29 August 2010

Delhi rocks

I love the crazy parts of Delhi. 

I love the chaos in the winding, falling, jam packed streets. 

Autorickshaws pushing through rivers of people dodging motorbikes and cars. Dogs, trash, flowers, bananas, dirt, hardware.

Photo from: Wikimedia Commons

Old Delhi is a man kneeling on the cracked, dusty pavement with an air compressor, filling air into the tires of a cart harnessed to a hulking white placid bull. 

And the food, of course, is amazing. My stomach is smiling non-stop. 

I find myself wanting to live or work here for a little while. 

Quite a turn-around from, oh, 5 years ago when I went to study in Bangkok and completely hated it for the first two weeks. 

Now I drop into a gritty, chaotic city and want to stay longer?  Not sure if I'm improving or deteriorating.


I'm here for thesis research.  First stop, TERI, then Avani and finally Husk Power.  But TERI doesn't open until tomorrow, so I went to visit the Red Fort, but really, it looks much more impressive from the outside than the inside.  The best part was the ride there and back in autorickshaws. If you go to Delhi, definitely see Humayun's tomb and Qutab Minar, but you can just drive past the Red Fort and you'll see the best parts.

Here you can see this from the outside:


And I'll save you the trouble of going inside. It's a mostly open area and hordes of people with different buildings erected by different kings.

 I think photo below is where the king would meet privately with people.  Can't remember if this is the building that had a man-made stream running through the middle.







 And some cool-looking windows that I liked, but that was about it.



Someone who knows Delhi monuments pretty well mentioned that while the Red Fort may not be as visually awesome as Humayun's Tomb or Qutab Minar, if you get a tour guide the stories behind the building are fascinating.  Oh well.

2 comments:

enjrolas said...

oh man! Your post makes me miss delhi. And I didn't even like the city that much. Have you gone by Chadna Chowk yet? The old city is the hotness!

Laura said...

yeah! I spent some time wandering through Chandi Chowk, too! There's something missing in modern cities where there's no livestock wandering through the streets.