Aidan's Asian Blog

Delhi 3rd March 2006

I woke up yesterday morning with a song in my head and I couldn’t remember what song it was. I knew it was by Van Morrison, but I couldn’t remember the name or what album it was on. The line that was in my head goes: “as I sit drinking famously in an Irish bar, a thousand miles and thirty years away”.

I love the imagery of that line; he must have been on some session to be “drinking famously”. I’ve no idea why I woke up with that song in my head, I couldn’t tell you the last time I heard it. Maybe it’s because I’m (over) a thousand miles away from home and certainly it feels a bit like I’ve gone thirty years back in time. Maybe my body was telling me I’ve got to get to an Irish bar and get “famously” drunk? I haven’t had a beer for a couple of weeks; maybe I’m about to go cold turkey? Anyway it took me about twenty minutes to track it down on my ipod, it’s called Mr. Thomas and it’s on the album The Philosophers Stone.

I’ve had a productive couple of days and have managed to get a couple of very important things sorted out. First off, I’ve bought myself a motorcycle. It’s a Royal Enfield Bullet 500cc and it was made in the Sixties. I take delivery of it next week as the shop is restoring it, it should be ready on 10th March.. Can’t wait, especially as it means that I can get out of Delhi and start exploring the country.

I was on the Jessops website this afternoon and noticed that they have the new camera I want in stock. This camera is totally sold out in Uk (and most of the world) and there is a big waiting list for it, but because of my camera woes, Jessops agreed that I could have one when they receive new stock (I’ve got to pay the difference between the camera I returned and the new one). I sent my contact in Jessops a quick email and he told me that he’d put it in the post for me on Monday. I’m delighted. I’ve got two friends coming over from the UK on 11th March, so hopefully they’ll be able to bring it over to me (Please Paulie………) I also ordered a new lens off another website as the camera won’t be much good to me without a bit of glass on the front!

I decided to explore Delhi’s new Metro (Underground) system this morning and see a bit of the outskirts of the city, maybe even find a park to chill out in. I bought a “tourist” one day pass for 70 Rupees (nearly £1.00 GBP) and paid a further 100 Rupees deposit for the ticket (??). I then walked through the metal detector, got frisked and had my bag searched. This happens at every station and must be fun at rush hour; there was talk of them doing something similar in London. Please don’t.

I hopped on the blue line first as it looked the longest and indeed it was. I spotted a big shopping centre about twenty minutes into my journey and got off the train. It was about 10:15 by this stage, but I was the only customer I saw in the whole shopping centre! I also had to walk through another metal detector. I couldn’t be arsed shopping, as the shops in there didn’t interest me, so I jumped back on the train. Actually I waited patiently on the platform whilst my fellow passengers charged towards the train door as it opened, no such thing here as letting the passengers off first! Kilometre after Kilometre passed but the view didn’t change, low-rise apartments followed low-rise apartments with the odd mosque or temple thrown in for visual interest. That’s all the interest there was though, there was nothing at the end of the line, just apartments as far as the eye could see.

I jumped back on the next train and made my way to the intersection with the yellow line. I got talking to a couple of students on the train that wanted to know where I came from, was I married etc. They were studying political science and were interested to know what I thought of Delhi, I told them it would be lovely if they could get rid of the touts and the traffic. They were interested to know where I was off to, I told them that I hadn’t got a clue, I was just following my nose to see where I ended up (which was true), they found this a bit strange. They got off one stop from the end of the line (University Station) and I got off at the next stop. There didn’t seem to be too much of interest there, but I decided to take a walk around the block just to get off the train. I found the university on my walk and bumped into my two friends, they couldn’t believe that they met me again as they seen me stay on the train, I jokingly told them to stop following me as I didn’t want to go to a shop with them. They laughed and we went opposite ways. It was back on the train after that to try the red line. More metal detectors more body frisks more uninteresting stops along the line with nothing at the end. I was the only Westerner I saw on the four hours I spent on the Metro and for once they were right not to go on it! No one I’ve spoken to has even gone near the Metro, now I know why.

I don’t expect any sympathy from anyone back in Ireland or the Uk, but I woke up this morning with a cold. I’ve been sneezing and snivelling all day. Even though it’s usually around 27c – 30c here, it “plummets” to 10c at night and I only put a light sheet on the other night, so must of picked the cold up then.