New Delhi

Flying in, the first thing I notice about New Delhi is that I can't notice anything...It is so horribly shrouded in a smoky, hazy cloud that it makes LA look like Yosemite. The visibility is no more than 200 yards in any direction, and I almost feel like I am in a dream, though not necessarily a good one...

The smog makes any hint of orientation a pipe dream, and I feel perpetually trapped within its confines: the streets all seem to lead to a murky oblivion. Each breath tastes like a pull from a cheap hand-rolled Indian bidi. Within 3 hours, I am already coughing up black mystery-paste, and my throat feels infected. This fine concotion of breathing material- I can't bring myself to call it air- results from thousands of car/motorcycle/rickshaw exhausts, unchecked factory emissions, and thousands of charcoal ovens in the streets (the coal is high in ash content: the dirtiest kind). People on the streets also burn wood and trash, which only adds to the problem. What I find crazy is that air particle pollution has decreased 30% in the last ten years, since public transportation switched from Diesel fuel to Compressed Natural Gas in 1999!

New Delhi seems to be part construction site, part farm, part slum, and part urban center. It has the energy of a big party (which people keep coming to and never leave) and the confusion of purgatory. The traffic reminds me of a crowded parking lot at an NFL game, and when things finally do get moving, there is absolutely no order to the traffic - cars, bicycles, rickshaws, cows, and pedestrians compete for every sliver of road space available. There is no right or wrong side of the street ("Left or right, it no matter" says my cab driver casually). Pedestrians have no right of way (that includes old ladies), and if you aren't careful you will get mowed down. Each driver honks his/her horn every few seconds to keep any drivers nearby in the loop, creating a symphony of honks (in India, horns are as important as steering wheels). BUT, it is surprisingly fun to get swept up in this circus of traffic, even though near death seems perpetual. The best part is seeing the calm expression on everybody's faces as they navigate the roads - this whole process seems as second nature to them as a religious ritual. I wonder if they know that every minute there is a car accident in India, and every 5 minutes a deadly one...

New Delhi has very odd contradictions that exist in few cities of its size. It is the richest city in India (the average income is 2x the national average), and the center of the Indian government- therefore the newer part of town is home to huge, stately government buildings and wide regal streets dating back to the British Raj. Yet nearby I see thousands of people living on the side of the roads in makeshift tents or shacks made of corrugated metal. Garbage piles up in mounds on the side of the road, waiting for the lower caste street sweepers (or a hungry cow) to come scoop it up. I occasionally see a businessman smartly dressed in a suit, talking on a cell phone, standing next to a homeless person. Every time my car stops at a light, a beggar woman or child comes to my window, pleading for money, sometimes hitting their heads against the window of my taxi. Such extreme wealth and poverty sharing the same space is hard to understand, because there is really no explanation.

As of now, New Delhi has an "official" count of 16-17 million people. You can add on a few more million who are not being counted or who are passing through for a few hours or days at any given time. By 2025, the "official" population count is expected to be 30 million people (more like 35-40 million in reality). Up to 40 million people living in a place as polluted and crowded as this will cause huge problems. Currently 1/8 of premature deaths in India are caused by pollution. And the total health-care costs for pollution-related illnesses in India total up to 4.5%of its GDP (in other words, pollution wipes out half of India's annual economic growth). If this pollution does not subside drastically, many more people will become sick or die. People do not seem to be physically fighting over food, land, or water yet, but if people continue to outnumber resources, you can bet that people will do whatever it takes to survive. Leave it to Gandhi to put it best: "Crores [tens of millions] of people will never be able to live in peace with each other in towns and palaces. They will then have no recourse but to resort to violence and untruth."

The big problem is that the city is paralyzed by a tangle of red tape. The police are under the control of the National Government, the State Government controls governing the city, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi handles roads, sewage, and local taxation. Because these factions are not under any single oversight body, coordinating even the most minor infrastructure project is nearly impossible. Fortunately, the Metro system is making good progress, and it will likely reduce a good amount of traffic on the streets when it is completed in a few years. I sincerely hope it works, because New Delhi is buckling under its own weight.

On a more personal level, the New Delhites that I ran into have not been honest. My first interaction occurred after I got off my plane, and went to an official kiosk in the main airport lobby to buy a bottle of water. A cheerful, smiling man greeted me and sold me a bottle...that wasn't sealed! He had filled an empty bottle with local Delhi water (Welcome to India! Enjoy your dysentary!)... When I showed him, he quickly gave me a new one, with a mock expression of sorrow. I quickly realized that I couldn't trust anybody, as much as I wanted to.

Then, my cab driver from the airport couldn't find my hotel after driving around the narrow side streets of the old town for over an hour. He took me to a "travel agency," which then told me that all hotels in Delhi were overbooked, due to the upcoming Republic Day Festival in New Delhi and a horrible fog problem that was stranding and delaying all trains (one train I took in India was about 5-6 hours late). I even had a reservation at a hotel, but the "agent" called the hotel, which then told him that they doublebooked and thus gave my room to someone else (whether that is true or not I will never know). People have told me that the hotel owner could've sold my room for triple the price due to high demand. I could've neglected the agent's advice and gone on a search for hotels on my own, but I was too jetlagged and intimidated by this beast of a city that I gave in. I pretty much left town after only 2 hours for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal (in an overpriced private taxi that he arranged of course). First impressions last though, and two hours was enough time to see the worst parts of the city.

However relieving it was to leave, I am upset that I didn't get to experience some of the good parts of the city. Friends of friends live there, and I wanted to meet them. New Delhi is also said to have some of the best Indian (and Chinese)food in the world, and the hottest nightclubs in India. And from what I briefly saw, the diversity of people in Delhi was amazing- Tamils and Tibetans; Hindus and Muslims; beggars and billionaires; Holy Men and businessmen. When I was there, it never for a second failed to excite me and stimulate my senses.

This city is like a bad car accident - it may be an ugly scene, but you can't help being curious and watching things unfold.

New Delhi will continue to be one of the biggest and most important cities in the world. It is a wealthy city that has the potential to do much good for India and for the world, but it is also a den of poverty that has the potential to collapse into chaos. It is up to the Indian people to decide which direction things go from here...