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!

By the end of today we will have covered nearly 500 km (300 miles) travelling by road between Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi. But these roads are a far cry from the New Jersey Turnpike, and each mile offers a new source of amusement, visual/auditory/olfactory stimulation, and absolute gut-wrenching terror.

Amusement comes in the form of animals wandering through the streets and highways — cows, dogs and even monkeys — totally unphased by the honking vehicles navigating around them. The animals truly own the roads here. 9 or 10 people on an auto-rickshaw is not an uncommon sight, nor is a tractor towing a bicycle or a donkey hauling a cart with half a dozen grown men on it — generally right down the middle of the highway.

The senses are overwhelmed by the every imaginable color — in dress, on billboards (99% of which are painted, not printed), and in painted designs on the sides of almost every truck. The never-ending symphony of horns (drivers honk pretty much everytime they pass another car or truck) ranges from lorry baritone to Toyota soprano, and even includes musical clown horns to calm the nerves. And distinct smells waft into the car along every stretch of road — incense, smoke from controlled brushfires in the countryside, noxious fumes in the cities, and raw sewage pretty much anywhere.

Lastly fright, with one seeming “near miss” after another, as bicyclists, tractors, pedestrians, trucks and cars all share the same road, each moving at their own pace. The operating norm seems to be that one has the right-of-way so long as oncoming traffic can stop/slow down in time to avoid collision. This made things particularly interesting this morning when the road from Jaipur to Agra was shrouded in the thickest fog I’ve ever seen, and our driver would skillfully hit the brakes just in time to avoid a vehicle suddenly emerging from the white. Given these challenging traffic norms, I have been incredibly impressed with the skill of our drivers, whose seeming near misses would be crushing metal if instead it was me behind the wheel.

Today we visited the magnificent palace and former Mughal capital at Fatehpur Sikri, and the even more incredible Taj Mahal in Agra, before parting with my family to commence the next leg of our trip. Both of these sites deserve a lot more ink than I’m giving them here (and a lot more time than we were able to spend visiting them), but just trust that they were both incredibly fascinating and spectacular, and that my poor photography skills do not do them justice. Nevertheless, we’ll try to get the photos up ASAP.

We’re almost to Delhi, where we will catch an overnight train to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan exile community. Stay tuned for our next update from the Himalayas!

A few photos from my phone:

In preparation for our whirlwind tour of India — a journey that begins a week from today — I picked up a copy of In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce. Ramya and others are probably sick of hearing me talk about this book, but since we’re not actually in India yet it’s about all I have to talk about for now.

Luce, a Brit who has lived in India for the better part of a decade, offers a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing India at the dawn of the 21st Century. Through a collection of historical and personal anecdotes, he puts post-independence India in its broader political / economic / religious / social / cultural / historical context (”broader societal context” would just sound too stuffy). It’s a fascinating story of the world’s largest democracy that conjures up all sorts of interesting contrasts with American society, as well as China and other developing nations.

Luce’s account has made me all the more excited to experience this mind-blowingly diverse nation — and grateful (albeit overwhelmed) that our 15-day journey will give us a glimpse of no less than 7 of India’s 28 states!