Acquainting Oneself With India's Capital New Delhi

By M.Santhiran With a handful of Hindi words picked up from his favourite Hindi movies, M.Santhiran, Bernama's new correspondent to New Delhi starts his tour of duty. This is his first weekly column. NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (Bernama) -- As soon as I received an official letter confirming my appointment as Bernama's correspondent to New Delhi, India effective Feb 1, the first thing that crossed my mind is how am I going to adopt myself to the new environment. I immediately started looking up in the internet the current weather conditions and the location of my office cum residence in Delhi so that I could make the necessary preparations. On Jan 30, landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport around 10.00 pm and as expected I was greeted by the cold weather with the temperature about 10 degrees Celsius. The humungous airport was crowded and chaotic but somehow I managed to locate the driver who came to pick me up. I asked him to drive me to the nearest food outlet where I could get hot coffee and dinner. As the car pulled off, I slowly started to get a feel of the hustle and bustle of New Delhi. Despite the late hour, the traffic was relatively heavy, no thanks to the low visibility and numerous security checkpoints. The driver told me that security has been tight in the city of about 30 million people since US President Barack Obama’s official visit to India in conjunction with Republic Day celebration a week earlier. GETTING SETTLED It was an hour drive to my destination, Hauz Khas, a commune in South Delhi that would be my abode for the next two to three years. There was not much to complaint on the facilities in the apartment, except for the old television set without service connection. It was the same apartment that my predecessor Saraswathy Muniappan occupied during her three year stint in New Delhi. I will have to get a new TV and internet connection to look out for potential news breaks as being alone here I will not be able to cover all the happenings at the different parts of the Indian sub-continent. On the second day after unpacking my things including the most essential supplies being the instant noodles and sardines from back home, I decided to visit the landlord who lived on the second floor. It was a pleasant exchange of greetings with the owner in his early 70s sharing his experience working in Singapore and his past visits to Malaysia. Before parting ways, the owner reminded me to hand over a copy of passport and a photograph as it was mandatory requirement in India for owners leasing out their premises especially to foreigners to report to the area police station. Those who failed to do so could be dragged to court and even face imprisonment. LEARNING MORE OF NEW DELHI As all the government departments and the Malaysian High Commission were closed for the weekend, there was nothing much left to do thus I decided to venture out on my own to familiarise myself with New Delhi. I started with looking for fast-food outlets or South Indian restaurants. With the few Hindi words picked up from movies I managed to communicate with an auto (three-wheeler) driver to get me to the Green Park, an area popular among foreigners and locals. To get around in the streets and with the people of Delhi, knowing Hindi is essential. So I met a shop owner who promised to arrange a part-time tutor to coach me on basic Hindi. I have been steadily picking up more practical Hindi words including hot tea known here as 'gharam chay' and rice as 'chawal'. There is a myriad of tantalizing food offerings available here but obviously one needs to be patient for hot food to be served. After lunch, I walked around shops with the cacophony of local languages and the blaring horns of passing vehicles in the backdrop. Much to my surprise I discovered that almost 90 per cent of the household products and groceries that I brought from home through air cargo could easily be purchased here. GETTING SETTLED When the weekend was over, I started working to settle down including applying to register a fixed phone line with a data plan. Being a foreigner in India involves lots of bureaucracy as even to purchase a postpaid mobile line one needs to submit copies of passport, employment letter, local reference and even a copy of the applicant's tenancy agreement. Once I got these things done, my next stop was the Malaysian High Commission. I met the embassy officials at a hotel since the embassy building was under major renovation and expected to be completed in March. A check at the embassy site indicated final touches being carried out which include living quarters for Malaysian officials and staff. Other than the High Commission office here, Malaysia has two consulate offices - in Mumbai and Chennai. As the days passed by I became more familiar with the surroundings and even managed to get a cable TV connection, though the TV service was only available with basic channels mostly in Hindi. Over the course of next few days, the External Affairs Ministry was my focal point as I had to get done the formalities before I could start as a news correspondent. So now I am all ready to start my tour of duty as the Malaysian National News Agency's (Bernama) correspondent in India. -- BERNAMA