The Experience
All that done I was now ready for my bed. I was shown to my room and asked if I would like a glass of beer. Now there is a welcome to a new city if ever I have had one. The glass of beer was indeed a glass bottle of beer, 0.75 of a litre in content, and I was expected to finish it. Now you wouldn't want me to offend anyone would you?
This gave me time to arrange a few 'bits and bob's' like charging up my mobile and lap top. Yet another challenge here then. I didn't have an adaptor to fit the sockets and there was no way of obtaining one. The sockets are of the small round pin type that I have not seen since the mid sixties at home. I contacted reception who immediately sent me an electrician. He took a look at my plight and left me for a few moments only to return with two short pieces of wire and a roll of tape. What I saw next was not for the squeamish. My electrician [I use the term lightly] proceeded to stick one end of each length of wire into one of the holes in the wall socket. The other end he taped to the pins of my adaptor leaving me a useable socket all be it hanging some 12 inches out of the wall. My one crumb of comfort was that at least it was at the far side of my very large room and not too near the bed.
The next two days were a bit of a blur really. I had gone to India to deliver three presentations to the Life Insurance Association and this I did to the best of my ability. The fact that we were woken every morning at 4.15 and taken for breakfast before a 6am 'sales ideas session' and we didn't get back to our room until around 10 in the evening, was incidental. Our audience was one of the most receptive and appreciative that I have ever had the privilege to work with. Their enthusiasm, politeness and sheer excitement made the whole experience worthwhile.
Our contribution to the convention finished we were treated to an evening of dancing and good food, with me and my fellow speakers doing the majority of the dancing and all of the singing during the evening. Back to our rooms for quick shower and, a couple of beers later, we set off on the best part of our adventure so far.
At 11pm myself and four of my fellow speakers boarded a 'luxury' sleeper coach for what we were told would be an eight hour overnight trip to our next destination? The trip turned out to be ten hours long and an event that has made me much more appreciative of my life so far and more determined than ever to enjoy each day as if it were my last. The truth is that on more than one occasion during that trip I honestly thought that the 9th September 2004 would indeed be my last day on earth. The driving was majestic, a marvel of vehicular choreography that would grace any Olympic stage should death driving ever become a sport in its own right. The same driver drove for ten hours with just one stop of twenty minutes after one hour. I honestly believe that he drove the last two hours with his eyes closed. He was the sort of driver who has never had an accident, but he has seen hundreds of them through his rear view mirror.
But we did, indeed, arrive at our destination in one piece [he must have been reading those signs!] As we pulled up to the front of the Ambassador hotel we realised hat there was indeed a God. The hotel was beautifully palatial with sprawling well kept gardens, a lovely inviting pool and, most important of all, a restaurant still serving breakfast.
My visit to this hotel would only last until six pm that evening so I had to cram as much as I could into one day. Breakfast was followed by a two-hour catch up on some sleep and a one-hour wind down by the pool. Then it was off to town, courtesy of a motorised rickshaw. Now these things might be built to carry a dozen average sized Indians but the pay load of two average sized English guys seriously tested the pulling power of the engine which I'm certain had the equivalent power or a motor from a Bendix food mixer.
Nevertheless our driver took us to 'town' followed by two other colleagues in a similar chariot close on our tail. I won't bore you with the details of this journey just suffice to say this mornings coach trip was now a distant memory. The sights were to behold. We saw cows and goats walking in and out of houses; rickshaws and cars four deep in a ten-foot wide street and I won't even start to tell you about the six year old [ish] having a dump on the pavement!
Our driver was skilled and knowledgeable and the cost of the trip was entirely up to us depending on how much we thought it was worth at the end. He took us to a street where crowds of people were celebrating a religious festival that was being celebrated throughout India. It was an experience I will never forget. Looking as conspicuous as four white people in a crowd of thousands of Indians can look, we could have been justified in feeling a little nervous. The thought never crossed our minds.
We were immediately embraced by a group of children dancing energetically to one of the many bands playing in the streets. We were covered in pink powder - a sign of luck in this particular festival [it won't be too luck for them if the powder runs during washing and my wife gets hold of them!] and invited to dance along which of course, being devoid of any rhythm, we declined. We did though have the opportunity to take photographs of ourselves surrounded by happy and polite young children. But how to get rid of these pesky kids when you want to move on?
My good friend Sondra had a fantastic idea. He had spotted an ice cream seller with just few cornets left. We enquired as to the price of each ice cream to be told they were 3 Rupees each [about 5p.] We paid him for the whole lot and bought ice cream for forty children. It cost us just two quid between us and put a smile on a street full of children. Testimony indeed that it's the small things in life that we do that can make the greatest difference.
Our driver took us back to our hotel and we duly paid him his fare. We paid our new friend 500 Indian rupees [£7] for one of the greatest experiences of my life so far.
My stay at the palatial hotel was short to say the least. I had arrived at nine in the morning and was leaving to catch a flight to Bombay at six in the evening. The experiences of the day, though, had made the ten-hour coach ride and whistle stop stay more than worth it. And so back to Bombay.
One last snatched nights sleep and it was up for one final breakfast meeting at five am next morning before I made my way back to the airport for my flight home. The journey at that time on a morning was no less exciting than any other, it seems that some Indians never sleep. Arriving at the airport it only remained for me to board my flight to Abu Dhabi and then on to Heathrow. And that would have bee the case . . . IF I had called to confirm my flights . . . but I didn't! As a result my flight was full. However the events of the last five days or so would not allow me to be stranded and, if I ran through immigration and kept running until I was on a plane, I could catch the Heathrow flight that went via Oman and Bahrain. Oh well, it would have been almost disappointing to have caught the plane I was actually booked on wouldn't it?
My flights were uneventful and I landed in Heathrow just five minutes later than if I had caught my original flight.
I arrived home at ten thirty in the evening managing the journey from Heathrow to York in a little less than three hours. My diary was full for the next three days with a two day training programme in Leeds and a presentation in London on the Saturday. On Sunday morning I woke to find that my body had finally said enough. Over the next two days I was a victim of the worst case of jet lag I have ever experienced.
Was it worth it? You bet it was worth it! I have experienced the greatest adventure of my life so far.
Have I learned anything? Of course I have learned something, I have learned an enormous amount. Not least that if you treat people with respect and if you are willing to take full responsibility for your actions the universe works in very mysterious ways to get you to wherever it is you have chosen to go.
For the record I have accepted an invitation to visit India again in September of 2004.