Day 2

A great start to the day by meeting Ben Hewitt, Campaigns Director for Save the Children in India and a friend of LIFT's own Beki Bateson. Ben told me about his work here, and that despite the huge economic growth seen across India it still has alarming rates of child mortality: 2 million children under 5 die here every year, more than in any other country.  It's a pretty sobering statistic.

 

On Ben's recommendation we headed out to Old Delhi.  Delhi is in fact several cities built around and on top of each other, with New Delhi being built by the British - which you can see in the Lutyens architecture and classical road design.  No such order in Old Delhi though which is a maze of streets and alleyways that's home to scores of bazaars, street vendors, stray dogs, goats wearing jumpers and the odd cow.  It's everything you'd expect as a first time visitor to India: overwhelming, chaotic, colourful, brutal - but somehow it all just about works. 

 

Our starting point was the incredible Red Fort, commissioned as a royal residence by Shah Jahan.  Its enormous and very, very red (its made of red sandstone) and is hugely symbolic for Indian sovereignty - having been commandeered as a garrison by the British it was the first place to fly the national flag of India on the stroke of independence. From there we headed down the famous Chadne Chowk, dipping in and out of side streets and bazaars that seemingly sold everything.  Our final stop was the spice markets, where having left Ben I was tempted by some fantastic deep fried vegetables from a street vendor.  I hope I don't regret it, but doesn't frying kill everything?