Traffic, touts and dogs

Here, in goodish, wavering faith, I start a blog to document my time in India. I can't promise my posting will be regular or continual; only that there will be no less than one post. And so we begin...

I landed in Delhi Friday afternoon after a 28 hour flight, the highlight of which is a toss up. It is either the long layover I had in London, where I had time to go to Covent Garden and the British Film Institute (one day I will donate money to this institution because they let me watch a movie in the lobby on my laptop when it was wet outside and I was weary and they had none playing; if you're in London and needing some peace, head here), or having 4 (yes, 4!!!) seats to myself for the overnight Newark to London leg of the trip. I stretched out completely and slept an uninterrupted, peaceful 5 hours. What a gift! It was bliss.

After waiting what seemed like an hour for my baggage, I met the driver who would take me to my hotel. Once we got on the road, things got interesting fast. The traffic was just incredible. I tried to remain cool and act like I see 3 cars driving side-by-side while taking up only 2 traffic lanes all the time, but after I saw a cyclist headed toward us going the wrong way in the middle of a one way, four lane road (you might want to read that again) I dropped the pretense and gasped in horror. As a cyclist and long-time occasional bike commuter, I have spent considerable time thinking about all of the ways that one can hasten their earthly demise on a bike. All of these carefully catalogued human errors, many of which I'm guilty of, were swiftly erased and replaced by this new peerless winner. Will anything ever top this?! What on earth would possess someone to ride in the middle of a highway, against 40 mph traffic?! It is a question for the ages and fodder for the Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance PR Division.

Eventually we made it to the hotel, which turned out to be in a disheveled and very noisy (even for New Delhi) part of the city. It became clear why my well-appointed room with bath and A/C was only $30 a night. To be totally honest, it was surreal to walk around Paharanj and see the crumbling buildings, piles of garbage in the streets, dogs running unleashed (reminiscent of my last internship on the Yakama Indian Reservation) and conspicuous lack of women (where are the women?!?! What have they done with all the women!?!?!?). I'm embarrassed to say this as someone who is here is to work with people living in poverty, but this is not the world I have known until now. It is very different to see extreme poverty on the T.V., or to read about it, than it is to walk amongst it.

This morning I had my first experience with a tout, con artists known for coming between tourists and their money. But as far as touts go he was an amiable one. Initially, I ignored him because I could tell that he was going to try to convince me to book a travel package or stay at a hotel (where he would get a cut of what I paid), but he was friendly and I didn't feel threatened so I chatted with him as I walked. He gave me advice on how to dress, told me about his western friends and casually mentioned, among other things, a nearby, very helpful tourist office. It was so innocuous that I didn't realize until later that the suggestion was likely self-serving, but I wonder if most conning in India doesn't come with a smile, because few things seem not to. Anyway, if I had to have my first tout, I'm glad it was Raju (if that's really his name).

And now, as I go to bed at 4:30 am local time, it is to the sound of loud dog fights on the streets below. No doubt they're saying: Welcome to India.