Pollution in New Delhi

The pollution here in this, the Capitol of India, is astounding.  The green shift has definitely passed these people by.  We went to the Lotus Temple yesterday (a temple of the Baha'i, who believe in interdenominational worship), which turned out to be interesting since there was a holiday yesterday and about 50 million other people also thought that this would be a good idea.  Most of them were not tourists, though, they were locals. 

 

Locals look at me like very curiously.  The kids especially think we are interesting.  The men look at my chest, which is certainly nothing to stare at, the women look at my feet, probably because I mostly wear hiking boots in this city, and they are quite bulky (and ugly) compared to the little flippy sandles that they wear.  Yesterday at the Lotus Temple I had to take off my shoes and socks to go in and then people REALLY stared at my feet.  Nathan says that it's because they are so white, which is probably true.  I mean, north americans comment on my whiteness, so I must look very alien to people here. 

 

In order to get to the Lotus temple, we took an autorickshaw, which is a motorized rickshaw.  It holds 3 people, ideally, and there are about 10000 of them in New Delhi.  Actually, there may be that many at the train station alone.  They are quite ubiquitous and they, plus the taxis and the other traffic here combine to really make the fumes hard to bear while you're stuck in traffic.  I can't imagine what peoples lungs look like here - they must be as black as a 2 pack a day smoker's.  

 

The driving here, as previously mentioned, is insane.  The autorickshaws jockey for space both at lights (what few of them there are) and while driving.  In the standard 3 lane set up at a light, there are at least 7 or 8 rows of rickshaws, trucks, taxis and other vehicles.  That's on the main roads.  On the smaller roads, you can't get more than 1 vehicle across, so there are autorickshaws, motorcycles, cows, people, bicycles, rickshaw-bicycles and yesterday I almost bumped into an elephant.  You'd think that an elephant would be large enought not to miss, but I almost got slapped by its tail.  There are so many things to look at.  It's like a jungle, except completely and utterly unnatural.  We were looking at some pictures of Toronto on our camera (ah, the joys of digital!) and I couldn't help but sigh at the pristine looking water, the trees, the grass, the lovely visible skyline - this is Toronto I'm talking about, one of Canada's biggest and most polluted cities! Well, Delhi is about 1000 times more polluted.

 

We are happily leaving Delhi tomorrow and are heading to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  We were told by someone to get out of the city as soon as we get here - we have tarried too long in Delhi.  But we are recovering from jet lag (even though we were up again at 330 this morning) and culture shock (VERY slowly) and we are getting used to our new way of life - the life of travel. 

 

I was thinking yesterday about the poverty here.  There are beggars in all shapes sizes and ages.  I saw many poor, poor people on our ride to the Temple.  I saw children lying on mats in the dirt, sleeping.  A woman hanging her huge sari cloth from a lamp post so that it would dry.  People sqatting wherever there is a place.  i wonder what it is that they have to live for.  How can they keep going when faced with such a grim future?  There is nothing in their futures except more poverty, more begging, hunger, sleeping on the street - Nathan says that they don't know anything else and I know that is true, but I know the difference and it upsets me, if I let it.   I know that I am priviledged only because of the continent of my birth.  How can it be that a world can have such disparate economic situations? 

 

It would be nice to hear from people at home.

Love, Anne