Arrived in Delhi

Good flights from Boston to Amsterdam to Delhi. Arrived at Maidens Hotel after 2am. After five hours sleep... felt great and ready to explore Delhi.

When we arrived at Ghandi's cremation and buriel site, it was closed as tomorrow, January 30th is the date of Ghandi,s death and dignitaries will be coming for visit. For security...,no one allowed in today. We did visit the Ghandi Museum. His words and works continue to inspire me. Why cannot politicians of today listen ..,and hear his wisdom? We had only a half hour in museum. I could have spent at least an hour there.

Excellent lunch with several Indian appetizers, soup, and then Indian main course.

Book - The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India by Shelley Seale

The author describes India as a diverse country that you either love or hate. She writes "There was also what everyone, including myself, expected of India - despair, filth, destitution. All were things that caused some people to question why I would ever want to come; the things that so many visitors to India recoiled from. The trash that lined the roads and the beggars that tapped at car windows. The deteriorating buildings, the ragged street vendors, the ramshackle homes for which hut was too grandiose a term. The frantic poverty that does not let you rest.

Still there was beauty in the midst of it - the parts of India those well-meaning people had not considered or could not see. The vitality of life teeming all around, the jangling of bangles and ankle bracelets, the colorful saris, the carved temples, with swaying trees surrounding it all. The tremendous scale of its monuments and palaces and art left one stunned, as did the strange way there was a deep-seated peace even in the midst of tumultuous movement and clamor. The wonderful and the abject coexisted side by side. Though the country struggled with the indigence of large numbers of it's population, it was far from a poor place."

This is why I am returning to India.

January 26,2012 - Concord, NH

Weather report in New Hampshire, threatens the North Country with ice storms on Thursday (today) and Friday. I will fly anywhere, but, I am afraid to drive on snow and ice. Left home a day early and am spending the night at Fairfield Inn in Concord, NH. I will have a two mile drive tomorrow to bus station...and will let Concord Coach deliver me to Logan Airport in Boston. And then it is off to Delhi, India where our tour begins.

This is a tour with GoAhead Tours. I believe that there will be twenty seven participants...fourteen of them are with me.

Massachusetts and Texas are well represented on this tour. We have the following group members:

Kathy Didier NH
Barbara Melnick MA
Sally Coburn MA
Fran Scullin MA
Mary Ellen Kiddle MA
Dianne Alperin MA
Linda Eidelman MA and FL
Baila Janock MA
Maxine Sobel FL
Joyce Cramer TX
Elise Sheppard TX
Ginny Gremillion TX
Carl Kunath TX
Rachel Kunath TX

So, tomorrow begins our adventure.