Firstly, Delhi's green. Despite its scorching temperatures (it's a good thirty degrees warmer here than in Bangalore), Delhi's streets are lined with trees and topiaries redolent of, say, Washington, D.C. I pick that example because the two cities are similar in more ways than faunal. They're both national capitals, and they're both constructed as such - wide, easily navigable (yet bustling) streets, roundabouts around monuments, etc.
The contrast between Bangalore and Delhi is sort of surprising, especially since my Lonely Planet guidebook, which I perused on the flight north, describes Delhi as this overpopulated quagmire of shtick - think Times Square with rickshaws and minarets. On the contrary, Delhi seems a bit more controlled, a bit more mechanized than Bangalore. Of course, there is the inevitable chaos - it's a city of 12 million, after all - but it's a structured sort of chaos, and it has yet to overwhelm.
As it is India's capital and second-largest city, it's a cultural mecca of sorts, and we spent our day embracing it in the traditional tourist fashion. Our stops were the standard travel agency staples - the Red Fort, Jama Masjid (the largest mosque in India), and the National Gallery of Modern Art.
It's still sort of unreal how drastically my experiences have changed in a matter of forty-eight hours. I've gone from the tranquil simplicity of helping a girl with her English homework to the artificiality and opulence of visiting gift shops and running into the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi at dinner. When I think about the girls at the home back in Josephnagar, I can't help but feel guilty, as if my next few days as a tourist will somehow repudiate the work I did back south. I think my mom feels the same way, so we're trying to keep our decadence in check for the rest of the trip. I doubt we'll stray too far from our experiences in the home; the ubiquitous presence of beggars (many of which are children - think Slumdog) keeps dragging me back to the poverty that plagues this country, and the juxtaposition between my experience in it and theirs.
From here, we spend another day in Delhi, then we'll drive (or rather, be driven) to Agra to see the Taj Mahal (cue tourist guilt again) on Monday. We'll take a train to the sacred Hindu city of Varanasi on Wednesday, spend a day and a half there, then fly back stateside late Thursday night. Though these past few weeks have been incredible, it'll be nice to be home.
On a side note, I took my first hot shower in two weeks last night, and interestingly enough, I found I hadn't missed it all that much. Still, it's nice to have constant electricity.
