Monday 7th June 2010
9.10pm
IGI Airport Terminal 2. Blue chair, the left one of a set of three near to the visitors lounge.
India
So I am 16 hours early for my flight. I can't enter the visitors lounge until 8 hours prior to departure. But this terminal does seem very nice. My waiting seat is in a covered area, bright lights and polished floor etc, but to my left is the drop off point for cars so although it looks like I am indoors I am not. It's like a huge pane of glass was removed and the window is now gone.
The airport is busy. 5 minutes ago I saw all the Americans from the monastery in McLeod Ganj dashing to get their flight. Small World!
Today I arrived in Delhi at 6am at the the Kashmiri Gate ISBT. Put my bag in storage. My bag with all its straps and buckles means a padlock is useless with it, however to please the cloakroom assistant I put one on.
The ISBT is a decrepit 1950s or perhaps 60s era building that in timely Indian style has become a rotting neglected shell. Concrete is covered in dust, paint is flaking and faded. People sleeping everywhere. And a feeling nothing has been changed, updated or repaired since day one.
After getting the airport bus info and drinking a couple of teas I took a wrong turning and went two subway stops in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. So I turned around and munched some biscuits as I went.
I saw the actual Kashmiri Gate, what there is, and wondered down to Chandi Chowk which is a big central shopping street with many unremarkable stores. At one end of this street is the red fort which happens to be closed on Mondays. I went to the biggest Mosque in India, the Jamir Masjid, but despite having no intention of using my camera I was still asked for 200 rupees to go in. I declined and went back to trying to shake off rickshaw wallahs.
A tea or two later and I was back at the ISBT, and it was then around 1pm. On my way back I bought my last Indian meal, a pile of chapatis, with some dahl and onions.
I ate it with a Pepsi up on the secluded second floor where some people were sleeping on cardboard. A precious commodity for those sleeping rough here. I joined them myself for 5 or 6 hours of broken snoozing.
Light rain fell sporadically.
I read yesterday's TOI and did pretty well at the crossword. Today's edition in Delhi has no crossword in it.
By 7pm I was bored of waiting around and fancied my chances of going to the airport so took the 50 rupee bus here. Getting around Delhi isn't easy. It took an hour or so. It was nice to see some of modern Delhi, Connaught Place and several big hotels from the bus window.
The Red Fort I saw earlier is in Old Delhi, not New Delhi.
The bus from McLeod Ganj took 12 hours. Before it left I bumped into the guy who runs the tea shop on the way to the library, he saw me and we talked for a few minutes. That was nice.
I was sat by a monk on the bus. He was 23 years old and had been in McLeod for the Dalai Lama's teachings. He was heading to Karnataka, a place in the south which is a 38 hour train ride from Delhi. I'll be back in England when he is still travelling on the train, which is hard to believe with all the waiting around I've been doing!
There's a nice cooling breeze in the air right now. The weather in Delhi was cloudy for the most part so not as scorching as I feared. The monk told me, after I asked him, that his biggest temptation is seeing his friends who are not monks because they are always doing things and going to many places which he can't.
I didn't sleep much on the bus, it was a tough bumpy ride.
I'm dirty and smelly bus who cares.
I've been sweating, lying on floors and haven't washed.
Though I plan to change that before take off if at all possible.
It seems hard to believe that tonight is the climax of nearly 3 years abroad. But it is the climax. It's here and it's arrived and has crept up on me, and what comes next who knows. There are many options, worries and exciting things that have and will continue to run through my head.
Seeing old friends, watching the world cup, being back in the UK with my family will be a joy.
I hope I can make the most of the past 3 years and even the past 4 months in every sense when I get home. Financially I want to be prudent, emotionally I want to be more transparent, more compassionate and more benevolent. Calmer and clearer.
There are often several routes to any peak and sometimes there is more than one peak. Though sometimes it's nice just to sit on the mountain side, forget about reaching the peak, and enjoy the view.
I've made some opinions about Indians, disregard them if you wish.
They seem to have no restraint (more like suppression due to caste) and great spiritual freedom, little mutual respect, and little compassion or flexibility toward their fellow man. They are greedy and unhealthy.
Anyway. They live by instinct, a fearsome instinct that is somewhat fascinating and somewhat revolting.
They study like mad.
I am blessed to have been touched by Buddhism, it has made an indelible impact on me. I'm sure it'll influence me and I'll use its principles to help me cultivate myself.
You are bright like the sun, covering us all in your warmth, but don't let the clouds of ignorance get in the way and stop you shinning.
I guess now I've to sit here for the next...7 hours and mull things over before a nice 9 hour flight. Time for enough not just for reflection on the past 3 years, but also to enthusiastically and gratefully think about the next 3 years.
We all pick up small sticks until we make up our own big one to help us guide ourselves with, each small stick is slightly different from the last. Picking up sticks is inevitable. Sometimes we take the bits of one stick and sometimes bits of others.
It doesn't just feel like a flight I'm taking, physically of course I am, but it symbolizes a marker in my life and is also a big step, the first on a new path. So in that context it is more than just a flight.
I ate it with a Pepsi up on the secluded second floor where some people were sleeping on cardboard. A precious commodity for those sleeping rough here. I joined them myself for 5 or 6 hours of broken snoozing.
Light rain fell sporadically.
I read yesterday's TOI and did pretty well at the crossword. Today's edition in Delhi has no crossword in it.
By 7pm I was bored of waiting around and fancied my chances of going to the airport so took the 50 rupee bus here. Getting around Delhi isn't easy. It took an hour or so. It was nice to see some of modern Delhi, Connaught Place and several big hotels from the bus window.
The Red Fort I saw earlier is in Old Delhi, not New Delhi.
The bus from McLeod Ganj took 12 hours. Before it left I bumped into the guy who runs the tea shop on the way to the library, he saw me and we talked for a few minutes. That was nice.
I was sat by a monk on the bus. He was 23 years old and had been in McLeod for the Dalai Lama's teachings. He was heading to Karnataka, a place in the south which is a 38 hour train ride from Delhi. I'll be back in England when he is still travelling on the train, which is hard to believe with all the waiting around I've been doing!
There's a nice cooling breeze in the air right now. The weather in Delhi was cloudy for the most part so not as scorching as I feared. The monk told me, after I asked him, that his biggest temptation is seeing his friends who are not monks because they are always doing things and going to many places which he can't.
I didn't sleep much on the bus, it was a tough bumpy ride.
I'm dirty and smelly bus who cares.
I've been sweating, lying on floors and haven't washed.
Though I plan to change that before take off if at all possible.
It seems hard to believe that tonight is the climax of nearly 3 years abroad. But it is the climax. It's here and it's arrived and has crept up on me, and what comes next who knows. There are many options, worries and exciting things that have and will continue to run through my head.
Seeing old friends, watching the world cup, being back in the UK with my family will be a joy.
I hope I can make the most of the past 3 years and even the past 4 months in every sense when I get home. Financially I want to be prudent, emotionally I want to be more transparent, more compassionate and more benevolent. Calmer and clearer.
There are often several routes to any peak and sometimes there is more than one peak. Though sometimes it's nice just to sit on the mountain side, forget about reaching the peak, and enjoy the view.
I've made some opinions about Indians, disregard them if you wish.
They seem to have no restraint (more like suppression due to caste) and great spiritual freedom, little mutual respect, and little compassion or flexibility toward their fellow man. They are greedy and unhealthy.
Anyway. They live by instinct, a fearsome instinct that is somewhat fascinating and somewhat revolting.
They study like mad.
I am blessed to have been touched by Buddhism, it has made an indelible impact on me. I'm sure it'll influence me and I'll use its principles to help me cultivate myself.
You are bright like the sun, covering us all in your warmth, but don't let the clouds of ignorance get in the way and stop you shinning.
I guess now I've to sit here for the next...7 hours and mull things over before a nice 9 hour flight. Time for enough not just for reflection on the past 3 years, but also to enthusiastically and gratefully think about the next 3 years.
We all pick up small sticks until we make up our own big one to help us guide ourselves with, each small stick is slightly different from the last. Picking up sticks is inevitable. Sometimes we take the bits of one stick and sometimes bits of others.
It doesn't just feel like a flight I'm taking, physically of course I am, but it symbolizes a marker in my life and is also a big step, the first on a new path. So in that context it is more than just a flight.