Delhi

Delhi is one of the ten largest cities in the world with 16 million inhabitants. As many other major cities in developing countries it has grown haphazardly in strange ways. Large inflows of population and changes in lifestyle make it almost impossible for public services and infrastructure to keep up. Roads are congested and unwalkable, half of them seem to be under construction, there are no sidewalks to speak of in most parts of the city and there is constant honking and car noises. And in the summer before the monsoon the heat is unbearable (at least for me).

At first I felt as when I was little and I visited my grandmother in northern Mexico. The heat in the summer is as bad or worse than Delhi's. Story goes I would open the door to the street and after feeling the hot dry wind I would shake my head and say "nooooooo" and close the door, as to keep the heat out. But Delhi has ways of opening the door unexpectedly. For example, you might not realize it right away, but there are actually a lot of trees in the city and parks. My favorite were the Lodhi gardens. After crossing the gates all the traffic and noise and stress of the city disappear. The old mughal ruins and the trees take you to a different world. As the sun set and the heat diminished people came to the park to walk and to socialize. Children playing, couples taking a stroll, old men talking, some joggers (women in full salwar kameez and tennis shoes); and then the city takes on a very different personality that is very enjoyable, as if a door opens into a private courtyard away from the noise of the street.

Delhi is a very old city and you can feel it, the way it refuses to sit still in any period. Inhabited since the 6th century BC, it became the capital of the mughal empire in 1639. would remain the capital of the empire until 1857, when Calcutta became the capital of the British Raj until 1911. From the Mughal period comes the Red Fort, that even if a bit unkempt, still shows signs of what it must have been, with fountains and marble halls with jeweled inlays; the same for Humayun's tomb. It is funny to see how the mughals, and later on Lutyens, tried to impose structure and geometry on the city, and the city rebels against it. It will do things its own way, no matter how much we would like to order it, Delhi follows its own rules. Trying to do things in our own terms will only tire us. It's better to sit back, wait for the sun to go down and wait for the city to surprise you. Opening the door might not be so bad.