My time in New Delhi comes to an end. Already on Thursday, my internship ends and I am heading South towards Hyderabad. Just yesterday, I spend a day with a Couchsurfer and he asked me how I sum up with Dehli? I looked straight at him and had nothing to say. Blank mind. Not because my answer would be negative. I just do not know what my answer exactly is. Sure, I had a good internship, nice colleagues, always something to do. In the end, however, I missed being challenged.
Otherwise, the challenges just waited for me outside the door. Dehli in its chaotic way of life did indeed challenge me. I just reflected today that it took me longer as I thought to actually get into the Indian way of life again. It would have been to easy to just jump out of the plane and everything just comes naturally to me. The self-confidence to knock the market seller down on every shirt or haggle the price down for each and every Auto drive. Having the guts to use the Metro in Delhi, without having an actual plan what's going on there and how that system works. Push myself to meet several people from couchsurfing, plainly and simply not to spend the weekends alone. Put myself out there, present myself and, in best case behave well, so people start to like me. Now I can say, for me, it took some time, but indeed, mostly it went all well. My stay here was framed with abstrusely weird to kind, welcoming, generous and caring people. Each and everyone, made me laugh in his very own way. Whether the guy from the United States with Indian parents who lives here now for several years and tries badly to imitate the Indian accent. No offence, but an Indian friend of mine and me laughed up one's sleeve, just a little bit. He tried really hard. Why? I could not figure it out that evening. The other guy, who kept missing several times within one evening and who just popped up again like nothing happened. Or just honest and long conversations about life, traveling, experiences and why we ended up in Delhi for a drink.
Other situations where I just wanted to laugh at myself but could not, because I thought I lost all my laundry somewhere in Delhi. It took me three weeks to get my ass up and find a laundry shop. Yes, you hear right. I did not need to make laundry for three weeks and let's be honest, I would have had more underwear to go on with that. But also I have a hygiene-conscious, so I decided to tackle that upcoming problem in time. Very mature of me, there are times in Sweden when I need my backup plan with bikini underwear. In the beginning, it went quite well. After the first try, where the lady wanted to charge me 5000 Rupees (around 60 Euro) I found some guys who did it for 200 Rupees (2,50 Euro). Great deal. So far so good, I left for work and firstly really proud of myself. In the afternoon, while I haggled the price down for the Auto I remembered, that I did not remember the adress of the laundry guys. So while I fell into pondering silence, the Auto driver got as confused as I was. With a good amount of stress, that I am about to lose most of my clothing and especially underwear my friend Google Maps finally helped me disclose the location of my underwear. Completely sweated through, I arrived and welcomed my laundry with open arms and a relieved smile. The second time I confused that day. I guess, not too many people come with so much enthusiasm into their laundry shop
Otherwise, my followed weekend was without any confusion or weird dilemmas
Otherwise, the challenges just waited for me outside the door. Dehli in its chaotic way of life did indeed challenge me. I just reflected today that it took me longer as I thought to actually get into the Indian way of life again. It would have been to easy to just jump out of the plane and everything just comes naturally to me. The self-confidence to knock the market seller down on every shirt or haggle the price down for each and every Auto drive. Having the guts to use the Metro in Delhi, without having an actual plan what's going on there and how that system works. Push myself to meet several people from couchsurfing, plainly and simply not to spend the weekends alone. Put myself out there, present myself and, in best case behave well, so people start to like me. Now I can say, for me, it took some time, but indeed, mostly it went all well. My stay here was framed with abstrusely weird to kind, welcoming, generous and caring people. Each and everyone, made me laugh in his very own way. Whether the guy from the United States with Indian parents who lives here now for several years and tries badly to imitate the Indian accent. No offence, but an Indian friend of mine and me laughed up one's sleeve, just a little bit. He tried really hard. Why? I could not figure it out that evening. The other guy, who kept missing several times within one evening and who just popped up again like nothing happened. Or just honest and long conversations about life, traveling, experiences and why we ended up in Delhi for a drink.
Other situations where I just wanted to laugh at myself but could not, because I thought I lost all my laundry somewhere in Delhi. It took me three weeks to get my ass up and find a laundry shop. Yes, you hear right. I did not need to make laundry for three weeks and let's be honest, I would have had more underwear to go on with that. But also I have a hygiene-conscious, so I decided to tackle that upcoming problem in time. Very mature of me, there are times in Sweden when I need my backup plan with bikini underwear. In the beginning, it went quite well. After the first try, where the lady wanted to charge me 5000 Rupees (around 60 Euro) I found some guys who did it for 200 Rupees (2,50 Euro). Great deal. So far so good, I left for work and firstly really proud of myself. In the afternoon, while I haggled the price down for the Auto I remembered, that I did not remember the adress of the laundry guys. So while I fell into pondering silence, the Auto driver got as confused as I was. With a good amount of stress, that I am about to lose most of my clothing and especially underwear my friend Google Maps finally helped me disclose the location of my underwear. Completely sweated through, I arrived and welcomed my laundry with open arms and a relieved smile. The second time I confused that day. I guess, not too many people come with so much enthusiasm into their laundry shop
Otherwise, my followed weekend was without any confusion or weird dilemmas
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| A place where you can hear the birds sing. Not too often found in Delhi |
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| Baoli; Stone structures to provide and retain drinking water from the ground, as well as rain for the last 1000 of years. Unfortunately, I took a bad picture. So the actual step wells are not visible... |
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| Old Delhi |
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| The beautiful Jama Masjid Mosque |
This place is found in Connaught Place. My Couchsurfing fellow mentioned that even the President of India gets his Paan from this dude. Paan is something like a mouth freshener. Seemingly, Indians refuse normal refresher and prefer this undefined mixture. My fellow could not really define what it is or what it taste like. So we had to try, and for me personally, I would get back to the Tik Tak.
On the special menu was the Paan on fire. So the kid prepared the Paan, light it up and plugged the Paan into someone's mouth so fast and with so much force that I had no chance to catch it on a photo. Most of the people had the Paan so far in their throat they were likely to spit it out.
I mean, it was fun to watch, however, the question of 'Why the hell?' arises in me, but on the other hand, why questioning others? I was close losing my underwear in New Delhi. So who am I to judge? ;)
So I guess, taking everything into consideration I experienced New Delhi from some of its sides. But since it is India, I have the firm belief that one can never grasp every single side. It is so diverse, from the richest to the poorest, from colorful to dirty, from weirdly weird to funny weird and ultimately to the most precious people. I am grateful for having the chance to be a little part of this amazing city in the even more incredible India.
Bis bald, Johanna
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