New Delhi airport is slowly becoming more modern and more like any other airport in the western world. The queues for immigration move along fairly swiftly, the toilets are clean, the taxi drivers don't mob you any more as soon as you get out of customs and there is a general air of artificial calm. Even as you leave the airport, the roads seem to be more organised, the slums along the sides of the road fewer...there seems to be a cleanup going on. Much of this is due to the Commonwealth games coming up in October, but it all has the effect of making the transition from East to West a little less extreme. I'm not sure whether this is a positive sign of the world becoming a smaller place, or a simply another aspect of the sanitisation and global homogenisation of culture.
Fortunately we get to my friend Surekha's home in good time and arrive in time for a delicious breakfast of Upma, sprouted pulses, fruit and porridge. It's still early, so we end up spending much of the day reclining and recovering from the flight. In the evening we are taken to Surekha's late mother's beautiful farm on the outskirts of Delhi for a tea party in our honour. A field of wheat greets you as you come up the drive and we were given the tour of the house and gardens, which are filled with vegetables like celery, aubergines, cabbage and chillies with a lawn that makes it essential to walk barefoot, beautiful birds flying overhead and a homemade supper awaiting us.
We were joined by many of my friends connected to Purkal and some of Surekha's friends and relatives. It's the beginning of an emotional reunion with a part of my life associated with so much happiness and such intense learning and experience and it is so good to see these wonderful people and their families again.
I woke up this morning at around 2.30am and am now getting ready to take the train with my mum up to Dehradun, where we'll be picked up at the station and taken to Purkal.
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