After sitting in airports and on planes for 24 continuous hours, I managed to land in New Delhi, India from San Francisco Friday evening here.  A few firsts on this trip.

1 I have never travelled this many hours
2 I have never flown via Amsterdam
3 I have never flown KLM
4 I have never been to India

So you can imagine my excitement when I finally got here.  Thus far I've been here for 33 hours and all that flying and waiting have been absolutely worth it!

Yesterday Ashwani Sharma from our India academic team showed me around.  India is so full of life it was inspiring to see.  I think there's an explosion of colors and sound everywhere you go, whether it's the city or the countryside.  The wardrobe here are also vibrant.  And of course the food is full of spices -- but I really appreciated the fact that the food is natural spices.  I had the best Indian meal ever for lunch yesterday, where the flavors just exploded in my mouth.  It made all previous Indian food experiences in the States seem so tame in comparison.  In particular, the black daal, the buttered chicken in tomato gravy, and the tandoori chicken were just outstanding.  My stomach just grumbled as I type that!

I am here in India to give a talk at the Academic Summit, meet with press, work with the team on their plans, and also to meet with faculty and students.  I am very much looking forward to the trip!

Here are a few pictures I took from yesterday.

Here, a few street peddlers have tamed monkeys and bears to pose roadside with people.  I admit I was scared to be so close to a bear!



Then here's the colorful wardrobe of a couple I took outside of a reststop/restaurant...


Here's the beautiful Taj Mahal -- one of the 7 wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site...



And finally, one of the most sacred animals in India, the cow.  I found it cool that they roam the streets next to cars and mopeds and pedestrians!



I've been to many different populous places in the world, and India has much of the same rhythm and livelihood to it that I've observed in other places.  I can understand how bewildering it could be (for example, just the way traffic moves) to people who've never experienced this before, but there are all these unwritten rules that people just seem to know.  Although with respect to traffic I have to say that since Indians drive on the left side of the road (as opposed to the right in the States) that threw me off a bit.  But I'm so glad that I am here and am enjoying myself quite a bit.

Looking forward to the next great meal!