Sundar Nagar continued

Just as one would expect, morning light made Sundar Nagar a lot friendlier than the 2am Wednesday morning version my flight-addled mind first encountered. Yesterday morning I woke up at dawn (jet lag) and went for a jog. Actually not really a jog, something more along the lines of part jog, part curious walk, part dodgeball game only replace the balls with speeding autorickshaws (India's name for South Asia's ubiquitous three-wheeled half-taxis). First I made the loop around the neighborhood. Sundar Nagar is a peaceful, picturesque place. At 6am many older folks are out getting in a morning walk and chit chatting in the street. The houses are large and the gardens beautiful -- and these are just the visible grounds as most of the properties have walls or fences around them. The shadowy enclaves that spooked me a bit the night before turned out to be mostly manicured hedges and tropical flower beds. The morning was misty and pleasant. Actually, the weather all day for the last 48 hours has been quite nice. Thick, but cool.

Once I finished the Sundar Nagar neighborhood loop, I was feeling a bit grounded and headed out to the gate (remember this is a walled-in neighborhood). I headed out onto the street and, looking up, i immediately saw a towering fortress ruins, then instantly upon looking forward I realized there were at least 15 different vehicles from 15 different directions threatening my life beyond the next 1-15 seconds. horns are honking, children are running, rickshaws are zooming, bicycles are creeking by with 100,000 orange flowers loaded onto them so that the driver is actually behind the bike pushing it while walking. Ridiculous busses too ... there is a donkey, here are ladies trying to sweep under my feet. What is that new smell and will that strap really hold that thing on there much longer?

Over the course of my run outside the Sundar Nagar walls, I made it to not one, but two archeological areas, both very imopressive. Inside the first old fort, i came upon a father coaching three kids to put (golf) on the lawn. Delhi is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on the planet and as such, boasts many interesting historical sites from many different eras (and with a variety of current uses -- including golf practice apparently).

So, I have spent most of yesterday and today looking for apartments with brokers. The process is similar to any other big metropolis, lots of places to see, plenty of competition to snatch the good places, and lots of picky-choosey. I have been here only two days now and already am anxious to move into a place soon. Really the whole India thing remains quite surreal and removed because I am so focused on the move.