I’m starting to get the hang of Delhi… it takes a couple of days to adjust to the tone of a new place. I’m staying in a fairly calm, prosperous area (one street seemed a version of Harley St, with a lot of plastic surgery premises). And the Rwandan embassy is nearby, and a fancy-looking cafe called ‘big fat sandwich’. It’s been okay to walk around these streets getting my bearings but there comes a point when the perimeter needs to be expanded. I chose the area quite randomly- one of the first air bnbs I saw: cheap, hard mattress, breakfast. No need to look any further. Yesterday I was up early again and found some other little parks, where there was plenty of exercising and stretching going on in the chilly morning sunshine. I sat on a bench and watched them, wondering when I would be blessed with enough energy to join them. 

I decided to give myself a task. I’d googled ‘photo galleries’ and one had come up called Photoink. This was a good opportunity to try out the metro, and off I went south out of the city. I came out of the metro onto a large road and followed google map to the road that led to the gallery. This led me to a dusty a lane, past a bit of a rubbish tip and a herd of scavenging monkeys, and then into a field. A dog was on the path and started barking at me, so I turned around. I found a cut-through to the main road, avoiding the monkeys. I asked an auto-rickshaw driver to take me there, but he couldn’t make sense of my map. I suppose I should’ve persevered and approached the gallery from a different angle, but I just got back on the metro, leaving the gallery, stuck in a field somewhere, for another day. I decided instead to find a yoga place that had been recommended to me, a few stops away from my area (Hauz Khas). I got there eventually and followed the sign into the building and up to the second floor, where I found a deserted kindergarten. The security guards wouldn’t show me where it was, they just kept saying it was closed. I think they were a bit worried by the camera and my plaintive cries about the yoga place not existing. Eventually a friendly guy on his way out told me it was on the first floor and to come back on Monday.

It’s these little human interactions that are problematic. I lack the skill to navigate them simply and I always feel like I’m making a hash of these situations requiring communication skills. It’s ok if I’m feeling calm and positive, but when a small problem crops up the lack of connectivity is sorely felt. I’m still learning to manage my reactions so they are as normal as possible, even if I feel cut-off from the situation, and also to accept that I can’t chat with people in the same carefree way as before. 

Back on the street I decided to try a third place: a cafe that I’d seen on the map with an exciting title: Kunzum Travel Cafe. It was near the deer park/water tank (pond) that I’d visited before. It was a fairly lively area of shops, bars etc. There were even some other foreigners there. Near the cafe was a park and an old, quite impressive look-out over the park. The sun was setting, couples hid in the alcoves, others sat on the walls of the old palace and posed for pictures. I was exploring the walls when a young guy hauled me into a video chat with his friend. So I chatted to him (them) for a bit, when really I was quite content to be in silent mode, and he showed me a mausoleum round the corner with the tombs of the Mughal guy who’d built the place, with his wife and son. Then a man started parading around blowing a whistle telling everyone to dismount the walls and get out. I said farewell to the guy and had a look at his instagram: mostly him posing in sunglasses with a leather jacket flung over his shoulder. He was only 20 and seemed a bit sad, but by the look of his page he was on his way to becoming an electrical engineer/male model. The travel cafe turned out to be a bit lifeless, but there was a wall of notes pinned up detailing visitor’s travel dreams, a la “To go on totally crazy and unexpected trips, meet different people and enjoy all the little things, share and learn.” Well yes, that would indeed be lovely. I quite liked this one: “To visit places that will help me forget my worries and will help me to find myself and my peace that is there within. A wish to move into the chaos to settle the chaos within. Amen.” Amen! My heart, however, is with Vimil: “Any fucking European country. Just need some money.” Hope he’s not disappointed when he gets there. I also saw a book of bizarre road warnings. I’d been to India years ago (eight?) and remembered all these funny slogans (‘peep peep don’t sleep’) from the mountain roads in Sikkim and had wished I’d written some down. Now I’ve got the book- didn’t need to write them down after all.

The  jet lag is fading and the appeal of a dawn walk is lessening. Today I decided to do some laundry and was told to download an app. Didn’t really want to use an app. Just fancied taking it to a little shop (since I can’t do it at the guesthouse) and picking it up later, all slightly-too-well-folded. Tried the app. The guy didn’t turn up to collect it. He said he would come again later. No luck, so I  went out for a walk, as there is some maintenance work going on at the guesthouse which has involved a fair amount of banging and a lot of dust. Decided to do my well-tested trick of getting off at a random metro station. Headed towards the centre and got off at the nice-sounding Udyog Bhawan. Photo-opportunity: pile of leaves and a fence in the afternoon light- a very yellowy composition. Got told by a policeman to stop. Realised I was at the Ministry of Defence. Walked towards a large fountain and a greenish area, past a lot of barbed wire. A grand area, with well-watered grass. I saw a family of monkeys chilling on the grass and decided they looked less likely to attack me than the ones at the rubbish dump and started to video them on my phone. I’m generally quite disturbed by monkeys, but there was a baby one. A man in a car beckoned me over and started questioning me, officiously taking down my details (I lent him my pen), and it was some moments before I was released from custody. I was by the Parliament, which looks like a stone football stadium. Absorbed the governmental grandeur before taking a rickshaw (enjoying the chats with the drivers) to Connaught Place- ah! We’re in the big city at last. An oversized ring of white London crescents with a Saturday crowd: Hubbub and shops and promenaders, street dancers and live music coming from bars. A good place to assess the general look and flow of the Delhi-dwellers.