Delhi – Post Godzilla attack
July 25, 2010 in Location, Update
In the recently exposed trench two men dig through a mix of sewage and stagnate algae mud. Their entire bodies coved in the mix aside from their faces where the constant stream of sweat from the oppressive heat washes the vomit inducing combination off in a never ending cycle.
Welcome to Delhi, India.
Walking through the main bazaar you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Baghdad a day after US forces hit it with their ‘shock and awe’ campaign. The buildings lining the street are all in a state of de-construction. The steel support structures stick out jaggedly overhead, and only ragged tarps keep the occupants hidden from passers-by.
The ambitious plan is to widen the narrow bazaar, although at the moment any extra space generated by knocking down the shop-fronts is negated by the piles of debri left behind. I say it’s ambsious because the power poles still need to be moved, and the they are litterally an interwoven mess of cables.
Taking a walk towards the central park, a garden built in the middle of what can only be described as a giant roundabout, the signs of construction in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth games being hosted in Delhi, are everywhere.
Like the bazaar piles of construction material, rolls of cable and heavy machinary are littered throughout the city, in some cases just left in he middle of a lane of traffic.
Even the tourist zone is a building site with a constant hum and thump of jackhammers, and the resulting dust coats every surface. The workers, like the two men in the ditch, wear no safety equipment and use outdated poorly maintained tools. A large diesel generator is running a hyrolic system held together with electrical tap and gap filler, that coughs, splatters and dies repeatedly.
Heading to the Airport in an over priced cab, holding on for dear life as the taxi swerves through traffic, I’m glad I only had three days in the Indian capital. While the rest of India has been a a pleasure to travel through, Delhi is not a place I’ll likely return anytime soon.
GK out.
