India - II

When I got outside, yeah I heard some shouts at me, but unfotunately not AIESECers'. The taxi drivers were acting as if I was a very important visitor like a VIP and as if I had to leave that airport immediately in order to hide myself from the paparazzi flashlights. A taxi driver grabbed my suitcase within a rush just to help me and I followed him with running steps while trying to figure out the reason of our fidget. Anyway, then we finally reached to a counter charging passengers before hiring taxis. This service is called Prepaid Taxi. A very useful service though, especially to prevent being overcharged.

I took a minibus taxi, or a taxi minibus, actually it was a very small minibus as a taxi, for max. 4 people with luggages. We were going quite fast and careless and the driver was refusing to touch minitaxibus's brake pedal. After a while, I found out at we had reached the city center because of noisy traffic jam surrounding us with continuous blowing horns. Suddenly I asked myself "umm, if this is the city center, what d fuck is this stink in here??" Wow, that was certainly unbelievable for me. Because it was my first exposure of breathing a 'shit' smelly air that surrounds the metropolis. While I was trying to resist the terrible smell, I startled by a beggarwoman's knock on the taxi's passenger window at right side. Her body was covered with filth, standing closely to the minitaxibus holding her hand inside. She was holding a half-naked baby by her other hand. I ignored her throughout her begging but she never gave up. Her face was so mournful that after looking at her eyes once, I couldn't take my eyes of hers for a moment. And suddenly I decided to give her alms just to let her go away. I had a long look around and observed everything took my attention. It had been only 1 hour since I arrived to India, but after every minute sitting in that minibustaxi, breathing stinky air and seeing dozens of miserable people rushing with bear feet, pulling carts or carrying heavy loads, I was feeling that my morale falling down more.

But anyway, let's skip that disappointing part, and start talking about my first impressions about Chandigarh, the city beautiful. It would be my first and last day in Delhi for the next 3,5 months. Even though it takes only 3,5 hours by train from chandigarh, I refused the necessity of visiting that city for a long time.