I started this entry when I had just got back from Delhi, thinking that I would write all about the fun and adventures we had while it was still fresh in my mind. I got distracted, and now it is a week later, so there you have it.
Derek, Prabjit and I all went to Delhi together on Tuesday night, catching one of the trains that makes the run from Bhopal overnight. Because it was a few days before Divali, about half the country is traveling somewhere to visit family, and the trains were really booked up by the time we got our tickets. We got ourselves two-tier A/C tickets, which is the highest tier that you can get on the trains here, and it was pretty luxurious, especially when you compare it to the train service between Montreal and Toronto. You get an entire little bed to yourself, complete with your own curtains, so that when you are ready to sleep all you have to do is pull them shut, and doze off. I do have to admit though, that I found it a bit hard to sleep very soundly through my vague paranoia that all of my stuff was going to get stolen while I slept… but I did manage to sleep for a while. Our train got into Nizamuddin station in Delhi at about 6:30am, so needless to say I was still pretty groggy when we got there. We took an auto-rickshaw to Pahar Ganj, which is the neighbourhood in Delhi (actually right opposite the other, New Delhi train station) where a lot of the backpackers and tourists stay.
Almost nothing was open because it was so early in the morning, so we went into the first guest house that we saw on the main street. It wasn’t very expensive - Rs. 496/night, which is about $12 for both Prabjit and I – and I was so tired that I didn’t really care where we went so long as it was big enough that I could lie down. Prabjit and Derek were wide awake though, and decided that they would go to the airport and drop off Derek’s extra baggage for storage there, so while they did that, I got caught up on my sleep. It turned that it took them about three hours to get there and back on a combination of public transportation and by rickshaw, so it wasn’t until almost noon that Prabjit got back to the room. We decided that for our first meal in the “big city” we would have no other than McDonald’s, more out of curiosity and than craving. There are no shortages of fast food chains in Connaught Circle, which is only a short walk away from Pahar Ganj, so Prabjit went over their for our McDonald’s fix, and then went on a little shopping trip.
Connaught Circle has a plethora of American chain stores, which aren’t terribly appealing, especially since the prices are about the same. I did, however, manage to find myself a newer version of the Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia guide, and a pair of Converse All-Stars for $20, so the shopping wasn’t entirely wasted. I also looked extensively at a store called FabIndia that sells some nice stuff, but I couldn’t find any pants that I wanted, and since I’m all courta-ed out, I decided not to get anything there. The real shopping fun actually happened in Pahar Ganj, since most of the stores in the main bazaar cater to the massive numbers of tourists. I ended up buying more scarves thatn I know what to do with (so if you are reading this then you probably have a scarf coming your way), as well as a couple of pairs of what I would call “hippie pants,” since all of the dirty hippies in Pahar Ganj wear them. We also found this extremely cute little store in the lobby of one of the guest houses that sold adorable skirts, dresses and so on at pretty good prices. I actually ended up going back a second time I liked it so much and chatted with the Israeli girl that owned the place. She expained that she buys the clothes from the manufacturers in India, but that they are all brand names back in the States. Anyway, I bought a sweatshirt, a tank top and a skirt (none of which I can wear in Bhopal), and have promised myself a dress when I go back to Delhi with my parents next month.
I really liked Delhi, despite my previous misgivings on my previous trip (I’m referring here to the cab ride from hell). It was extremely easy to navigate by comparison to Bhopal – especially Pahar Ganj because of all the tourists. That was actually the weirdest thing about Delhi – all the white people!! There must be hundreds of them in Pahar Ganj alone! No one even looked twice at me, and only one kid called me “Angreezi!” during the entire trip. It was pretty awesome to go almost entirely unnoticed for four whole days☺ It was a nice break…
Not that Delhi was the perfect place by any means. On our last day there we went to South Delhi to explore a market that Rachna had suggested to us for buying granola bars and the like. While we were there four little beggar kids approached us, one of whose hand and arm had obviously been held over a fire so that her skin was crusted in huge black scabs almost up to the elbow. You could tell that someone had done this to her in order for her to be able to make more money while she begged, which is totally fucking sick. But I think that the thing that made it more disturbing was the fact that when we left the market to explore another store that the Lonely Planet recommended we ended up in a neighbourhood not all that dissimilar to Yorkville in Toronto. It was so ritzy and expensive, with shiny new cars and million dollar homes everywhere that the disparity between the rich and poor was really just a bit too much. After that we went to a restaurant in another area called Punjabi by Nature (which we were interested in mostly because of Naughty by Nature, but anyway), which turned out to be even fancier. It reminded me of the restaurants that you see in suburban malls - $25 cheeseburgers and ridiculously over-the-top décor. I paid the equivalent of $10 for a Corona (admittedly a splurge on a mediocre beer), and our meals all came in American-sized portions (ie. I ordered a chicken dish and got four leg and thighs of meat!). Anyway, it was all a bit much, but nothing quite beats the strip of stores that this restaurant was located in. Pretty much all of the stores were expensive American chains, and it was bustling with middle-class families and teenagers. I went to get my haircut (it only cost Rs. 500, or $12 but I’d say that it wasn’t even worth that) while Derek and Prabjit walked around the stores in a bit of disbelief. There was even this little gang of white teenaged boys wearing baggy jeans and Slipknot t-shirts that looked like they had been transplanted right out of an American suburb… so weird. Anyway, we went back to Pahar Ganj feeling a little disturbed by the extreme of rich and poor living quite literally side by side.
Contrary to my earlier statement that my plan was to shop and only shop, I did conceded to some sightseeing. On our second day we took a trip to the Red Fort, which was pretty neat (there are some nice photos). We also visited the biggest mosque (possibly in India although I always get my facts wrong about these things), and of course I can’t remember its name now either. I think its Jama Masjit, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, there were these two guys outside the mosque who insisted we pay Rs. 200/- to bring our cameras in, which I was not terribly enthusiastic about. Derek waited outside with our cameras and shoes, while Prajit and I took a look around inside. I know that im supposed to be all impressed with stuff like that, but it just looked like a really big mosque, and there wasn’t much else to say about it than that. The more exciting thing was while Prabjit and I were looking after Derek’s shoes outside this adorable little black cat came up to us and was soooo friendly! Against my mother’s wishes I gave the little cat a few scratches (she forbids me to pet any of the stray animals here and I don’t blame her because you can see the festering open wounds on a lot of them). As we were leaving we saw these boys trying to catch the cat, which really pissed me off because I’m sure that they were only going to torture the poor thing. I think it ran off in the end, but who knows… We also saw a Sikh Gurdwara nearby which was pretty cool. We were lucky that Prabjit was there to tell us what to do because they were doing a prayer service type thing, and there were several rules I wouldn’t have been able to figure out myself. For example, instead of just leaving your shoes in a giant pile in front of the door, you give them to these women who store them in a little cubby-hole and they give you a ticket. Men and women both have to cover their heads when they go into the Gurdwara, so there is this bucket of headscarves that you can borrow at the door as well, which was kind of neat.
After our day of sightseeing we took the newly-build subway back to Pahar Ganj. We had taken it in the morning, and it has been pretty quiet, and therefore significantly easier to manage. Firstly, because of terrorist threats, they have decided that they need to send everyone through metal detectors before they are allowed on the subway… so you can imagine the lineup of two hundred-odd men (and about five women in a separate line, surprise, surprise) waiting to go through. Of course absolutely everyone sets off the metal detectors, but they just glance into your bag and send you on your way anyway, making the entire routine completely pointless. Once you actually get on the subway, no one moves into the cars at all, but when you get to another stop, more people just push you mosh-pit style so that they can crowd on. I have to admit that after having my ass grabbed so many times here in Bhopal I was pretty uncomfortable with having that many men in such close proximity, especially without being able to see whose hands were where, but fortunately no one did any groping... maybe the illusion of security prevents men from being perverts on the tube here.
On Divali proper (which is the biggest Hindu holidy) we randomly met a guy from the UK who was lost in Connaught Circle and trying to get back to Pahar Ganj, so we walked with him. We ended up getting dinner with him at a rooftop restaurant in Pahar Ganj. The food wasn’t great, but it was definitely the best place to be sitting, since we could see all of the fireworks shooting up from every one of the narrow streets in and around Pahar Ganj. In addition to this, the restaurant owners were also setting off fireworks, or rather, they were allowing their five year old son to do so. When he was (to the great relief of the patrons) unsuccessful at lighting, one of the older employees/family members took over. My pictures of the fireworks really don’t do it justice, but the guy set off a number of those fireworks that just shoot a large shower of sparks straight up into the air. I don’t know what they are called, but from twenty feet away they are pretty impressive to watch. I should mention that Divali is the festival of lights, and, as far as I can tell, just an excuse for every man d child between the ages of five and five and forty-five to set off as many explosive devices as he can afford. The fireworks started at about 6pm, and they were still going strong when we left the restaurant almost two hours later. It was a rather nerve-racking walk from the restaurant to a bar that we thought would be open (oh my god, yes, Delhi does have bars and god I forgot how much I love them), since we had to dodge groups of rowdy men and excited children setting off more fireworks about three feet from each other. I was pretty sure that before the evening we were going to witness someone lose a limb or be blinded, if it didn’t happen to one of us. The bar we were going to was long since closed when we got there, and a walk in the other direction proved that pretty much the only thing open were the numerous guest houses in Pahar Ganj. We settled on another rooftop patio to continue to watch the numerous fireworks and drink a hot chai. We stayed up there for another hour or two, sitting in pretty much stunned silence as the fireworks just kept on going. I swear, whoever manufactures fireworks in India must be a fucking millionaire, since this went on long after we had gone to bed at about 11pm.
Delhi was quite a bit colder than Bhopal, particularly at night. Although I noticed it more during the day, because Bhopal still goes up to at least 25 degrees during the day because the sun is so strong, but what can only be described as the thickest smog I have ever seen in my life blocks out most of the direct sunlight in Delhi, making the days far less scorching than Bhopal. It should be noted here that although the smog in Delhi actually blocks the sunlight (you can actually see it as you descend into the city in the plane), I have heard from numerous people that Delhi has significantly lessened its pollution in the fast five or ten years since now the autorickshaws and public busses run on some kind of fuel. I also noticed that there is some sort of recycling system in place, since there are two separate dumpsters for biodegradable and non-biodegradable items… a far cry from the burning heaps of trash in Qazi camp. (Although I have seen a garbage truck twice in Qazi camp now, collecting garbage from one particularly overloaded garbage heap).
Anyway, I am now back in sunny Bhopal, which is hard to do after you have been having fun in tourist-ville for a few days, drinking beer and not getting harassed. Prabjit and I have had to move out of our private room since there is an older woman coming to do some work who takes precedence over us. It took me a lot longer to move out of there than it did to move in, since I have accumulated a large amount of stuff. I took the bed that I had originally had when I got here and just dumped everything into the two drawers at the bottom… until they were full, and then I dumped all of the clothes that I was actually wearing into one of the cupboards. I finally went through the drawers today (I couldn’t find my mosquito repellent anywhere) and packed all of the stuff that I’m sending home with mom and dad into my big suitcase…. And its full. Uo-oh. I’m lucky that they are coming or else there is no way that I would be able to get all of the stuff that I have bought home with me. Mostly it is clothes that I brought that I shouldn’t have, but there are quite a few books and a LOT of scarves for gifts.
Prabjit and I have both been feeling pretty sick the past couple of days. Late on Monday evening I had terrible diarrhea and fever and muscle aches. It went away overnight, and the next morning I felt better, but it keeps re-appearing in the evening every couple of days, which is kind of awful. I felt pretty shitty all day today, and spent most of the day sleeping and watching Superman movies in bed. Prabjit didn’t start feeling crappy at all until a couple of days ago, but has felt more consistently bad than I have… so who knows what is going on. I’m a little worried that I have malaria a second time, since my flu-like symptoms keep going away and then coming back, but I guess I will go get yet another malaria test tomorrow morning and find out.
There really isn’t anything exciting going on here other than that. There was an action against the gas minister on Wednesday, so we spent several afternoons cutting out people-shapes from cardboard and painting them. The anniversary of the gas disaster is coming up an a couple of weeks (Dec. 2nd) and I have been designated as resident poster-maker, so I am busy drawing pictures on poster board these days. There is also a new volunteer named Sara here from Italy for a month. She is living in the north of India (I forget the name of the town) doing work in a farm of some sort up there. A guy from Derek’s hometown, near Chicago, named Tony also arrived a couple of days ago. Tony was here for eight months, and had only left Bhopal a month or two before I got here in July, so it is kind of nice to have someone around who already knows the ropes so the speak. Eurig has hired two people to conduct interviews for his project here, and one of them has already arrived. His name is Darmesh, and he has been involved in the Bhopal campaign for quite some time. He’s not living at the clinic with us, but is around quite a bit, and has an apartment close by.
Anyway, I’m finally going to post this since it is now a week since I started writing it…
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