(Message sent Sat, 28 Oct 2006 04:57:10 -0700)
Hello everyone. I have been in India for a few days now, and I have to say it's been quite a shock. Of course I knew that there were lots of poor people here, and I've seen poverty elsewhere in the world, but I thought of India as a country on the cusp of modernity, and thus had no idea that things were so bad for so many people.
There's a little shanty-town built against the wall of my hotel, so when I look out the window of my room I'm looking down into a half-built ruin where a poor, poor family live their lives. They have to carry pails of water up rope-lashed wooden ladders, and they sleep in piles of rags. Most of their rooms are open to the sky, so heaven knows what they do when the monsoon comes.
When I step out the door of the hotel I'm immediately in a world where people shit on the streets, where people hunt through rubbish for food, where filth is piled in every corner, and where women with floppy babies in their arms paw at you, begging for even a single rupee (about three cents).
I just want to weep for the awful, awful live some of these people lead.
Of course I am staying in a particularly seedy part of Delhi, and there are much better areas, but the fact that this kind of place exists anywhere takes some getting used to.
The traffic on the streets is unbelievably chaotic. Most vehicles are small: bicycle rickshaws, motorbike rickshaws, and small cars predominate, and the streets are always clogged with them. They weave in and out, jockeying for position, horns blaring, just missing each other, their drivers shouting and gesturing all the time. It's kind of fun actually :-)
Mixed in with the small vehicles are always strange sights. For example, in one short trip I noticed: a man riding a motorbike who had taken off his helmet so that he could answer his cell phone; a cow wandering unconcernedly the wrong way down a busy road; an immense, bright-red hotel-on-wheels thing; and an elephant, who at least had the good sense to be going with the traffic.
The air in Delhi is filthy. I keep sneezing up black stuff, and you can look right at the sun without discomfort. But worst of all, the crud layer blocks GPS signals! I was trying to demonstrate my GPS receiver to a guy I had bought a train ticket from, but it couldn't lock on to enough satellites to get a fix. The guy said, "Typical. Nothing works in India, not even GPS."
In terms of sightseeing the standout so far has been the astounding Qutub Minar, a magnificent fluted, tapering column 73m high built in 1193. I had seen photos of it, but of course nothing compares with seeing it in the flesh. I was just gobsmacked, and I reckon it's worth the price of admission to India just to see it.
The Red Fort was pretty cool too. The still-standing parts of the wall are magnificent, and look just how a decent fort ought to look, with soaring ramparts, lots of towers, and a most excellent moat. The fact that it's made of red sandstone adds a nice exotic touch. Unfortunately you're not allowed to climb the wall and walk along the ramparts - a crying shame.
The buildings inside the fort weren't quite so impressive, but were still worth seeing. One feature I really liked was that a series of free-standing chambers and residences (all rendered in marble) were all connected by an artificial stream - a shallow marble trough that carried water between and right through all the buildings before emptying into a pool. There's no water running in it now, but I suspect that in its day it was a very effective way of keeping the king and his chums cool.
By far the best temple so far has been the Lakshmi Narayan Temple. This is a beautiful complex of soaring spires rendered in red and cream plaster and white marble. Throughout the complex there are little alcoves for honouring the various gods, and a dominant motif is the swastika, which is just so startling to see in a non-Nazi context. Sadly you are not allowed to take photos, so after much spirited haggling I managed to secure a booklet of pictures for only ten times what I should have paid for it.
Cyber cafes are plentiful here, but whenever you use one you have to sign a register, and they take photocopies of your passport. Why? Well this sign up on the wall of one of them explains:
"Cyber Cafe Owners. Co-operate with us in curbing anti-social activities. It has come to notice that certain anti-social elements/terrorists are using cyber cafes to mislead the security investigation agencies, creating panic in the public." It then goes on to list various new regulations, including the registry of users. The degree of paranoia on the part of The Powers That Be suggested by this doesn't bear thinking about.
Anyway, it's time for this particular anti-social element to go and have dinner. I do believe I shall have Indian tonight.
Take care all. Love Joff.
|
|
