Market Mayhem

Free from the confines of the group with the weekend ahead, I could plan a day out. I feel I get on with everyone here but I find it tough living so closely with people every day. Sharing breakfast, language classes, lunch, shopping at the market, dinner, trying to use the internet in the common room or even grabbing a cup of tea is all done alongside a few other volunteers if not the whole group. My roommate and I decided to stay clear of the tourist areas as we are in Delhi for the whole year. A good plan as we headed to a local area to suss out what kind of area we could end up living in.


We negotiated a good fare to Lajpat Nagar where we know two other volunteers live. We were greeted with total chaos on the roads as we got out of our auto-rickshaw. Beeping horns, street smells and the pandemonium of humanity was a highly charged assault on the senses. Within five minutes we had stumbled into the local market and with it being mainly pedestrianised we were away from the road and although busy not as frantic as the car chaos we had left behind. Star purchase of the day was a pillow for 100 rupees to replace the brick like ones back at the institute. The best 100 rupees I have ever spent.

Getting back wasn’t so much fun as roads had been closed and it took flagging down about 7 autos before we could get one to take us and we had to give him double the price. I enjoyed the ride back though as we got to see the train station and the dangerous looking open crossing. Stuck in traffic we got many stares. What I loved was our driver chatting away or arguing with car drivers around as they were so close to each other. The downside to this was as Westerners stuck in traffic we were the focus of several stares as we were sat there powerless to do anything but smile back. Nothing offensive though and it was fairly funny.

Later we went out to the Defence Colony for some food and managed to get something less spicy for a bit of a breather whilst settling in. The beer was fairly cheap and many women were in this bar too. As it was 50% price on the second beer we had a couple more beers. Well it would have been rude not too. The greatly moustachioed doorman high-fived us on the way out and it was time for a ride home to sleep on my newly soft and fluffy pilllow.