I must say, India has treated me well. So many amazing, magnificent things that I have been able to see and experience. Truly, it has been the opportunity of a lifetime. I feel like I have learned so much about people, myself, and the path of spirituality that people from all races take in order to follow God. Truly magnificent.
So, I'm in Dheli. It's a very crowded city. One of the most densely populated city in the world (according to wikipedia). Delhi is really rich in history. Well, I guess all of India is rich with history. Everywhere you go, there's something to be seen. But, Dheli is the place where Ghandi was killed. 3 or 4 hours away is Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal. There are several religious sites. I have learned that the farther North you seem to come, the more Muslims there seem to be. We went to a Hindu temple yesterday and right next door there was this Muslim mosque. To Kartik, this was very very surprising. There has always been so much turmoil between the Hindu and the Muslims that to coincide is really difficult, or so it seems.
We left Pune on Monday by train. The train was an experience, in itself. As we were driving to the train station, our car got a flat tire. We were running on a little bit of a time crunch, so we changed the tire super quick and went on our way to the station. Traffic was pretty bad, but we were able to make it on time. Not only on time, but we were early. Apparently, the trains in India are about as reliable not nearly as reliable as Japan. In Japan, I could time the train down to 30 seconds. India...it was a different story. The train was running an hour late. There was confusion over this because Rahm and Kartik thought that the train was leaving from Pune. There should have been no other stops before it. So the fact that it was late seemed odd. Anyway, we hung out for a little bit at the train station, then made our way over to the platform with all our luggage. Loading the train was such a hassle. We have seriously more luggage than I think stuff that I own in total. Huge bags that wouldn't even fit under the seats or in the aisle caused lots of frustration between us and some of the other passengers. However, we finally got everything on, and moments later, the train departed around 6:00 or so.
So trains, I found, are really nothing too exciting. We were in the air conditioned compartment which was nice, but I think it made me sick! I've had a sore throat and cold-like symptoms ever since. I am pretty sure my body is so used to the heat that being cold like that affected me drastically. But yeah, I basically just hung out until about 10:00, cuddled up in my little cot, and then went to sleep. The cots are so small. My feel were sticking out into the aisle the entire night, unless I pulled my knees toward my chest. I slept decently, to say the least. I mean, what can you expect. All I can say is that it wasn't the worse sleep I have ever had. I have definitely slept a lot worse.
The next day was nice. Our train wasn't set to arrive until about 9 PM that night. So I took almost the entire day to read 1984. Fabulous book. I read it in high school, but didn't remember anything at all, so I read it again. It was great.
We arrived in Delhi and took 2 taxis to get to the place where we were staying, which is a house owned by Ananda.
We then took a bus to Agra where we saw the famous Taj Mahal. Honestly speaking, it was spectacular but not as amazing as some of the other things I have seen. I really liked it though.
After that nothing really went down. We are still chilling in Delhi. We have just been relaxing because it's so hot. We have gone to the mall to buy kurtas (traditional Indian formal clothing) for the wedding. Also, we saw the movie Inception. Seriously such a great movie. It was amazing. I highly suggest every one of you should go check it out. Anyway, I need to go to bed. Good night. We're heading off for Bangalore tomorrow. That should be a trip. I'll let you know how it goes. Namaste.
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