DELHI DIARY

It must be a very cruel, twisted fate that required me to go to Delhi on the hottest day of the season. Now, who am I kidding? It must be the hottest day in a CENTURY! 49.5 Deg C? That's 50, half the boiling point of water!

Taking the much delayed IC flight, I landed in Delhi at about 1 p.m. instead of at 9-30 a.m. There was much tutting n the plane when the pilot mentioned the weather bit, but NOTHING prepared us for the microwave blast that welcomed us when the crew opened the door.

Now, everything I say is going to sound stale,but if I were to describe how I felt then. It was like sitting in a microwave oven, with heat swirling in circles around you, below you, above you... in you. You feel nothing else. Until you sweat. Who said you don't sweat in Delhi? You sweat so much, the shirt sticks to your body in wet shapeless patches and then if you've worn shoes with socks, well, forget it! The two short days I was there, I survived mostly thanks to Friend B's nice old air con in Vasant Kunj. PheW!

Strangely, the heat doesn't seem to affect Species Delhiite delhiites! But then, it's another world altogether.

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What is with the explosion of North Easterners in Delhi. North Eastern India, I mean, and outside beauty parlours, where anyway they rule the roost along with a handful of Sri Lankans. But you see them in droves, either serving behind elite coffee/tea bars of Vasanth Vihar, or just hanging out together in pairs. I presume this mass migration has happened over the last 4-5 years, give or take a few years.
Is the North East becoming a less friendly place or is Delhi more welcoming?
I'd bet on the first.

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Delhi has a halo these days. Halo of dust, suspended particulate matter, carbon monoxide, dioxide, whatever. It sits on the city constantly making a hot summer day look misty. If we don't watch out, there'd be a gaping ozone hole right where Delhi once was. Perhaps, we should shift the capital city. And if we have a referrendum, please vote for any city by the sea.

* * *

Deccan Airways has me astounded. The return flight was bang on time to the last second, the staff were courteous, the food not THAT over priced. Their pilots are however the very best. You neither feel the take off and as for the landing, its the smoothest I've had in several years of taking flights in different countries. Someone tells me they are Russian. REally? In this part of the world you don't hear much about Russian men as you do about Russian women.
But hey, waitaminute. Was that a toilet roll the air hostess just passed over my head to a colleague??!!!

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Chennai, I've concluded, is heaven. I'm not going to complain about the heat in my home town for a long while to come. When I begin to complain again, remind me take another short trip to Delhi to refresh my memory and be assured that God's in his heaven and all's right with my small part of the world!