Delhi

I have one more day here. I get on a plane at almost midnight tonight and begin the journey home. 

Physically I’ll get home midday on the 9^th, but who knows when my brain will catch up to me. But I am already making plans for when I’m home to go see friends.

We’ve spent a lot of time here in Delhi, but somehow it doesn’t feel like that much. It was broken up by a quick trip to Agra in the middle to see the Taj Mahal. Back in Delhi we’ve visited Lodi Gardens, the India Gate (which it turns out is actually a war memorial, which I was not expecting), driven past the PM’s house and the parliament fancy building places.

Obama will be visiting India for Republic Day, January 26. I first learned of this from some shop owners in Hassan, who immediately proclaimed “Barack Obama” after hearing that we were from the US. Made me feel like an egocentric stereotypical American, who knows nothing about other countries but who expects everyone else to know about her country of origin. Regardless, it’s a big deal and people are excited. It’s a big political statement that he’s making by visiting and people are well aware of this. We drove along the parade route, which is lined with thousands and thousands of bleacher seats. Delhi police gates are everywhere in preparation.

As a city, I feel like I’ve seen both the fancy side, with big boulevards and trimmed trees, and the other side. What some might call the “real” India. But I think you have to see both and everything in-between to begin to get a taste for this city, let alone this country.

Delhi is quite fond of roundabouts (with inexplicable stop lights in the middle), unlabeled one-way streets, and speed breakers. Temples and mosques are everywhere. Markets specializing in everything from car parts to gold and silver to wedding stuffs, to clothing and shoes. People everywhere. Cars and rickshaws and buses and bikes and trucks and motorcycles (my ideas about how many people can fit on a motorcycle have been blown away). Signs that call for people to “Obey lane discipline” make me laugh. I realize when I look around that my pictures and words will never be able to come close to capturing the essence of what I am experiencing. It takes all of my senses plus some to comprehend it.

Now I’m rambling. I think this is me trying to make sense of it all. From the tiny details like the color of our taxi driver’s hat (blue) to the wide overviews that climbing a mosque’s 40m minaret afforded me. It’s a lot. And I think that’s about all I can say for sure right now.