It’s been one week since Tony and I joined the teeming masses of the Dilliwala – the almost 17 million residents of Delhi. We can now be counted among the 1.1 billion (with a B!) people who make India home.
When we accepted our jobs at the American Embassy School here back in February, the headmaster told us, “Whatever is true about India, the opposite is also true.” We have seen this first-hand every day since we stepped off the plane. For example: Our first-floor apartment (which is actually on the second floor if you speak American English) is located in a posh Southwest New Delhi neighborhood with tree-lined streets, lovely parks and spacious gated homes manned by around-the-clock security guards. However, our building backs up to a sprawling slum, which is hidden from view by a large fence. During the day, a steady parade of slum-dwellers streams past in the adjoining alley, but they seem to disappear when they reach the main road. We hardly sense their presence except for the sound of chatter, laughter or crying babies. Our up-market neighborhood also serves as home to several cows that roam freely during the day. In a country where cows are sacred, these cows have it especially good. Although the houses and apartments appear huge and clean, often with lovely courtyards or gardens, the streets are in disrepair and feature occasional piles of sand or bricks dumped for someone’s construction project. The juxtapositions are never-ending and surreal.
We arrived in New Delhi last Sunday night after meeting many of the other new teachers at the Chicago airport (they were easy to spot as we had been told to wear our navy AES polo shirts). School administrators picked us up and took us to our apartment, where workers carried all eight of our boxes and bags upstairs for us.
What a nice surprise to see a traditional brass nameplate on the door!
In the foyer, we encountered a little welcome mat, which turned out to be an artform called “rangoli” created in colored rice! Unfortunately, we only figured this out by stepping on it and messing up the design.
Here’s Tony in front of our building.
As we wait for our shipment to arrive, we make regular trips to a nearby shopping area to buy household necessities. It’s a nice place with two western-style grocery stores and many high-end shops … and the requisite cows.
So here’s a little video tour of our apartment. Hmmm … I filmed this with my iPad, which I’ve never done before, and I just realized I created a very skinny video. Well, too bad. I’m jetlagged and exhausted, so I’m just going to post the silly thing rather than try to figure it out.
