the eyes closing post

My eyes are closing. It's been a long journey here. I started out saturday morning west coast time from San Francisco. Flight to Minneapolis, then to Amsterdam. I met Tom in Amsterdam who was flying in from New York. Theoretically there were 7 hours before the flight to Delhi but it turned into 10 because the first plane was busted. Finally got on the 7 hour flight to Delhi, landing at 3 a.m. local time. Whew! half asleep going thru customs and waiting a long time for bags to come.
Our guide Ashook met us at the airport and corralled a cab. Ashook speaks little english mostly Hindi but has apparently been Tom's guide before and is a respected friend of the Parakh family who is Tom's business partner. He has taken very good care of us the last few days,dealing with logistics of cabs,hotels, always supplying us with bottled water and keeping us out from under the wheels of the chaotic Delhi traffic.
We had a 3 hour nap at the hotel before we went to the U.S. embassy for an appointment. Tom needed to hurry along visa applications for Devendra and Neetu who are coming to the states in April for a week long engineering workshop in California. I have'nt met Neetu yet but this is a wonderful oppurtunity for an Indian woman. After the embassy we went shopping in Delhi in an indoor market. It was fixed prices rather than bargaining as done in most of the markets. This makes it a mixed bag; you know your not getting ripped off, yet the prices are higher and it's more homogenized. Yet it also seems to be sponsored by the government supporting local handicraft in villages.
Another short nap and we went off to see Old Delhi. The mosque we wanted to see was closed but walking around the perimeters was a blast. There was a very large periphery of car part places in small narrow shops. What a picture but the light was dim and I didn't have a flash. Brakes, wheels, schock absorbers hanging up all over the place. There was a small cluster of men squatting around something in the street. A merchant had just spilled out a bag of more car parts into the road and the men were eagerly pawing thru them.
India is such a trippy place. London has nothing on it. Delhi is complete udder madness. It's almost indescrible. All these little cabs and cars and bike carts, people walking and oxens pulling wagons all going down the same road but not staying in the lane and veering back and forth, all the while honking horns. They love there horns here. Erratic but very skilled driving. They have these funny little 3 wheel cabs with small little wheels that are open on the sides. It's just crazy. Cabs and carts haul a variety of things from people to bricks to you name it. Motorcyles with a family of 4 on it, noone hanging on, just perched on the seat but managing not to get hit, or hit anything.
By far my favorite vehicle was the 'school buses.' There were about 6 of them winding their way thru the street. It was a bicycle cart with what can only be described as a cage in the back. About 8 kids crammed in there,excited at the ride and the end of school sticking their hands thru the bars while the driver did deep digs on the pedals thru the manic traffic.
We left the same day we arrived in Delhi on the 11 p.m. train. We had a sleeper car with bunks, dank and dark and damn cold. I'm so glad Huck didn't talk me out of my black jacket before I left. it's been dang cold here and raining and I really needed it. The train ride was frigid. There were no blankets or pillows to be had. I needed sleep so bad but I could never get entirely comfortable. I finally remembered I had bought an Indian print earlier and tho it was thin I wrapped myself in it and it kept in a little heat. Enough to fall asleep. 10 hours later we were in Birkaner in the sun and greeted like rock stars as I said in my prior post. The sight of all the guys smiling faces almost made me cry.
Enough time to freshen up in a cold shower and then we were off to the office. Pulkit and I went over our marketing and Tom had meetings with the other staff. I'm back in the hotel room now completely exhausted. Only writing this now to get the blog up to date and am awaiting the delivery of dinner.
India is every bit what everyone says about it. So much to take in. The only thing I'm worried, concerned about is that having a 'minder, keeper/guide', plus being here as part of a business trip doesn't let me be as free to explore. I don't think I should necessarily be doing that by myself but there is the desire to go out wandering and take photos. Hopefully that will happen somewhere in this trip. And yes! more shopping.