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the punjab mail train from jhansi to delhi was excited with hindi music blaring from cell phones, a diverse sampling of indian passengers, and the typical wallas selling fried snacks, chai, and tomato soup. our 9+ hour journey was pretty pleasant; no haggling for our reserved seats and only one curious cockroach roaming the wall near abel's bunk. outside the train station, we firmly managed to get a metered cab to take us to ann's (rickshaw and cab drivers always want to set a "fixed price" rather than using the meter), where we were warmly welcomed by our delhi family: ann, karuna, adrianne and chloe (2 persian cats), and puppy (a most affectionate dog). we've settled into ann's home with ease, and with limitless gratitude. completely spoiled here by ann's company, karuna's cooking, and the remarkably refreshing weather in delhi. each morning we wake up in the world's softest bed to be greeted by the prayers from a nearby mosque and the persistent cats requesting a drink of running water from our cupped hands in the bathroom sink, aka. the watering hole. we've started unpackaging delhi in a lazy manner; knowing there will be more delhi days to come. our plan is to return to ann's house between excursions to rajastan, agra, himachal pradesh, and finally sikkim. whew, that's a lot to pack into the next 2 months, eh? we may just have to pare down the itinerary. for those of you who haven't heard, we have extended our stay until april 23rd so we can spend most of april in the himalayas. we'll be back in cali in the spring! but for now, delhi. new delhi is a vast modern city sprinkled with multinational corporations like mcdonalds, colossal sized malls, and beautifully manicured gardens, along with early islamic ruins, forts, temples, and tombs. road construction and traffic jams are a constant here; so too are hawkers weaving between the cars selling kleenex boxes, kitchen towels, magazines. as always the streets are fair game for just about anything one can imagine...people traveling on top of chalk decorated elephants, bike taxis, street kids performing acrobatic stunts between the cars. during one of our delhi adventures our rickshaw driver kindly introduced us to the scenic sidewalk detour, bypassing a line of traffic by hopping up on the sidewalk and nosing right back into the congested street without bothering to look another driver in the eye. that's how it works here. each person looks out for their own survival. no courtesy for the others on the road.like millions of ostriches, living side by side, their heads buried in the sand. we were relieved to ride in the van with ann today as she practiced what she calls, "lane driving." as you can imagine, that's rarely practiced around here. some of the happiest moments in delhi so far, ann can attest to the first, have been... eating freshly picked cabbage (bund gobi) from bonnie's farm and playing badmitton, enjoying ann's rooftop garden, attending an evening of devotional singing on the sticky marble floor at the nimuzaddin tomb with the neighborhood muslims and india's far reaching pilgrims, cooking in the kitchen with karuna, birdwatching in lodi gardens, watching "the african queen" in the living room, and getting a kiss from adrianne the cat! tomorrow we'll set out, like happy little children, with our sack lunches and a train ticket to the desertous land of jaisalmer (in western rajastan). we'll be dreaming of ann's comfy bed during our 20+ hour train journey. stay tuned for camel spitting tales to come!
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