Its 3am and Ramya and I are sitting in Delhi’s airport before parting ways to head home (Ramya goes East through Beijing, and I go West through London). We’ve had an incredible trip, though I think we both wish we could have spent more time in every one of the places we visited!

Today we had the very special opportunity to witness judicial proceedings at the High Court and Supreme Court of India in Delhi. It turns out Ramya’s aunt Lataa and her uncle Ram are big shot lawyers with cases to argue before the courts, so we got a fascinating glimpse of the Indian legal system. Both courts were actually somewhat chaotic — sort of like traffic court with lots of lawyers (all in black robes) and a digital ticker indicating the current item before the bench. But the Supreme Court chambers were as grand and impressive as those of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the back-and-forth between the lawyers and justices was just as combative and impassioned.

We learned a lot about the Indian legal system from Ram’s staff. I’d say it rivals the American system in terms of the shear magnitude of procedural paper-pushing that takes place, but it also seems to provide the best hope for the preservation of the “fundamental rights” (as established by the Indian Constitution) and aspirations of the common man in a place where Parliament rarely seems to give much attention to those goals.

I’ll have to leave that thought unfinished, as it’s almost wheels up for Heathrow. Thanks for following along with our wonderful voyage through the Subcontinent, and look forward to final reflections and photos in the coming days!

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!

Merry Christmas from Heathrow, where I’m joined by all my fellow heathens. I got something even better than pub food on my overnight flight: mincemeat pie — one of only a few British culinary creations worth blogging about. Props to Cedric, who half-jokingly predicted this most favorite pie of mine might appear on my tray table. For the record, there is no meat in said pie.

I’m bummed I won’t get to spend the first day exploring Delhi with Ramya, but I’ve promised not to have too much fun on my own (Supreme Court of India Museum, here we come)!