Pahar Ganj

Spent very little time in Delhi. Travelled down from the mountains on a succession of local buses - arriving in the morning and used the Metro for the 1st time. Walked up to Pahar Ganj - found a humid, slightly-less-than-48-degree-temperature fleapit and spent 8 hours bemoaning my surrounds, comparing to the glorious yesteryear heydays - the stinky, dangerous & discombobulating madness that Pahar Ganj once was. Many (but not all - where is my juice stand :( rip) of the original stallholders and shopkeeps have remained, but sobered with higher rates and having to build up rather than out onto the street, as was. The cleanliness and space was a boon - the garlands of overhead power cables hidden beneath the sun-scorched streets, the litter mainly a thing of the past - but the intangible centuries of heavily scented commerce has also been sanitised - and most of those who I talked to seemed aware and a little concerned with it's passing. The only constant is change it's said - perhaps for those of us with a few too many attachments to the past - so is nostalgic musing.