Last Days In India...
End of February, beginning of March 2006
The train ride back to Delhi was spent in the pleasant company of a Danish couple and their small daughter, and a very interesting Indian man who owned a carpet manufacturing company. He was on his way to a trade show in Delhi, and had been pretty much all over the world with his business including London, where he supplies John Lewis. It was really interesting to talk to an Indian who has a wider perspective on the world, and can talk about India with a greater understanding of how a foreigner sees it, (most Indians can't afford to travel abroad). I was travelling in an AC 2-tier sleeper, which is a couple of classes above the non-AC sleeper I usually use. I guess that extra money buys you a "different class" of co-passenger; I certainly learned a lot more from that conversation than those of the more usual "What your country? Where is your wife?" variety.....
Back in Delhi at my hotel I met Eva and Laura, clothes designers who had just arrived in Delhi to go to the same trade show as the man on the train. It turned out that they live in London just round the corner from me. We had breakfast together, after which I set off to meet Sam, (above, with Mr. Dasje), and Miti, friends from work who were in Delhi to visit family. We had lunch at The Imperial Hotel, (a top-end Delhi establishment, and a very welcome hike in food quality for my stomach!), then we set off for Miti's family home in Hauz Kaus in south Delhi.
Haus Kaus is a very cute little area which consists of a deer park, some ruins, a few very nice boutique shops and Miti's family home, which was designed by his architect brother. I think for the first time in India I was able to look in the shop windows without someone pouncing and trying to hard-sell me whatever was behind them! We had a lovely meal of barbecued mackerel and fish curry with Miti's family, then it was time for me to get a cab back to the hotel.
A cab was called and duly arrived. However, when the driver saw that the passenger was old whitey here, the old Indian taxi/tuk-tuk driver's story for a foreigner suddenly came out..... that his meter was broken, that he had no fare chart to look at and that he wanted an exorbitant flat-rate price. I am used to negotiating through these situations myself, but this time I had a secret weapon - local allies! While we were talking to the driver, Miti's brother Obbi, who had called the cab, simply took the keys out of the cab ignition, walked back in the house and called the cab company to complain about this treatment of his guest! The scoundrel driver was left shouting outside, but he didn't dare follow to try to retrieve his keys...
With the keys held to ransom a more reasonable rate was negotiated, and I took off for my hotel wondering if he was actually going to take me to some random other place just out of spite! He didn't though, and I think he got the message that sometimes a tourist will bite back when you try to rip them off, (or at least his Indian friend will on his behalf!).
The next day I met up with Max again, and also with Danni and Barbara who had been to Pushka. It was great to see them again, and we spent the next couple of days hanging out in Delhi until it was time for me to leave India for Thailand.
Barbara, Danni and I walked around chaotic Old Delhi for a bit, past a mosque where we were the only westerners in sight and formed something of a freak-show attraction, as so often happens. It was the usual mixture of people begging, pulling at bits of you to get your attention, and others asking you over and over where you are from and if
you are married, (yes, yet again!). It's amazing that no matter how many westerners visit India, large parts of the population routinely behave as if they've never seen anyone from outside India before.
Frankly, myself and the girls were all a bit short on patience having managed to skip lunch, and all the random attention was a bit much. In addition to that, it was the same day that George Bush was visiting Delhi. There were demonstrations in other parts of the city against the visit, and feelings seemed to be running high around the mosque area too so we decided to leave that part of town. Later that day I was asked by a cab driver what I thought of Bush, and was pleased to have the opportunity to use the phrase "Puzzled Chimp" at least once during my visit to the subcontinent.....
So my time in India was at and end. I said my fond farewells to some of the lovely people I had been spending time with, but also to this insane society that had somehow become my norm over the previous two months. I thought back on what friends had told me before I started this trip; that if I could survive travel in India, I could survive travel anywhere! No shit! Or, in fact, lots of it. Cows, dogs, pigs............
The train ride back to Delhi was spent in the pleasant company of a Danish couple and their small daughter, and a very interesting Indian man who owned a carpet manufacturing company. He was on his way to a trade show in Delhi, and had been pretty much all over the world with his business including London, where he supplies John Lewis. It was really interesting to talk to an Indian who has a wider perspective on the world, and can talk about India with a greater understanding of how a foreigner sees it, (most Indians can't afford to travel abroad). I was travelling in an AC 2-tier sleeper, which is a couple of classes above the non-AC sleeper I usually use. I guess that extra money buys you a "different class" of co-passenger; I certainly learned a lot more from that conversation than those of the more usual "What your country? Where is your wife?" variety.....
Back in Delhi at my hotel I met Eva and Laura, clothes designers who had just arrived in Delhi to go to the same trade show as the man on the train. It turned out that they live in London just round the corner from me. We had breakfast together, after which I set off to meet Sam, (above, with Mr. Dasje), and Miti, friends from work who were in Delhi to visit family. We had lunch at The Imperial Hotel, (a top-end Delhi establishment, and a very welcome hike in food quality for my stomach!), then we set off for Miti's family home in Hauz Kaus in south Delhi.Haus Kaus is a very cute little area which consists of a deer park, some ruins, a few very nice boutique shops and Miti's family home, which was designed by his architect brother. I think for the first time in India I was able to look in the shop windows without someone pouncing and trying to hard-sell me whatever was behind them! We had a lovely meal of barbecued mackerel and fish curry with Miti's family, then it was time for me to get a cab back to the hotel.
A cab was called and duly arrived. However, when the driver saw that the passenger was old whitey here, the old Indian taxi/tuk-tuk driver's story for a foreigner suddenly came out..... that his meter was broken, that he had no fare chart to look at and that he wanted an exorbitant flat-rate price. I am used to negotiating through these situations myself, but this time I had a secret weapon - local allies! While we were talking to the driver, Miti's brother Obbi, who had called the cab, simply took the keys out of the cab ignition, walked back in the house and called the cab company to complain about this treatment of his guest! The scoundrel driver was left shouting outside, but he didn't dare follow to try to retrieve his keys...
With the keys held to ransom a more reasonable rate was negotiated, and I took off for my hotel wondering if he was actually going to take me to some random other place just out of spite! He didn't though, and I think he got the message that sometimes a tourist will bite back when you try to rip them off, (or at least his Indian friend will on his behalf!).
The next day I met up with Max again, and also with Danni and Barbara who had been to Pushka. It was great to see them again, and we spent the next couple of days hanging out in Delhi until it was time for me to leave India for Thailand.Barbara, Danni and I walked around chaotic Old Delhi for a bit, past a mosque where we were the only westerners in sight and formed something of a freak-show attraction, as so often happens. It was the usual mixture of people begging, pulling at bits of you to get your attention, and others asking you over and over where you are from and if
you are married, (yes, yet again!). It's amazing that no matter how many westerners visit India, large parts of the population routinely behave as if they've never seen anyone from outside India before.Frankly, myself and the girls were all a bit short on patience having managed to skip lunch, and all the random attention was a bit much. In addition to that, it was the same day that George Bush was visiting Delhi. There were demonstrations in other parts of the city against the visit, and feelings seemed to be running high around the mosque area too so we decided to leave that part of town. Later that day I was asked by a cab driver what I thought of Bush, and was pleased to have the opportunity to use the phrase "Puzzled Chimp" at least once during my visit to the subcontinent.....
So my time in India was at and end. I said my fond farewells to some of the lovely people I had been spending time with, but also to this insane society that had somehow become my norm over the previous two months. I thought back on what friends had told me before I started this trip; that if I could survive travel in India, I could survive travel anywhere! No shit! Or, in fact, lots of it. Cows, dogs, pigs............
posted by Badger at 9:47 pm
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