My current favorite thing about Delhi is ironically also my least favorite part of Delhi. I love riding the autos (motor-rickshaws), metro, and bus alone. There is something so beautifully independent, thrilling, and self-accomplishing about taking foreign transportation. I love the feeling of sitting in an auto, after I have bargained the auto man for a reasonable, and not ripp-off, price. I love how I get taxied through the crazy streets of Delhi. I also love walking down the stairs to the metro and using my metro card, getting on the correct subway train, and getting off at the correct end point. I also enjoy people watching on these trains. Then, I love taking the bus from the metro station to my house. The buses here only stop for seconds, and today I had to grab the handle bars and pull myself onto the bus just as the driver was shifting it into gear. I love being the only non-Indian on the bus. Actually, it’s the only time I don’t feel stared at for being a white foreigner, and don’t feel like a foreigner.
That being said, I really dislike that it takes me an hour to get from my house to my classes. My commute to class is only about 20 minutes longer than the other students, so I can’t complain too much, but complaining is the essence of human nature.
***
I know it is wrong to categorize an entire nation, but I have come across many nice, and helpful people so far in my Delhi experience. I can recall three-four—six times when someone has gone out of our way to help us lost Americans find our way. The most recent was yesterday. My friends and I were in this huge central market in Lajpat Nagar, and we were trying to find this fitness gym my friend wanted to check out. After calling the gym and asking, we found out it was next to the Reebok shoe store. Of course we had no idea where that was, so we asked. We asked a random lady, and she asked someone else in Hindi where it was because she didn’t know either. Then, when we were uncertain if were still going in the right direction, she appears from across the street, crosses the street, and points us in the right direction. When we finally got to the Reebok store, we still had no idea where this gym was, so we asked. One of the store workers who knew where the gym was walked us to the gym! Then, today on the subway, I scanned for vacant seats, and thinking there were none, proceed to stand. A woman called my attention and pointed out an open seat that I had missed.
***
Back to dogs in Delhi…
So I am discovering their ways—the dogs outside my complex. Hans appears to fly solo (star wars) and always acts macho, like he’s top dog. (Maybe he is…) Then, there is a “pack” of dogs that seem to run together. Within this pack, there is a female (I’m pretty sure she’s pregnant), and a male (I think). The female is this cute little blond-orange lab looking thing; the male (?) is white with brown patches. There is another dog in this pack but I suddenly forgot what it looks like. Hans and the other dogs are always around in the mornings when I wait for my bus that I take to the metro around 7 AM. Hans likes to stand, sit, and sleep by this particular, wimpy looking, bush that is right by the edge of the market, which is also right behind where I stand on the sidewalk at the bus stop.
Yesterday morning I was waiting for the bus, and saw the orange-blond little mama at said hello to her. A lot of us (girls) in the group have gotten into this habit of baby talking to the dogs, since we can’t love on them. So I probably said something like, “Oh, hey wittle cootie pie” or something utterly ridiculous—but all of the sudden the dog realizes I’m talking to her, and lobs herself at my legs and just starts rubbing up against me, sort of how cats rub up against people. Her tail is wagging so hard that her whole body is wagging. Her friend White-Brown-Patches sees her and come to me wagging as well. Honestly, it was a very innocent little gathering, and if I had thought for a heartbeat that these dogs were going to go feral or crazy on me, I would have figured something out to get them away from me. But in the moment, it was so purely sweet and heartening that I patted their heads with my hand, which was wrapped in the sleeve of my jacket.
Eventually, I stopped talking to them (as if I didn’t stand out here enough!) and the dogs receded, but stood near me to the bus came. Not gonna lie, I liked it.
***
P.S. I officially almost give up on this whole not using toilet paper thing. Here is my logic: Delhi is in a water crisis, so why use water to wash my backside when I can use this cute little square of paper…Yep.
