Expressions of India

Terribly hard to explain the feelings that I have for this place. It is just so overwhelming.

The first impressions of this place come from the sights and smells that elongate the senses. The streets are bustling. No, in fact carnage! The smell, whilst driving along in my 1950’s English style taxi – which I thought would at any moment, fall apart – was phenomenal. A kind of a mix between the body odour of 12 million people, and unhygienic meats.

Driving to the hotel was hilariously funny and felt incredibly dangerous. Imagine a two lane highway where literally thousands of vehicles are jostling for position and a taxi driver driving as fast as he could, all the while beeping and breaking at regular, random intervals. He said he knew where he was going. I was sceptical. Of course, I am expecting to be ripped off so I’m just taking in as much as I can, while I can.

Driving by I’m seeing thousands of cars, people, and shops – mostly street eateries displaying all manner of foods including chickens hanging from hooks – and the driver does a u-turn. He then manoeuvres his way into a crowded back street in an area known as Paharganj. I’m now feeling like I’m in the closest place to hell because I am obviously not at my hotel and the car can hardly move because of the sheer density of people, animals, and bicycles around it. There are markets, thousands of them, jammed into this one street, beggars pleading for money at my open window, men trying to sell me all matter of things – mostly cigarettes – and some of the worst looking food that I have ever seen. The homeless are lying under their blankets. Cows and dogs are roaming the streets and nobody takes a sideways glance at them; except me. To top this all off, cars, rickshaws – both auto and man powered – trucks, tractors, bikes, and motorbikes are trying to go every which way on one, single lane road! Crazy!

The smell is worse here. It is the previous mixture, only stronger now. A smell of urine taints it even more.

My taxi driver finally makes it to my hotel after numerous stops and offers from his mates about places to stay, and things to buy. I am flustered and on the verge of angry with him. I go to pay him and he asks for a tip. I stupidly hand over a couple of hundred rupees as a tip. Little did I know that even though it only equated to about 6 bucks, this could literally feed his whole family for about a week. Hence he makes a very quick getaway in case I realised how much of an idiot I was.

My final realisation after leaving my taxi behind, is that my hotel is in the area of Paharganj anyway and so after what seemed like hours of needless driving, I was already where I needed to be.

To be continued…