A Bustling Street in Old Delhi
Well, day 2 brought a visit to Old Delhi, and yesterday’s comments now seem naive and complacent. This was culture shock time.
The place is a teeming mass of people, there clearly isn’t much money but there is a lot of commerce. Stalls and shops sell cloth and clothing, spices and even jewellery. There are no ambassador taxis here – most vehicles are pedal powered, and these are used to transport extraordinary amounts of goods. The riders pedal with grim determination, getting off to push when the road starts to incline and you can’t help but wonder what difference a transit van would make to their lives.
Heavy Bicycle Loads in Old Delhi
While the really heavily laden ones catch the eye and provoke sympathy for the rider, the most unusual load I saw was rubbish – mostly food waste. This ended up in an open “recycling centre”, where people and dogs rummage through the scraps. The dogs feed, the people sell on what they can find that has any value.
Antyodaya Niketan -Refuge for the Destitute
The most moving part of the day was a visit to Antyodaya Niketan, a Compassionate Missionaries home for the ill and destitute run by Father Ravi, where they take in the really disadvantaged. This place makes you really thankful for the blessings that we have in our comfortable western lives – it was a moving, emotional experience to see humanity at its most helpless and pathetic. While we were there a boy was having a worm-ridden open wound on his foot treated, and we met other children who were on the mend from other essential treatment and others who wouldn’t stand a chance outside. We met Ashish, a charming, bright 4 year-old blind boy, who would face a life of begging if it weren’t for the Mission.
Father Ravi
Father Ravi seems the personification of “good” – he could be a saint. He lives at the mission with the people he helps, and has to battle with unreasonable amounts of bureaucracy as well as the hardships of his charges yet he deals with it all with grace and charm.