Heaven in Civil Lines

This week, I uttered a welcome "hello, you!" to the nicest commute known to Delhi's 9-to-5-ers.

I moved into a gorgeous room on the roof of a tiny hotel in Civil Lines, a neighborhood in the northern part of the city that is home to Delhi University. The room is spacious and clean. There's plenty of furniture -- all wood, nicely polished -- plus a T.V., a fridge, and a gigantic sofa. I get more than one minute of hot water. There's hardly anybody staying at the hotel, so the owners let me stay at a very reduced rate. It's still four times the amount I was paying in Paharganj, but oh boy, is it *ever* worth it. There are two large windows that look out on to green trees and through which you can hear the birds chirping. It basically feels like a resort -- except I LIVE here!

The best part of my new digs is the neighborhood (or lack thereof). In this new incarnation of my life in Delhi, I walk out from the hotel and onto Flag Staff Road: a wide, clean, traffic-free street whose sidewalks are lined with....flowerbeds. My neighbors are a string of gated palaces, the homes of Delhi's rich and famous. There's absolutely nothing and nobody here. It's fantastic.

I'm a short walk away from the neighborhood Metro stop, so I get to ride the amazing "subway" to Connaught Place every morning. It's so clean, cheap, and efficient that it puts even European subways to shame. (Nothing, of course, will ever compare to the glorious grub of the New York City subway, but obviously I'm biased.) The Metro must be the subject of a longer blog post in the future -- it's the strangest mix of everything you ever suspected and never suspected about India.

Of course, once I leave the Metro stop at Connaught Place (er, Rajiv Chowk, sorry) I have to take an auto back to my old stomping grounds in Paharganj. Now that I spend a manageable amount of time there, it's far less bothersome. Circumventing the walk through Main Bazaar is the best thing in my life since sliced bread. Or the Monier-Williams English-Sanskrit dictionary. Whatever.

And in other good news, my friend and co-worker L. is back from her trip to Canada, and I'm going over to her place tonight for dinner -- or, since it's Friday, make that Shabbat dinner. Things are looking up.