I am sitting in Delhi’s Airport, anxiously awaiting Ramya’s arrival! My first 24 hours in India have been jam-packed with:

• Sightseeing, including several unintended loops around the very confusing 3 rings of Connaught Place, Delhi’s new Metro (the nicest subway I’ve ever been on), India Gate (Delhi’s Arc de Triomph), the fascinating Ghandi Smitri Museum (on the site of his assassination in 1948), and the very impressive Humayun’s tomb,
• 4 or 5 incredible meals/snacks and tea with my autorockshaw driver,
• Ear cleaning service sales pitches — one man cornered me on a park bench and tried to sell me said services by showing me a little notebook with testimonials by all his satisfied customers — one read “You should have seen how much crap he pulled out of my ears — Raju is amazing!”
• Some absolutely wild rides and walks along the anarchic roadways of Central Delhi,
• Very smoggy, smoky, foggy air that (combined with my jetlag) can give the place a very surreal aura, and last but certainly not least,
• The incredible hospitality of Prasad and Mehar Singh, Lataa’s staff (Lataa is Ramya’s aunt who we will see at the end of our trip, and at whose wonderful home I stayed last night while she’s on vacation). They have burned the midnight oil (our flights arrive at ungodly hours) to make my first 24 hours as painless and comfortable as possible.

Photos coming soon. Ramya’s flight just landed and we’re headed straight to the train station to catch our 6am train to Jaipur, where we’ll rendezvous with my family for a couple days. Hope to catch some sleep on rails!