The India holiday- in word pictures

This time I did remember to carry the camera but it ran out of battery as soon as I switched it on at the wedding! And stayed that way till the end of my journey.

I tried to convince myself that I was going to absorb every little detail so that I could quickly call up those images in my mind and conjure up what I felt. And then I decided I was going to draw word pictures instead because they are somehow better. Here they are-Some memories, some feelings.

The Delhi Chapter

• Being greeted excitedly by my uncle at the airport and every member of the family as they came back home from work/school etc
• Spending a sunny Wednesday afternoon with my Delhi people, sitting at the dining table, eating roti, baingain ka bharta, dal and soya chicken that nobody but Leema can get right
• Frantically trying to find the perfect Indian outfit to wear to Tanu's mehendi ceremony, the day before the event
• Dragging the cousin who had spared the time out of her wedding preps to come and see me on the aforementioned shopping trip
• Sitting with my friend as her hands and feet were being covered in mehendi and shoving a croissant and warm coffee down her throat and feeling so happy that I could be of some use.
• Greeting her friends and sister, saying their names out loud and hugging them. Scary for them because they had never seen me before. I recognize them all from a picture wall.
• Watching my friend get dressed for the wedding, seeing her sitting in the mandap and thinking that that moment marked the culmination of a series of conversations and hopes that had started almost two years ago in a hostel room in New Cross.
• Being asked countless times, how I had lost so much weight by family, church members and friends
• Ticking off one more item off my to-do list for 2012.
• Knowing that my cousin took so many hours out of her schedule to accompany me on expeditions to the malls (mind you there were many trips), to Green Park to eat the Chaat platter at Evergreen, on the metro to Gurgaon and pointing out where the ladies compartment was, discussing potential causes of property conflict over Szechwan mushroom and American chopsuey filled dosas, getting stuck in Gurgaon traffic in rush hour.
• Feeling thrilled that I felt much safer in Delhi this time that in the past (Ironical, I know)
• Meeting Sve at the Metro platform, walking to City Walk while trading the innocuous details of our lives and those of our friends circle during our alarm-timed catch-up (though she said, the alarm was only indicative)
• Remembering the good old ET days with Ishani in Khan Market over a wonderful Rendang curry and cake and being so happy that we could catch up.
• The purchase of a book by a blogger that I follow regularly. Yashodhara, I finally found your book!
• Regretting the fact that I didn't have enough time to speak or to catch up with even those that I really wanted to meet. Sorry peeps.