Delhi again

I'm typing this with my fingers greasy from lunch (Indian food of course, 'veg' too to prevent illness) and the incredulous look from the waiter: "You like Indian food, Mam??"

Yes! I like! As long as it doesn't make me sick! Or fat! OK, or too fat! ;-)

Anyway, it's a miracle I'm even here! Delhi winters are the birthplaces of fog/smog. Extreme fog/smog. have never seen anything like it. Already in Hong Kong the flight was delayed but then in the air, we circled above Delhi for even longer. All those episodes of my favourite TV show - Air Crash Investigation - came to mind where planes ran out of fuel, crashed in heavy fog (I am from Poland, there are precedents!) and mid air collisions as planes scramble to land (those are the worst casualty wise and true pilot-controller, that is, human mistake crashes).

Enough prayers must have been said, or the heavy traffic above Delhi became more dangerous (with pilots unable to speak English...) than landing in the fog or the pilot decided to test the autopilot but we landed eventually. And Delhi was nicely cool!

Everyone knows I love cold weather, give me snow and freezing temperatures any day! So Delhi was cooler than normal, maybe 14 degrees, but didn't warrant the woolen headscarves that Indian men wrap around their heads or the big woolen coats that the women wear... And everyone walks around rubbing their hands together like they going to get frostbite!

My driver found me or rather I found him (wearing a scarf around his head and rubbing his hands together) and we drove to the hotel at the ungodly hour of 5am.

This is where I invent a new term - 'intuitive driving'.

The fog was thicker than I've seen and the driver still drove fast, hell, he talked on his mobile and drove fast, even more - he talked on mobile, did the head shaking thing and drove fast!

OK, I'm exaggerating here, he didn't do the head shaking...

The 2 photos show - 1st the view from side window of the car and 2nd the view from the windscreen - only a very bright lamp visible.

When I got to the hotel, I found out that it was the foggiest and coldest day in Delhi for a while. It was even reported in the Delhi papers.

Next few photos are of typical Delhi streets. In doing my work, I have to go to the offices of people we work with and I just wanted to show you you what we might see along the way. So below is a typical view of a street, outside of the typical the tourist areas.

Then I also spotted a street barber and took a snapshot of that from the car.

And here, when I finally arrived at the destination, my driver with the car waited at the car park where 100s of cars are parked haphazardly. And then I spotted the dogs on top of the cars! :-)

India is full of these homeless dogs that roam the streets, eating rubbish, procreating and just hanging about. It must have been warmer for the dogs on top of these cars. When I first came here, I was terrified of these dogs, but they seem mostly harmless. There are incidents of dog bites, I saw a newspaper article reporting the yearly statistics, but hey, I got my rabies vaccine! ;-)

Incidentally, this place - where the dogs were, was the first office I ever visited in India, outside of tourist areas. If you remember, I was shocked at how dirty the inside of buildings were.

The photo below is the proof - a year later and things haven't changed.

This is a staircase inside an Indian office building.