Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and martyrdom. The papers were full of ads marking the day and reverently remembering Bapu. There was a really good piece in The Hindustan Times called “His faith, our faith” by historian Ramachandra Guha author of the book “India after Gandhi“. In the article Mr. [...]
Archive for January, 2008
Gandhi, faith and Martyr’s Day
Posted in Gandhi, India, faith on 31 January, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Like Not Having Money
Posted in India, travel on 31 January, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In any of the poorer or developing countries I’ve been to, the worst thing you could have in your wallet is a large bill, India is no exception. Here, 10 Rupee notes (about 25 cents US) are the currency of choice as far as I can tell. These are used to pay rickshaws, for tipping [...]
Darjeeling
Posted in Darjeeling, Holiday, India, travel on 24 January, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Our last overnight trip within India is over now and we spent it in Darjeeling (if you enjoy being pedantic like us, remember that Darjeeling rhymes with “gargling” when ordering your Darjeeling tea).
Once again we have defied death with a hair raising ride down from this 7000 ft Himalayan village and tea capital. [...]
Trading Places
Posted in Darjeeling, India, Varanasi, train, travel, wonder on 20 January, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Our train today rolled toward Darjeeling through the Northeast Indian countryside at a pace somewhere between “slow” and “parked”. As is normally the case on Indian trains, the four doors, two in the front and two in the rear, were left wide open allowing a 180 degree open-air view of life in rural India. My [...]
Today we take the overnight train to Darjeeling which we are quite excited about after having just seen the film “The Darjeeling Limited”. Even though that film actually took place in Rajasthan it adds romance to this trip. But yesterday morning we arrived in Varanasi so let’s write about that first.
We travelled first A/C on [...]
Goa Part II
Posted in Goa, Holiday, India, travel on 19 January, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
OK, just a few quick loose ends about our dining experiences in Goa.
We went to Colva one night for dinner and found Bob’s Shack behind the “Pasta Hut” on the beach where the service was good and the atmosphere was great. After a little bargaining we got the price of our Grilled Shrimp down to [...]
I figured I had better write about Goa soon as we are now on our next and penultimate Indian pilgrimage to Varanasi and Darjeeling. But before I get around to that let me offer some advice, if you are taking the train from the New Delhi Station or the Old Delhi Station, don’t drive there [...]
The beating of war drums
Posted in Bush, war on 14 January, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Before I sit down this week to write about our reflections on our trip to the beautiful beaches of Goa I must turn quickly to something more important – The Bush War Machine. Not being satisfied having been responsible for the deaths of at least 150,000 innocent Iraqi civilians (and by some counts many many [...]
P.S. Bombay
Posted in Bombay, Holiday, India, Mumbai, travel on 13 January, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve had a really relaxing time here in Goa, in fact so relaxing, I’m not sure there will even be a blog entry in it – sat on beach, ate shrimp, drank too much – but we’ll see. Instead, today I want to just clean up a few odds and ends from the Bombay leg [...]
Going to Goa
Posted in Goa, Holiday, India, train, travel on 11 January, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Well, I promised myself that I would deliver a light and fluffy post from here in Goa and that I shall do (but not before writing an un-posted entry on corruption in India and the West).
Our trip here by overnight train from Bombay began with an object lesson in what India is like. Our [...]
