- Stairs. They’re steep, they’re narrow, and if you have to climb a winding staircase to some far off location you better think twice about whether or not you’ll fit. In the US we have sweeping staircases with broad steps, gradual inclines and generous amounts of space to accommodate all people, often with two or more able to proceed side by side. Not so here. Imagine the miniature models you’ve seen for houses or in Disney-world displays. You’ll start to get the picture. Even I have to duck under door ledges and squeeze around corners, and I’m pretty tiny.
- Handicap accessibility. It doesn’t exist. I’ve hardly found a single place that could be easily (or even realistically) traversed by someone in a wheelchair, on crutches, burdened by various forms of physical disabilities, or with a severe vision impairment. There aren’t elevators from floor to floor or even ramps onto the sidewalk. The majority of staircases don’t have railings either, which has made things rather challenging for me on days when my back doesn’t feel like cooperating.
- Food. This one’s rather broad and doesn’t really fit in the not-so-obvious category, but it’s worth mentioning. Rice is the biggest staple. It’s present with pretty much every substantial meal I’ve had - curry and rice, dahl and rice, etc, etc. Life's been devoid of pasta too, which is a bit of an adjustment. Shrishti's mom tells me she doesn't know how to cook it. You can find American food in some of the markets, but it's SUPER expensive (~5x the price of other stuff). Secondly, if you’re like me and don’t like spice, it can be hard to find hings to eat. Yogurt and a ratio of portions that strongly favors rice and/or some sort of bread help a lot, but certainly don’t eliminate it. A few other random things: Sugar is in crystals, not finely ground. Salt is finely ground, not in crystals (think popcorn salt). Milk comes in a bag, separates rather quickly into a layer of cream and the actual milk, and I’ve always seen it being boiled before use.
- Meals. Shrishti's family has one large meal, not three. Breakfast is small - tea/coffee and a piece of toast or a few crackers. Lunch is the big meal - rice and curry or something similarly substantial. Dinner is often non-existent, or comes in the form of more tea and biscuits (crackers), a mango or two, or a small portion of rice or roti + curry. This can vary substantially from home to home and region to region.
- Space. There’s none of this either. But the population of places like Delhi and Mumbai don’t pay much attention to this trivial detail, so the cities do the only thing they can - grow up. I’m sure it’s similar to what living situations look like in New York City. People have flats stacked on top of each other, not houses. There’s no space for green lawns or neighborhood sidewalks. Fortunately the government realizes this, and has protected a handful of park areas in Delhi for people who need occasional exposure to nature. Don’t expect peace and quite here either though, they are pretty well populated by 6am.
- Animals. All things considered, they’ve adapted relatively well to city life. Street dogs eat well and I’ve yet to see one fall victim to the traffic insanity. Monkeys make their homes on rooftops and terraces (a very poor substitute to the jungles that are quickly being destroyed, but that’s another issue altogether), and even manage to have fun at the expense of their human neighbors. They’re notorious for stealing any number of things - keys, cell phones, books, wallets - and runing off into the sunset with them. Chipmunks, pidgins, and crows are everywhere. It’s not uncommon to see camels and elephants weaving through cars stuck in jams on the highways. Donkeys are used to transport deliveries of cloth or vegetables, but aren’t always connected to any visible human. I’ve seen quite a few running along the road unaccompanied and unburdened by pack-saddles. Goats too. They all stay out of the way of traffic though, so they must know what they’re doing. And the cows. It’s true, they’re everywhere. I’ve seen tons of them laying on the barrier separating one side of the highway from the other (a definite necessity - they’ve got to make it absolutely impossible for cars to drive into oncoming traffic, otherwise there will be complete chaos as drivers try and escape jams by driving down the wrong side of the road).
- Construction. Forget about using heavy equipment to move piles of rubble and debris. Instead, the backbreaking work is done by countless numbers of men and women who carry unbelievably heavy dishes filled with dirt and concrete, bags of trash, or a dozen bricks on their heads. Both the US and India seem to have the same problem in that work is never, ever, ever complete though. The Commonwealth Games are coming up in less than two months, but it appears extremely unlikely that the billions and billions of dollars put toward construction projects are going to result in the beautifying of the city before the whole world descends upon it.
- Drainage. It’s awful. Roads become impassible within 15 minutes and everything shuts down as a result. The other day the majority of the major roads in Delhi were blocked off due to flooding from two hours of rain.
- Corruption, (lack of) regulations and other social issues. Ok, so this one’s pretty obvious but it’s gotta be included somewhere. I won’t say much ‘cause if I did I’d go on forever, but some of the most basic points = Corruption is everywhere, from the highest levels of government to the people on the streets. The police force is crippled by it - no one trusts the cops, and for good reason. There are numerous instances of them turning their heads to crime occurring right in front of them, be it theft, rape, or murder. It’s not safe for a girl to go anywhere with a cop alone, or to expect him (or her? Haven’t seen any female police) to help if you’re being harassed or followed. When their are a few cops together, you can trust them a bit more, but even then you have to be careful. Bribery is the law of the land. You can get out of anything if you have enough money. Pay rates even take this into account; police wages are lowered with the expectation they will make up the extra through bribes, creating a system in which they are forced to compose “illegal” transactions in order to feed their families. Poverty is everywhere, 40%+ of adults are illiterate, education is not free or compulsory and huge numbers of children are forced to work instead of going to school. As for regulations, don’t count on them to keep you safe. According to yesterdays’ Times of India, 90% of street food vendors don’t have a license to operate. In other words, their food doesn’t meet sanitation regulations and will make you very, very sick if you haven’t grown up on it.
I could keep going, but I’ve got to run downstairs and pick up some stuff from the tailor before everyone’s gone! It’s the first day of Ramadan, so most of the shops are going to close up before sunset. I’m off to Pune tomorrow. I’ve had two weeks to read, write, and watch way too many Bollywood movies. It’s time to get to work and start helping the world!
Signing out from New Delhi!
<3
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