April 23, 2007
Arieh here. We are leaving India this PM and I am of mixed emotions. It has been difficutlt, challenging, and stressful at times. On the other hand, all these difficulties, challenges, and stresses were the events that makes this country so fascinating. The peculiar "yes" movement of the head that almost looks like "No" (and I have to keep reminding myself of this difference); the constant verbal answer of "Yes" to a question or problem that requires a different response; the lack of problem-solving skills that we take for granted--all these will be "cute" challenges once we are away from here.
Our last 24 hours in Delhi have been at a Guest House, a B & B in a fairly quiet up-scale neighbourhood. A very different Delhi than the Main Bazaar tourist street we have stayed on at the beginning and prior to moving to this quiet neighbourhood. The differences are startling, although not unexpected. We have written of the noise, the dust, the heat, the crush of people, the cows (and their poop), the smells and the poorest of the poor in the Main Bazaar (picture).
Hear in south Delhi the street is quiet, it is essentially empty at 6AM (and the rest of the day) and it is somewhat cool (because their is more space for air to flow in this area) in the morning as I sit on the veranda and write. (picture).
Sitting here I have again witnessed a phenomena I have read about--the constant cleaning of everything. There is dust everywhere here and constant and it needs to be constantly moved away. This morning I watched the "car wallahs" (the car men) prepare the cars on the street. The uncovered cars are swept and dry-wiped clean. The covered cars are uncovered, wiped lightly and touched up with a pail of water. As well, the rails of the balcony will be wiped off during the day (they need it); the floors will be wet-wiped (but not really clean, as my bare feet will attest); the carpets will be whipped and beaten; the parks in the neighbourhood (and they exist here) will be swept (not raked); and the streets will be swept by people, not machines. And it will all be repeated tomorrow and the next day. That's what happens in this country of a BILLION people in the dry season where everyone hustles for a living.
Even the commercial/shopping area near here is different. Real shops (not stalls or holes-in-walls), sidewalks one can almost walk on most of the time, not many beggars, no cows, and no more than one or two "hellos" as we walk along. Most of the customers in this area are non-foreigners and they are not beckoned by every store owner to enter every store. I would estimate that less than 20% of the Indians live in neighbourhoods like this and that estimate is probably way too high.
So, just before I tell you about our last evening in Delhi I wanted to show you some pictures of how wheat or other kinds of grains are transported in Rajisthan. These "bags" are filled up as much as possible and then loaded on to a camel or tractor-pulled wagon and taken to market. As you can see they are very full and take up a lot of room. The truck passing the tractor is a good example of how passing is done. Note the car immediately behind the truck. The car is NOT waiting for anyone else and will pass right behind the truck.
And to top off our last evening in Delhi we went out for a sumptuous dinner with two other guests at our guest house, a father and son team from Brazil travelling in India and Nepal for 3 weeks. They were so enthusiastic about South America that we might just show up on their doorstep one day during this trip!! If we don't show up I am sure they would host all or any of our friends instead.
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