Journal post entry 1 Wednesday/Thursday/Friday January 1/2/3:
The trip started with a snow storm and a two-hour delay in Chicago, but after a quick de-icing we were in the air we on our way to India, a land short on snow and ice....which was fine by me! The 14 hour flight gave me some time to indulge in the Indian culture. I watched a fun Bollywood movie called Special 26 which was presumable based on a true story of the CBI, India's equivalent of the FBI. The construction of the movie was a lot different than I had imagined considering my perception of Bollywood films always included a long song and dance routine. This film had none of those. It was a fun heist movie where the protagonist (who in this case was the thief) was a failed CBI recruit bent on proving he could outwit the CBI through an elaborate jewelry heist.
In any event, the flight was generally uneventful and pleasant and took us directly over Kabul and blazing white snow-covered mountain ranges. Upon landing I was shocked to see how the airport was clean and modern, far different than my first experience of Indian airports at Dum Dum near Kolkata thirteen years earlier. Delhi feels completely different than Kolkata. There is a modern and developing feel to the city. Traffic is crazy, as it should be in a city as populous as Delhi, but to see mid-rise modern hotels and office buildings is the tangible manifestation of progress.
We woke up early Friday morning for a 6:05 train ride to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The Delhi train station was not as bustling as I remember Howrah station near Kolkata 13 years ago, but we did have our first legitimate encounter with a beggar. We also ran into a family from Duluth Minnesota...of all places! The train provided a great opportunity to observe the changing Indian countryside as fields for agriculture were being converted into highways and midrise skyscrapers.
As a father, the one thing that caught my attention during the train ride more than anything else were the kites. Kites flying from the rooftops of buildings, flying from the streets below. Kites being flown by children like my own who share the same joy in life but are separated by half a world. I wonder what the lives of these children are like. What are the conditions of their homes? What are their fathers like? Do they love swinging the cricket bat like my son loves swinging the baseball bat? I hope that before I leave India I can make the acquaintance of a family.
The trip started with a snow storm and a two-hour delay in Chicago, but after a quick de-icing we were in the air we on our way to India, a land short on snow and ice....which was fine by me! The 14 hour flight gave me some time to indulge in the Indian culture. I watched a fun Bollywood movie called Special 26 which was presumable based on a true story of the CBI, India's equivalent of the FBI. The construction of the movie was a lot different than I had imagined considering my perception of Bollywood films always included a long song and dance routine. This film had none of those. It was a fun heist movie where the protagonist (who in this case was the thief) was a failed CBI recruit bent on proving he could outwit the CBI through an elaborate jewelry heist.
In any event, the flight was generally uneventful and pleasant and took us directly over Kabul and blazing white snow-covered mountain ranges. Upon landing I was shocked to see how the airport was clean and modern, far different than my first experience of Indian airports at Dum Dum near Kolkata thirteen years earlier. Delhi feels completely different than Kolkata. There is a modern and developing feel to the city. Traffic is crazy, as it should be in a city as populous as Delhi, but to see mid-rise modern hotels and office buildings is the tangible manifestation of progress.
We woke up early Friday morning for a 6:05 train ride to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The Delhi train station was not as bustling as I remember Howrah station near Kolkata 13 years ago, but we did have our first legitimate encounter with a beggar. We also ran into a family from Duluth Minnesota...of all places! The train provided a great opportunity to observe the changing Indian countryside as fields for agriculture were being converted into highways and midrise skyscrapers.
As a father, the one thing that caught my attention during the train ride more than anything else were the kites. Kites flying from the rooftops of buildings, flying from the streets below. Kites being flown by children like my own who share the same joy in life but are separated by half a world. I wonder what the lives of these children are like. What are the conditions of their homes? What are their fathers like? Do they love swinging the cricket bat like my son loves swinging the baseball bat? I hope that before I leave India I can make the acquaintance of a family.
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