The Italians of Asia

January 31, 2019 -

“Indians are the Italians of Asia and vice versa. Every man in both countries is a singer when he is happy, and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop at the corner.” - Gregory David Roberts.

Traffic jam in Chatta Chowk

We discovered Indian intensity today. We took the metro to “Old Delhi” or Shahjahanabad today. This area was built in the 17th century by Shah Jahan as a testimony to his glory and power around the time of the construction of the Versailles Palace in France. He was a famous Mughal ruler, more on them later.

The Red Fort

It is dominated by “The Red Fort”, Jahan’s Palace and fort. The street in front of it is known as the Chatta Chowk and in its’s heyday was a thoroughfare for traders, elephants and visiting dignitaries. Today it is a traffic choked rabbit warren of street vendors, food stalls, hustlers, small stores, and way too many people. In a word, it’s intense. The cacophony of sound and smell of exhaust fumes, food stalls, dung, mixed with marigolds is a sensory overload. It is beautiful noise.

We had lunch at a local stall which was very loud, questionably clean, filled with locals, and delicious. I mean the food was so good and we had a huge serving that only cost $1.22 for both of us to eat!

We ended up at the Fort which was closed due to a Gandhi celebration. But the celebration was free and filled with food stalls and local performers. There was a parade of people who wanted a picture with Colleen. We were watching some dancing girls and they pulled Colleen out of the crowd to join them. We soon discovered these girls were unique. See if you can figure out why.

More of Colleen's fans -

The craziness of the stalls on Chatta Chowk