The saga begins at the Golden Triangle

The first week in India seemed to be the most exciting yet stressful for me. For those who know me well, know that I do not respond well to long journeys, especially by road, air or rail and anxiety was heightened even more so as I was in India without anyone I knew.

After our epic 9 hour flight to Delhi, the 7 hour journey on a non-AC (I obviously had high hopes) bus seemed to last forever. By this time I did not care what I looked like, how I smelt or even how I spoke to the 44 other strangers I was due to spend 2 and half months with. It had reached a point when I thought, can I really hack this. I was premature in my thoughts as the worst journey was yet to come. After a nights rest in Agra and a very early morning rise, we visited the epic Taj Mahal, where I asked for a blessing so that my love will flourish (and if something happened to me, Dhru will build a great monument as grand in honour of me). Being my second visit to the Taj Mahal, I thought I wouldn’t be fazed by the beauty of this creation; however I was wrong as I was in complete awe of it. The early morning sunrise and light hitting the side of the dome, created an almost blinding effect which my photos could not even credit.

Our short stay in Agra was followed by a 6 hour bus journey to Jaipur. The intensity of the heat here was disgusting as the journey resulted in most of us being drenched in sweat. We arrived in Jaipur, greeted by our host family with garlands of flowers and tikkas (red dot on the forehead). Mrs Anuradha Mittal, a Hindi teacher, her husband, a physics teacher and their 2 sons who lived in a 4 storey house, with a classroom in the basement. As well as being a teacher, Mr Mittal has also written various physics books and is apparently renowned in the physics world. Our family were incredibly hospitable, accommodating and incredibly knowledgeable. Our three day orientation we were due to have in Jaipur consisted of many ‘death by powerpoint’ presentations, a shopping trip, a visit to the infamous Raj Mandir (local cinema hall to watch a movie) and a visit to the Amber Fort , including an elephant ride. Out of all of these, the visit to the Amber Fort and the elephant ride were the most exciting for me. The Amber Fort was huge and home to a maharaja who had 12 wives and loved to party. The elephants that took us to the top of the fort were decorated in many different coloured powders and were beautiful. My elephant was called Laxmi and I managed to get a photo with me on an elephant with my threadless tshirt on! My best experience so far and my worst were due to happen on the same day. Our 18 hour train journey to take us to the Punjab had been delayed for 6 hours. After these 6 hours passed, we made our way to the train station, as expected it was busy with many beggars around and people staring which I had become quite used to by then. However, I did not expect someone to come and talk to me about coming to England. This teacher explained how he had all the money to get there but getting a visa seemed to be the most difficult. I didn’t really understand what he wanted me to do about it until he asked for my phone number at which point I called over one of the project supervisors and he asked him to leave.

After sometime, we boarded the train. I again had high hopes that the British government may have been nice enough and paid for us to be in 1st class, I was wrong yet again, we were slumming it with the cockroaches in a sleeper carriage. After numerous rotations and moving around we managed to somehow get comfortable and spent the journey amusing ourselves with various games, books and music. When it did get light, the views on the train were beautiful. The fresh green rice fields growing seemed a long way from the dry heat of Jaipur. Our late morning arrival in Chakki Bank (Punjab), yet again dirty and hungry (a common state I had found myself in after only being in the county for four days) was again followed by a 4 hour bus journey on cliff edges, I hadn’t been sick yet and I wasn’t planning to then, thanks to my trustee acupressure bands (I love you mum). We had finally reached our destination, to a 4 storey white washed house, situated in a village called Bandla with a stream running alongside it. The snow topped Himalayan mountain views would be my first and probably last memory of this place.