行至印度德里 愛上這個城市的十個理由
Delhi, the capital of the world's largest democracy, has come under a lot of flak in the past year.
作爲世界最大民主國家的首都，德里在過去一年裏飽受責難。
The fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in the city earned it the 'unsafe' tag internationally. The city is full of obstacles that make living here challenging. Just getting around is tough. Forget the gummed up roads, even walking in Delhi can be really difficult. Its flagship airport, which handles more than 34 million passengers annually and is only three years old, is prone to flooding when there's too much rain.
23歲理療專業女學生遭多人輪姦的事件讓德里在國際社會上被貼上了“不安全”的標籤。這座城市充滿了各種障礙，讓人生活在這兒挑戰重重，就連隨便走走都很困難。橡膠路面使得步行異常艱難。主機場每年處理3,400萬人次的客流量，並且僅建成三年，但在雨量多時卻很容易發洪水。
But there are rays of light in the city, which on a closer look, reveal a certain charm. As the capital goes to the polls today, we take a look at 10 things about Delhi that remind us of the brighter side.
不過這個城市也有着熠熠的光輝，仔細體味你會發現它也會散發出一定的魅力。隨着這座城市今天開始選舉，我們來看看德里有哪十個地方能讓我們想起她光鮮的那面。
1. 春天
When spring is sprung, Delhi becomes a city of flowering trees and fragrant breezes.
春天來臨時，德里就成了一座鮮花盛開、在微風中散發香氣的城市。
Birds sing (it's the world's second-most avian rich city). Poets muse. Even Aunties recklessly remove the woolly socks under their sandals.
小鳥吟唱（它是世界上鳥類第二多的城市），詩人沉思，就連大媽們都大膽地脫掉了涼鞋裏面的羊毛襪子。
This blissful state lasts approximately four days. As the great Mughal poet Ghalib wrote, 'Where there is no autumn, how can spring exist?'
這種愉悅的狀態持續大概四天。就像偉大的莫臥兒(Mughal)詩人迦利布(Ghalib)所寫的：“沒有秋天哪會有春天？”
Delhi ensures the appreciation of springtime by filling the remaining 361 days with other memorable and more prolonged seasons: psychotic heat, road-choking rain, and smog.
剩下的361天分配給了其他讓人懷念並且更漫長的季節：酷熱、多雨和濃霧。於是春天顯得格外珍貴。
2. 免費理療
Delhi life is one big therapy session. Just let it all out.
德里的生活就像是一個大型的理療療程。盡情釋放吧。
Opportunities to release repressed anger particularly present themselves when one is in transit. You can scream, shout and weep-'Rascal, you are! Whither justice?'-all before you even get into an auto rickshaw.
在交通工具上是釋放被壓抑的憤怒情緒的好機會。你可以大喊大叫或者大哭──“你這個無賴！正義何在？”──在登上機動三輪車前你都可以這樣做。
Delhi-ites also take advantage of the city's Metro to work out their anger management issues. Practice your jiu-jitsu, especially for the women's queues.
德里人還會利用城市地鐵鍛鍊自己管理憤怒的能力。練習一下自己的柔術，尤其是在跟女人一起排隊的時候。
3. 靈活性和誠實
Actually, everyday Delhi existence is pretty liberating.
實際上在德里待着每天都有擺脫束縛的感覺。
Running late? Relax, we're on Indian Stretchable Time-all the fun people will arrive at least two hours late anyway.
快遲到了？別緊張，我們是“印度彈性時間”(Indian Stretchable Time)──反正所有有趣的人都會遲到至少兩個小時。
There's a lady opposite? Stare at her. She has a moustache? She'll appreciate your frankness if you loudly recommend a good strimmer.
對面有位女士？盯着她看，是不是有鬍子？如果你大聲推薦一款好的剃鬚刀，她會很感激你的直率的。
4. 永恆的創新
Delhi's history is extraordinary and its monuments are glorious, from the Qutub Minar, a 12-century minaret, and Jama Masjid, one of India's largest mosques, to the hundreds of smaller relics dotted around the city that risk extinction. But the capital has also been constantly rebuilt, relocated, recycled, and colored by waves of migration.
德里的歷史非同尋常，紀念遺蹟也非常輝煌，包括12世紀的顧特卜塔(Qutub Minar)、印度最大的清真寺之一賈瑪清真寺(Jama Masjid)，還有數百處散落在城市各處、面臨消失危險的小規模遺蹟。但這座首都也持續在重建、遷移、回收循環並受到移民浪潮的影響。
The result is endless novelty.
結果就是無窮無盡的創新。
Bored of your local shops? Don't worry, they'll be totally different in a week. Had enough of your semi-legal house? No problem-a major sporting event is coming up, so it'll be torn down next Tuesday. Unless you're middle-class, that is.
厭倦了當地的商店？別擔心，它們會在一週內完全變樣。受夠了自己半合法的房子？沒問題──一場大型體育賽事馬上就會來，所以下週二房子就會被拆掉。不過除非你是中產階級。
5. 印度英語
Many Delhi-ites speak an unusual language.
很多德里人都講着與衆不同的語言。
It's 30% English, 30% Hindi, 18% made-up words (timepass, anyone?), 12% indecipherable acronyms, and 10% innovative familial obscenities.
30%英語，30%印度語，18%自己發明的詞彙（聽說過timepass吧？），12%無法解讀的縮寫詞，還有10%的創新家族髒話。
It's adaptable. It's TV-friendly. And it may just be the future - even McDonald's had to invent a McAloo Tikki burger to fit in with the local lexicon and diet.
適應性強，電視很受歡迎，或許這就是未來吧──就連麥當勞(McDonald's)都不得不發明McAloo Tikki漢堡來適應當地的詞彙和飲食。
6. 現代設施齊全
Two decades of growth have made some citizens very rich.
二十年的發展讓有些市民變得非常有錢。
The newly prosperous form a powerful consumer market, investing heavily in valuable assets such as land, bling, and onions.
新富人羣形成了一個強大的消費者市場，他們投入大量資金在土地、珠寶和洋蔥等貴重資產上。
In response Delhi has transformed into a shopper's delight. Today, visitors will find an artistic and fashion-conscious capital, filled with American brands and Chinese restaurants- there's even an indigenous breed of hipsters and plenty of Indian pride.
因此德里變成了購物者的天堂。如今，遊客會看到一個充滿藝術和時尚氣息的首都，到處都是美國品牌和中國餐館──甚至還有一批本土成長起來的嬉皮士和同性戀。
7. 權力
Delhi owes its prestige to the fact that it is the heart of the world's largest democracy. Alas, the government has struggled in recent months. Officials are all busy 'kindly doing the needful' and the capitals VVIPs (very very important people) spend time roaming wild in Lodhi Gardens, in training for their frequent parliamentary walkouts.
德里的聲望要歸功於它是世界最大民主國家的心臟地帶。不過政府近幾個月比較艱難。官員們都忙着“親切地做需要做的事”，大人物們都在洛提花園(Lodhi Gardens)野外漫步，爲頻繁的議會退席做準備。
8. 美食
A gastronomic paradise, Delhi's shrines are its golgappas stands selling hollow pastry balls filled with a potato mixture and tamarind water, and its avenues lined with kebab stalls.
作爲美食天堂，德里的美食 地就是售賣裹着土豆泥和羅望子汁的空心面球的golgappas路邊攤，還有街道兩旁的烤肉亭子。
On one end of the spectrum are glitzy five-star hotel restaurants. Conscious of India's science-loving reputation, they provide arithmetic practice through an elaborate system of taxes, service charges, and booze levies, including a levy for air-conditioning.
一方面是華麗的五星級酒店餐廳。由於意識到印度對科學的熱愛，這些酒店通過一套詳盡的稅收、服務費還有酒稅體系爲人們提供練習算術的機會。
On the other end is, of course, Shahjahanabad, better known as Old Delhi. Until the British came, this was Delhi at her luscious prime. As one of her suitors, the seventeenth-century intellectual Chandra Bhan Brahman, enthused: 'Her avenues are so full of pleasure that her lanes are like the roads of paradise.' From aloo tikki to pav bhaji, it's worth even the threat of Delhi Belly.
當然另一方面是舊德里(Shahjahanabad)。英國人來之前，那是德里的黃金時代。作爲舊德里的“追求者”之一，17世紀的知識分子錢德拉・班・婆羅門(Chandra Bhan Brahman)讚頌道：“她的大街是如此讓人愉快，她的街道就像是公路天堂。”從aloo tikki到pav bhaji，就算冒着染上“德里肚”(Delhi Belly)的危險，這些小吃也都值得嘗試。
Consider: what other cities have the honour of having an entire ailment named after them? Nobody talks about, say, the Rangoon Rumbles or the St. Moritz Squits.
想一想：還有哪些城市有此殊榮，一種疾病是以其城市名字命名的？沒人說仰光嘟囔(Rangoon Rumbles) 或者 莫里茨腹瀉(St. Moritz Squits)。
9. 危險重重
Life is never less than exciting in Delhi. It is periodically shaken by earthquakes, dengue and dust storms, and invaded by savage monkeys. Every car journey is a game of chicken. Aunties pack pistols in case they should suffer an outbreak of road rage. This is a city, lest we forget, which in which in 2001 witnessed mass panic over alleged attacks by a murderous cyborg 'monkey-man.'
德里的生活從來不缺少刺激。它偶爾會受到地震、登革熱和沙塵暴的侵襲，還會遭到野猴子的襲擊。每次開車都是“看誰是膽小鬼”的博弈(game of chicken)。大媽們會準備好手槍，以防路怒症爆發。別忘了，這是一座2001年所謂的“猴人”襲人事件造成大規模恐慌的城市。
Once my friend found a tooth embedded in the auto seat next to her. A human tooth. I rest my case.
我的朋友在她旁邊的汽車座椅裏找到一顆牙齒，一顆人的牙齒時，我就閉嘴了。
10. 德里人
Delhi is India's brash, restless, gossipy melting pot. There are a thousand different species of the 'Dilliwalla,' well beyond the obvious stereotypes, and it is of course them who really make the city worth living in. Even the ones who wear sunglasses indoors.
德里是印度魯莽的、浮躁的和八卦的熔爐。這裏有數千種不同類型的德里人(Dilliwalla)，常見的典型德里人只是很小一部分，當然也是因爲有了他們才使得這個城市值得居住，甚至包括在室內帶墨鏡的那些人。
