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Capability Overdrive And Delhi By Default
Monday December 1st. It’s one of those very English days where the sky is heavy, rain falls in intermittent bucketloads and it never really seems to get properly light. The tube from St Pancras to Heathrow is ridiculously rammed, full of wheelie cases, backpacks and sweaty bodies in overcoats. I am a sardine in a tin, Michaela is trapped in a corner, overheating visibly. We make it to Terminal 2 early for our 21:05 flight. 21:05 quickly becomes 21:20, then 21:45, then 22:00, 22:40 and eventually “CANCELLED” appears on the app and “GATE CLOSED” on the screens. Everyone crowds around the desk, haranguing the poor airline staff as if they…
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The Chaos And Joys Of Delhi
It feels good to get the backpacks unpacked as we settle back into Delhi – the first time we’ve been able to unpack in the ten days since we left England. Coupled with the sense of freedom now that we are once again independent after the confines of the Buddha Train experience, it feels positively liberating to wander out into the lively streets around Connaught Place. Gulping a first beer in eight days feels pretty good too. Even if it is Kingfisher. After majoring in Buddhism, touching on Hinduism at the Aarti in Varanasi and Islam at the Taj Mahal, our first port of call back in Delhi is the…
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A Taste Of Delhi, And On To The Buddha Train
“Please wear this for your identification”, he says, handing us a white baseball cap with the Indian Railway Company logo emblazoned on it. “And carry this too”. A bright yellow pouch bag. Classy. Now, we’ve always smirked at people on cruises being shepherded around sites with their colour coded labels or whatever – now here we are setting off on this adventure with uncharacteristic white headgear and an even more uncharacteristic yellow bag, all for the purposes of being in that very type of herd which we thought we’d never be part of. Well, there’s a first time for everything. But before all this, we arrive in India’s capital city…
