DELHI DREAMING……….

A quick and, I have to say, uncharacteristically enjoyable three nights in Delhi. Delhi: It may as well be on a different planet to Mumbai with different food ( yummy, more North Indian in character ) , architecture ( older, more colonial), infrastructure ( wide roads and open spaces) and for once the weather was nice, made a  change from Mumbai which has been rainy and grey for the past n weeks and is now stinking hot, hazy and humid. Delhi was clear blue sky and low humidity which made the 36C easily bearable. A series of quite agreeable meetings during the day and getting hammered every night with an interesting mélange of people made for a fun time. Stayed in a ‘guest house’ in an up market area of Delhi ( Friends Colony) belonging to an associated Japanese company, after the cramped style of accommodation that seems to be the thing in Mumbai this guest house was almost comically the opposite, my en suite was so huge that I needed to sit down for a rest twixt wash basin and shower and really needed binoculars to see the loo. My bed was built along similar lines and lying in bed I could just make out the edges far off in the distance. Food was all freshly cooked by the Nepalese HB and bleedin’ delicious it was too. Every morning I was woken by a very pleasant and rather exotic blend of sounds comprising a water seller ambling along the road ringing a bell and shouting rather like rag and bone men used to when I was a child. Then there was the squawking of the Parakeets and Mynas on my windowsill and the distant calls of the Muezzin. Warm sun streaming in through the window lighting up a zillion drifting dust motes at 7.00 rounded off the atmosphere. And the plumbing, gosh, well, what can I say?  Indian plumbing is always entertaining and here in Delhi, in a large old house it was re-mark–able. Just the shear complexity of the water heater in my bathroom was enough to keep me amused for minutes as I desperately tried to work out how to turn it on and how to get water of the correct temperature to supply the tap that I required. There was a ‘double pressure’ boiler resplendent with switches, dials, lights and multifarious metal tubes and valves, some with nice brass in-line taps. An array of unlabelled electrical switches and some suspicious exposed copper wires completed the picture. It turns out that several electrical switches had to be thrown (one in the distant bedroom) and the correct lights illuminated before the intricate process of directing water through the labyrinthine system could commence, only then, when the hot water was flowing would the final winking red light come on to announce that the process was nearing completion, a spluttering torrent of near boiling water that sprayed both into the bath and across the vast bathroom floor simultaneously. At this point the merest touch of any of the many switches, taps or valves would change this water to cold in an instant and the reinstatement of heat would then require several minutes of speculative fiddling. Great fun tho’.

And hey! WOW! Delhi airport has had a serious facelift! It now looks pretty much like any modern airport instead of the wonderfully pathetic disorganized and archaic mess that it used to be ( even worse than Mumbai if that’s possible) but now its all gleaming and spacious. I need not have worried; it’s only the appearance that has changed however, underneath the gloss its still lovable old India with its finely crafted blend of madness, ineptitude and plain belligerence that I have come to love….. Went to a café airside ( A café! Whatever next? Clean toilets?) And after getting over the shock of being offered a variety of fresh food that was not dried up and encrusted with flies I opted for a stuffed croissant and a cup of coffee. After being charged a very reassuringly European price I retired to my (rather wobbly, but shiny and new)) table to await this feast. Although there were only about three other customers it took the fourteen or fifteen staff twenty minutes or so to deliver a mildly warmed through puff - pastry style snack that was only extremely loosely based on a croissant ( the general shape was roughly correct)  and a creased paper cup of warm brown but disturbingly tasteless liquid. Naturally the ‘coffee’ was spilled onto the table in a most professional manner by the waiter. Seems to me that they have taken ‘International levels of service’ to their bosom, I haven’t had such excellently crapulent service since the last time I was at Heathrow. Well done India! You are getting there!

And after the mandatory unannounced one hours delay that is the norm for Mumbai-Delhi flights these days ( Mumbai blames it on Delhi’s pants ATC and vice versa). I was back to my cosy apartment and planning my last trip of this visit. Off to Phansad with ‘the lads’ Girish, Swapneel, Samir and Parag, not forgetting Ashok my birding driver. The forest guest house is fully booked which is a bit of a sod and so we are banking on finding some accommodation in the nearby little seaside town of Murud. Looking forward to a weekend of chilling with me mates over beers and snacks with intervals of natural history adventures in the jungle early morning and late at night. At this time of year , if the sky is clear, which it looks set to be then the heat anytime after about ten in the morning is impossible.

More as it happens………..