India day 2 – Delhi

We decide to venture into central Delhi by auto-rickshaw, ride the metro and visit Old Delhi and the Red Fort.  Our first challenge is to do the chicken run across a three lane dual carriageway so that we can pick up a rickshaw into Delhi.  The journey in the rickshaw would be hair-raising if it were not for the knowledge that these drivers negotiate the chaos that is Delhi traffic with aplomb day in day out. The speed of the traffic is relatively slow, but it is bumper to bumper driving, weaving in and out of the smallest gaps, completely ignoring lane markings and what we would consider normal rules of the road.  Horns are indispensable and frequently used;  forget indicators, horns are the way to go!  It’s common to see signs on the real of trucks in particular exhorting other drivers to use their horns.  And everyone seems to have the right of way so pulling out is just an accepted driving technique – the person behind just has to give way.

We arrive without incident at Connaught Circus and pick up Andy’s glasses which have been fitted with transition lenses due to some misunderstanding and our failure to check the deposit receipt.  A telephone call earlier this morning to try and rectify the mistake didn’t get anywhere and so for about £75 Andy has a pair of all-singing all-dancing, top of the range glasses. 

The metro is a pleasant surprise – it’s clean, modern, well organised and efficient.  People queue to get on the train rather like they used to on the ‘Drain once upon a time and in-carriage address system announces up-coming stations backed by LCD display boards.  It couldn’t be in greater contrast to the sights, sounds and smells and over-whelming number of people that greet you when you emerge from Chandhi Chowk station in Old Delhi.  If we thought Delhi was dirty then this is something else again.  Heaving with people walking, sitting, lying on the pavement, cooking, eating, delivering or collecting goods, transporting loads on their heads, shopping, shouting, hawking, even people having their ears cleaned.  The smell of urine mingled with spices, incense and food pervades the air.  Note changers sit in front of trays of coins ready to change torn or otherwise damaged notes for a fee.  Rickshaw drivers and begging children are frequent presence hassling and cajoling.  A jumble of peddle rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, horse drawn carts, and cars all vie for space in the narrow street and the sound of hundreds of horns contribute to the general din.  This is the India as we had anticipated. 

Chandhi Chowk is the heart of Old Delhi.  Chronically congested it has numerous narrow lanes running off it, each devoted to a particular trade or type of goods, such as saris, salwar kameez, silver or gold jewellery, shoes and so on.  We venture down the silversmiths lane;  the narrowest of Dickensian passageways that zig-zags between a jumble of overhanging buildings where numerous little business operate from tiny, open-fronted premises.  Some are selling silver ingots which they have piled on the floor, others with mattress seating covering the entire floor space and on which men lounge waiting to do business.  In dingy nooks and crannies men cook and sell food.  The sari lane is full of the most fabulous array of colourful and embellished fabrics imaginable;   glitzy, tawdry and exquisite every taste is catered for.

We work our way up and down this long street which runs between the Red Fort at one end and the Fatehpuri Masjid (mosque) at the other, carefully picking our way around the mass of humanity and the potholes and rubbish.  We stop off along the way at the popular Haldirams,  an oasis of cleanliness and relative calm serving delicious self-service vegetarian food to well-to-do Indians.  We don’t manage to make our ultimate destination before a combination of tiredness and the first drops of a downpour prompt us to hop into a auto-rickshaw before the heavens open.  The rain is moderately heavy but short-lived.  But even so the roads are starting to flood and we wonder how Delhi copes when the monsoon really arrives.

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