10/19: India again

Noah is gone now. It was so sad watching him leave, though I have already received 3 emails from him, updating me on his travel arrangements to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

I am so happy to be back in India. It is totally irrational - just a feeling I have. There is something so attractive about the chaos here.

I love the second line in English on this sign in the train station. Very informative.

On the roads in New Delhi there is the usual mix of autos, three-wheeled motor rickshaws and motorcycles, intermittently being slowed by a cart pulled by a Brahma bull or an Indian, or a bicycle rickshaw. In Old Delhi around the train station the roads are filled almost exclusively by bicycle rickshaws and motorcycles, for the streets are too small for cars.

I found a little tea shop and sat on the sidewalk, watching these two boys playing with the rickshaw. The older one would pedal the rickshaw about 30 feet along the sidewalk, then the younger one would get out and pull the rickshaw back, and the game would start all over again.

I had about 5 hours before my night train north, so I wandered around the back streets near the railway station. I ended up in an area where the buildings were built so close to each other that it became dark. I thought I was indoors. The lanes were about 6 feet wide, lined on both sides by tiny shops, about ten feet by ten feet, selling everything imaginable. I wandered through the dairy section, the eye glass section, the jewelry section, the greeting card section, etc.

After an 11 hour night train and 2 buses taking 6 hours, I am now in McCleod Ganj, the Tibetan refugee capitol, just north of Dharamsala. It is so nice being surrounded by Tibetans once again. I haven't been here for 25 years. It will be interesting to see how things have changed. More later.