I had a short little trip to India at the end of 2009; left NY on December 25th and was back on January 4th. The main point of the trip was to visit family; plus I hadn’t gone to India since my brother’s wedding, so it was nice to go back and see everyone again.
The trip started with a surprise visit to my uncle in Chandigarh. It was his 50th birthday, so my mom decided to surprise him and show in India. He was completely floored when we rang the door bell and said happy birthday. We spent a few days in Chandigarh; had a birthday lunch party the next day, did shopping, basically spent time with family there. From Chandigarh we went to Lucknow, to my dad’s side of the family.
This journey in itself was an adventure. The train we were supposed to take was supposed to leave Chandigarh at 8pm; because of fog, and mechanical problems the train didn’t arrive at the station till 2am, and we didn’t leave till 4am because they had to clean and restock the train. In India, during the winter months, there is a huge amount of fog in the evenings, and that makes travel really difficult. One would think that trains wouldn’t have too much of an issue, they just need to follow the tracks, and have some sort of radar or master control system tracking all trains. While they might have that, in India, people sometimes relieve themselves on the train tracks, and due to the fog, can’t see the train coming. So, the train driver has to drive real slowly to be able to see anyone on the tracks. Making trains real late as a result.
Eventually, we got to Lucknow and were able to get home. Here, again we hung out with family and did some shopping. Lucknow was cool because my grandfather was there, along with most of my cousins. Out of the cousins on that side, only my brother was missing, otherwise we were all there. Hanging out with all them was fun, because I really didn’t get a chance to hang out with family too much during my brother’s wedding. During the wedding itself, I was running around, and I don’t remember having anytime to talk to family members, or to do anything much.
From Lucknow we went back to Delhi, again had problems with the train. Not as bad as before, but still were late getting to Delhi. In Delhi, I had about a day and half before my flight home, so I got to do some shopping for myself; got a very nice looking hookah, and some small decorative things for around the house. And then, I finally flew home on January 4th, again having some issues taking off in the fog. Actually was really scary; they were showing us a view through cameras that the pilot was seeing, and basically we couldn’t see any of the runway and normally you can see a fair amount of the runway. Either way, I made it back safely and I’m home now.
No Comments