My impression of Delhi

I have been in Delhi for one week now. Delhi is actually two cities Old Delhi and New Delhi. Old Delhi does not have much in it, so when you say Delhi you are referring to New Delhi.

The city is not very nice. Not only is there a lot of poverty, but most everything is dirty. There are some beautiful tombs and mosques, but overall it is not that nice. To me it is like touring a poor city in Mexico that has nice monuments. Everyone who has anything to do with tourism (drivers, restaurant owners, shop owners, "free" guides, etc) has no problem with conning a tourist. It seems to be the way of life here. Not just having higher prices for a foreigner (which is to be expected) but drivers will take you to expensive shops against your will because the store owners pay them to.

One humorous example of this culture was a small boy who insisted I take a picture of him. I figured why not, if it makes him happy. He then charged me 10 Rupees (about 25 cents). I laughed at his inventive entrepreneurship and refused. He then asked for 2 Rupees and I agreed. If he wants 5 cents that bad, I figured he earned it. But getting conned by an eight year old is pretty funny.

Thankfully I know some locals on a personal level through work, so I know that most Indians are very kind and giving people. I doubt many tourists get this impression because they do not have the opportunity I do. The people at work are so nice and social. Everyone in the office greets me multiple times a day even though I do not know most of them. I had my lunch bought for me twice even though I insisted that it wasn't necessary.

Some crazy things about India:

• It is very common to see a man urinating on the side of the road.
  
• There are cows and dogs walking around that do no belong to anyone. Although they have freedom, they seem very unhappy because they have little access to food and water.
  
• Sometimes men hold hands while walking together as a sign of friendship.
  
• There is a head movement of shaking you head diagonally (top of head to the right and chin to the left, and then top of head to the left and chin to the right) which means ok, yes, or I understand. To an American it looks like they are shaking there head "No", but they are saying yes.
  
• Women usually sit as passengers on a motorcycle side-saddle. Sometimes they are even carrying their baby on their lap.
  
• Traffic laws are not followed at all.

The traffic here is unlike anywhere else in the world (I hope). Most red lights and stop signs are ignored completely. There is little room for side view mirrors as cars drive in the lanes and in-between the lanes. A 4 lane highway is used as a 6-7 lane highway. Motorcycles zoom in and out of this crazy traffic even with women sitting sidesaddle, I have no idea how they stay on. Fender benders are very common as are broken down abandoned cars in the middle of the road. There is no such thing as yielding to a pedestrian or another car. I have seen several pedestrians get hit, although not seriously hurt. The hardest thing to adjust to is the non-stop horn honking. Signaling is not used here, instead when you are going to pass someone or if someone is moving into your lane you honk the horn. You do not look before you change lanes you just do it and if someone is there they will honk at you. Honking is not used out of anger or frustration; it is simply a part of normal driving. Because of this the noise pollution is very high. If you are near a major road, you will hear horns 24 hours a day.