my hood

OK, I got scared. And let's just say that's probably not a bad thing. Then cold I'd been fighting for the last month erupted full blown and I spent yesterday quite contentedly in the confines of my hotel room. This morning I woke up early. My very first thought was HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA who turns 17 today and is one of my favorite people on earth. May anyone reading this join me in wishing her the best!

Then I thought it's time to venture out again. Delhi's very quiet until about 7:30. So I wrapped a scarf around my neck and went out to see where I am. My hotel is in an interesting neighborhood - quite far from the center of town, though on the metro line. It's a bold location for a "4 star" hotel, a neighborhood that's just starting to be gentrified - Delhi style. There's some new homes with lovely iron gating mixed amongst socialist style concrete block houses. We're at least 4 blocks away from rotting hovels and not that many people are living on the sidewalks, though I did pass some smoldering sidewalk fires which hopefully provided night time warmth. The sidewalks here are primarily used for men to make a quick stop and take a leak, anywhere, anytime. Which does not stop them from staring at me. But then again it's not a neighborhood that's used to a middle aged white women walking alone and blowing her nose (considered uncouth, much better just to hack the stuff up and spit it out). This neighborhood is completely residential which means there's not even a shop for me to buy water. Luckily the hotel's food is excellent, though not cheap. But they've done a lovely job here and if I'm going to be trapped in Delhi, this is not a bad place, though I certainly miss freely walking around. I actually think I'd be safe, but I tire quickly of the way I'm stared at, the way men have no compunction about trying to engage me. This of course is not all men, only the worse sort. And then it's also the pollution, like none other I've experienced. The car fumes are low to the ground, mixed with rotting garbage everywhere and I shudder to think what else. I don't know how the human body can endure it and there are still plenty of bicycle powered rickshaws. I'm so glad I chose the foothills of the Himalayas to spend my time. My main question today is how soon to go. But this cold has not only sapped my energy, but blocked my sinuses and I can't bear to go out without the benefit of the nose's filtration system. So I'm holing up again.

Notes on the photos: old Delhi on top - a sacred cow gets first dibs on the garbage just out of smell shot of my hotel. An early morning puja flower delivery bicycle with a boy who can unerringly throw onto any height of porch. new Delhi below - The nicest house in the hood with 2 cars no less. And a funny sign, but really things have not changed hugely for women. There just aren't that many on the streets. At the metro at rush hour, the line of men waiting to get through security (after Mumbai) was a block long, the women's line, empty.