Who's cow is that?

Namaste everybody! 

Been here two weeks, and the best thing I can say is that Delhi is a whirlwind! 

A paradoxical mix of drastically unfamiliar and surprisingly familiar, peacefully lush and squalidly crowded!  I haven’t had much time to process it all, but here’s what I’ve got so far…

Delhi is split into public and private space, and the contrast between the two is immense.  The streets are dirty, smelly, and crowded.  Piles of dirt line the roads, and are home to digging stray dog packs, napping camels and cows, and tons of garbage.  The roads themselves are insanity.  The only rule of the road is to not hit or get hit—and that’s about it.  Lanes are arbitrary, and instead of slowing down for a smaller vehicle it is customary to speed up, honk, and hope they get out of the way (exception to this rule is given to Our Holy Mother the Cow).  It’s seriously chaotic, but somehow it works.  Cars, trucks, buses, bikes, scooters, rickshaws, cows, donkeys, goats, and people—all moving in a methodical madness through the city.  My form of transportation is mainly the auto-rickshaw.  The only way I can describe my twenty-minute commute to school is with this profound description: MarioKart with bovine obstacles, minus the throwing of banana peels.  Getting anywhere in a rickshaw is as fantastic as classic Nintendo64. 

With a long monsoon this year, we are still getting downpours of rain every other day.  And with the rains come the floods!  Lakes gather in the streets 30 meters long and up to 3 feet deep.  Today, for instance, I slogged the ¼ mile from school to the main road in slimy garbage-water up to my shins.  On a worse day this would have been disgusting and annoying, but today I just found it hilarious and ironic.  Usually I love walking through water on a hot, muggy day and I’ve been dreaming about cold PNW beaches on the most humid days here.  Now my dreaming has sent me brown water that picks up everything in its path, including the friendly neighborhood garbage heaps.  Reading back over this, it sounds awful—but I love it.  The public, external Delhi is wild, exhilarating, amusing, and (most of the time) not as terrible and trying as it sounds.    

Sadly, I haven’t photographed any of this wonderful insanity!  I’ve only really had my camera out two or three times so far, and only at lush and peaceful places around the city (of which there are many, some famous and some hidden).  But the pictures I have taken show the reason why such hectic streets don’t hasten the end of my sanity—because Delhi has a side that is quite beautiful and breathtaking, and braving the streets is worth it!  The following pictures are from Humayun’s Tomb—a building pre-dating the Taj Mahal and one of the most famous historical sites in Delhi—and the Lodi Gardens, Delhi’s largest park and home to crumbling ruins, cute stray dogs, and lots of birds.

More to come on everything else here that is crazy: homestay life, my classes, heroic rickshaw adventures, excursions to other parts of India etc., etc., etc.  For now, this is enough reflection.  Too much and I forget to soak in this new and crazy world!  Plus, I need to sleep early because tomorrow I have my first early morning yoga class!  Yoggggaaaaa, hurray!  This last picture is because I really do miss home, and am constantly reminded of why I love it so much.  

For all Passages people—I taught my group “My Roots Go Down” and we sing it (3-part harmony) on spontaneous mornings, which makes me the happiest little bird.  And I sing it to myself or play it on my harmonica in bad bouts of homesickness.  To everyone, I love and miss you so much, and I just hope that my SIT group doesn’t get tired of hearing about you guys any time soon.  I’m not getting on facebook much, so if you want to contact me use email (tedra.ellen@gmail.com or thamel@pugetsound.edu).  OR send me a letter! (My Delhi address is in my facebook blurb section).  Oh, and send me your addresses cause I’ll definitely be sending beautiful Indian stationary your way, even if it takes a century (the Indian post office runs on India Flexible Time, I’ve been told).  

Ggggg!

Teddi