The Commonwealth Games. In a Week? Really?
Corsets and spike heels are my comfort zone, so to say I found myself out of it (and them) in Delhi recently, is a spectacular understatement to say the least.
I was prepared, though. I've been to India before, so I knew what to expect. Open sewers in the streets, amputees begging at the traffic lights, filthy children darting through piles of rubbish - all in contrast to the sparkly glamor of five-star hotels standing next door to slums, and upmarket shopping strips where you can buy five-carat diamonds from a man who probably makes less in a year than you do in a week.
So I was fascinated to see how this world was preparing for the Commonwealth Games, which are due to open there in less than a week.
India is a challenge for the Western traveler at the best of times, and what I saw doesn't fill me with confidence that the international sporting world will deal well with it - or that India has quite anticipated just how underprepared they really are.
The city is in a shambolic mess. From the construction mayhem that makes everything look like a war zone to the worrying pools of stagnant water that are breeding mosquitoes and dengue fever with equal ferocity; Delhi is a city scrambling to keep up with the high standards of global expectations.
You might imagine then, that there would be a sense of urgency, perhaps even anxiety in the city.
Not so.
Indians are used to their streets being torn up, the traffic being gridlocked, the electricity constantly blacking out. That's just the way things are. Cows in your shop? Ah well. Gaping ten-foot-deep holes in the street? Just navigate around them.
In the Western world, our lives would grind to a halt if we had to put up with the kind of impositions that Indians deal with on a daily basis.
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