I arrived in Delhi around 230pm after almost 24 hours of travelling. Feeling gross, tired, and a little delirious, the highways of Delhi are not the best sight for sore eyes. I saw (and smelled) piles of garbage, makeshift shanty towns on the divider of the highways, thousands and thousands of people, and traffic that would make even the most hardened New Yorkers cry. If you don't hear constant honking, you're probably not in India. But I was struck by a few things immediately-the colors, especially of the clothes of the women, even in the most impoverished areas, and the abundance of temples. That, and the fact that it's a common occurrence for a herd of cows to walk the wrong way down the highway. As alien as Delhi seemed upon first glance, India would be my home for the next month, and I was excited for it to grow on me.
After a 45 minute taxi ride not unlike Mr Toad's Wild Ride, weaving between auto rickshaws, bike rickshaws, government cars with swords on the front, and giant colorful trucks filled with palm leaves and sleeping workers, we reached my mom's apartment in the neighborhood of Sukhdev Vihar, where we were greeted by my mom's student, Liesbeth, her Nepali friend Rawmess, and a sweet street dog that adopted my mom named Sage.
Sage watching my mom watch the rain:
Sage sitting in front of the Ganesh shrine:
My first meal in India, cooked by Lies and Rawmess. Dal, Chapatti, rice, eggplant, peppers, green beans, and potato-delicious and extremely filling.
Rawmess and my mom's wonderful neighbor, Rainu, performing an Aarti (part of a puja, where you offer light and prayers to your god of choice):
Ganesh, made out of a Coconut, and the candles:
Thus ended my first day in Delhi. I had been awake with only a restless hour or so of sleep on the train since Monday, the day before, when I left my beloved Keajra. I slept a well-deserved and much needed 12 hours and dreamt of the bizarre world we live in.
