refuge.

It's so nice here, I can make twosies.

-In reference to the restaurant where the restroom had both soap and toilet paper.

How to find relief from the overcrowded streets, horrendous traffic, dusty air, and somewhat stifling heat that is characteristic of some parts of Delhi:

1) Stay in the hotel room and blast the AC. And if you must leave for food, just go to the rooftop restaurant and watch all the action on Main Bazaar from above.

2) Visit monuments, where somehow you become easily insulated from the realities outside the walls of said monuments (examples would include the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Jama Masjid mosque). Bonus points for finding marble floors cooled by the shade, and exposing a reasonable amount of bare skin to the cool surface.

3) Look for a Cafe Coffee Day, the Indian equivalent of Starbucks, where the urban middle and upper-middle class hang out. Pretend to live dangerously by ordering a drink made with water, ice, and/or fruit juice, whose origins are not necessarily known.

4) Use the Metro. What? The random subway system underneath Delhi, which seems to be only used by the middle and upper middle class? Where chaos does not ensue?

5) Run away to South Delhi. Hang out in a park (e.g. the Lodi Gardens), lay down on well-manicured lawns, and look out in amazement at how calm things are. Make a game out of spotting dogs that are actually on leashes and that actually have owners.

6) Buy a plane ticket to Goa and escape to the beaches.