I landed this morning at 9 am in Delhi after a long and not so comfortable night at the airport in Mumbai. I slept for about 2-3 hours, somehow curled up on a bench somewhere.
But the good news is that everything worked out well. The driver from the hotel was there, holding the up the sign with my name. What a relief. But honestly, Delhi is not as bad as I imagined. After everything I read in the travel guide about the touts everywhere I expected much worse. Ok, maybe I haven’t hit the areas yet where they will swarm on tourists like prey. Or maybe it is true that I’m already used to all of this. After all, it’s not the first time I’m in India…
Delhi seems suprisingly green and lush, full of parks and gardens and wonderful tree lined alleys. After a nap and a shower I decided to get a driver to take me around. Ok, yes, I admit, the luxury version traveler.
Actually, it’s quite strange for me this time. Usually when I come to India I come for something: a retreat, a class or something. Not this time. I’m really here only for just for me and just me. Which takes the traveling to yet another level also for my standards. I felt a little lost this afternoon, having a nice but stubborn driver who insisted on showing me the places “normal tourists like a lot”. Well, I don’t want to sound like a snob but I don’t consider myself a normal tourist. So it took me a while to convince him that no, I’m not interested in yet another monument or another shopping mall. I would rather just take the shortest way to the next temple. In the end we made it to the Bangla Sahib – the biggest Shik temple in Delhi. It was quite impressive and enjoyable to just sit there for a little while. The prasad after the darshan and the pakoori at the street stand afterwards were a real treat.
The good news for tomorrow is that I got in touch with Shakun tonight and she readily offered for her driver to pick me up tomorrow morning to take me to her house from where we can figure out my plan for the day. Also, Mister Roy has offered to give me some tips. It’s really great to see that through Master’s blessings I do have a network of people and helpers all over the world. One could almost say what Astara says for Astarians: An Arhatic Yogi in need never walks alone.
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