As this will be our last post before traveling, we
wanted to look back on the amazing time we’ve had in Delhi over the past 6
weeks. We’ve met some lovely people, eaten a lot of food, and seen countless
tombs, monuments and temples, and hopefully we’ve managed to convey to those
reading a little of what this experience has been like for us. It is just
impossible to capture in words exactly what it’s like walking down the
dusty road in Old Delhi, trying to avoid being run over by motorbikes, rickshaws
and cattle drawn carts, smelling the spices and street food of the stalls -
such an assault on all the senses is so hard to describe!
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| One of the many cow drawn carts making its way down the streets of Old Delhi |
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| The hustle and bustle of the roads is non-stop |
One of the best things we’ve found about being here
for such a long period of time compared to the average tourist is that we now
feel at home in Delhi; many areas are very familiar, having walked around them
looking for the best bargains many times! We have got to know several stall
holders by sight – unsurprisingly the people running the Jalebiwala stall
(which sells the best jalebi in Delhi) know us well now, thanks to Emma’s
addiction!
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| A bowl of Jalebi and a very happy Emma |
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| Emma ensuring she gets every last bit of the sugary syrup! |
Eventually we have managed to get the hang of
haggling, to such an extent that recently Emma was praised by an Indian shop
keeper on her bargaining ability! Before coming I don’t think that either of us
would have guessed how prevalent bargaining is in India; even to buy stamps at
the post office we had to argue that as the stamp said “15 rupees” on it, we should
not pay 20 rupees for them!
A more welcome difference to the UK is that strangers
talk to each other far more readily here, and we have had many conversations
with people curious to find out more about us and England. Admittedly a lot of
the people who have approached us in the street have been after a photo, or
trying to get us to go to their friend’s shop, but many people just wanted to
chat. On the metro we’ve had several good conversations – once a woman
overheard us talking and recognised that we were English, so started talking to
us about her daughter who had studied in England, and what a lovely country she
thought it was. Her daughter had apparently really enjoyed studying in the UK,
in part due to the hospitality of strangers, so she was eager to return the
favour by giving us her business card and inviting us to her house any time we
fancied home cooked food.
On another metro journey a woman kept smiling and
looking at us, (quite common as we do stand out!) and eventually tried to talk
to us in Hindi. It transpired that her English was almost as good as our Hindi,
but we managed to have a conversation in which we told her that we were medical
students, at which point she announced excitedly to the whole carriage that we
were doctors working here. This led to more smiles and a definite air of
approval from the rest of the passengers, before we sadly had to get off the
train and say goodbye to our new friend.
We have been very pleasantly surprised by people’s
reactions on finding out that we are English as it has been overwhelmingly
positive, despite the fact that India only gained independence from Britain in
1947, so relatively recently. On one occasion we were complemented for our
“wonderful English accents, just how the beautiful language is meant to be
spoken”! Recently when buying tea, the shopkeeper told us that he saw it as a
pleasure and a privilege to be able to discuss and sell tea to the English, as
he felt that the English were the ones to introduce tea drinking to Indians –
how true this is we’re not sure!
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| Chai being made for us at our favourite chai stall...they recognise us here as well! |
There have been many more occasions where people
passing by have helped to translate for us when trying to explain to tuk-tuk
drivers where we’d like to go, or stopped when we were buying street food to
tell us that they are really impressed we were eating like locals. The kindness
of strangers in a city like Delhi, which we warned beforehand could be a
dangerous city for women, has been unexpected and very welcome to us as we’ve
spent the past six weeks so far from home in such an unfamiliar environment.
We have also had an invaluable experience working in
the hospital and community health clinic here. We haven’t been able to blog
extensively about this due to being bound by patient confidentiality and so
forth, so apologies if it has been a bit medicine light! We have both seen and
learnt about conditions we had never come across before, had our eyes opened to
some of the huge issues in global healthcare such as poverty and education,
overcome differences in language and culture to communicate with our patients
and caught a glimpse of how healthcare is just part of a huge tangle of factors
contributing to peoples well being. We have learnt lessons here that will stay
with us throughout our careers, and hopefully enable us to be better doctors as
a result.
Over the next two weeks we hope to do a bit of traveling around with James (Michaela’s boyfriend) who has just joined us out
here! As well as showing him our favourite bits of Delhi we will also be going
to Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi. As such,
we will probably not be able to update the blog, but if we can’t we will post
up a couple of updates once we are back, letting you know where we went and
what adventures we have had!
For now we will leave you with a story that we think
epitomises the joy of traveling. Emma had stumbled across something online
about a food-stuff that was found in Delhi only for a few months during Indian
winter. Wondering around Old Delhi this afternoon, down one of the tiny streets
of the old bazaars, hidden in the shade, was a man with a little cart and a
bowl on it with what looked like this elusive food. We of course, had to try it
to see, not even knowing at this point whether it was sweet or savoury! To our
delight, we discovered that it was indeed the Daulat ki Chaat that Emma had read about. It is a sort of cross between a soufflé
and a cloud, is incredibly sweet, and is so light that as soon as you put it in
your mouth it vanishes leaving nothing but an astonishing taste. The story goes
that this is made by the light of the full moon, and set in the morning dew. It
has to be served and eaten before the sun gets too high in the sky, otherwise
it is reduced to a milky puddle (hence why you can only get it in winter, and
they stand in the shade!). It is made of buffaloes milk, and the process is a closely
guarded secret. You cannot get it in shops or stalls, but you have to find one
of these men hidden away in the streets of Old Delhi. Some even say it is made
by angels. Totally magical.
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| The man selling Daulat ki Chaat, hidden away in the shade |
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| A bowl of the magical cloud stuff! |
Just one of many priceless experiences and memories
that Delhi has given us, which will cherish forever.
Thank you so much for sharing on this adventure with
us! We will update you on the final installment before too long!
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