trapped in delhi

i don't think i have the heart right now for a long entry. i'm pretty well demoralized by delhi and my 3 failed attempts to escape it:

first night: missed train

second night: ticket office closed

third night: train cancelled?

i don't really know if the train was cancelled or not. here's what happened: last night i hung out with bharat again and we went to yet another gem of delhi that 99% of travelers must pass by: dilli haat. it's sort of a cultural expose where restaurants and merchants get a booth with their state's name on it. so you can buy food from rajasthan, or clothes from madhya pradesh, or whatever. a great learning experience and a clean, orderly place unlike most markets in delhi. actually, you have to pay 15 rupees to get into dilli haas, but it is worth it, and the fact that you have to pay is probably what keeps it so nice in there. bharat also really dove into his passion as we chatted - he's the founder of an organization called World Without Obstacles. it's a budding endeavor with about 200 members. the mission and operation are a bit loose, but from what i gathered, he is trying to knit together an intercultural community where any member can begin an effort in their particular country, or partipate in another country's effort, to make a change for some sort of good. for example, bharat has started a program where they take poor children in and teach them computer skills, then try to connect them with employers. but the efforts seem to be varied - for example, apparently there are members in the united states working on giving yoga and meditation sessions. these efforts can receieve support from the organization. but it seems like bharat doesn't want people to stay in their own country - he wants indians to go to russia, to china, to wherever, and for americans and russians (or whatever), to come to india. the cultural exchange is a really important part of this for him. to check out his website, visit http://worldwithoutobstacles.org/

so i went to the train station, extra early this time for obvious reasons, and stared at the big electronic board that displays the trains about to arrive and depart, and from which platform. many people had told me this was very simple - just find your train number and find the corresponding platform. my number, 1077, was not on there. i waited and waited, and it still did not appear. there were mobs of people at the station, and i just stood there like a statue while a sea of people just flowed around me. with 20 minutes left until 9:00, when the train was supposed to leave, i decided to walk to a different part of the station. suddenly, while walking, i heard a voice from the loudspeaker say "may i have your attention please. train number 1077" - here i froze in place - "is reported approximately 2 hours, 20 minutes behind schedule." the message was then repeated in hindi. ohhh...this is nice. so i wait 2 hours and 20 minutes basically standing in place again near the board. my train number never appears. i go to where they are making the announcements through the loudspeaker. they never mention my train again. it's past midnight. i give up and walk back to pahar ganj, where the hotel i was staying at every night is full, and i just walk down the slightly eerie, entirely closed, barely lit street of the main bazaar until i found a decent, vacant, hotel.

i called bharat this morning and he suggested that maybe the train was cancelled. maybe. i was just really pissed last night because it seems like nothing can go smoothly here. that's part of the trip, though...i know, and i just have to accept it and even like it, but at the time i wanted to scream and swear at someone, just to get it out of my system.

above: dilli haat

above: ramakrishna ashram marg metro station, near pahar ganj