are so many people living on the street and in shacks, it's nice to have some privacy, a room and bathroom. From our balcolny we could see (and hear) commuter trains going by, often stuffed with people.

On our first full day in Delhi we visited the National Museum, a mix of some very interesting collections alongside some rooms that looked like they've barely been dusted, much less revised, during the past 50 years. While we were there, the lights would keep going out for periods of a few minutes. We saw the Harappan (Indus Valley) civilization artifacts, contemporary with Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and China; Buddhist and Hindu sculpures that had Barbie beat by thousands of years (most of the women have huge breasts and tiny waists), and finally the miniature paintings of the Mughal era and after. Like the erotic depictions in sculpture, many of the miniatures featured royalty or gods and the trinity of wine, women, and song. The miniatures were painted in exquisite detail- Rachel may have stayed looking at them all day, but we finally tired and left to a downtown commercial center called Connaught Place to check email. Connaught Place is the commercial center of Delhi, and while there are a few new looking boutique and brand stores (Adidas, etc.), many other basic amenities seemed very difficult to locate: we found only one internet cafe in this area, only one pharmacy, no convenience/corner stores, and very few restaurants or even street food vendors. Strange. Other than at a few of the more prominent sights, we also encountered almost no other tourists in Delhi.

Indian food in Delhi has been good but not exceptional, and a little repetitive. Meat is as rare here as anywhere we've been: no beef (Hinduism's sacred cows) or pork (taboo for Muslims), but unlike Indian restaurants at home, no lamb. We also haven't seen any fish so far. Tried some good mughal and tandoori chicken dishes, but the only other meat option seems to be "mutton," which our guidebook says actually means goat and not sheep. Local food in Delhi is very starch-heavy (rice, lentils, breads--many of which are fried, potatoes), with not many vegetables or fruits. While there are lots of interesting spices, the food hasn't been as spicy hot as what we've been used to eating in S.E. Asia. We went to a couple of Southern Indian restaurants in Delhi, which seem to feature different kinds of bread pizzas/tortillas and were mediocre.

Also unlike Indian restaurants at home, finding a beer can be difficult--I believe some entire states in India are dry. Most restaurants in Delhi don't serve beer, and places that do have a sign posted that the drinking age is 25, as well as security/police at the door. To have a beer one night we ended up at a place called Rodeo, where we sat on saddle seats at the bar and were served by waiters in cowboy costume.

On our second day we visited Old Delhi (Delhi/New Delhi aren't really different cities or names for the same city, instead the city of Delhi is composed of (7?) different areas from different time periods). We saw the massive Red Fort, built by Shahjahan in the 16th century, and the Jami Mosque, the largest in India. We were at the mosque in the middle afternoon, and the heat was so intense that after removing our sandals, we literally burned our feet walking on the stones. We climbed up one of the minaret towers for a view of the city. On the way up the tower, we were bullied by people shouting at us to pay to watch our shoes (or, like with "parking attendants" and cars in South Africa, basically paying people not to steal them), which seemed silly. As Rachel pointed out, it's even sillier that people have to sit on the hot roof all day and do this in order to make a living here. Looking out from the tower, there was hardly a tall building in sight. Apparently the areas of Delhi that are seeing a lot of development are further out--two advertised in a newspaper include Nodia and Gurgaon, which seem like enormous planned communities similar to the ones being built in Dubai. India is really trying to sell "medical tourism," or people coming here to have operations done more cheaply than their home countries; and one of these developments includes an entire "MediCity" to cater to these tourists' needs.

Our third day was spent going to the National Gallery of Modern Art, and the impressive Humayun's (one of the Mughal rulers) Tomb. That evening we met up with Jonathan (a friend of my friend Dan Vazquez), a very friendly and interesting guy who has spent 5 years in India. Part of his work here has been with sexual minorities. He told us that the categories of sexual identity are very different here; for example 99% of men who have sex with men are also married to women. Hearing about differences like this often make us think of how little we are scratching the surface of other cultures, based solely on what we're able to perceive as we move around as tourists.

Our last day in Delhi, we splurged for the luxury of hiring a car to drive us to some of the more distant sites. We first visited the Nehru museum and memorial, and next the Indira Gandhi (Nehru's daughter) museum. Visiting a Sufi tomb was difficult--the area was like the worst parts of Egypt and Cairo, so dirty but with so many more people just lying on the ground in awful conditions. After lunch in an ok but pricey Italian restaurant (it's been almost always true on our trip that "foreign" restaurants aren't so much good as just a change of pace) we visited a crafts bazaar, and finally an older suburb with the ruins of an aqueduct in the center.

Despite India being in many ways a socially conservative place, many Indian men seem to have no qualms about harassing women. Many men stare, not just from a distance but crowding around or following us. Rachel has already been grabbed once by one of our rickshaw drivers. Hopefully the stares are all the she has to put up with for the rest of our time here.

India is famous for its bureaucracy, and some of the strangest examples that we've experienced seem to be anti-terrorism measures. For example, you need a copy of your passport, visa, and a passport photo in order to purchase a cell phone simcard (we gave up for now); and to use the internet at a cafe you need a passport/I.D. that the business records, and has to hand over your internet records if requested by the government. Not clear to me how effective these measures are, but they certainly are a hassle.

Leaving Delhi, we caught an early morning train to Amritsar, a gruellingly difficult experience in just getting to the train station and finding our seats. As the train pulled away, we were glad we'd seen what we did of Delhi, but also glad to be leaving the city.