Day 3, January 11

And then the real India began…. First of all, crowds of people. Secondly, it was soooo noisy from the drivers constantly honking. We crossed the railway tracks at New Delhi station via the pedestrian crossing.

We found ourselves at the beginning of the legendary Main Bazaar street. I don’t even know how to describe all this. At times there was a strong stench, and it was dirty. The street isn’t wide, and on both sides they sell things — mostly clothes. By the way, some of the clothes were quite nice. There were also lots of hotels, tuk-tuks, and people. We walked fairly quickly, as Volchiy wanted to get rid of the extra bag as soon as possible. When we reached the hotel we had read about, it turned out they didn’t want to take luggage. However, they did point out that there was a luggage storage room in a narrow alley opposite. The alley turned out to be a narrow passage between who-knows-what; it was dark, but at the end the sign “luggage storage room” was glowing. The place turned out to be quite decent, so we left the backpack there, and they gave us a receipt. It costs 5 rupees a day.
After dropping off the backpack, we went on walking further along the street.

Then Volchiy saw a man making tea, and we decided to have some. The tea turned out to be very tasty, similar to the one they served us for breakfast, but better. With milk and spices. In a tiny little shack, we sat on a soft sofa and sipped tea. It seemed to me that none of this was happening to me. After thanking them for the tea, we went on our way. Our route led to Old Delhi railway station. I thought it was close, but it turned out that it was nothing of the sort.
We walked and walked along some streets for a long time. Nothing changed much at all. Everywhere there were old, dilapidated buildings, and people were selling all sorts of things—vegetables, fruit, clothes. Or cooking something and washing dishes right there in horribly murky water. Tuk-tuks and cycle rickshaws sped past. From everything that was happening, from the noise and the number of people, my head was buzzing. I just wanted to close my eyes, see nothing, and turn the volume knob all the way down. After some time, we finally reached the station. The station building looked quite nice from the outside. Right in front of the entrance, people were sitting on the sidewalks: some were sleeping wrapped in blankets, some were just sitting, some were eating, spread out on the pavement.
Inside, we wandered back and forth. Until we saw a little room by the entrance with “Registration Enquiry” hanging on it. Inside the room were windows, with people crowding around them. There weren’t very many people, so we decided to go and ask about our ticket. The man looked something up on the computer and scribbled something incomprehensible on our sheet of paper. Although he wrote it confidently, so we calmed down, understood that we were at the right station, and that our ticket was valid. There were about four hours left before the train departed, so we decided to go for a walk. Volchiy found some fairly large pink area on the map in the navigator, not very far from the station, and we decided to head in that direction, figuring that the pink thing on the map must be some kind of landmark. And we were right :)

So, quite by chance, we found the Red Fort in Delhi, a very beautiful fort of impressive size, whose walls really were red. We noticed that people were standing in a long line to get inside the fort. After sitting around a bit and wandering aimlessly nearby, we saw some strange little animals. Very much like squirrels, only a little smaller and with stripes on their backs. Volchy decided they were badgers, which, to be honest, I rather doubt. Out of curiosity, we decided to stand in line, somehow thinking that since today was Sunday, entry to the fort would be free, and besides, the line was moving quickly, and we had nothing much to do. When we got almost to the end, the guard demanded tickets…. Well, in that case, we’ll come back here on the way back — when we have more time.
We slowly made our way back to the station. The scenery hadn’t changed much. The same noise, dirt, crowds of people. On the way we bought roasted peanuts. They roast peanuts here in a very funny way, piling them up and sticking a hot little pot into the heap.
At the station we went into McDonald’s for a snack. The girl couldn’t understand what a hamburger was; it was very funny. Then Volchy suggested a very sensible theory: since cows here are sacred creatures, what kind of hamburger could there be with a beef patty? We ordered two of the cheapest pies — one with egg, one with something unclear, but in principle not bad in taste. We drank tea.
Getting on the train was very funny. We found the right platform. A train was standing there, the board showed a different departure time and a different name — we decided it wasn’t our train, and that ours would arrive when this one left. Then the display changed, and our train’s name appeared. The train started moving, but very slowly. People began jumping off and on while it was moving. It all looked very comical. We waited for it to leave; there were about 5 minutes left until our train’s departure. But then it suddenly stopped. Then Volchy suddenly says, “Listen, what if this is our train.” We ran to check the train’s name; on the carriage there was a sign reading Jaisalmer — exactly, this was our train. Our tickets were for a second-class carriage. We entered a carriage with that designation, and some man ran up to me and asked to see the ticket. Then he said, “go, go, go,” and we rushed through the narrow carriage aisles, pushing all the passengers out of the way. We stopped opposite a compartment that was too nice for second class. But the man kept insisting that we get in, so we gave up and flopped down onto the soft seat. We looked around.

The carriage is a bit old, of course, but you can see it’s a good one. Wide berths, power sockets, a table, just like in our compartment — only there are four berths, and in second class I read there should also be side berths.
An Indian man of very neat appearance was sitting in the compartment. He said this was a first-class carriage. We showed him our tickets, and he explained that sometimes this happens: if there are free seats in first class, second-class passengers are moved to the available seats. Well, how lucky we were!
We somehow missed the meal, so we had to drink tea with biscuits. At first the price for lunch seemed high to us (165 rupees ~ 40 UAH), and then when we realized it wasn’t that much, and besides, we were hungry — it was already too late, and the man who was offering lunch had vanished. And never appeared again.
Outside the window, slums flashed by, children were gathered around a fire, clothes were drying on lines. It’s a pity it got dark so quickly and the landscape dissolved into the night. I wonder how these people live.
Volchiy said, “You saw that even in the slums they have their own little shops” — and indeed, I noticed something like stalls too. And people in the slums had electricity too, light bulbs were on. Where do they get it from, how do they pay for it?.... Or maybe they have money, they live like us, just at a slightly different level. They pay for electricity, buy something at the little shop next door, only they live in a slum.
It seems it’s time to sleep. Tomorrow morning we’ll keep staring out the window.