South Asia

India - through the eyes of a foreigner

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ November 21, 2005 ⋅  Email this post ⋅ Post a comment

One of my friends took the brave step of going to India for 5 weeks. He is Swiss, but has traveled extensively. Still, it was his first trip to South Asia, and I was keen to hear how he took it. Delhi, after all, has twice the number of people than all of Switzerland.

Well, his first few emails have arrived. With his permission, I’ll reproduce extracts of his impressions. Enjoy!

After two first noisy (horny) days in Dehli - now I understand what crowded means…I send you my best greetings from Leh, Ladakh in North India…3500m altitude, -10 degrees… in my guest house, there is no heater, no electricity and no tap water… and I am still wondering how the toilets are working… impossible to describe without a photo… :-))

People are such nice hosts that they make me forget the cold temperature. This morning I went up to 5600m on the highest road in the world… -25 degrees but such a view of the Himalaya… Hindi and buddhist temples are so impressive and beautiful… I had the chance to assist to a annual buddhist festival this afternoon…

Anyway, after only 3 days in India, each single day is emotionally so intense that I enjoy the next steps!

His subsequent email clarified what ‘horny’ means in this context:

By “horny” I just wanted to explain what is the new national sport in New Delhi…using as loudly and as often as possible the horn of your car at any time, any circumstance and any corner…. when you are in an autorickshow breathing the black smoke of the bus next to you and “listening” to the nice horn of the cars left, right and behind you the mixture is reallty explosive :-))