Delhi at Noon and Midnight

At noon, Delhi is scorching. The BBC, a growing addiction of mine, reports that it's hit 42 degrees Celcius (107.6F) the last few days. Even seasoned Dilliwallas complain about it. The heat is always something you can commiserate over with the most hijacking of Autowallas: B: "Aj garum hai, nahi?" Hot today, no? A: "Haji, bahut garum." Yes sir, very hot. B: "Engine tik, garum-mai hai?" Is the engine ok in the heat? A: "Haji, toh kuch problems hain." Yes sir, but there are some problems. This is usually followed by what I assume is a detailed description of what specific problems the engine has when it's hot, or maybe a funny story about where the autowallah has broken down before. I honestly don't know. I've had this little interchange maybe 5 times in the last week or so, and each time it's pretty much followed this pattern, and always it's followed by a light-speed Hindi retelling of some gripe or another. I smile when the autowallah smiles, I laugh when he laughs. When he finishes, I say, "but it's ok now?" And the answer is always "Haji." I need to learn the word for "oppressive," so I can add that to my heat conversation repertoire. God knows there has to be a word for oppressive in India. Yet, like many things in this country, it balances out in the end. Delhi at midnight is such a different creature. One of my favorite things here is to go out on our southern balcony at around midnight or so, and just sit. By midnight it's somehow, but unquestionably, hotter in our living room than it is outside on the balcony. A cool breeze runs through the gap between the apartment buildings, and the black blue outline of the trees in our neighbor's yard erupts in thousands of miniature explosions of dark color. Everything is different at midnight, not just the temperature. Ring Road traffic has died down, for the most part. During the day it's a roar of chaotic, constantly honking traffic. At night you just hear the deep but distant sounding rumble of big delivery trucks trudging on towards their destination. You still get the occasional screechs, thuds, honks, etc. but mostly it's just an easily ignorable rumble, no different from any other big city. At noon, birds rule the skies. Green parakeets with sharp, forked tails dash from tree to tree, camouflage to camouflage. Stupid pigeons disorganizedly congregate and fly with no real sense of purpose, except to leave little presents for us on the balcony bannister. Huge eagles and hawks and small numbers of other beautiful birds of prey, all with 5 foot plus wingspans, soar with what can only be described as majesty for hours, then swoop and help some pest shuffle on to its next life. At night, bats assume the throne. They fly silently from and to every possible direction. Insects must realize this, because they all but disappear as well. Delhi at noon has uniformly clear skies, now that the rains have all passed. There's so little moisture in the air that to see a cloud in the sky is almost a little surprising. Delhi at midnight is clear as well, but much more rewarding. From the limits to the horizon to maybe a third of the way to the apex, the sky takes on that all-too-familiar, sickening orange glow, common to every industrialized area in the world. (Why do they have to install streetlights of that color? Why?!) As this fades though, a deep dark blue takes over and, believe it or not, a fair number of stars can be seen. We've been here long enough that all of us off-handedly track the progress of the moon through its stages. It's currently about halfway back from a full moon. I'd like to thank you all for the concerned emails, but I'm really doing fine here in India. Last week was particularly stressful, but it passed. I feel better. Delhi hasn't changed, and it certainly won't while I'm here. So since leaving just is an option that neither my pride nor bank account can stomach, the only thing to do is to turn around and figure it out. Not accept the often maddening realities, but understand them and work with them. Reminding myself of my balcony at midnight is a good way to start. Talk to you soon.