sleepy eyed and sandy eyelids
can’t seem to get the engine running

thinking of the week to come
with a desire for vitality
can’t shake the tiredness of too much spread too thin
can’t wait to give in to a new mode
i can see it up ahead…

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

This all seems relevant to political, financial and management terms and writing. I’ve definately read articles or listened to a speech from someone active in one of these areas and wondered firstly, what the hell is he talking about, and then secondly, wondered why he didn’t say it in a much simpler way. Of course many times its just a way of masking what’s being said and is also used to create an exclusiveness whereby you have to “learn the language” to be able to follow things being said. Creating this exclusiveness is not necessarily a bad thing as it can create a basic level of acceptable skills but of course, like most exclusivenes, its evolved into something detached from real language. Wouldn’t it be great to make such talk unfashionable, as Orwell puts it? Maybe then at least politicians wouldn’t be able to get away with murder and put people off even getting interested in what they say.

The first two nights we stayed in New Delhi which is possibly the most shocking and busy place we’ve seen so far. There are just so many people everywhere, its impossible to understand. The traffic is completely insane. So many cars, trucks, motorbikes, buses and rickshaws, all of them trying to get to their destination before each other. Everybody wants to go past first and the car horns are constantly blowing. Lots of rubish and cows and dogs and people. Its completely over the top as a first encounter. Definately a shock from the minute we stepped out of the airport. We stayed just off the main bazaar road, very near the New Delhi railway station, in the Paharganj neighbourhood. First crazy thing, after the insane taxi ride from the airport, was arriving and the reservation was for the day before so at 1 a.m. we ended up 5 in a double room with three foldable beds arguing about the price. It was really hot in Delhi so 5 in a room was like an oven. Second crazy thing was buying the train tickets next morning, with everyone telling you the ticket office is closed, its moved, etc. From day one its been a crash course in barganing and figuring out scams. Good fun once you get the hang of it though.

We went from Delhi heat to a cool and fresh Shimla in about 8 hours. Normal gauge train up to Kalka and then a short change to a narrow gauge train for the trip from Kalka to Shimla. The narrow gauge train up to Shimla, through the hills, is really worth it : amazing views and good snacks at the stops. We stayed in the YMCA (making a few jokes singing the YMCA song of course), which was actually quite clean and ok with breakfast included. We saw some amazing views of the Himalayas from a village called Fagu and even went to a middle Hindi government school to hand out pens (we’d brought about 50) which was a really good experience, especially seeing how a school is set up here. The kids all went completely crazy jumping around and laughing and the teachers were happy enough to have us there and very welcoming.

From Shimla, we caught a bus to Chandigarh. One word : insane. The driving was so crazy down the mountain side roads that we actually got off the first bus to try the next one thinking it was our particular driver. It wasn’t really. Crazy crazy crazy. The bus drivers drive so fast the bus feels like its going to topple over on every curve and most curves have no barriers and huge drops about 1 metre from the road. The first bus driver even ran over quite a big dog and just kept driving, without even slowing down. We started getting even more worried when we noticed even indians on the bus were looking at each other with worried expressions. Still, we made it down in one piece and it was quite an experience, although not one I think any of us want to repeat. Even made a video of one minute of the bus trip.

Chandigarh is the most organised thing we’ve seen so far. A city divided up in blocks. Its the Indian answer to a planned city. The whole city is made up of blocks with big roads bordering the blocks and huge roundabouts. Each “block” is called a sector and each sector sort of condenses certain types of services/functions. So one sector might have all the clothes shops and street lawyers, etc and then internet access points will be in another sector and so on. The sectors are quite big which makes walking around not really a viable option so its rickshaws all day to get around. We wanted a bit of a break when we got to Chandigarh so we ended up staying a couple of nights. We even went to the circus which was like travelling back in time to my childhood in Portugal. There were so many acts it was mental. It was so long, we left before it finished but it was definately a laugh, especially the constantly non-enthusiastic expressions of the “lovely assistants” which must all have been about 14 years old.

After Chandigarh, we stopped by Jalandarh on our way to Amristar. We went to visit a guy Xevi knew, one of the guys we were travelling with, and he received us at his house, which was great cause we got to see a chilled, normal neighbourhood. We were really well received at his house and ate like kings all afternoon! It was mental cause we were sat on his sofa for like 6 hours which consisted of eating followed by resting and then eating again and repeat… Very hospitable guy and his family were all really nice too. We ended up staying at his place quite a lot and by the time we made it to the train station to get to Amristar, it was quite late. The next day was Diwali, sort of the Indian equivalent of christmas, and the trains were completely packed! We saw the mental image of hundreds of people trying to pack themselves into an already fully packed train, including Sikhs with swords and things similar to axes. Turns out that one of those trains was actually the one we were supposed to get on but we ended up getting on the “upmarket” express from Mombay and getting a stern telling-off by the ticket inspector.

Amristar and the Golden Temple were great. It was full on run up to Diwali, the socalled festival of lights, celebrated in the evening of the day we visited the Golden Temple, so it was completely packed, seeing as it is particularly important for Sikhs. The Golden Temple was impressive and there is supposed to be something like 78kg of gold on the temple. People actually leave gold rings there when they visit and its all eventually metled down and added to the temple’s coating. We waited in a huge queue and actually went inside the temple were there was live music and signing : very intense. Everyone was really nice and quite surprised by our presence. People were constantly asking to take a photo with you. Mental. You can actually sleep inside the temple and there are free meals so it is quite a welcoming place and there really is a very calm feeling inside. We also went a Hindu temple which is a replica, although a bit smaller, of the Golden temple, where there was a Tibetan group playing music, singing and dancing.

After Amristar, we took a fast train back to Delhi and decided to get a car with a driver as suggested by a couple of people we had spoken to. It turned out to be a really good option and we were lucky to be directed to a semi-official place for bookings by a really helpfull reporter for the sports section of the Hindu times who we met while walking around comparing prices at diferent travel offices. Was really good to have met him as otherwise you basically never know what you’re likely to get. He insisted that as we were guests in his country, it was his duty to help us, no thanks necessary, and that who knew, maybe next lifetime he would be in Spain and then we could help him. From then on, the trip was much more relaxed and we ended up seeing many more things without the stress of dealing with trains, buses and taxis. Our driver Sanju was excellent : really friendly and patient and always ready with a smile and some tidbit of information or a plan for something to do.

From Delhi we went to Agra, to see the Taj Mahal. From Agra, we went to Jaipur and then to Pushkar, where we arrived just before the start of the yearly camel fair. More in a bit…

Check out the photos of the trip!