One Night in Delhi

Greetings from New Delhi, my droogies. It’s my first time back in India after 10 years, and boy has the place changed. Ten years ago there was no email or cell phone service. Now, the entire world is so connected.

After arriving quite refreshed after my upgraded flight (!!) I was met by my friend Sylvie and her boyfriend Assim, who took me out to the Cafe Morrisson: a blues bar based on US rock’n’roll, specifically the music and style of Jim Morrisson. Quite surreal really.

So I am drunk on one large bottle of beer (hey, I’m a lightweight) and trying to recollect what I have thus learned. My impression, based mostly on Assim’s assertions (he was born and raised in Delhi), is that Delhi is rapidly being pushed into the future. A subway is being built and, in Assim’s words, those who cannot afford to live in the new overpriced Delhi are being encouraged to live elsewhere. Delhi is being remade into the Indian Paris, while Bombay is becoming the Indian Shanghai.

Modernity, youth and hipness are the dictates of the day. I am an unfashionable old man here. My clothes –hiker chic– are inappropriate in this fashion conscious place. My minimal Hindi is old and out of place.

I am off to bed now. Curious… ther’s no place to recharge my phone!

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