Living in Delhi

On Friday 15th October I began the next phase of my travels, and perhaps my life. I moved into a flat in Delhi with three other English teachers. We are all volunteers with the Asha Society, an Indian NGO which works in Delhi's slums to improve health, education and living standards. Over the next few days and weeks I'll write more about Asha, my work and the children I teach. This blog entry will focus on our little flat in Sector C9, Vasant Kunj in southern Delhi. If you go to Google maps and search for 'Pocket 9, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Delhi, India' you will be able to see approximately where I live.


By Delhi standards this is a middle class neighbourhood. In Australia and the UK, it would probably be considered a slum, which is ironic when you consider what a real Delhi slum is like. I can't photograph the outside of our flat because all the buildings are so crushed together, so the photo above shows the flats in the next block, and gives you some idea of what ours looks like - and how close it is! The photo to the right is the view from our front door.

The inside of the flat, and indeed most of the houses and flats in the area, are quite nice. Our flat has three bedrooms (each with two single beds), two bathrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen. The floors are all tiled, and whilst all the furniture and fittings have seen better days, it is comfortable and very functional.


Living in Delhi, even in a middle class neighbourhood, has its challenges. For example, water is only provided for an hour a day. We take it in turns to get up at 7am and start the pump to extract water from the mains into the ground level tank, and then pump water to the tank on the roof. If it is not completed by 8am, then we have no water for the day. Our water pressure is gravity from our roof, and since we are on the top floor, that's very little. The photo on the left shows the ground level water tanks of our neighbours and ourselves. Ours is the one closest to the camera. Although it's a pain to do it this way, and we have to be really careful about conserving water because our supply is strictly limited, when you read about the living conditions of the slum kids, you'll see what a tremendous luxury it is to have water pumped into your home, and a toilet of your own.

We also have the blessing of electricity with that most wonderful of inventions: air-conditioning. After a hard day struggling in the oppressive heat of the slums, it is glorious to turn on the AC and relax, before having a shower. The electricity is reasonably reliable, compared to Pakistan anyway, although it is not uncommon for everything just to go off, then restart a few minutes later. At least we have electricity, and we can have a fridge to keep our food cold.


The street outside our flat is like pretty much every street in India - jam-packed with traffic, with horns honking constantly, the pavement has holes 30cm deep in places and in other places the holes in the pavement disappear into what is probably an underground sewer or drain. It smells bad, but then you get used to it, like everything else. In our neighbourhood, as everywhere, the rubbish is piled up periodically in the street, but not actually taken away anywhere. The cows, stray dogs and squirrels then pull it all apart looking for food. Bizarrely, we also seem to have a neighbourhood pig, which joins in the garbage-gobbling. It's the only one I've seen in India and I'm not sure if it belongs to someone or if, like the cows and dogs, it is just a stray.


I'm happy with mye little flat and it's great to have a kitchen in which to prepare my own meals. Now I just have to remember how to cook! :-)