12 March 2009

Old Delhi, rush hour

Old DelhiRush hour in Old Delhi, November 2007. The traffic was actually far more congested than it appears in this photo.
All content © 2009 Pete McGregor

6 comments:

Relatively Retiring said...

What a wonderful human-scale jumble - and some people are smiling!
The equivalent scene in a major British city would consist mainly of stationary metal and of stone faced pedestrians plugged into their ipods.

Anonymous said...

i love how the subtle colours make the photo look old

the jumbled electrics reminds me of sth america

cant wait to go to india

tom

pohanginapete said...

RR, so true. Yet, I suspect most of the people in this photo aspire to become part of the i-pod and car society — and who can blame them? Living in conditions like this doesn't seem like a wonderful aspiration. So sad to think that they'll probably have to achieve the "American dream" (ha!) before they realise they aimed for the wrong goal.

Tom, well spotted — I wanted the feel of this situation, and it's ironic that the stereotypical perception of India is of vivid colour (it's often true, but neither universal nor necessarily the overriding characteristic). And as for those power lines... I have no idea how the power gets through (it often doesn't). You'll love India, even if it drives you crazy.

michael.offworld said...

A agree. It has an old, or timeless, feel. Could be anytime I imagine.

butuki said...

Until you actually have to live in such a jumble (of which Tokyo has a lot of similarities, though not so ramshackle anymore) it may actually seem quaint. Asia can really bring home the sense of "the human horde".

pohanginapete said...

Cheers Michael :^)

Miguel, actually, during the time I was there I don't ever recall thinking of it as quaint — lots of other adjectives at times, and not always complimentary (!). 'Intense' and 'alive' are two that certainly spring to mind.