I knew I was in India when:
- First thing that hits you when you disembark from the plane is the beautiful smells -- its a mixtures of a 25 million sweaty people, about 12 million men urinating in public, mixed with the oily food cooked on the streets of Delhi.......! Ah, but its a smell that lives with you even when you stop living!
- Then you walk through customs, and after queing for like 5 mins (yes, that's changed now), you spend 10 mins at the counter (this hasn't changed yet) being stared at by the very interested power driven person behind the counter. He/She will glance at your passport, then back and you . After doing this like a hundred times, and making you feel so uncomfortable that you want to pretend you are a smuggler so you can be taken away from there, he/she will ask 'is this your photo madam'. You say 'yes, ofocurse'. And get into a nervous banter 'oh, it looks different because it was taken about 4 years ago, when I had short hair, and less pounds on my face, and ....'. You get stopped short ... 'go'...! You feel ridiculous standing there just having spent a good amount of time justifying your silly passport photo to the person.
- you go out to collect you baggage, and ALL people of Indian origin are almost on top of the conveyor belt. Like their baggage will come any faster if they stood on top of it!
- Baggage arrives soon enough! In one piece! Great! Then you make your way out -- only to be greeted by hundreds of taxi drivers to hire their taxi. You look for that knight in shining armour to rescue you! He arrives -- with a placard saying 'MR.....' You look at him and say 'hi its me'., He looks at you and says back 'Sorry madam, looking for Mister Raju'. You explain in torrid hindi...! He understands and takes your baggage, including your hand bag. You want to tell him not to take your hand bag, but he won't listen. You run a few paces behind him. The heat getting to you and your reach the most elegant car! You get in, and get given a cold face towel. Great idea.... but you think, 'has this been washed'? Then you let go, and wipe your face dry. Then you get given a bottle of cold water...and then 'madam, welcome to Delhi'. For the briefiest moment you allow yourself to be indulged, forgetting that you are in Delhi/India. Then you look out of the window!...........
and........... it's all over for you! You have fallen in love!
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Awwwwwwwwwww thats beautiful ..... I still remember the smell when I first hit India, except it was in Mumbai for me at about 11pm at night..the airport reminded me of a public toilet and had little men with huge guns standing looking, 100's of taxi's waiting for my fare and the smell....cows, urine, chilli's, dogs, kids and the rest...I just sat in the taxi and stared out the window somehow knowing I would not want to leave and would be back again before I even had started that journey .......... GLK
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