Sunday, February 27, 2011

Updating...

BusyBusyBusy is how it gets at times. So I have been traveling back and forth filling forms and filing for funds that are supposed to be mine, but involve a lot of field work and finesse to be finalized and fully recovered! A lot of visits to the government offices is a tedious task, and Sucks with a capital S , in India!

So zooming around and dodging the capital city's bustling roads is mind boggling, deafening, road raging and a totally frustrating  tedious task, and by the end you have reached your destination, you have layers and layers of dust caked upon your face and everywhere else . Dust has a propensity of reaching everywhere; even in the seventh box of the seven boxes locked and shut within each other, or right in the center of the stomach of an innermost Russian Matryoshka doll! And by the time you reach from one corner of the Delhi to the next, your entire surface plus your ears nose mouth alimentary canal etc. are all royally layered and leaves you coughing and sneezing till kingdom come!

Delhi is a Surreal place in every sense of the term. If you look up, you will see cloverleaf flyovers, and metro trains zooming overhead and huge shiny architecturally labor extensive sky scrapers glittering in the sun, and huge electronic billboards flashing faces of advertisements , news ,clock time or running instructions like 'keep your city clean' or 'use solar energy' ; all over the place.

Then again, look down, and you will see another side of the picture : The squalor, the dirt, the beggars and the slums , the spit and the ugly. Shifting your gaze alternately , up and down, makes it hard to decide, which picture is the reality, and which one is a dream!

Ok. So has been life lately. Both grim and good at one and the same time. Or you can say, I have been snatching moments from here and there to fill and spice up the life a bit. Nothing odd in that. In fact, isn't that what we all normally do?

So here are some random pictures I took from a random visit to a random Fair. You can also see some funny and some sordid side of an Indian 'Fair' (?)
 Selling




 

 Selling Pastries on cart wheels!

 This gentleman 'drove' his family right into the fair on his scooter!

 No Trail rooms here! They are on sale on Cartwheel  ;D

 'Size' of the 'Salesman'!

 All that goes into making one snack called 'Bhelpuri'!

 Selling tooth powder. It says that this Mahanmai Tooth Powder contains no tobacco :D

 Poor Man's Broadway show!( Notice the quality of chairs)

 Introduction of the belle shakers to the 'clients'!

All set to Ogle

The Dance Party wooing the customers from roadside!

 Shaking booty

 -do-

' -do do-' :D

 Assorted shapes and sizes to cater to all 'tastes'

Curtain Call

10 comments :

Brian Miller said...

thanks for the look into life there...it was the best of times it was...i get that...hope everything works out on those funds...

Monkey Man said...

That was very interesting...and I mean that in a good way. This is a slice of life we may not see on the Travel Channel. *smiles*

ivan said...

Brilliant writing.

Also the telltale photos.

G-Man said...

Mona...
I remember...hehehehehe

Indian women are so beautiful. And you are at the top of the list.

jodi said...

Hi Mona, I too, would have issue with those driving conditions. Even in the city here, it's not that kinda crazy. Also red tape is so very trying. Good luck, Girl!

SHUBHAJIT said...

Delhi is one of the worst places whatever little i have seen in my life. The problem is the absence of culture. People only believe in WWW(woman, wine, wealth) and thats it.

I have been living in this city for long, and i still living here because Himalayas are too close from this part of India.

PeterParis said...

Not really surprised, but I can see that you did not concentrate on the “metro trains zooming overhead and huge shiny architecturally labor extensive sky scrapers…”! :-)

the walking man said...

Actually it looks to have much more life being truly lived in it than there is here.

Mona said...

Peter, I did not take my camera to Delhi & these pictures are from the place where I am put up at present!

Mark...so much life that it is a chaotic cacophony! :)

Anonymous said...

Man, those pastries in the first pic look wonderful.

Any chance you can ship me some, Monita?

I enjoyed the writing, too. Loved the interlude on looking up and down and seeing two different worlds.