India #9 Home

March 20 

The home stretch is in sight! Today was Mothering Sunday. I received a beautiful card with sunflowers and a date for a 'build your own terrarium' workshop in London next month. We had left most of the gift shopping for our final day in Delhi. J and B had looked after the house for us whilst we were away and we always like to take a little something home for them as a thank you. R, however, quite fancied buying some chillies, so we took the first tuktuk that we found outside the hotel and headed back to the old city in search of spices.

Being Sunday, a lot of the stalls were closed, which surprised us a little. Rather than the stalls we had passed before in our explorations, the driver insisted on taking us to a different area and waiting with us while we browsed. Having secured a customer, we found drivers remarkably difficult to shake off. In this instance, it turned out to be a big mistake. Feeling the old abdominal cramps again, I decided to sit down for a while but encouraged the others to keep on browsing. R was hesitant but the driver reassured him that he would stay and look after me. I really didn't want this; I just wanted to rest and didn't feel up to making conversation.  He sat very close, smoking and coughing. I put his cough down to the cigarettes and tried to resist the urge to move further away or make wafting motions with my hand. Counting back from when my Covid symptoms started, Sunday was the day that I probably caught it and our tuktuk driver was the obvious culprit. 

The others returned, having bought some jaggery, and we then pottered briefly round the flower market. One of the vendors gave me a flower which I pressed in our guide to India book.

We then checked out and took our final car ride back to the Jaypee Vasant Continental Hotel in Delhi. It seemed good to be back in what we found to be the most comfortable hotel of our trip. On an after dinner walk around the neighbourhood, L bought a wooden flute from a vendor. 

March 20th

After breakfast at the hotel, we set off to find the statue of Hanuman, the Monkey God, at the Chhataphur Temple complex. R remembered this fondly from one of his trips but, to be honest, it all seemed a little bizarre to me. A bit like some strange theme park:

R also recalled several Government run shops near Connaught Place, that he thought might be a suitable spot for last minute gifts. Here began a strange, frustrating period when we were caught between R trying to get us to these shops and a variety of tuktuk drivers and other 'helpful citizens' who, for 20 Rupees, were insistent on taking us to an expensive tourist market called the 'India Looms'. R became increasingly frustrated and shouty, and the whole experience took on an almost nightmare-like quality where we kept trying to escape, only to find ourselves back at the wretched India Looms. :O)

Eventually, enough was enough. I needed the loo anyway, so marched us into a branch of Starbucks to use the facilities, have a chai latte and allow R to calm down!

With his blood pressure back to normal, R found his Government shops and we bought gifts for the neighbours. I also bought 2 cheap bead necklaces from a woman street vendor. I had admired the adorned statues of Ganesh at our previous hotel and wanted to decorate the wooden Ganesh that we picked up in Sri Lanka years ago.

The cherry on the cake was when we set off for a cafe, 'Greener', recommended on Happy Cow, only to find it had closed down. The heavens opened and biblical rain began descending. The locals were very pleased as it hadn't rained properly for months. Our last dinner in India, therefore, was a mirror of our first: plant-based burgers and fries at KFC. I was quite enjoying it until L pointed out the paneer!

Back at the hotel, after what had been a disappointing and frustrating final day, we were cheered up by the fact that the hotel staff had arranged one of our towels into the shape of an elephant. It's the little things! :O)

March 21st

We took the 11.30 Virgin Atlantic flight from Delhi to London Heathrow, arriving at 4.30 in the afternoon. Thankfully, the banana masala wrap didn't make a further appearance, but L had developed an upset stomach and felt sick anyway.

2 days after arriving home, I realised after lunch on Thursday that I had a bit of a runny nose. As the afternoon progressed, I had, without really noticing that I was doing it, put on multiple layers of knitwear. So much so, that when I realised that I was feeling a bit grotty and looked in the mirror, I was practically spherical. Something didn't feel right and I took a Covid test and, yes, it was positive. One more souvenir than was strictly desirable!

One week later and I have more or less recovered (R tested positive 3 days after me). It was basically a bad cold with a few other weird symptoms thrown in. A  pulsating nose one day (very annoying), a mild bout of glossitis the next. My smell and taste aren't back to normal yet but I'm hoping that's temporary.

Despite Covid and despite the upset tummy that plagued most of our second week, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It is a fascinating country, with the most beautiful, friendly people (a little selfie obsessed but hey!) and, as Joanna Lumley said in her India programme, 'you'd be mad to miss it'.

If nothing else, the next time we go to an Indian restaurant and see a picture of the Taj Mahal, I too can say 'I've seen that'!

Toodle pip for now. x