The last day

A circular relationship.  The bus stops by the side of the road.  The driver buys a watermelon so the stall holder benefits.  The watermelon is cut up and fed to the monkeys, so the monkeys benefit.  The monkeys eat the flesh of the watermelon and throw away the skin, which the cow out of shot to the left eats, so the cow benefits.  The passengers on the bus get lots of photos of monkeys eating watermelon and cows eating skins, so the passengers benefit.  Seems everyone benefits apart from the bus driver.

The final journey back to Delhi and then a special group meal at a local restaurant with our wonderful guide, Umed.  He has been a great and knowledgeable companion, a good teller of bad jokes, an ear to bend when required, and a translator when needed.  He has been of immeasurable help to W and I with the problems we experienced, and is a thoroughly nice guy.  We have been lucky to have him on the tour.

Thinking back on the fortnight, the problems around being able to fly back have undoubtedly put a bit of a damper on the holiday but it has still been an amazing trip.  Being on an organised tour there weren't many opportunities to photograph anything other than the main sights but with time and independent travel India would be a photographer's paradise.  I kept seeing little vignettes from the cars or the coach which would have made great shots; ladies working in the fields in brightly coloured robes, and carrying huge swathes of grasses.  Cows standing complacently in the middle of a busy dual carriageway making the traffic slow down to drive around them.  Lorries (which all look completely different from those at home) which are already brightly hand painted now decorated with huge and brightly coloured plastic flowers and colourful tassels to celebrate Diwali.  Children staring unashamed at you because you look different so are a bit of a curiosity.  Groups of colourfully dressed women carrying large circular metal dishes on their heads.  Large herds of goats being walked by the road by a colourful goatherd.  Egrets surrounding cows waiting for something (?) to happen that they can eat.  Black Kites.  Small grey starling-like birds that look as though they are wearing orange eye makeup. I could go on.

Of course, there's a downside too.  The appalling levels of air pollution particularly around Delhi, where for miles visibility was down to a little over about three hundred yards.  The traffic, which makes the M25 on a Friday look like a walk down a country lane.  Thousands of people sleeping rough in station concourses, on pavements, central reservations and under flyovers.  The dirt and dust, seemingly everywhere.  And probably the worst, teenage boys who have been deliberately mutilated by their mothers as babies by cutting off limbs so that as they grow they will become more efficient beggars.  There is a compete despair of life that must exist in a mind to be able to do such a thing.

But it has been wonderful trip and experience and whilst we are both looking forward to getting home, we wouldn't have missed it for the world.  If you've not been and have the chance to go I would unhesitatingly say 'Go!'.  Just be prepared to be shocked and amazed in equal measure.