Here are a few photos from the Hindustan Times:
March 22, 2008
Happy Holi
Today Holi, the festival of colors, is celebrated in Delhi. I'm missing the festivities for the second time in two years and I'm not thrilled about it. I will admit that I don't really understand what Holi is all about, but I do know two things: It marks the beginning of summer (which in India comes immediately after winter). On Holi people of all ages play with colors and water, making a big mess, but having a great time in the process.
Here are a few photos from the Hindustan Times:
Here are a few photos from the Hindustan Times:
March 5, 2008
Commuting Nightmare
At the end of January, construction of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway was finally completed. Gurgaon is a high-tech suburb of Delhi where my office and many others are located. I like to think that Gurgaon is to Delhi what Reston is to Washington, DC. Shopping, traffic, large corporations...suburbia really.
Despite the tremendous amount of money being poured into Gurgaon to construct high-rise apartment and office buildings, the road infrastructure was completely lacking. There are two main routes from Delhi. The first, goes by the international airport and was always congested, no matter the time of day. I usually avoided this route because it could take nearly 2 hours for the 20 mile commute. The second was a little faster (up to 1 1/2 hours in the evening) on M-G Road. But this sucks. Parts of the road are just dirt, there are no lanes (but no one drives in lanes anyone), and now the Delhi Metro is being built down the center of the road, so it's even worse.
Back on the expressway...It runs over the old road that went past the airport. Without traffic, I can go from my home to the airport in less than 30 minutes and to the office in about 45. Not bad at all. With the wide lanes and tall overpasses, I almost forget that I'm in Delhi when I'm on this road.
But then I get to the toll plaza just before Gurgaon and I remember. Here there is a 24-lane toll plaza, which is supposed to be the largest in Asia. It costs 16 rupees (about 40 cents), which I think is expensive for a 20 mile drive in India. A combination of poor lacking, unwillingness to buy SmartTags, impatience and disrespect have created a mess at the toll plaza. On a typical morning, you can expect to wait more than 20 minutes to get through the toll. 30 minutes is usually the maximum before they just open up all of the lanes and let everyone drive through without paying. This is what happened to me yesterday.
I could write so much more about this road - like how the road had been completed, but officials waited weeks before allowing people to use it because they hadn't had there "official inauguration" or how you are asked to pay your money well BEFORE the toll because they've hired people to stand there and collect it with the hopes of moving people through faster or how motorcycles are not allowed on the expressway, but I've seen them EVERY TIME I've been on it - but that might bore you.
Despite the tremendous amount of money being poured into Gurgaon to construct high-rise apartment and office buildings, the road infrastructure was completely lacking. There are two main routes from Delhi. The first, goes by the international airport and was always congested, no matter the time of day. I usually avoided this route because it could take nearly 2 hours for the 20 mile commute. The second was a little faster (up to 1 1/2 hours in the evening) on M-G Road. But this sucks. Parts of the road are just dirt, there are no lanes (but no one drives in lanes anyone), and now the Delhi Metro is being built down the center of the road, so it's even worse.
Back on the expressway...It runs over the old road that went past the airport. Without traffic, I can go from my home to the airport in less than 30 minutes and to the office in about 45. Not bad at all. With the wide lanes and tall overpasses, I almost forget that I'm in Delhi when I'm on this road.But then I get to the toll plaza just before Gurgaon and I remember. Here there is a 24-lane toll plaza, which is supposed to be the largest in Asia. It costs 16 rupees (about 40 cents), which I think is expensive for a 20 mile drive in India. A combination of poor lacking, unwillingness to buy SmartTags, impatience and disrespect have created a mess at the toll plaza. On a typical morning, you can expect to wait more than 20 minutes to get through the toll. 30 minutes is usually the maximum before they just open up all of the lanes and let everyone drive through without paying. This is what happened to me yesterday.
I could write so much more about this road - like how the road had been completed, but officials waited weeks before allowing people to use it because they hadn't had there "official inauguration" or how you are asked to pay your money well BEFORE the toll because they've hired people to stand there and collect it with the hopes of moving people through faster or how motorcycles are not allowed on the expressway, but I've seen them EVERY TIME I've been on it - but that might bore you.
March 4, 2008
I Love Old Delhi
We've made several trip to Old Delhi recently for wedding-related purchases and every time I kick myself for not bringing along my camera. Yesterdaty, I finally remembered.
I can't imagine living in Old Delhi, but it's an exciting place to visit...for a few hours at a time. I always think of Old Delhi as quintessial Delhi. This is more of what I imagined when I first arrived. Instead I was greeted by 5-star hotels, modern infrastructure (at least for large MNCs), and wide avenues in Central Delhi.
Old Delhi is the complete opposite. It's known for its markets, the Paper Market (source of the wedding invitations), the Book Market, the Spare Parts Market (my favorite) and many others. It's also known for the variety and quality of street food, or chaat. Dahi bhalla, samosas, tikki and of course paan and chai are readily available. Ani and I skipped the street food and instead had a wonderful lunch at Karim's, probably the most famous restaurant in Old Delhi and maybe even all of Delhi.
A traffic jam with no cars!
The other end of the traffic jam - we got off the cycle rickshaw and walkedf
A street shave
Samosas
Paan - a tobacco-like leaf stuffed with something that everyone here loves. You'll see lots of red stains on the streets from people's spit. Nice, huh?
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