New Delhi - Beady eye!

We are sitting on the train getting ready to leave New Delhi, there will be smoke coming from our tails as we depart!! It has been a manic three days. Everyone joked with us when we were complaining about the visa application process that the embassy did it to give you a taste of India. We laughed at the time but now I realise they were not joking! I have never been in such a stress inducing, confusing place in my life!

Everything is a battle here and information is so hard to come by. Even something so small as purchasing an onward train ticket proved to be almost impossible. It took two days and about six hours to obtain the seats we are now sitting on.. I won't even go into details or you'll be here for hours!

Delhi is completely manic. There are people everywhere. With an astounding population of 1.3billion we were aware India would be very different but i don't think anyone can prepare themselves for what you meet when arriving. I mean there are 20million people in Delhi alone, that's at least four times the population of Ireland!!

You are never alone here and if you stop on the street for more than twenty seconds there is someone either hassling you to buy something, begging or looking for your autograph!

taking a kip at the spice market

I find the men here particularly awful, I think that's what's made the first few days so unpleasant. They outnumber the women massively. For every 100 men in an area you would be lucky to see about 7 women, that's no exaggeration. It's crazy and they make me feel so uncomfortable. The stare right through us. Everywhere we walk I feel hundreds of eyes monitoring our every move. We were wondering if Liam Gallagher was inspired by a resent trip to India! Even when you catch the men staring and you stare right back at them they continue to look at you without blinking, not embarrassed in the slightest by being caught ogling you. I hate it.

The women on the other hand are amazing. They stare too but when you look back they smile and coyly look away. They dress so beautifully in Saris of every colour and decorate their hands with stunningly intricate henna ink work. The older ladies are my favourite. Dressed in identical saris to the younger girls showing off their bigger bellies! Their grey hair is so long and perfectly platted . I love it. They dress their kids so beautifully too. It's not strange to see a newborn baby in a dress wearing eye liner with their ears pierced and tiny little bracelets around their wrists and ankles.

I do feel very bad for the women here in Delhi. I have read about the situation here and it is not just my experience as a tourist, the local women have awful trouble with men too. In Delhi especially the numbers of reported abuse, harassment and rape are huge. Abductions are common and are very evident by the missing women's posters lining the walls in New Delhi train station. The divide between men and women and the treatment is completely primitive.

The poverty is immense here.I have seen lots of homeless people both at home and abroad, but is in an entirely different story here. I have observed two different kinds of poverty here so far. The first are the people who live in the slums by the railways on on the streets. They beg on the streets, their kids are quite savvy business people! It happened a couple of times that we've wimped out and given them money, they look into their hand with disgust and then demand more!

Their situation is bad but they have a community. On the street at night they sit in groups around a fire boiling chai and talking. Even thought they have very little I believe they look out for one another and no one seems to be hungry. We are passing by a large slum now as I write and it looks like a little village. Their wooden shacks are literally built on top of one another but there are winding streets in between where I can see kinds playing together and fighting with sticks. Women are hanging out their washing. Men are sitting in groups chatting (nothing new there!) some appear to have fantastic carpentry skills and are making wooden chairs and tables. There is even a newsagent style shop and they have electricity.

I have empathy for these people. But they are surviving. They have created a way of life of their own.

The second type of poverty is people that are waiting for death. I know that sounds dramatic but it is what I've seen.

The paths along the street are dotted by frail bodies that are too weak to even beg. They lie outstretched and still. They are frighteningly thin and covered in the dust kicked up by people rushing past them. They literally look like they could die any minute, and sometimes are lying so still you question has it already happened? It's shocking.

I have never seen so many people who are on the verge of death. It seems so hopeless.

We watch the Indian tv at night and see the affluent side to India which surpasses wealth that I even thought was possible. The third richest road in the world is in India and it's inhabitants collectively own over $30 billion. I don't understand how this is possible and how there is no infrastructure to support the poor.

The social situation is a mess.I know things are not so good in Ireland at the moment but there is governmental help from the social welfare and private help from organisations like S.V.P. People in need of help are not left to suffer and starve. If you just saw one Irish person on the streets in the condition I have seen here there would be national outrage.

It has really made me appreciate what we have at home and the support we are offered if need be. I have made a promise never to complain about a job I have again because that mere fact gives me security and helps me build the future I am so lucky to create. There are millions of people who would give anything to live in that circumstance and they will never have the opportunity. That is wrong and what is even worse it that I complain about all I do have.

It wasn't all bad. There was one delighful hour we spent sneezing our way through Khari Baoli spice market in Old Delhi!...

men men men men men!

Anyway, I have to say New Delhi has been the first negative place we have visited so far and I have no great ambitions to return. We are on the way to Rajastan now, first stop Jaipur. I have high hopes for India, outside of New Delhi, just hope I'm right or Luke's going to have us on a plane to Cambodia before I know it!!!                    

so long Delhi!!