Delhi Metro Ride

Monday, 17 November 2014, Delhi  

Pati wants a temple bell for the garden at home. He and BeeBee had a free afternoon in Delhi and decided to shop for one. The travel agency suggested a shopping area called Hauz Kauz. They hired a tuk-tuk at their hotel and off they went. When they got to the shopping area, they walked up and down looking for a store selling bells. They found a lot of restaurants but no bell stores. BeeBee suggested having a meal since they had not had lunch. Given Pati's current love of Indian food they found an American style diner call Filthy Garage (or something like that) and ordered sloppy joes (veg since Pati didn't know what had become of the dead rat they saw in Phalodi).

 After the meal, Pati asked the server if they sold bells in Hauz Kauz. He said "No. Here is  mainly restaurants." Pati, still wanting a bell, asked where they did sell bells. The server asked his manager, the manager told the server, and the server told Pati "Connaught Place." Pati asked the server if this was far and the server brought up an app on his cell phone showing that it was only 14 minutes away via a nearby metro. The ride only cost 15 rupees! Pati left a 370 rupee tip and he and BeeBee were off.  

They found another tuk-tuk driver who wanted 150 rupees for the trip to the nearby metro. As they started off, another person hopped in the front seat and the driver cranked up his stereo to ear splitting levels. He started hacking as he drove (Pati suppose it was a touch of ebola) and BeeBee made Pati pay with exact change (since one needs small bills to tip one's way out of a restroom, Pati and BeeBee had to hold it for the rest of the evening). The driver dropped Pati and BeeBee almost within sight of the unmarked metro entrance, but they found it anyway. A little hand sanitizer and they were off.

Pati and BeeBee found the booth that sold metro tokens and, after a few dozen Indians pushed their way ahead of them, it was their turn. They got tokens and were told to go to Track 2. There were quite a few people on the platform but no more than at home during rush hour. After a few minutes, a train came. It was quite full, but Pati and BeeBee squeezed in. At each stop more and more Indians squeezed in until it started to become difficult to breath. Then more Indians squeezed in, and then more and more. And then more Indians squeezed in. It was the worst crush of people that Pati and BeeBee had ever been in. When they reached their stop it was impossible to get off. No one moved and even more Indians were pushing on. Pati managed to get a hand on the door by reaching his arm over quite a few Indians. He hope that the train would not move with an open door (it is India - it was only a hope). Pati and BeeBee pushed, shoved, and yelled ("Out! Out!") and finally made it out the door. An Indian man who had been on the train with them and also made it out laughed and said to them, "You will remember this for the rest of your life."  The crush of people had been so great that the reading glasses in Pati's pocket were broken.  

When they made it to the surface, the store selling the bell was no where to be seen and Pati and BeeBee were lost. They wanted a tuk-tuk or a taxi to take them to a  bell store or back to their hotel, they didn't care which so long as they didn't have to ride the metro again.   They couldn't find a tuk-tuk at the metro stop but saw several a block away. The found an Indian couple crossing the street and crossed with them. If a car hit the Indian couple, they would be ad hoc airbags for Pati and BeeBee. However, as startling as it seemed, Pati and BeeBee made it across the street and asked a tuk-tuk driver "How much to Connaught Place?" He said "One hundred and twenty rupees." At that instant, another tuk-tuk driver stuck his head in and said "This guy doesn't speak English. Come with me and I will take you." The latter part of this statement was quite true. He took them to an overpriced shop that, despite his description as a bell lover's paradise, had exactly five bells and ugly ones at that. After a failed attempt to sell Pati and BeeBee what seemed to be a large cow bell, they left the shop. The tuk-tuk driver was still there. After a failed attempt not to get back in the tuk-tuk, Pati agreed to pay 300 rupees to go back to their hotel. As soon as the driver started moving the tuk-tuk, he said "Just one more shop." Before Pati could speak, BeeBee said "No!" The driver didn't take that too well but eventually calmed down and started making small talk like "How much did you pay for your hotel room?"  To everyone's suprise (possibly including the driver), they eventually arrived at the hotel. Pati gave the driver the agreed upon 300 rupees and the driver said "Give me 500." Pati did. Then the driver wanted another 100. Pati gave him that too fully knowing that the driver was a small time criminal. The 600 rupees Pati paid was only half the amount he was willing to pay to get back to the hotel without another metro ride. The driver's big extortion was quite small time. However, to be on the safe side, the driver refused to return the card with Pati and BeeBee's hotel address on it in the hope he can take them for another ride.

Waiting to get on the Delhi metro