Two New Facets of the Crystal of India

A month seemed hardly long Enough to spend in India when I was making my flight reservations. Then we arrived in Delhi, and I remembered, this is "family travel" in a sense of the phrase I'd never quite understood. Puja came to Delhi out of a sense of responsibility to visit her parents, and I accompanied her because...well, I'm crazy?

The weeks bore on, punctuated by fearfully dreadful intervals too terrible to detail here. One such happening--for lack of a better word--led to a family trip to Shimla, the summer capital of the British raj, and current capital of Himachal Pradesh. A city in the foothills foothills of the Himalayas, it is precariously wedged into the cliffs. Our nerves were equally unstable, our minds just as wary as the buildings braced against the foggy onset of yon.

Plans to meet up with college friends, dreams of film-esque car trips through the wine country of Maharastra to the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, and fantasies of romantic escapes to the Andaman Islands having all fallen through, we searched for a quick solution, a getaway to break up the two weeks left to departure.

In the end, our only choice was a trip with family to the Punjabi city of Amritsar, near the border with Pakistan. We were to visit the Wagah Border evening lowering of the flags ceremony, the famous Golden Temple (Gurudwara), and eat Chola Batura. We did everything on the itinerary, and the third item as soon as we arrived...and again for dinner...and again for breakfast...and again for lunch....and again for dinner the following day! Punjabis like their Chola Batura.

Here's me in the temple complex, a bit tired after visiting the Hindu knock-off of the Golden Temple, the Laxmi Narayan Mandir and another Gurudwara beforehand.

Would you like to picture yourself there, in the Golden Temple, Amritsar, on an auspicious full moon Saturday in June? Here's a glimpse for you:

I would be remiss to miss a mention of Puja & my mahvelous trip to the Lodhi Gardens of Delhi, where we wandered through the tombs

We enjoyed, along with dozens of chipmunks (here they call them squirrels), langoors, and love birds (of the human variety), the lush green and imagined seclusion of the trees.

and the eternally romantic pond:

Now I know the true beauty of Lodi gardens, and after this trip, a few truths about Indian families as well!