Delhi

After Mumbai even the capital of the world's biggest democracy seems chilled. It was also helped by having an amazing place to stay, somewhere I could relax completely for the first time since leaving Harare four days before. So big thanks to Louis and Frederique Leimgruber who put up with me for a few days.

The train pulled into New Delhi Central 26 and half hours after pulling out of CST, amazingly I hadn't got too bored, amusing myself by trying to talk to the Indian family who'd replaced the two bearded men and then reading every time we ran out of a common language. Then I had a manic 15 minutes trying to get a lift to Louis and Frederique's house, then a no less manic 15 minutes in the back of the tuk-tuk as it swerved in and out of traffic, (the driver drove it as though it was still a motorbike) before finally arriving.

My travelling companions and I after a lengthy journey!

Over the next couple of days I chilled at the house and went on a couple of excursions out into the city. The first was to the Mughal gardens surrounding Humayun's tomb, they are a lovely place to find some peace and quiet in the bustle of Delhi and I spent a while wandering around before heading over to the Muslim quarter.

 I joined in a casual game of cricket on the way and pasted their bowlers around the ground, to be fair most of them were only 9 or 10 and were bowling under arm but I left with shouts of 'Andy Flower!' following me and was very chuffed.

I then carried on and found scenes resembling Dharavi but on a smaller scale, the Muslims in Delhi clearly get a raw deal. It appears that all their money goes into their shop or stall and there house is barely considered as it had a colourful and bustling front but again a bit of digging revealed some very shabby accommodation.

That night I went to a talk on rural development with Frederique which was very interesting considering the variety of urban development I'd seen. The main problem seems to be the lack of ability of communities to govern themselves in the traditional sense as opposed to a more centralised system set up by the British. However the highlight had to be the elderly Indian chap who sat down in the corner and fell asleep after ten minutes, snoring throughout the hour long talk. We then went to a concert of Indian and Bangladeshi performers, although the music was very good there was hardly any response from the crowd with even an over-eager clap being frowned upon by the people around us. I found this surprising considering everything I'd heard of Indian's love for music.

I will leave this one here as I need a shower, cold mountain river water from a bucket of course and then hopefully off to my first Hindi lesson but will carry on asap.

Cheers

Max