Part III: Back to India

I have decided that my India trip has been divided into three phases. In the first phase, I settled into my life in Udaipur, made friends, got to know my host organization and my cute little city. In the second phase, which began around the end of May, most of my intern friends left, I dealt with a lot of frustrations at work, had a somewhat lonely and very hot summer, but finally completed a small but successful project at the end of my internship. Then I journeyed to Nepal, which was a sort of transition between phases two and three of my trip. Now I have returned to India for the last leg of my trip, which will be spent traveling in the north of the country and exploring the amazingness of the Himalayas.

I kind of hate Delhi. I dread coming here, and unfortunately I have to pass through Delhi to get to many of my destinations. Mostly it is the thick, humid heat that gets to me most, but even without the heat there is still the awful noise and smelly trash in the streets and smoggy polluted air.

I splurged on a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi to get me back to India. I mentally prepared myself for a depressing arrival and horrid night in a dirty hotel. So I was quite surprised when I arrived in the Delhi airport to find that all my memories were completely wrong! I had remembered the airport to be depressingly dark and filthy and unwelcoming; instead, it was bright and shiny clean and beautiful like any other airport anywhere in the world! I was convinced maybe I was in a different terminal (I wasn't), or that they had recently remodeled the airport interior (they haven't). Instead, I guess my eyes have become adjusted to India and what was once disgusting is now perfectly normal.

I also remember the ride from the airport to the Tibetan colony Manju ka Tilla (where I stayed my first night in India in February) was a scary ride. Since it was February, it was very cold, and since it was later at night, the streets were mostly empty save a few crowds of homeless people huddled around street fires or under blankets. This time, however, as I drove again to Manju ka Tilla, the streets were full of Indian wonderfulness. The shops were lit up and crowds were bustling through side streets doing last minute shopping. Since I arrived on India's Independence Day, there were fireworks in the sky and kids were flying kites all around. It was a wonderful welcome, and I was very glad to be back in India.

The hotel I stayed at was not the same as my hotel in February. It was dirtier, which is fine because it is also cheaper, but equipped with a television! I was excited to watch a Shah Rukh Khan movie before bedtime, and I was able to catch up on all the new skin-lightening face cream commercials and Bollywood music videos I have missed out on while in Nepal.

Today I have been wasting time until my bus leaves for Dharamsala at 6pm. I spent a whole 2 hours trying to find an ATM. A kind young man from my hotel came with me to direct me to the ATM, but traveling by cycle-rickshaw on the Indian expressways was not the speediest solution, and it ended up being quite a journey. After I refilled my wallet, the monk Geshe Petu who runs the hotel (and who is also a family friend via my aunt Valle) gave me the key to his bedroom upstairs where he let me watch TV, use the bathroom, and relax for as long as I wanted since I had already checked out of my room. So kind!

Now I am looking forward to a good night's sleep on a bus (fingers crossed!), awakening to wonderfully crisp mountain air, and meeting another one of Valle's monk friends, Jamyang, who also became my brother Graham's good friend last summer in India.