Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Friday the 13th No freaking wonder I got respiratory/chest problems upon arrival in Delhi: this little TV news screen capture says it all. The air pollution index (however they measure that) is off the charts in Delhi! Blasting past “unhealthy,” cruising easily beyond “alert” and well into “warning” en route to “emergency” levels—yikes!
Jaipur, Rajasthan, 8:18 p.m. Finally, dear Delhi departed—huzzah! Not a moment too soon, I swear. I hopped a pre-dawn ride with my friend Raju’s driver Mukesh, who was returning to Jaipur at 6 a.m.—worth waking up early to grab that easy flow. Groggy as I was, it felt great to enter incredible and evocative Rajasthan again,…
10:40 p.m. Finally got to bed at dawn, vainly trying to adjust my biorhythms to a suddenly polar cycle, so it was early afternoon before I really got myself down to banjara alley. I clambered up on the platform and sat amidst the piles of old textiles, diving on in. It’s increasingly clear that the…
Early Monday I write this while nestling into my small room here at the Abracadabra guest house, tucked behind the Janpath Tibetan markets near Connaught Circus in downtown Delhi. It’s just past four twenty in the morning, and the jetlag has begun. The long flight direct from New York via a cramped middle seat on…
Sigh. What can I say? Having had my killer American flip flops disappear mid-trip (while worshipping at a temple all day, of all places), I was trying my best to make do with the really low-qual sandals usually available in India–and precious few in my size, to boot.
Delhi National/Domestic Airport 2:48 p.m. OK, the always frazzling final Delhi work stretch is completed: we are now cooling our heels at the airport waiting for our flight down to Mumbai, where our return on Northwest Airlines departs tomorrow night back to the states via A’dam (Amsterdam).