India – a visit to an impressive country

Over Christmas 2008 we went to India – a fantastic experience. Starting of with a beautiful wedding of our friends in Pune, which is about a three hours car ride east from Mumbai, we went after three days off to Dehli, the capital of the country. From there on we started of to a trip tp Agra, seeing the Taj Mahal, and then Jaipur – doing the most impressive sight seeing tour I ever done, havign to admit, than doing this in five days only is quite tough and if I would do it again then in 30% more time. It was great anyway.

After returning to Delhi we went on to Goa. For a few days and New Years Eve on the days. It is very beautiful down there.

It is impossible to describe all the impression and beautiful things we saw visiting the differen part of the subcontinent. Besides all, I found the kindness and politeness of the people the most impressive. We met a lot of very nice people and it really was a very nice trip.

Since I ran out of books very soon, I bought „Nehru – the making of india“ and Dehli airport before departing to Goa. I was very happy I did so, cos we had to wait 7 hours at the gate for our flight. It was foggy and the airlines saved the money to train their pilot for use the autopilot in case of fog. We learned later, being in Goa, that this went on for three days – and we were some of the last flying from Dehli domestic airport to Goa (lucky us!) and… that there is always fog in Dehli in January and February .

The „Making of India“ is a great book which allowed to sneak a little it into the foundation of the Indian state, learning that the Nehru family spend several years in jail for claiming free india, so did Ghandi. It was very impressive trying to understand what a well situated person like Jawaharlal Nehru to go consectuvie behind bars for his country, it total nine years, and what it meant for the indian people who made him prime minister afterwards. The book made my experience in india even more intense.

The day before we left I bought „The white tiger“ from Aravind Adiga in a mall in Mumbai. The recent number one on the bestseller list describes the life within changing india from a poor villager, who makes his way up to a driver of a rich family and therefore gives another perspecitve of the society.

All in all, I can only recommend to visit the sub-continent. It is a great country and we left it with so much more to see.

Article from THE TIMES OF INDIA, Dec 27 2008: