This is my first visit to Delhi, the capital city of India. Or should I say New Delhi, the capital of India.

I am not a regular traveller and in fact, I hate travelling. But this is trip is certainly different as our company has put up a stall at the prestigious Auto Expo 2008. So, on the 8th of January, yours truly, along with his sales head, flew to New Delhi. My personal opinion of the capital and the impression Delhi has created upon me has been mixed.

The good: The airport is huge and they are constructing another bigger one in the outskirts. The roads in New Delhi are wide as the politicians camp here. The best part is of course the Metro rail. The best transport system in India. A foolproof system that provides safety and doesn't allow commuters to travel without buying a ticket. With the commonwealth games in store, roads and flyovers are being developed at a rapid pace. The people in old Delhi are very friendly and warm. A majority of the girls here are pretty and anyone planning to set up a beauty parlor or a jeans/T-shirt store should have at least one here. That must be one reason for high crime rate. While the mammas are already fat, the daughters already carry signs of becoming future diabetic patients.

The bad: The roads in old Delhi are pathetic. Humans, animals and vehicles move beside each other in small gullis. Food is very costly and is often below your expectations ( I am talking about the veg part and my colleague has complained about the non-veg part as well). Traffic sense is similar to what we have in Hyderabad and the autowallahs are the same everywhere.

The ugly: Blueline buses are the atrocious of all buses I have seen. They are in a dilapidated state and kill at least one person every two days. The people in New Delhi can be safely called arrogant buggers. They will not help you, especially if they come to know that you are not from Delhi and answer you in a sarcastic way. Though we gave most of them back their own medicine, it is a culture which South Indians are alien to.


The funny part is that people here think that South Indians have good computer knowledge and are fast in embracing IT.

There might be some reservations to some, but frankly these are my observations of Delhi/New Delhi from whatever little I have seen.