The sights at Delhi Railway Station were shocking - cows drinking water at the passenger platform, people crossing the rail tracks and not using the flyovers/stairs, smell of burning stuff to the extent of choking...its unreal and felt almost like the end of the world.In comparison (and understandably as they are smaller), Jodhpur and Jaipur are much more orderly and "clean". Its shocking that as a major form of transport, the Delhi Rail is in such dismay situation. And more broadly, Delhi is in such a mess. It is the capital of India, the second (and soon to be the most) populous country in the world, with enviable GDP growth rates. I am sure there are areas in Delhi that we havent seen that are far more "developed" (we did saw a DLF shopping mall with the usual LV Gucci stores in it), but the wider images at Delhi didnt seem to stack up to the economic progress that India Inc has made.
BTW, according to India travel websites, I later found out that the hazy air came from vehicle pollution; coal burning for cooking - and apparently in a special way done by Bengalis that such cooking cause a lot of smoke; and also people burning everything from plastic bags to tires to stay warm in the cold winter when temperature goes down to 5C at night.
Also, ato a new ranking by ECA International, New Delhi has the world’s worst air pollution (China is no better - Beijing is #2; and there are 4 Chinese cities in the top 20)
1 comment:
I didn't realize you were in town..it would have been great to catch up. We've been in Delhi for the last 1.5yrs.
I think Delhi is probably the nicest city in India and even it does not live up to the hype of a booming economy, certainly not in comparison to China. Its a tough place to live against any global standards, but there is an energy to it and the rest of the country. I'm not sure how misplaced that is :)
Sarvesh.
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