India Day 2

Today was our 2nd day in India—once again very exciting!

Here is the photo series:

After a good night’s sleep, and feeling like we’ve adjusted to the local rhythm (meaning jetlag is OK), we took the metro to Old Delhi. As the name suggests, this is the old part of Delhi…

Old Delhi feels much more like how many people described India to me before my departure: Another era…

Two things that are not apparent in the photos, but strongly shape the impressions:

1. The noise: All rickshaws, cars, trucks, even bicycles honk and ring constantly and extremely loudly. Since the streets in Old Delhi have no distinction between road and sidewalk, you’re constantly jumping to the side to avoid being run over or bumped into.

2. The smells: Everything smells—mostly not good…

As you can see, the IT industry is omnipresent in India: It also strongly shapes the street scene here ;-)

Many people wash themselves on the street here—perhaps because it’s Sunday?

…and people also sleep in cars—or something like that…

You also see animals everywhere on the street

And right in the middle—a temple… This time a mosque.

In the mosque, you get the impression that entire families live here:

And this is how the mosque looks from the entrance area, across the large square:

Afterwards, we went back into the hustle and bustle of the alleys of Old Delhi

…where everything is sold…

…and you find everything—including services…

…but also spectacular spice shops (and this is not even the spice market!)

Or fabrics (somewhere the saris have to come from)

Looking up is always astonishing…

Then we went to the Red Fort. That is…a temple…

Did I mention that the temple complexes here are often huge?!

…and it feels like construction is happening at every corner all the time?

After so many temples, we got hungry—but didn’t want to join the gentlemen eating directly on the street, so we went to a nice tourist restaurant…

Then we briefly visited a corner influenced by English colonial style: Connaught Place.

Afterwards, we took the metro back to the hotel, showered, and met Indian colleagues for dinner. Now it’s just before midnight here, and I’m going to sleep.

Good night,

– Till.