I'm Really Naive

Why am I really naive? Well, because I actually believed I had a half an arm around this "living in India" thing and understood the chaos and possibly even was dealing with it well...

The truth is hard to hear.... I'M LIVING IN A BUBBLE!

The thing I realized today is that there is a huge section of the Indian population that actually creates this bubble and sustains if for me and the likes of me. They drive for us, they cook for us, they shop for us, they build malls for us, they identify us quickly in a crowd and treat us differently (not always to our benefit). It occurred to me today that I don't think it's possible for me to "see" or "experience" anything close to the real life of people who are born and raised here - even the life of upper class or wealthy Indians. I can catch glimpses, I can hear stories, I can piece together things I see and hear... but it's kind of like no matter how well I speak French (which I don't by the way), I'll never be French or treated like I'm French - even if I live in France.

We've only been here 3 months but I thought I had been to Delhi a lot considering I have 3 young boys. I thought I had scene the Delhi of Gandhi, the Hindu Delhi, the Muslim Delhi, the poor Delhi, the rich Delhi. I thought I had exposed myself to a fairly complete picture. Then, after I dropped my boys off at camp this morning - I had two hours to myself and my driver suggested he take me to Chandri Chowk. Great idea... I haven't been to this extremely old market in the heart of Old Delhi and it's not a place to take the boys without John so "let's do it". It was a world away from Gurgaon. Frankly, it was a world away for the Delhi I've seen so far. Old Delhi is like walking into a time machine and a space shrinking machine at the same time. It's cramped, noisy, smelly (not in a bad way), it's packed with more people, rickshaws, bikes, buses, trains, ancient buildings etc. etc. etc.. than I've ever seen. I'm a clear minority in a car - especially a large car with one person in it! It was awesome and a bit nerve racking. At one point the car was stopped by a sea of people crossing the road at the train stop and there was no way the car could move - and I could hardly see OUT my window for all the people looking IN. I felt a bit on display. At another point, I found myself climbing several flights of stairs in a dark, ancient building (think going into a basement but I'm going up instead of down) with strangers (except Micky) to be presented with shelves and shelves of hand woven scarfs/shawls in classic Indian style (remove your shoes, sit on a covered pile of cushions, be served a glass of water (which I can't drink). All of this in a room that is much like an unfinished basement over 100 years old.

It was a great adventure made possible because of Micky. He used to work in this market for 10+ years selling sari's which was clear by the number of merchants who knew him and shook his hand. He was obviously proud to show me this place and took me though the alleys and narrow roads smoothly and safely. Imagine Ann Arbor Art Fair crammed into 1/4 the space it is with 4x the number of people and all in ancient buildings and slippery stone roads. I could have never done this in 2 hours on my own. It would have taken me a full day to navigate my way in to Chandri Chowk let alone get myself out.

The result of this small adventure is that I realized I haven't even begun to see all the things there are to see - even in my own backyard - Delhi. Old Delhi. I overlooked this somehow - not sure how since the tourist books clearly identify it. I just didn't know how different "Old" Delhi would be.

p.s. these pictures are NOT mine but they do represent what I saw. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera.