A Typical Day in New Delhi...

Most of my blog posts have either been about rural villages or common tourist destinations in India. Truthfully, the majority of my life in New Delhi has been about the mundane, typical, everyday events. Here's a very common day of my life in India...

6:30am- Indian sunshine is beaming through the windows of my room. It's much too bright, I feel like a vampire. Pillow immediately goes over my head.



7:00am- "Alarm clock" goes off. It's laughing yoga in the park behind our apartment! It feels like I'm waking up to a studio audience in an Indian sitcom. It starts off with rhythmic clapping followed by lots of "ho ho ho's" and "ha ha ha's". Have a listen by clicking here.

7:30am- "Snooze" alarm goes off. "Ding dong, ding dong!!!" Our cleaning lady is ringing the bell downstairs. Despite the gate being open, she's a pretty persistent ringer. Ugh. Myself or my roommate stumble out of bed to let her in. I scare her with my bedhead and my boxer shorts wearing shirtless physique (that early in the morning I can care less what the neighbors think...). I go back to bed while she cleans up around me while I try to sleep. Yeah, yeah, I know it's pretty snooty, but dangit, 7:30am is just painful especially on the weekend! I'm pretty sure she hates me, my washed clothes have been coming back looking like they've been mysteriously tye-died with pink and blue blotches with rust thrown in for style points.

8:00am- No big surprise, can't go back to sleep while someone is sweeping and mopping around my room. I unhappily crawl out of bed to make a rousing breakfast of toast and either banana or mango. Everyday. I now hate toast.

8:30am- My roommates and I scour the the local newspaper for any of the parties we went to the other night and random funny stuff. Gotta love the Indian advertisements for fitness gyms. Stripper poles!

You too can look like a scary escaped Indian convict after working out at the gym!


9:00am- Time to leave the luxurious New Delhi apartment and find a ride to work.

Plenty of fruit/vegetable sellers on our street. Everyone is having their car washed too, which is a novelty to me since I haven't washed my car in the states in ~2 years.



9:05am- Avoid the cow at the round-about.


9:10am- Find a auto-rickshaw wallah.

9:15am- Haggle over $$$ with the auto-rickshaw wallah.
9:16am- Walk away in "disgust" over the inflated "tourist" price.
9:17am- Auto-rickshaw driver acts "offended" and grudgingly gives a counter-offer.
9:20am- Repeat the above several times...
9:30am- Arrive at work slightly frazzled. For those of you who haven't experienced an auto-rickshaw, it's kinda like the Indian version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland.

To be continued...