India was fascinating and nothing like I envisaged - although I think that Kerala is 'India for beginners' (a bit like Namibia is Africa for beginners!) The places I visited had a gentleness and calm about them - even though they were vibrant and busy - and the tooting car horn was ever-present. Maybe it was the people I met that had those characteristics.
We left via Mumbai and it was certainly busier and more brutish. Sir John had warned me that 'you haven't been to India until you've driven across New Delhi' and I got a flavour of what he was talking about in Mumbai. One thing I would say - is I never felt unsafe in India. Admittedly, I didn;t go walking the streets at night - but I don't do that in any country!
I'll always remember the different yoga teachers I had - expecially the one who intoned 'nooooormal breeeeeathing, very very nooooormal breeeeeathing' over and over as we did the pranayam ... partly because Shafika and I kept singing this as we struggled to wind our way through the crowds at Mumbai airport. The new group on Trivandrum that I will work with next year have produced a distance learning course on yoga and they gave me their materials and the video!
One of the things that amazed us (and drove my colleagues mad) was the procedure for getting a SIM card. You needed a copy of your passport, a photo and to fill in 5 pages of forms. This highly bemused the African contingent who can buy a SIM card on any street corner for a couple of dollars! In fact - when we arrived in Maseru and were met by the conference organisers - the first thing they did was hand everyone of us a SIM starter pack - now that is service!
...if this is news from Alison & John - where's the John bit then????????
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