Getting acclimated, part one

Danny has gone out to purchase toiletries; I've opted to stay in. While I haven't had what even someone with a vivid imagination could call a strenuous day, I'm exhausted. By the time darkness falls and the heat becomes tolerable enough to go out in, my energy resources have already been completely tapped, and all I want to do is sleep.

It's just past 8PM here, which means it's about 7:30AM at home.

Going out would make the most sense at this point, as it would help keep me awake for another couple of hours until a more reasonable bedtime. But there is so much energy -- physical and mental -- required to walk down a street in Delhi. This is certainly not California, and pedestrians don't have the right of way. They don't have any rights at all, it seems, in the traffic hierarchy. When faced with rickshaws (both the bike and auto kinds), cars, dogs, scooters, cows, and buses (or "death machines," as Danny calls them), it's every man for himself for those of us on foot. Here in Karol Bagh, there's not much by way of sidewalks, and when there are sidewalks, there are cars parked up on them. So I find myself having to walk in the street, either with or against traffic, while trying to simultaneously dodge other pedestrians, avoid stepping in puddles of who-knows-what, and keep up with Danny, the expert Indian street negotiator.




This is even more true at night, when the melee of horns combines with the glare of headlights into a blur of sensory overload which makes it even more difficult for me to navigate the streets. I'm used to clear areas that demarkate spaces where cars go and where pedestrians go, and to traffic lights and signs that people actually pay attention to and obey. I'm used to cars stopping for me to cross -- instead of moving steadily foward with no regard to the fact that they could crush me with very little effort.

So I opted to stay in. I know that once the jet lag goes away and once I've been here long enough to get used to the flow of traffic, I too will become an expert in walking down a New Delhi street.

Or I can hope that we get to Shimla sooner rather than later, where less people equals less insanity in the streets.