I arrived in Delhi at 6am on March 3rd. The airport is somehow new and clean, and I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the warnings I had received about the squalor and over-population were unfounded. Turns out my conclusion was wrong.
Delhi, while vibrant and interesting, is not exactly a beautiful vacation spot. There is trash everywhere. The smells – good and bad – are pungent. There are too many people everywhere you look. It actually reminds of Mexico: tons of buildings and stalls that you have to assume were new at some point, but you can't quite imagine when. Once a light rain set in, the streets turned into mud pits, and the city began to look even more unlivable. Surviving and entire rainy season would be out of the question.
The worst of the over-crowding is the metro system. It was packed the entire day. If you couldn't manage to maneuver away from the doors, the crowds just sweep you out with them. Women have separate cars because it is impossible to tell accidental from intentional groping. The roads are just as crowded. With buses, cars, taxies, scooters, rickshaws, and people fighting for space, no one ends up going more than 15mph, and no cars are more than 2” apart when driving. I'm sorry if I ever complained about Houston traffic.
It should somehow be illegal for 20mm+ people to live in the same city.
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