We were to enter the Taj by the VIP gate. More western privileges? Nope – there are 4 gates, so we were just like 25% of the tourists, most of whom were Indian. As ever in India there was security.
Author: unwrapping
Passage to India – Saturday – Trip to the Taj Mahal (1)
We husbands really shouldn’t have favourite wives. However, Shah Jahan – occupation Emperor (Mughal) – clearly favoured number three. Mumtaz was a modern woman – keeping her maiden name, Mahal – but unfortunately not quite liberated enough to exercise any sensible birth-control.
Passage to India – Tuesday – IT, Elephants and Humanity
After my early morning walk on the beach in Trivandrum (including a small dabble in the Arabian Sea much to the consternation of the locals) I nibbled through a very pleasant breakfast in the hotel alongside the blue pool. Not unlike breakfast on Tracey Island but without the strings or the risk of TB1 disturbing…
Passage to India – Monday – Mumbai & South
Landing in Mumbai, the airport (this time) seems like any other. What hits you as you emerge is the oppressive warm blanket of of heat, the crazy chaos of cars and the unrelenting politeness. Suitcases are whisked into cars, doors are opened, and deference is dispensed, with no fuss, no sulkiness and no attitude; other…
Passage to India – Sunday – Terminal 5
I am writing this as I relax in the executive club area in Heathrow’s swanky new terminal 5 building. I have helped myself to a third portion of free vegetable curry and rice and my second glass of complementary wine.
Mother’s Day
So we were processed through grey Lancastrian streets, the banality of life continuing without any respect for our appalling secret. Ahead she lay, still, her gaunt body empty of fight, her skin like marble, her hair soft and brown. We crawled between desolate graves of lonely people, neglected, belonging to no-one, the snow still lying.…
Australian Pink Floyd
So we went to see Australian Pink Floyd. The very name a strange juxtaposition. The quintessentially english Cambridge moody, dark, radical, intellectual (some would say over-intellectual) band mimicked by a group of fun-loving straight-forward Aussies.
The coalescence of matter and the separation of consciousness
Two amazing facts about the world which I thought about as I lay in bed this morning.
The streets of Mumbai
It was only a very small part of the total trip, the journey by car from Mumbai domestic airport to its international big bother. But it had a very profound impact on me.
Delhi – Organised Chaos
It’s not possible to encapsulate Delhi into words or organise the place into neat observations. On one level she is a fascinating jumble of colour, history, religion, language, food and geography.
Unwrapping The World 