The D's of Delhi

Dyanamic...Dusty....Delightful...maybe a little dirty. Multiple words that describe Delhi. India's capital city. I have spent the last week touring, experiencing, and enjoying everything this historic city has to offer. If you had to paraphrase delhi it would organized chaos. There is a mix of the historic and the modern. It has been 6 years since i last visited delhi and a lot has changed. With the impending 2010 commonwealth games being staged in delhi there is construction everywhere. But you can see signs of progress. The sparkling new metro quickly and conveniently takes delhiites from place to place in comfort, the new flyovers help spread the traffic among congested roads. roads that are no longer congested with various sorts of scooters, and rickshaws and cattle, but sparkling new cards, honda's, bmw's, mercedes, and india's own tata. yesterday i went to the emporio mall, billed as india's most luxurious shopping destination and soon to be asia's biggest mall. never before have i been in a mall that caters exclusively to the high end - armani, versace, hugo boss, and so many more. only designers, only high end. its a sign of where india has come. but intertwined in this enticing city is the opposite end. i also visited chandni chawk, delhi's oldest market (app 300 years old) where narrow gulleys offer you specialized items from jewelery to paranthas. seriously, there's a parantha gulley (delicious type of flat bread that indians make). speaking of food, its safe to say (in part because of diwali) that i have eaten as much as i possibly can.
It was a real treat to be able to spend diwali, the biggest of all events in India for the first time. Delhi sounded more like a war zone on tuesday night and all through the week you heard patakaas (fireworks) exploding everywhere. brilliantly lit markets were packed with shoppers getting their last minute items and everyone seems to great you with a smile. Other sites that i have visited include the red fort, india gate, qutab minar and connaught place. the unfortunate side of delhi is the security. it seems that everywhere you go, you must pass through metal detectors, this includes the metro, the park, and some outdoor markets. its the unfortunate reality, but in today's india, an unfortunate necessity. today's paper as well describes a series of bomb blasts in the north eastern part of the country yesterday that killed 70 people. all of which have only given me a taste of what india is and has to offer. its a sensual overload. you can spend just as much time learning about india's past as you can about its present, and maybe even more so about its future. i think its safe to say that given the amount of hindi i've been speaking here, i've forgotten all the swahili i've learned over the past 4 months, so i, or my swahili teacher, has some work to do.
Anyways, if i have to use a 5th D to describe Delhi, its done. I leave delhi tonight to head to Mumbai (Bombay) India's financial, cultural, entertainment and basically in everyway except political, capital. But here's to Delhi and all it has seen, all it has to offer, and all that will come. One of the truly remarakable captial cities of the world.