Company!

Yesterday Dan arrived back from Delhi with his brother Jon and Jon's wife Anda. They will be here until we leave on May 2. They are staying at the Ivy Inn Guest House above Mullingar Hill. (We stayed there in December 2007 with Dirk's family -- a nice but simple hotel with a lovely terrace.) The Shatabdi train they took from Delhi was delayed for over two hours, which is relatively uncommon. Someone here in the office said that yesterday was the last day of the Kumbh Mela, although when I looked at the website linked here, it says April 28 for the end, with the 14th as an important festival day. In any case, lots of people have had trouble getting train reservations during this time, as the Hardwar trains are the same line as the Dehra Dun trains. Update added later: see this article in the New York Times online about April 14 and bathing in the Ganges.

We took Jon and Anda in to Golden Restaurant in Landour, where we frequently have our Wednesday dinner. We rode the scooter down to the top of Mullingar Hill and walked in together. They both were very interested in the variety of shops along the way. I'm sure Anda will spend time looking at fabrics and other interesting things to be found. We pointed out some of our favorite shops.

This morning Jon came to school to meet with the head of the elementary school. He is a former first grade teacher and reading consultant. They are looking forward to having him do some in-service training for the teachers.

Tonight J&A will come to our house for supper. They will get a taste of our daily evening meal -- tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I do have some nice homemade flax-seed bread that was made by a woman on the hillside. We had it last fall and enjoyed it a lot. And Prakash sells excellent cheese.