Day Zero

As soon as I stepped off the plane the world grew before me, stretching out in all directrions like the possibilities of a chess board.

A layer of mirror slipped from my eyes and I presented myself with things I could not fathom. I sit in a taxi with my long lost brother. I search in vain for a seatbelt while he lights a cigarette. I have a lot to learn.

This rattling, speeding, erratic coffin of squeaks and creak peers through a humid and dark night, showing me flashes of this wild world. Urban decay just trook on new meaning and it would take on more still when the sun goes through its next motion and reveal the depth of this old but new land of wonder, humanity and degradation.

The cold shower of the next morning woke me from my jetlagged sleep but the haze would continue for days as I try to comprehend life here. But digesting India is not as simple as swallowing a malaria tablet, it takes time. It deserves, nay demands, consideration.

We ate breakfast by a window. Stephen started to word me up on indian ways as I allowed myself to become transfixed by simple things on the other side of the pane. Power cables no thicker than stereo wire drip, drape and bunch lifke fibres in the nest of a mechanical raven. Cats and kittens, slender and slight peek and peer form nooks and crannies. A soupy smell of delight and hideousness eminates from everywhere as my ears return to my brother's words.

We stroll down a street towards Jew town.I'm amazed there is actually a place called 'Jew Town'(images of John Safran's Music Jamboree flood to my mind), but in a place of such widespread an intense spirituality I suppose it makes sense. Apparently everyone has a god here; muslim, hindu, catholic or jew. Atheism is not popular here. I decide to hide my beliefes from here on out, there is no point or purpose in exposing myself any further.

The street ahead stretches and bends, void of straight lines or 90 degree angles. The streets have eyes. I thought being the only westerner on a plane of 200 people was odd, but two white boys walking down a path of pure commotion sticking out like red keys on a piano put the prior to shame. The eyes of the women avoid us after a glimpse but the eyes of the men follow us, free of expression from dark recesses and shops like wardrobes trading in things simple and strange.