India

First let me say: I don't know India. I don't pretend to understand India, nor am I judging India. I am disturbed , but intriqued.
The poverty is mind boggling. This is a country that anywhere else would have had a revolution years ago. It's difficult to get your head around, but you start to haggle and bargain...and start to feel ripped off, then you catch yourself and realise that you're talking about 80pence...and you're feeling pissed off. Get a life Terry. It means a lot more to them than to you. It costs you nothing that 80 pence.

I arrived finally last night around midnight and spent the first couple of hours watching Mexico play Angola in the hotel bar. I found it surreal. The drive from the airport was strange. Everything looked really run down with row upon row of people sleeping on little cots on the sidewalk. Cows stood chewing their cud on the roadside and watched the hotel car headlights with disinterest.
I got up at about 10 and got the hotel to arrange a driver so I could head into the city and have a look at things. It's rare that I get so much time off when I travel. Meetings for 2 had been cancelled, so I was determined to make the best of a full afternoon of playing tourist.

For 1000 rupies (about £10) the taxi drove me from place to place and waited for me whilst I did the snappy-snap thing. The car never went over 50kms an hourandthe driver had a tendancy to turn off the engine as we coasted, starting it up again when the horns behind us got too insistant. I found this a little disconserting.

The traffic in Dehli is legendary, though being a Saturday I guess it was lighter than usual. The car was supposed to have aircon, but with all of the coasting I just put down the window and tried not to freak out too much at the weaving suicidal traffic of bicycles, water tankers, cars and rickshaws.

A depressing part of the ride were the beggars who swarmed the car at every stop light. More often than not they were kids, or mothers clutching babies. The driver stared straight ahead. After awhile, fatigue kicked in, and I found myself waving them away staring at the map in my lap. Just another rich foreigner oblivious to the plight of the poor. Depressing how you become so callous so quickly.

Sitting here now, I can only think of my little J and thank god she's not one of those poor little unfortunates.

I can't seem to upload anymore pics so will need to update you with more stuff tomorrow.

Hope all is well.

T