In India - Part 2

What demented person ever thought of having red eye flights? The question popped in my mind as I was trying to keep a humble look on my face while suppressing a yawn. The Indian customs official had a disappointed look on his watchful face as he handed me my passport back. I was shocked that he didn’t threaten me about going to a conference with a tourist visa.

For the entire 30-minute ride from the airport in a small, modified golf cart taxi to the hotel in the Connaught Place neighborhood, I was trying to think of some broad sweeping generalizations I could tell people about India. Since I was at that point a seasoned India tourist because I had just seen about 10km of one road at night in a vast country thousands of years old, I thought I had the authority to make statements like “it is kind of dark there,” “the air has a sent of smoke,” “it is not as crowded you would think”, and “traffic isn’t that bad.”

I had decided to wait till morning after conferring with my dad before making any more underexposed remarks that would make any person from the subcontinent cringe. However, just before going to bed I came up with the generalization I had been looking for, “Toothpaste in India tastes terrible!”

Dad and I spent the next day touring New Delhi. We visited a Hindu temple, the Presidential palace, a mosque called Qutab Minar, and a few other places I don’t remember the names of right now. My dad knew their names and he laid out major historical points of our tour guide's country.

That evening we went to Jawaharal Nehru University (JNU) for a dinner reception kicking off the 20th Conference of “International Association of Historians of Asia.” I remember walking past tables and hearing snit-bits of conversations,

“Yes, but what about Invasion of Transoxiana by the Achaemenids of Persia under Darius I?”…….at the next table…….“No, that was during the Turkish invasion of Caucasus in 576”……by the desert section…….“How can you say that was a result of the Russians’ defeat of Mamay at that Battle of Kulikova?”…..while waiting in line……..”And that was what lead to the end of the Caliphate!”

My dad was in his element among like-minded people. I was enjoying the interesting conversation however I think I was overly paranoid that the conference police were going to find me. I remembered that I kept overly explaining to everyone whom I met that I was just a tourist on a tourist visa and that I was not participating in this or any other conference during my stay in India which would not exceed the duration of my visa.