Shep in Delhi: ..and Delhi takes us one step closer to Goa (74th)

Oh man. If I ever listen to bhangra again it will because my interrogators have found out that it is the one way of retrieving information from me.

Izzy - Amen.

We have been driving for 9 hours. As with all events in the Punjab our departure was quite belated. We were woken at 7.35am to the knock and immediate 'stand up!' of Raju Bajaj. Izzy joined him and the kids on a walk but I wanted to stay and pester Laljeet and Sukhpreet by commanding them to get up at least a couple of times. Unfortunately my upbringing and manners didn't allow me to be half as prescriptive as I would have liked to have been. Or half as much as they deserved. I know its just a cultural difference but after being subjected to it without fail everyday it has begun to grate on me.
It was particularly pronounced in the Punjab.

I went for my own walk at about 8 and was met coming back by the lads. They collected a cricket bat from the local school and procured new balls somehow and all the men played a good hour of cricket before twenty past nine. Afterwards I was taken to Laljeet's house again (buffalo residence) to say my goodbyes to him and his brothers. They were so welcoming, as was everyone else in the Punjab. That is the flip side to my overall perception of the manners I witnessed.

Driving through the midday heat was probably not avoidable, but it certainly felt like some kind of punishment. Izzy and I have been in the backseat all the way, joined by both Sidak and Ajay. The latter is the servant-esque person that Nancy and Raju employ who I'm sure was told we were going to visit the Golden Temple and whom didn't seem annoyed enough that it was completely off the cards as soon as we arrived. The former gets bored with us as soon as we don't talk to him for twenty minutes and goes to sit on the latter's lap in the front seat of the car with the dog. If it wasn't for the fact that the only speaker is in the backseat it would probably be the most comfortable area in the car, seeing as we are on our own now. As it stands, to compensate for the lack of the speakers in the rest of the car the music is being played at a torturous level. I keep wondering why granny doesn't complain. Its mainly rap and dance music as well - not relaxing or traditional stuff by any means. Also the playlist is restricted to ten songs.

We stopped at a temple on the way back and Izzy and I refused to go in as it was past 4 and there was a restaurant and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. The menu was in Hindi so we ordered a veg thali and veg burger blind as we were so hungry it didn't matter how much they cost. They came to £1.50 together.

We've reached the outskirts of Delhi, its twenty to ten and my head and knees are still sweating. I was told that it had cooled in Delhi. No one is showing any signs of being as hot as the Westerners though, so we're trying to match them.

Note to self, remember the unintentional comedy in Punjabi rap music videos. Especially the one where the singer is hailing his loved one from on top of a steamroller.