36th

As aforementioned it was incredibly hard to get to sleep at night, however I managed an hour or two before we woke at 3.40 to get Annu's cab to the airport. She had had no sleep. We did one last check and went downstairs to find the cab was not there, so I had to wake the sleeping receptionist up and have him make a phone call. The guy drove extra quick and waited at the terminal while we said goodbye. Fortunately I wasn't allowed into the terminal building so we couldn't draw this out too much. I was glad of this because I was getting pretty sad at the idea of losing Annu and being alone again.
On the way back the guy told me his name was Lucky and we had a good chat about cricket and other Indian-English connections. He took me for chai at his favourite chai-wallah's, mainly to cheer me up I think. We were back in Paharganj within an hour of leaving it. No mean feat. I then couldn't get to sleep as I'd been up so long, so getting up for work was a bit of a chore. When I got in though the sun was shining and everyone was in a good mood so it felt nice to be there.
That evening there was the opening of an exhibition for the Bonjour India Festival (an Indo-French cultural celebration). The work is good, the photography of Michel Kirch being my preference. Its amazing being automatically invited to all these events because I work here. And the free food is always good!

34th

Today we saw the Taj. Annu was treated like a major celebrity and was the subject of many photographs, some women 'clickers', but mainly men. I expected the queue to be massive as it was a sunny Saturday but I was proved very wrong. The Indian queue was big, but manageable for Sabya, and the foreigner queue was nothing! I know you can't see anything in India without other people there, but I wish the Taj had been empty and I'd had some personal time to enjoy it. As it went were shuffled round it in some kind of order with little time to appreciate the little details.

List of prohibited items on the golf buggy to Taj. 'Helmate' is my favourite

Annu posing in the sunshine

The Indian queue, and Sabya in it

The visual illusion of the Taj through the entry arch. The closer you get the smaller the Taj's arch gets rather than bigger.

First full view

Crowds and crowds and crowds

Beaut

Check the stance

Explorer Annu

Celebrity Annu being asked

... and then clicked

Glittering marble

Another fan

Some more fans

I hate to say it but this photo looks like Rossetti's The Beloved

Final shot on the way out

Finally! An honest window sticker.

We left the Taj and had another alcoholic lunch with Sabya. The food was excellent, and not even too pricey considering its location. Although I can't really judge that because he paid. We had a few hours to kill before our train was leaving so we went to the school that Sabya had built and that he will be opening in April. While we were with him he was constantly taking calls from prospective students and staff. I hope it goes well for him.

Front of Orchid School

'Agra's Sunset Boulevard'

Annu on her top bunk

Riding in style - Sleeper Class

When we got to Delhi I was panicking about missing our station (I didn't want to end up in Punjab) so we got off early and had to jump back on while the train was starting. Thank goodness for the doors being open during travel.

13th

Today I went into work relatively late because of last night. I had a meeting with Saumya and Mandy (the we exhibition team) at 1 which took ages to happen as Mandy was still a little tippled from the night before. Me and Saumya made some progress with the order of other photos and an eagle landed on the windowsill to say hello. When Mandy arrived we all spoke for a while and then when we realized that nothing was going to be decided in her present state we called it a day and went to go and get some chaat. Chaat is the original Indian fast food and comes in various delicious cold and hot forms.
I worked for a while and then Saumya and I went to see a photography exhibition by one of the artists I had met at the house party last night. He was very nice about us being there, the good and drinks were abundant and I really liked the work. The title if the show was 'Sleepers' and each photo had people in it sleeping 'rough'. I am putting this in hyphenated parenthesis because some of the situations were outside and some were on chairs, beds etc. so I don't want to generalise and make it sound like the photos were about the homeless. Saumya used the opportunity to teach me some of the processes used to curate photography and we analysed the whole show. She's 22. But it wasn't condescending. The art atmosphere here seems to be based on very open discussion. For instance the current eminent photographers are easily accessible to talk to by the younger generation. E.g. Pablo Bartholomew.