Christmas and Travel

We had a lovely Christmas with our old friends. Daughters Anju and Neelu were here for the weekend. One grandson came for the day on the 25th.

I mentioned earlier how much decorating Deepa does. Here is what she did in the dining room.

The tree is in the corner of the living room. There was a huge pile of gifts, which we opened just before lunch.

After a delicious lunch of meat curry and pulao, several family members left to deliver bags of Christmas goodies to friends and neighbors. We headed back to our hotel to pack up for our Monday morning departure. It was hard to say goodbye.

Brij, Viola, Dan, Anne

Monday morning was very foggy. We heard there were school delays. Our taxi showed up promptly at 8:00. It was a Toyota minivan. Most of the cars here are too small to fit our two large suitcases. This trip was much quicker than the earlier one coming from Delhi. Traffic on the express highway moved very quickly. Our driver drove right across central New Delhi, bringing back many memories. I caught glimpses of India Gate, Claridge's Hotel, and the American embassy. When we lived in India, we frequently were in these areas of the city, but not for many many years.

We arrived at the airport super early, but checkin was quick and easy. There was a very short line for security. When my backpack went through, the guard asked me if I had a nail file or a knife. I said definitely just a nail file. He laughed and passed me through. We started for our gate, a very long walk, but an electric cart picked us up, which was great. We were so early that the gate seating was full for an earlier flight than ours. Once they departed, we had the area to ourselves, except for some feathered friends.

We had purchased tickets in premium economy, which put us near the front and with empty middle seats; Dan and I had aisle seats. Soon the woman on his side stood up and came over to ask the man by me if she could take his picture. So I asked him if he was famous. He shyly said yes, kind of. It turned out it was Rahul Dravid, the head coach for the Indian cricket team and a huge celebrity here. Dan had recognized him as we boarded, but of course I didn't. I knew enough to congratulate him on the win against Bangladesh the previous day. He was very pleasant and we had a nice chat several times during the flight. At deplaning, he wore a mask and made his way quickly and appeared to avoid recognition. We got our luggage and were outside waiting for our ride when he came out and asked us if we were being met and all was well. Such a nice man! 

Eventually the car that Mahesh booked for us arrived and we loaded up. It was about a 25-minute ride to Nina's home. We are on the 23rd floor in a large apartment block. Sunset came shortly after we arrived. We'll be here for a week.