Nothing could have prepared us.
It doesn't matter how much you've read about it or how much you've studied it. It's apparant in an instant. This place is the strangest animal of them all. From ultra modern luxury to abject poverty, all within the same block. Multiplied by twenty million. On one turn it's most emotional inspiring place on earth, and the next it's a city without a soul. It's hunger and harvest. It's magical and morbid. This is a city with Paranoid Schizophrenia. It doesn't know that it doesn't know who it is or who it wants to be.
We awake to the sound of a thousand horns permeated by the sound of a cow being jostled through traffic. Eagerly excited for our pre-departure day off, we go outside and finally see Delhi at daylight. It's a perfectly sunny day, but it's hard to notice through the thick layers of choking smog.
According to what we've been told, the brand new Delhi Metro is the fastest way to get Chandi Chowk... and we're game. It's a surreal experience. The ultra-modern subway seems out of place. It's myself along with Jen and Farah. They decide to avoid sitting in the "woman's only" car so that we can all sit together. An uncomfortable forty minutes later full of stares and glances we arrive and hop up the stairs.
It was like hopping out of a spaceship and straight into...well... Delhi.
Wonderful costumes. Passionate markets. Beautiful temples. Crumbling buildings. Insane traffic. Peacock feathers. Street food. Limbless children.
We scurry through the narrow alleys towards the Red Fort. An historic monument to grandiosity. An absolutely stunning place.
And then it all begins again. We're swept into the tranquility of the moment. It's like all other life that can't afford the 10 rupee entrance price (approx. 20 cents) stops at the door.
And repeat. And repeat.
From slums to shopping malls. Squalor to splendor. All in the blink of an eye.
It's the kind of place that can cause one to have a nervous breakdown. Never have I seen such complete disregard for human life.... but at the same time, never have I seen such marvelous human creativity and expression of emotion. It's terrifying.
One thing's for sure. There's a rhythm to the place. It expresses itself as the background noise to everything that you experience in the city. From the cars honking in the morning, to the children and disfigured screaming from the edge of the road, to the cellphone rings on the metro to the tabla rumbling that seems to be everywhere. This city lives.
In a few short hours we're going to be catching a flight to Bagdogra, then a ride to the mountain town of Kalimpong where we're going to hike to the Samthar village high in the Himalayas. It's where we're going to be doing our work for most of this month.
To be honest, I have no idea if we're even going to have the ability to update the Internet on a regular basis from there. We've got camping gear, medical gear and a whole bunch of uCorders to document it all.
This is on.
Next stop: The Himalayas
You can follow us here at http://www.projectindia.ca
You can DONATE to help our cause at : http://www.indiegogo.com/Footpath-in-the-Himalayas
No comments:
Post a Comment