On our way from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur we stopped off at a charity project which was a school for local 'untouchable' children. Hang your head in shame if you laughed when you read ‘untouchable children’, it’s not what you think and anyway this is serious and no laughing matter. Untouchables are the lowest of the 7 castes in India and as such the poorest and least educated. Those in this caste are rarely educated as their parents cannot afford school fee's and often do not understand the benefit of education as they have not received it themselves. The project we visited gives local untouchable children access to free education and thus hopefully more opportunities in life. I am always a little dubious of visiting such projects as I wonder what benefit can be provided in a ... read more

The enormity of what I was about to undertake hit me for the first time after an emotional farewell with the parents at Heathrow. For the next 48hrs my emotions seesawed between ecstatic excitement and anxiety, bordering at times on panic and dread. The flight was fine, although I certainly wouldn't get excited about flying Air India in the future. I have noticed over the years the size of people’s hand luggage has got increasingly large and silly, are you seriously going to need all that stuff over the space of 8 hours??? Apparently not, as I have also observed that no one and I mean NO ONE takes their hand luggage out of the overhead luggage compartment until the plane lands. I dared to break this unspoken faux pax by retrieving a book from my ... read more