I. In The Beginning...There Was Curry

Hello everybody!

Our long-awaited blog has finally launched. Those of you who have been waiting with baited breath, biting your nails over our safety, savoring every brief email as a tiny window into our circumstances, imagining various intricate and improbable ways in which we could have injured, sickened, or otherwise sabotaged ourselves and then worked yourself into a nightly tizzy involving compulsive email checking and excessive prayer (so basically, Mom) you can set your mind at ease. Henceforth we promise to keep you up to speed on all of our wonderful adventures so that you won't have to speculate anymore, and to sprinkle our stories with enough exaggeration and general silliness to keep you from getting bored.

We all know how it can be: "And here's me and Marge at SeaWorld. And here I am next to the turtle. And here's Marge a little further from the turtle than I was at first. And here's Marge giving that same turtle a funny look... etc. etc." So we're going to try to avoid that kind of thing, which will be very easy because, in my experience thus far, India does not lend itself to that kind of thing. In fact, I think India will continually thwart my desire to exaggerate, because much of my experience here simply could not be more over-the-top. I'll try to make the text worth your while, but for those of you who don't plan to read the whole thing I've included a bullet point version to give you a little info so that the pictures make sense:

Oct 1-3: Bombay (the Dinshaw residence)

Oct 4-9: Leh (northern India near China)

Oct 9-11: Delhi (the capital)

Oct 11-13: Jaisalmer (the golden city of Rajasthan)

Oct 13-15: Jodhpur (the blue city of Rajasthan)

Oct 16: Bombay

Enough preamble. On to the events.

Oct. 1 -- I showed up in Bombay around midnight and Ayesha was waiting for me with her Mom and Dad. Nice of them to come out so late. Crazy traffic from the airport (little did I know, it was actually quite tame by Bombay standards). Right to sleep.

Oct. 2 -- I slept a lot, got used to Bombay, withdrew some Rupees from the ATM (45 to the dollar!) and got a typhoid shot for $11. This is the place to go for vaccinations.

Oct. 3 -- Hung out in Ayesha's beautiful apartment. Relaxed. Lost track of time. Hurriedly packed. Rushed to domestic airport. Flew to Delhi.