One of the unavoidable truths of having visited so many parts of India in such a short period of time was that we had a pretty embarrassing carbon footprint, taking planes instead of trains and drinking lots of bottled water instead of water out of the tap. India is particularly vulnerable to climate change, as melting glaciers in the Himalayas threaten much of the country’s water and food supply, so I’ve got a little San Francisco green guilt creeping in on my conscience.

Thanks to my folks for paying my airfare to India, Ramya’s family for their incredible hospitality and generosity while there, and a very favorable exchange rate, I actually spent a lot less money than I expected for such a big trip. Sooo, I just bought carbon offsets to mitigate my carbon footprint while flying to and from India, and domestic air, rail, and car travel.

At the recommendation of “In India” subscriber Michael Silberman (who first told me about carbon offsets a couple years ago), I visited BrighterPlanet.com to calculate my footprint, and purchase a little over $100 in credits — investments in new green energy and reforestation projects — to “offset” all of the carbon dioxide I was responsible for pumping into the atmosphere while traveling. Here is the very rough approximation of my impact:

18,601 miles AIR transport = 7,599 lbs of CO₂ emissions
500 miles AUTO transport = 754 lbs of CO₂ emissions
726 miles RAIL transport = 154 lbs of CO₂ emissions
TOTAL CARBON FOOTPRINT = 8,506 lbs of CO₂ emissions

Yikes, that’s about what the average American produces in 4 months! If you’d like to mitigate your footprint on your next trip, you can purchase credits at BrighterPlanet.com or TerraPass.com — or just Google “carbon offsets” — and Mother Earth (and granola-lovers everywhere) will love ya for it!

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!

Ramya and I are back in Delhi, our last hurrah before heading back home on Saturday. We hardly gave Southern India justice, spending just two nights with Ramya’s uncle Murali in Chennai, formerly Madras. But we made the most if it, sampling roadside coconuts and Southern Indian cuisine (a Thali, a sampler platter of various rices and curries), visiting Dakshina Chitra (sort of like the Indian village version of Colonial Williamsburg), and checking out Marina Beach (which Murali proclaimed to be the world’s second longest beach next to Miami, though there were no thongs and far more stray dogs).

  

But the highlight of our time in Chennai was getting to see Priya (Ramya’s aunt, Murali’s wife) perform in a traditional Bharatnatyam dance. It’s as much a pantomime as it is dance, in which detailed facial expressions and hand movements convey emotion and tell traditional Hindu stories along to a Carnatic orchestra. Those who know me may be surprised to see me getting so worked up about dance, but Bharatnatyam does more for me than what I usually associate with “dance,” and I really enjoyed Priya’s performance.

Video here:

Also of note: we stayed in the “Ecotel,” where low flow faucets and an in-room recycling bin helped us (marginally) reduce our footprint. There was even a green, tree-shaped button next to the bed which turned off the AC and illuminated a sign outside our room door boasting “Eco friendly guest.” If living sustainably actually was as easy as hitting a little green button I might be better at it, but that’s a topic for another post on another blog!

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)!

Well, sort of. We’re finally leaving rainy San Francisco tomorrow (on separate flights, going opposite ways around the world), and should arrive in India in the wee hours of Thursday morning. That means all 75 minutes or so of my Christmas will be spent in Heathrow Terminal 5, while Ramya gets a little longer to enjoy the holiday during her layover in Beijing’s airport. Incidentally, all Ramya and I wanted for Christmas this year was ramen and over-cooked pubfood, so this is going to work out really well.

Enjoy our first video as we set off for India (and Ramya almost breaks her back before we even get there).

God(s) know(s) the Taj Mahal has been photographed millions of times (and we’ll snap a few of our own) but we also want to know what images you think we should capture while we’re in India.

From the artful to the obscure (and downright ridiculous) we’ll do our best to fulfill your requests — just leave them in the comments

We’re 7 days out, so I just popped my first “Lariam,” an anti-malarial agent known to cause “vivid” and “abnormal dreams”.

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!

And we’re very excited about India!

Jamie’s particularly excited to be testing his new WordPress iPhone application, which should make blogging from anywhere in India with a WiFi connection a breeze… in theory.