A Country of Contrasts
March 21, 2012
Ok you either love or hate India and at the moment I feel I love it.
An amazing mash up of Japan and Moscow (the last two cities I have worked in for a commercial show Zorro!), chaos yet ordered in a Brownian motion kind of way; continuous movement and yet nobody seems to bump into anybody else, the roads and driving are both petrifying and strangely ok we seem to have force field around us as do the dogs, children and cyclists who lurch and run at random across the roads.
The temperature is perfect, not exactly the sultry powerful sun I had imagined for our world, but a gentle haze. Our guide Oliver has given us a whistle stop over view of Delhi, a fine but simple lunch of south Indian origin , and a tour of the amazing 17th century observatory buildings which seem as if de Chirico and le Corbusier have joined forces to make the most wonderful abstract structures.
Poverty is everywhere yet never intimidating, not sure how I feel at the moment about how to; I couldn't believe the openness of the people at the Tibetan refuge, faded prayer flags and a woman in traditional dress with a north face windcheater on. Ancient Tombs and then the vast floodlights of the cricket ground silhouetted against a perfect dropping sunset.
By the end of the day, in complete contrast to the street scenes we had witnessed earlier, a dinner in an Italian restaurant with young and well off in Delhi, a mix of half Italian, half British, American, and Indian nearly as diverse as east London!
Have eaten an orange.
Photo: the Jantar Mantar open air observatory.
by Tom Piper
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