(no subject)
And soI am in India. The hustling, bustling, dirty Delhi to be more exact. I've been here for a week and a bit & only just now have a had some sort of moments peace on a usable computer!
Delhi is a such a chaotic place, so far removed from the relative calmness & openess of Australia I barely know where to begin in describing it.
The traffic here is madness. A continously moving organism it ebbs & flows like a raging torrent. But somehow in amongst the madness there's hardly any major accidents & so far I've not seen any eveidence of road rage. Everyone lets everyone else through -there's no rhyme or reason, no abiding to "road rules" it all just kinda happens. Roads marked for 3 lanes instantly become 7 vehicles across, be it car, truck, scooter, bicycles, motorcycles or trays & then you've got to throw in the odd cow or 3 & then of course there's the dogs that just suit themselves & yet manage to survive in such a harsh world.
In fact it's the dogs that get to me more than the destitute people here. They roam about, free to scavange whatever they like but many have severe mange & when there's so many starving humans about they're pretty lucky to find scraps about so most are nawt but skin & bones, & then many seem to have war wounds, either sever limps, or they#re tails have been mangled.
Our first week here was spent trudging the many aisles of an enormous handicrafts trade show that was in an outer suburd of Delhi known as Greater Noida. We stayed at quite a nice guest house near the show to save ourselves the 1-2 hour bus shuttle ride to & from the city everyday that most of the other overseas buyers got stuck with.
There were thousands of exhibitors at the trade show& it wasn't put into any sort of organised category order so for every 20 exhibitors we passed we found 1 that we were really interested in. So much walking & looking at sooo many textiles ...it became quite tedious. There were of course many beautiful products but exhaustion really does wane on you.
I've got to go, our driver has come to collect us ...off to loook at some quilts ...will try to continue with more when I get the chance
I'm off to Agra tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal & some rugs, then off to Jaipur & then Hyderabad.
Hope all you Melbournites are well & having fun,despite my absence ;)
xxT
Delhi is a such a chaotic place, so far removed from the relative calmness & openess of Australia I barely know where to begin in describing it.
The traffic here is madness. A continously moving organism it ebbs & flows like a raging torrent. But somehow in amongst the madness there's hardly any major accidents & so far I've not seen any eveidence of road rage. Everyone lets everyone else through -there's no rhyme or reason, no abiding to "road rules" it all just kinda happens. Roads marked for 3 lanes instantly become 7 vehicles across, be it car, truck, scooter, bicycles, motorcycles or trays & then you've got to throw in the odd cow or 3 & then of course there's the dogs that just suit themselves & yet manage to survive in such a harsh world.
In fact it's the dogs that get to me more than the destitute people here. They roam about, free to scavange whatever they like but many have severe mange & when there's so many starving humans about they're pretty lucky to find scraps about so most are nawt but skin & bones, & then many seem to have war wounds, either sever limps, or they#re tails have been mangled.
Our first week here was spent trudging the many aisles of an enormous handicrafts trade show that was in an outer suburd of Delhi known as Greater Noida. We stayed at quite a nice guest house near the show to save ourselves the 1-2 hour bus shuttle ride to & from the city everyday that most of the other overseas buyers got stuck with.
There were thousands of exhibitors at the trade show& it wasn't put into any sort of organised category order so for every 20 exhibitors we passed we found 1 that we were really interested in. So much walking & looking at sooo many textiles ...it became quite tedious. There were of course many beautiful products but exhaustion really does wane on you.
I've got to go, our driver has come to collect us ...off to loook at some quilts ...will try to continue with more when I get the chance
I'm off to Agra tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal & some rugs, then off to Jaipur & then Hyderabad.
Hope all you Melbournites are well & having fun,despite my absence ;)
xxT