random stuff before i go to bed

Just back from a dinner with this lovely company I've made already in Delhi: three cute, small Nepalese men and a quiet and kind woman from Sri Lanka. I've never felt so tall in my life:-)))))

Where did I stop? Well, doesn't matter. I've got to tell you about the train... No matter how prepared I was, I'm still overwhelmed with this unbearable sense of hopelessness. I've always known poverty is the number one issue in India, but it's one thing to read reports and stories about poverty and a totally different one, when it takes over a flesh and blood. I could never imagine I would ever do it, but I did. I had to ford through a human stream at the train station. Literally... People sleeping there, eating, shaving washing... Beggars everywhere. There's this handicapped teenager who picks me up from the crowd and touches my feet to get money, almost falls off the platform when he tries to follow me to the train. It hurts. Misery hurts badly, but it's even more painful when you realize that you eventually get used to it. Like people in this express train who were sipping hot coffee, enjoying an early breakfast and looking forward to their rich mansions...

On the way I saw plains, rice fields, brick houses, trash and more homeless people at every station.

Anyway, India's a country where emotions get sentimental to an unbelievable extent:-) I'm making desperate attempts to stay awake and keep on with the conversation we've started with this very nice man next to me and in the middle of "Where are you from?" I'm handed a red rose with "Good morning, Madam". Lovely, isn't it;-)?

Yes, some more randomness: I get lots of stares:-) I thought I would be lucky to avoid this fate, since everybody keeps telling me I look Indian:-) Even here people get surprised when they address me in Hindi and I stare back with a big smile and a confused look. It's weird, but I think I'll get used to it:-)

#2 - I'm experiencing a 'waterfall' of Englishes: Indian, Korean, Russian, Nepalese, etc. etc. A new discovery: the Nepalese do not pronounce "sh", so we got lots of "sesions" and "internasiols":-) Different accents are quite a challenge to stay concentrated during the sessions (just another excuse to skip those):-)

OK, got to go not to keep this wonderful sikh in this room any longer:-) The next one is about women and sari shopping:-)