Chaos and confusion

Today I went to the old city of Delhi (which, just to be confusing, is not actually the oldest of the half dozen or so cities that comprise modern Delhi/New Delhi). A narrow main thoroughfare led to even narrower side streets, which themselves had still smaller passages opening off of them. A cycle rickhaw took us down streets that were about 6 ft. wide -- adding yet another interesting note to my experience of Delhi traffic.




These pictures are from the main street leading into the city/neighborhood; I didn't actually take any, unfortunately, of the wedding market, which was the primary little winding street we went down. It was a one-stop shopping bazaar for everything you'd need to be married, with all the shops of a particular type clustered together: first saris (I found it very hard not to stop), then jewelry, garlands, etc. While most of the area we went through was primarily commercial, there were some lovely little residential pedestrian-only passageways opening up off of them:



Also on the agenda for the day was the Red Fort, which is technically part of Old Delhi, but seems (or seemed to me, at any rate) to lie outside of it: it's a little tricky to tell, as the city walls are no longer standing -- only a few gates (archways) are in place. Huge. Absolutely immense. I'd sort of pictured something like the Tower of London, but red -- but it's maybe 10 times bigger? Also in much better condition than I'd expected. It was a really peaceful oasis in what was otherwise a very crazy and overstimulating day: large green spaces with pavillions spaced far apart, and walkways connecting them. Unfortunately, most of the water effects of the original gardens were dry: not only most of the fountains and pools, but even the river that once ran alongside one wall of the fort (Rebecca said it had shifted course and now lay some distance back, out of sight).





I was pleased too see that a lot of the tourists in the fort were Indian -- it made me feel less conspicuous as a foreign consumer of Indian culture/history. It was also nice, frankly, that there just weren't all that many tourists, period.

Some of the stone work:



The approach to the inner bastions of the fort takes visitors down a market arcade (a highly historic one, but now populated with souvenir stalls: Taj Mahal snowdome, anyone?). It was at this point that Rebecca, who had basically been taking the brunt of every tout approaching us, and dealing with every rickshaw wallah, went off the the toilets, leaving me to face the assault myself. The strangest thing happened: nothing did. I stood right at the crossroads of the souvenir stands, without too many other tourists around, and it was as though I had a cloak of invisibility around me. This could prove to be really valuable, if it's a quality I manage to retain for the next few weeks. So far, actually, the only people who have really been pushy with me are the under-6 set -- and if they get in your way, I've discovered, they're actually small enough to pick up and remove...

The souvenir sellers: