Delhi - First Impressions

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Imagination is flawed. When I contemplated India, I could imagine vividly only one thing at any time - I could imagine the crazy driving by itself, the mangy dogs by themselves, the touts by themselves, the cows by themselves, the human waste and spit and dirt covered streets by themselves, but never was I able to imagine in such a way that came anywhere near corresponding to the reality of Delhi. The first thing I noticed when I left the plane at Delhi airport at 3am this morning was the air pollution, although it doesn't seem as bad as it is made out to be - it's still worse than anything I could have experienced in New Zealand. The second thing I noticed was the driving system - it's exactly like I thought it would be, but when I had considered it in NZ I could only imagine it as terrible and crazy driving in an otherwise normal city. All I thought was that Led Zeppelin's Achilles Last Stand would make a great soundtrack for my taxi drive from the airport to my "Hotel". In the context of India, though, it constitutes just one of the things that could make a person go crazy for the first few hours of their Indian Experience...

Pollution, crazy driving, tips, touts, mangy dogs and cows numbering in the hundreds (I've only walked down one street so far). But despite sleeping neither on the flights nor in my hotel room with no windows, and despite six different touts trying to take me for walks to their official ticketing or tourism agencies in the ten minutes I've been outside (one of them began by warning me against touts and giving me examples of the stories they make up, then using one of his own examples for his own story), I'm enjoying it in a strange way. Anyway, everything I could say now has all been said before countless times. When I have some unique stories, this is where you'll find them.