First week in Delhi: Getting used to traffic, air and food

Finally after two days in India I have found some time to write a note about my travel, arrival and first days here. Nothing extraordinary happened but there are always experiences and topics worth mentioning for a variety of reasons, like the anecdote about my confusing identity with which I will begin. When I handed in my Polish passport and my Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card, the Polish Airlines employee seemed puzzled. She looked and looked at both documents, flicked through the pages and then started making a series of phonecalls, probably to some internal help line. I could not hear what she was saying but the case of a Polish passport issued in Barcelona with an attached Indian document that has an address in Barcelona in it must have been too much of a riddle. Finally after some ten or fifteen minutes I was treated like all the other passengers and allowed to check in my luggage.

After a seven hour flight in which I found myself unable to sleep as it happened during my day time (takeoff at 16:30 and landing at midnight), the wheels of the plane made contact with the tarmac of the Delhi airport and the big Boeing 787 came to a halt at the terminal. The difference between Delhi and Warsaw is enormous in every possible way, as is the difference between any Indian and European city for that matter. The first thing many people notice when they land is the extremely poor air quality. It's not that the pollution levels are low in Warsaw but the air will seem almost pure to you if you compare it to Delhi's, which has some of the worst air quality indexes in the world. In fact, the toxicity is so noticeable that I felt it inside the plane while it was still taxiing right after landing and the moment the door was opened and the passengers started leaving, my first thought was that some enourmous fire must have been burning in the vicinity of the airport. In fact there was no air, we were inhaling smoke. When I made a comment about it to the stewardess at the exit, she said "Don't even tell me, I hate flying here"... It isn't precisely the most welcoming experience that one is expecting when arriving at a place.

The Delhi airport is enormous and we had to walk ten minutes through modern, fully carpeted corridors to get to the immigration counters, set in a spacious hall with two rows of counters on opposite sides: one for Indian nationals and one for foreigners, including OCI card holders. After a long wait for the immigration formalities I could finally pick up my suitcase and get going. It was after five AM when I took the train. I had to change to a metro line and then another one. It was still dark outside but the traffic was already very congested. When I got to Nehru Place, the closest metro station to my uncle's house, I realised that not changing my euros into rupees at the airport was a mistake. As there was no wifi connection at the airport, I did not have my uncle's address either. Finally a guard at a local hotel allowed me to make a phonecall to my uncle, who came to pick me up by car. By the time I was at his place it was already around seven o'clock, but for my body it was still half past two in the morning due to the time difference. I only managed to get some sleep at around twelve (seven thirty CET) and slept for quite a long time, which didn't help me in overcoming the jet lag.

Let's return to air pollution, as now is the time of the year when it's at its peak in Delhi. Perhaps it's even worse during the hindu festival of Diwali when hundreds of thousands of firecrackers are fired for its celebration. The air tends to be ranked as "good", "satisfactory" or "moderate" from February to September, which are the warmer months, and deteriorates to "poor", "very poor", "severe" and "hazardous", categories of the Air Quality Index (AQI) during winter. While I'm writing this the AQI levels according to the World Air Quality Index are between 643 and 142 in Delhi. To compare, the values in the city of Kraków, considered one of the most polluted in Poland, are just above 80, and in Warsaw they are in their 50s and 60s. In my city of Barcelona they are in their 40s and 40 is the top value established by the European Union. As you can see, there is an absolute abyss between Delhi and the other three cities and the difference is clearly noticeable. Air pollution killed around 2,3 million Indians in 2019, according to a Lancet study. It is the main reason for India's high rate of respiratory diseases and lung cancer. The high levels of air pollution in Delhi are mostly attributed to motor vehicle emissions, industrial activities (with the Badarpur Thermal Power Station blamed for 80-90% of particulate matter emissions) and the burning of crop residues by farmers in the regions of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (about 45% of the pollution). Therefore, these days I'm inhaling highly toxic air while I'm getting prepared to travel south.

Apart from the air, yet another thing I need to get used to again is the noise and intensity of the traffic in Delhi, which can be nerve-racking for anyone unused to it. Almost all Delhi is constantly full of cars, motorbikes and rickshaws, all of them frequently resorting to the use of the horn to warn the pedestrians and other participants of the traffic. As a result the city is a cacophony of hundreds of horn sounds: from the most piercing high-pitched ones to the deepest ones used by buses and trucks, which can make one's heart miss a few heartbeats when heard at close range. Each time I leave my uncle's house to go anywhere, even if for a short time, I return exhausted and need a nap to recover my energy. In these first few days I have to learn basic things like crossing the street. I still remember my first visit to India, when I would wait for the cars to stop at a crossing for a long time and they wouldn't. Then I watched how Indians cross the street between the cars, bikes and autorikshaws, which simply dodge them often without reducing their speed. It might seem dangerous at first but most drivers in India are used to it and are prepared for a human, a dog or a cow crossing the road in any moment.

Lastly, my diet has changed drastically since I arrived in Delhi. Back in Barcelona I was used to healthy breakfasts with vegan yogurt, fruits and ground nuts, while here I start my days with fried parathas, a kind of bread often filled with potatoes, cauliflower or other vegetables and legumes - delicious, by the way. Indian food is very abundant in carbohydrates, since many dishes contain potatoes and are still eaten with rice or bread. Typically most of my meals are fifty percent vegetables, around twenty five percent carbs and twenty five percent protein (I'm not counting the fat), but this diet will be difficult to follow in India. Moreover, North Indian food is often deep-fried (the snacks) or fried in abundant ghee or oil, while I often eat steamed vegetables for lighter digestion. While I'm a big fan of Indian food and often eat it at home in Barcelona, I do prefer European breakfasts and light dinners not too late at night. In India it is quite common to eat dinner late. Knowing that my diet will be quite deficient in vitamins for the next seven months I bought myself a few vitamin supplements which should compensate for the lacking microelements. On the other hand, I have no doubt that I'll be eating the tastiest food in the world anywhere I go to in this country :)

Altogether these first few days in Delhi are helping me to adapt to India again and I'm lucky to have my uncle and my cousins to support me and help me with formalities such as opening a bank account or getting an Indian phone number. This Thursday night the adventure begins: I'm going to Bikaner, in the state of Rajasthan. Stay tuned for more updates ;)