In Delhi

Caught the 10am to Delhi Mail. Wasn't that tough actually. Was easy. Easy peasy. The family I was sitting with couldn't speak any English. I couldn't speak any Gujarati nor Hindi. So we used sign language to offer me food, and me thank them in return and say no to more and that it was very delicious (very very sweet and oily). The little five year old sporadically pinched my cheeks and screamed things. They calmed him down and perched him on the top bunkbed.

Again a transvestite came around asking for money. People were sitting on the floor preparing meals. Reading newspapers. Stretching. Lying down for a siesta. I wanted to cool down so I opened the door and hung out of the train. We rolled into a station. Lots of dirty kids jumped on. I was told not to open the door in a station which is unused by this service. Beggars crept along the floor wiping it with their shirts.

Met a principal of a private school. Talked about cricket, the school, our salaries (he earns Rs15000/month = GBP187), physical relationships, religion, Monsoon, clothing, caste system. He had filled out a form wrong (an application to being able to teach up to matric), so he had to return to Delhi to correct it and add to it and double and counter sign. We talked about burocracy as well.

Arrived in Delhi at 6am. Negotiated an auto-rickshaw journey to my hotel. People sitting on pavements washing themselves, waking up on their carts, preparing street food, and walking on the streets packed with cars, auto-rickshaws, bicycle-rickshaws, horse-drawn carts, camel-drawn carts, motobikes, bicycles, buses, trucks, cripples, decrepid, beggars, workers, children, mothers and dogs just heaving and along the humid street, smelling of coriander, oil, fennel, rubbish, and exhaust fumes.

Plenty of touts trying to sell you anything from whips to flights, and attempting to convince you that everything is full and dangerous and expensive, except for their market. About twenty unpleasant touts tried to get me there - but I resisted hard.

Delhi still seems very confusing. A lot of travellers here. Had delicious street food.

Awaiting Sarita.