Visting Friends and Family

I haven't had a chance to post for a while - so here is a quick summary of some of what has happened in the past few days. Will post pics soon.

The best slogan I saw (and quite politically incorrect) was at a restaurant - Eat Indian Feel British Pay Chinese. I offered the guy some Yuan but he refused :-).

Took a ride in an auto rikshaw through Delhi for about an hour - that was fun. I hear they will be removed from the road by 2010.

Today I am visiting my aunt and cousin in Muzaffarnagar. My cousin Lovey brought me to the Internet cafe so I could finally post something. This is the first time I am spending anytime with him (we moved to US the year he was born and I briefly saw him once 1995). I did manage to get a few good shots here. Tomorrow back to Delhi and then the plan is to head out onto the Rajasthan trip at night. The planning of the trip has become quite a chore and so for now I am only planning this week out. Will head out and see how it goes. Be back in Delhi in about a week and then maybe plan the next part out. I will try to post something while traveling in Rajasthan (not sure if that will be possible, if not I will keep a journal and post it when I return to Delhi).

I know the locations we will visit in Rajasthan. Not sure how we are getting there yet and which route (yes its tomorrow) - but here is a tentative route for now.

This happened a few days ago:
I always enjoy visiting areas in which I grew up. I went on one excursion in Delhi to find an old friend. My mom told me the name of the area where we once lived (in mid-80's - god i feel old) and that is all the information I had. My cousin, whose name is also Sumit (nickname Chintu)drove me around for hours but we couldn't find the place. Finally we decide to just park and head out on foot. We walked through an alley and we stopped at a small shop. In conversation, the shopkeeper indicated that he has lived here for 35 years. I drew him a map of the area I remember to see if it would jog his memory of where this place may be (the entire area is much more developed today). He wasn't able to recognize anything on my map so I started with the names of the people I knew. One of them happened to be Ravi - soon as he heard that name - he said that is his brother. We phoned Ravi and I spoke to him (he didn't remember who I was and had moved away a long time ago), but he understood the area I was describing. It was actually the very next alley. I went and carefully looked around and was able to identify where we once lived - the houses had been rebuild, all the empty spaces now had homes and the area just held a bare resemblance to what it was twenty years ago. I finally did find my friend's old home, but found out from his neighbors that they had moved away. A little background - when my father was sick (from cancer), my sister and I would stay with these friends whenever my mom was in the hospital. I did get a number from the neighbor. I was able to get a hold of my friend's family. I found out that my friend died in a car accident 6 years ago. I plan to visit his family after the Rajasthan trip.