NEW DELHI–Greetings from New Delhi. Not sure what they did in the renovation, but Wawa is still the best deli in my book. Maybe you can make a decent argument for Publix.
I was promised chaotic streets filled with cows and debatable levels of human excrement, but I was pleasantly surprised at the introduction to the city. Cows were confined to the medians, and the highways seemed surprisingly western. I think our driver drove on the wrong side of the road just once. And the only evidence of excrement was confined to the atmospheric stench.
I rode an Uber from our hotel in Aerocity to the Sacred Heart Cathedral downtown. The chaotic streets began to live up to their promise as I soon realized that lane lines were suggestions at best and aesthetic accoutrements at worst. In most cases, four rows of cars occupied a three-lane-wide road. It helped that many of these vehicles were mopeds or motorized rickshaws barely wider than golf carts.
Along the boulevards downtown, banners advertised the Artificial Intelligence summit , picturing a smiling Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi’s gray, congenial visage made the international meeting seem more like a grandfather convening his friends because he just learned how to use Chat GPT.
On our only full day in the city, we vacated the city altogether and rode a bus four hours to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. The Taj comprised less than half our time in Agra. We spent the remaining portion of the itinerary being toured through showrooms of handmade rugs, jewelry, and marble products. The Taj was just a convenient way to lure tourists into the hands of salesmen eager to dip into the pockets of American currency. Some of my crewmates spent upwards of $1500 USD on the various luxuries of Indian labor.
After our shopping spree, we ate lunch at the Salt Cafe in a private dining room vaguely overlooking the Taj. I say vaguely because an elevated metro line obscured the bottom half of the world wonder. As a train pulled into the station across the street, one of the crewmembers remarked, “Is this Epcot?”
That’s what this job feels like sometimes. Nowhere else does one get whipped between global destinations so quickly.
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