Blogs from Delhi, National Capital Territory, India, Asia - page 40

By brother Joe and his wife Candace came for a visit early in 2008. They made a stop in London first...and more than their share of travel issues...but made it to us right on time on October 9th. We had a great time with them and Joe did a wonderful job telling the story of their trip. "As we were leaving the airport Jennifer asked if we were hungry, we said yes and decided our first stop in Delhi would be the America Club (a part of the US embassy). On our drive over I was surprised by many of the sites and sounds of Delhi, there are a huge number of people here. I would imagine it would be difficult to figure out an exact number because many live in shanty towns along the highways ... read more

December 2007 The snow is falling, heavily, here in Toronto, and I am casting my mind back to the last two weeks I spent in India. The two highlights were Jaidev's naming day and the wedding of Ajay's cousin. In between, I made a new friend, Divya, spent a day at Qtub Minar, one of Delhi's world heritage sites (the city has four!), went shopping and TRIED to go see the hit movie, Om Shanti Om (with no success). I felt very honoured and privileged to be part of the baby's naming ceremony, a very big occasion in every Indian child's life. Jaidev is Ajay's baby nephew, born in September. The family postponed the ceremony so that I could attend, and it was really great that we were all there, including the baby's very proud Tau ... read more

Today we called into the Xansa offices in Noida which is part of Delhi and met with Tarun and Manisha. Carol was really impressed with the high standards of the accomodation and particularly the creche. We then left to visit one of the schools that Steria/Xansa sponsor as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme. Sumi (from Srinagar!) who is a real star and works very hard to get resources for the schoolchildren took us along. Coming from England it is difficult to describe how little the school has. It is for the poorest children who otherwise wouldn't get any education at all. Originally there were not only no school buildings (so that if it rained the schoolchilden had to go home (they sat underneath a tree for a classroom), but no toilets or clean water. ... read more

Message from Carol - It seems a long time since we had lunch with the family on Sunday; however we have managed to get to India with a minimum of fuss. We flew into Delhi on a very big bird; a different proposition from Ryanair; through customs etc in record time, probably because it was 2am and our driver was waiting to whisk us off to the hotel. An amazing number of staff was still busy cleaning and watering as we arrived. Our suite in the Jaypee Vasant is rather swish with a beautiful sitting room and a vast bed in a very tasteful bedroom with lovely en suite “facilities”. It’s now 11.30am and the temperature is 29 degrees. Ian had a dosa ( a pancake type wrap made of lentils) filled with spicy potato and ... read more

DELHI - (Our) gateway to India We have arrived in Delhi and it's an exciting and sobering introduction to India. Getting off the plane we were confronted by dozens of guys trying to stand in front of us and pitch their taxi and tour services to us. Instantly it became apparent (as we fully expected) that people are not shy about trying to engage / solicit you, and your personal space often becomes a rare luxury. However Lauren's friend Samir (who lives here) had organized us a driver to take us to his place where we have stayed for the first 3 days. Samir has been absolutely fantastic and taken amazingly good care of us. Not only have we been staying with him, but he has also taken us on a guided tour of Delhi, taken ... read more