Delhi - Contradiction City

Consisting of eleven million people (officially, that is; I suspect many, many more) crammed into a sprawling metropolis on the banks of the Yamuna River, Delhi defies words. Any statement that is made about the city immediately contradicts itself. Wealthy? Opulently so, and yet once one leaves the glossy city centre, the air becomes a miasma of overwhelming poverty. Cultured? The city is awash with museums, galleries, bookshops and cinemas, but I doubt that any are frequented by the poor, ragged people who inhabit the slums amidst the three-metre high piles of rubbish at the suburban train stations. Progressive? Definitely, if the number of skyscrapers going up is any indication, but then again, this is a city where the sight of an ox cart in the middle of a busy road barely warrants a second glance.

I like it, though. Once again, the traveller grapevine has a lot to answer for. The conventional wisdom amongst backpackers is that Delhi is worth visiting for as little time as possible - see the main sights, and get on the next train out of the place. I can categorically say that this is not true. The correct approach (for me, at least) was to relax, and consume the city at a slower pace. I've spent just on a week here, and I haven't even seen all the major sights; instead, I have spent my time in bookshops, coffee houses, bars and parks, and I've had an absolute ball.

My camera hasn't had much of a workout, either. I had to get the CCD professionally cleaned after I tried to do so myself - kids, they're not joking when they tell you that touching the CCD is a bad idea - and so I haven't even had the use of it for much of the time here. But I have taken a couple of interesting shots. We'll begin with a couple from the Jama Masjid mosque, which is apparently the largest mosque in the Asia-Pacific region; the courtyard has room for over 25,000 of the faithful. Access is a problem: as with most Islamic buildings, you have to time your visit around prayers, and standing still for more than a few moments tends to attract attention and calls of "Move on! Move on!" That said, the facade is beautiful, and the view from the minaret is absolutely unreal. (I had no serious appreciation of Delhi until I saw it.)









I never actually got inside the famous Red Fort - I ran out of sightseeing time, and decided that the Jama Masjid took priority. But I did spend a fascinating afternoon at the Bahá'í House of Worship, aka the Lotus Temple. The Bahá'í are much, much more welcoming than the Muslims, at least as far as temples go, and sitting in on a Bahá'í prayer service is one of the aural highlights of the trip thus far. The Lotus Temple itself is a fascinating feat of modern architecture, but it is hard to get past the feeling that the Sydney Opera House has been rotated and translated and plonked down in the suburbs of New Delhi.





And, of course, I spent Christmas in Delhi. Predictably, I wound up getting horrendously drunk in a dive bar in Paharganj (the backpacker ghetto) on Christmas Eve, complete with an extremely unsettling Santa. (Santa must be white, of course, so what could the locals do but get the closest thing to a white person they could find?)





And on that note I must conclude - the coffee shop whose wireless I am shameless abusing is closing, and I need to go back to my hotel room and pack for a very long train ride to Amritsar! Unfortunately it's leaving at 4:40am...