Monday, January 5, 2009

What I do all day (for the last few days)

Is study old Tibetan and Sanskrit books, right now the Manavadharmashaastra. Except for yesterday...

Long story short, on Sunday night I went to Mughal Serai, from whence high speed trains to Delhi are obtained, and after a heartstopping ride through pea soup fog, found that my train was going to be 10 hours late. For a 9 hour journey. ??

So I went home, and came back, and eventually the train got there 13 hours late, then sat for another four hours, before getting rerouted through our local train station, 2 miles from our house! and then eventually on to Delhi arriving, um, late.

Here in India, no one would think anything amiss about this conversation:

My train was late.

How late?

A little over a day.

So with forty five minutes to spare, I dashed to the airport, getting there five minutes after the plane I was to meet landed...thankfully, it was late too. Good for me, bad for a connecting flight leaving in 4 hours at 2:30. So, I waited...till 1:45...and lo and behold, my mother and sister, who I whisked into a taxi (half an hour predicted duration between airports, eek) and pulled up at Indira Gandhi Domestic Terminal 1B at 2:04, then proceeded to flail my Hindi skills at top speed (you have to talk fast to accomodate the inevitable insertion of the "You speak Hindi?" conversation) to shamelessly cut in lines for entrance into the airport and for security. And now Grandma Ginny and Aunt Susannah are here! We went to our old favorite Burger King last night and unpacked all our loot, and have just gotten done eating pancakes and drinking hot chocolate, all made better by the addition of American measuring cups to our household.

Cliffnotes: 36 hours in train station and train, 4 hours in Delhi, 1 hour in the air, and now 8 days wif my mommy and widdle sister.

2 comments:

Grandpa George said...

Greetings to all the Varanasi Hasketts. Glad you are all safe and sound. I like the story about late. When Chris called about midnight last night, I had the cell phone in bed with me, having missed earlier calls (because in Chapel Hill for Tarheels LOSS).

Chris, said, "Uhh Dad, you sound like you were sleeping." I don't remember what I said, but as Grandma Ginny can attest, long before midnight, I am usually asleep. But I can recover quickly--right, Chris?? I did find the flight #.

Well, sweeties, have a splendid time. Last night, PBS was showing The Story of India, the Michael Wood production. There are several components done at Varanasi, India's "holiest city." Have any of you seen it?

GG

Grampy said...

Glad it all worked out. As I was taught to say on my first trip - TII. Be sure to take and post lots of photos.

George, did you see the long interview with Caro a few nights ago? Did you bump into him at the Johnson library?