Finding My Focus In Delhi

Yesterday was a day of travel. I left a still icy Tokyo, blanketed in snow and resplendent on a sunny morning then flew into a grey, bleak Hong Kong, for a few hours of rest, before boarding my second flight, into Delhi.

Today I was hoping around Delhi, visiting shrines, temples and back streets. As I sat listening to some sufi musicians in Nizamuddin Dargah, I was reminded how different a city feels when you visit it as a tourist, compared to living there.

For example the drive back to the hotel this evening took me past Connaught Place, a shopping district which, to my surprise, tourists to Delhi seemed to always want to visit but was for me, in the years I lived here, a place I never visited.

And yet, as far as labels fit anyone, I am now a tourist. Sure, I’m wearing the same R.M. Williams boots I wore when I lived in Delhi and travelling down familiar roads. But, I can see in the photos I’ve made so far, there is a distance, a space that has opened up,