"Madam, today Red Fort is closed." Damn, with no 'home' between checking out of the YWCA and moving into 92C Vinopa Puri, Lajpat Najar I was wondering what I should do. Spoiled for choice of course. Seeing as I was already in the auto at this point I thought I might as well go there anyway and have a snoop around Old Delhi.
If you pick up an auto from outside a hotel, you are greeted by a very jolly driver with whom you negotiate a price. He will suggest a number of extended tours: "200 rupees, I take you round Dehli, show you very nice things."
"No, no thank you, just the Red Fort" He scratches his head and suddenly you are by the side of the road and being transfered to another, less jolly auto who will take you to your requested destination without questions. There must be some kind of hierarchy, those more industrious who are unwilling to take a single fare and pass them off to those who are less picky.
My replacement auto fought its way through increasingly chaotic streets towards Old Delhi. I was dropped off at the Red Fort in the midst of total mayhem. Cows, cars, autos, goats, hang on - was that an elephant?!
The actual body of Old Delhi stands concealed by what seems an inpenitrable wall of lop-sided shops and stalls. In between these stalls are small passagways leading into the very heart of the bazzar. I took a deep breath and plunged. Monday may not be the best day to plunge, being a national holiday, the market was in full flow.
"Lady like jewelry?", "Lady want sari?", "Come lady, you look in my shop?"
I made my way down these tiny narrow streets, above which a huge tangle of wires interweave with washing lines. Everything seemed to be decomposing into squalor. If you look carefully you can see some of the houses have old, ornate, decorative balconoys, cracked and chiped, plaster peeling and unsturdy with dirty curtains half hanging in the windows. Is this what is left of what Old Delhi must have been once? All the streets are cracked and the uneasy slant of the houses gives the impression that the whole place is sinking.
I wove my way from the electronics district - Delhi's answer to Tottenahm Court Road. Then the saris. Shop after shop of bright coloured cloth. Every so often a shaft of sunlight would force its way through wires, catching the mirrors and sequins and the whole narrow street would sparkle.
By some miracle, I stumbled across that which I was looking for: Jama Masjid. I very grudginly paid 200 rupees for the privelidge of having a camera and stepped barefooted into the mosque. A clam haven above the chaos.
Having onced again decended into the hot heaving sea of fumes, people and the over-powering smell of cooking oil I took a bicycle rickshaw ride through the central vein of Old Dehi, Chandni Chowk to the spice market where I wandered around getting lost and tiring myself out until I finally hailed an auto to take me to Connaught Place and Janpath Market in search of a belt.
I am now happily settled in Lajpat Najar, South Delhi, much more residential but very close to Central Market. We are on the ground floor and have a balcony so I shall now sit with a morning cup of tea and watch the thouroughfare of wallahs as they cycle by shouting their trade - this starts very early... Mum - thanks for the ear plugs! x