Judgement night

India. I waited for the stench, the urine soaked air inspired by friendly urination practices and myriads of wandering animals... maybe the heat evaporates the odors, or perhaps living in NYC all these years has dulled my sense of smell... but Delhi didn't overwhelm me the way I had anticipated. At least, not at first. Leaving the airport was relatively non-eventful; after an argument with security, my driver and I were off in a hurry. By the way, it's not true that Delhi drivers don't follow the lines on the roads; there simply aren't any lines! So, we drove on, jostling with rickshaws, motorcycles, and the occasional wandering cow... nothing extraordinary. The driver (Ravi) was an especially friendly young guy,

Ravi: Are you married?
Me: um, no
Ravi: Have boyfriend then?
Me: umm.... no, not really...
Ravi: Ah!! So you are like me then, you have nothing.
Me: uh, well, i go to school... i have a lot of friends... and,-
Ravi: no, no, you have nothing.

Off to a good start, we turned onto the 'main bazar road' of Pharganj, the part of Delhi I had chosen for myself (it's rumored to be popular with backpackers and israelis, so...). Well, this main road is basically dirt, and the only thing stopping our little taxi from running over wandering dogs are the cows, laid out on the streets without any concern for oncoming traffic. The streets are also filled with people - tourists (yes, they were all speaking hebrew) and shopkeepers, the homeless and the sleeping rickshaw drivers... all crammed into the width of an average apartment corridor. Namaste.

My room... well, at least there's a giant bolt on the door, so... we'll leave it at that for now. I tried wandering outside on my own for a bit, but after about 20 minutes the darkness and the menacing look i got from a nearby cow convinced me to just hang out at the hotel the rest of the night. That was a good decision - I met two great Belgian women, and a very fascinating Swiss guy who seems to have traveled everywhere and is more than happy to discuss middle east politics with me (apparently everyone hates the Saudis, and the Syrians are much more "Italian" than the Jordanians, whatever that means...). Also, there's Soham, Reena's friend, who i'm going to call tomorrow night... so i'm not completely alone, it just took a little creativity.

So, India has judged me. Apparently, I have nothing much going, and the cows aren't exactly impressed either. I'll try again tomorrow :).