Hi All – October 27th:
The 4th trip to Incredible India has started out great! Smooth sailing on my flights the whole way here – no delays, all my luggage, and no obnoxious seat mates. Yay! I met up with Morris DeFeo in Frankfurt. Morris is an attorney who will be speaking at my events here in India and also in Sydney – he was also in Canada with me on the FCEDA trip to the Maritimes. After settling into my room about 2:30am, I had a great sleep (love that Ambien) til about 11am, slowly started the day with some breakfast and an indulgent hunker-down to finish my book – a great gift from Diane “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert – perfect read for a big trip, especially to India! Eventually I got motivated to tackle all the work that I’d left on my plate in preparation for the seminars this week – my various presentations. Without any distractions I finally just attached my nose to the grindstone and churned all 3 of them out… for the most part, and felt much better by the time I met Morris for dinner at 6pm. OH – of course, I did have one lovely distraction – when the hotel delivered roses and birthday cake to me in the middle of the afternoon! I LOVE THE TAJ HOTELS! What a lovely, thoughtful gesture… they are just awesome. Just to add to my fan-club status, they also delivered a 2nd cake to Morris and I when we finished our HUMUNGOUS dinner of “unlimited dim sum”….it was an embarrassment of dumplings, but a very nice bday meal. See photo of BOTH of my bday cakes, plus flowers. A very nice, albeit unusually day to start my new age… 29, I’ve heard it’s a good year!
October 28th:
Having been such a “good girl” and getting all my work done yesterday, I felt much better about dedicating today to adventure! I picked Morris up at his hotel at 10am, and we were off for the Red Fort – a major Delhi landmark that I’ve been driven by on each of my previous visits, but this time I was determined to explore. Red Fort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort ) was the location of many different chapters in Indian history, but most notably it was where Shah Jahan (t he mughal emperor that built the Taj Mahal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan ) established the capital of his empire after moving it from Agra (where Taj Mahal is located) and also, after the Sepoy Mutiny (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepoy_Mutiny_of_1857 ) it was the HQ of the British military. Weird note – I think I wrote one of my college entrance exams about the Sepoy Mutiny… go figure. At one point 6,000 people lived in it. My new plan for photos is to include links to my mini picasa web albums for various things – so here’s my web album of photos from Red Fort. Enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/WeirAlbums/RedFortOldDelhiOctober2007?authkey=5prcDQDaTNQ After our excursion in the Red Fort, I had our driver take us to the Gandhi National Memorial at Birla Bhavan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birla_House ) as Morris hadn’t been there yet, and I think it is something everyone that visits Delhi should see – it’s very moving, and extremely educational . Then, we retreated to the hotel for a brief rest and freshen up, before our POLO OUTING!! Much to my delight my friend (from the adopted Indian family I often refer to), Parmeet, had written last night inviting me to join him for the polo match today – and, of course, I jumped on the chance – while asking if I could bring Morris. Parmeet is simply a sweetheart of a guy and he was a fantastic host – we had a great time. By the way, the weather is PERFECT – warm, but not hot… and really super pleasant, it was even almost cool this evening, what a novelty! The match was between India and Australia, and Parmeet knows all the players & refs for India… and was a great guide to the game. It was a really good one, very fast & exciting, with India winning 6 to 4. I’ve attached one of my best polo photos, but here’s the album of my other shots, including me with Parmeet. http://picasaweb.google.com/WeirAlbums/PoloMatchNewDelhiOct282007?authkey=Rvm_WLsv11M Admittedly, there were no movie stars, elephants or camels at the match this time… but it was still extremely fun. Following the match, Parmeet took us to his riding club for a cup of tea and a visit with all his friends – more fun!
The day is still not actually over – although I gathered Morris and 2 of my other speakers, Shekar and Ravi, together at the hotel for a drink and “meet & greet” at 7pm just so they’d know each other before sharing the stage tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for Vivek to stop by for a final review of the game plan for tomorrow – he was a bit delayed flying in from Mumbai. And, poor Steve, he’s been trying to get here for days…. His entire plan to arrive on Saturday night fell apart so he’s been fighting his way through the UK and India Airlines… I know he is on the plane now.. but I’m not sure he’ll get in much before 2am – he’s going to have a really fun day tomorrow when we have to be on our way at 8:30am.
Anyways, that’s the detailed scoop on the first 2 days… I probably won’t have as much to report for a few days. Tomorrow is the first of the 2 seminars: www.ExpandinUSA.org/October_29 it seems like we’ll have a good turnout, and who knows, maybe some press coverage too? Wish me luck!
Signing off for now –
K.
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