Located in northern India, the Delhi metro area has 16 million people, second to Mumbai in India, and the eighth largest in the world. (Image: newKerala.com.)
Editor’s note: “Popeye” is a new contributor to Borderstan and is posting “Delhi Dispatches,” periodic reports on life in Delhi, India. He and his wife, “Olive Oyl,” are former Borderstanians, neighbors and friends of ours. They moved to India almost two years ago (Olive Oyl is originally from India) and are the proud new parents of a baby girl, “Swee’Pea.” No, these are not their real names, but there are lots of strange people out there and Popeye asked that we use pseudonyms.
Delhi Dispatch 2: October 6, 2009
Greetings from Delhi. I thought I would share a typical morning commute here in the Indian capital. It’s a bit different than my trip to downtown Washington when we lived in Borderstan.
Unless I drive (which is itself another adventure, and the subject of my next posting), it begins with flagging down and haggling with an auto rickshaw driver. I’ve gotten pretty good at this over the past year, which essentially means I’m able to minimize how often I get ripped off. Stress the word often. (more…)
Delhi, India: Located in northern India, the metro area has 16 million people, second to Mumbai in India, and the eighth largest in the world. (Image: newKerala.com.)
India has an estimated at 1.2 billion people, second only to China, and 70% live in rural areas. The landmass is about one-third that of the U.S. (Image: geocities.com.)
Editor’s note from mattyillini: “Popeye” is a new contributor to Borderstan and will be posting “Delhi Dispatches,” periodic reports on life in Delhi, India. He and his wife, “Olive Oyl,” are former Borderstanians, neighbors and friends of ours. They moved to India almost two years ago (Olive Oyl is originally from India) and are the proud new parents of a baby girl, “Swee’Pea.” No, these are not their real names, but there are lots of strange people out there and Popeye asked that we use pseudonyms.
Delhi Dispatch 1: August 25, 2009
This morning, Olive Oyl and I had an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, the capital, to apply for our daughter’s U.S. passport.
As we were getting ready to head out the door–rummaging through documents at the last minute, etc.–the doorbell rang. Happy at the thought of our driver arriving a few minutes early, I walked out onto our balcony expecting to look down and see our taxi driver waving up at me.
To my surprise (astonishment, really), I saw a group of about 10 eunuchs looking up at me who, upon seeing me, immediately started singing at the top of their voices, dancing and playing musical instruments.
