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Morning sun over New Delhi, a city of over 10 million: The persistent haze is a pungent mixture of wood, coal, and cow-dung smoke, with generous contributions from diesel auto, bus, and truck exhaust, and from the ubiquitous gas/oil-burning scooters and rickshaws. We never see "blue" sky until we get out of Delhi. The winter air is still, dry, and cool at times. The monsoons return in June and wash the dust away.
Gridlock in the "Market of Thieves": It's said that if your car is stolen, you can buy it back here the next day, in pieces! On our first morning tour, when not even the bicycles are moving, it's time to get out of the bus and walk. I can tell this is a place you either hate or you love: Crowds, commotion, cars weaving around cows, horns honking, hawkers and beggars at every stop. I empirically derive my Rule of Smiles. They smile at you first: They're trying to sell you something. They stare at you first: They're not selling anything so take them by surprise and smile first. You'll almost always get one back.
A democracy of one billion people! They've got some big problems -- population control, pollution, poverty -- but it's a place of tremendous physical and spiritual energy, and therein lies the hope.
At Gandhi's cremation site an eternal flame burns, and Indians come to pay their respects to the man who lead them to independence from the British Raj. The huge black granite memorial covers a vestige of his ashes. Contradictions of India begin to emerge: A war of independence, fought with only the weapon of non-violence.
India has a long history of both blending with and shaking off foreign rule -- the Greeks with Alexander the Great, the Huns, the Muslims, the Mughals, the British. Before leaving Delhi, we visit the Qutab Minar, left, 73 meters high, completed in the 13th century: the first monument erected by Muslim rule, and the start of an Indo-Islamic style of architecture.
Humayun's tomb, a precursor of Agra's Taj Mahal: Humayun, son of the first Mughal emperor of India, Babur, died unexpectedly in 1556. Humayun's Persian queen, Haji, erected this monument in his honor.
At day's end in Delhi, the sun sets on the hazy horizon, and rush hour commuters cling to the outside of a bus.
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