Prologue

A series of blogs covering a trip to India in November 2019.

Cast

• The Ever Lovely my favourite travelling companion and soul traveller
• Paul (Stov) Stovold, the author, illustrator and photographer
• A cast of billions potentially, 1.53 billions to be more precise!

Apart from a couple of short trips to South Africa and a family safari In Kenya in the early 2000s my holidays had wholly been in Europe.  The Ever Lovely had been to Kenya several times many years before and apart from a short trip to SA recently that was the extent of our other world travels. Okay, hands up we have both been to the USA together and separately but that is really so close to the UK I have discounted these.

We first went to India in 2015 and loved it! The Ever Lovely returned in 2016 with her mother who is also now smitten. Another trip to Kerala in 2017 brings our subcontinental adventures up to date. Why return? I think Keith Bellows of the National Geographic sums it up more eloquently than I ever could:

“There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won’t go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colours, smells, tastes and sounds. It was as if all my life I had been seeing the world in black and white and when brought face to face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant Technicolor.”  Keith Bellows (1951-2015 Editor in Chief NG. RIP).

What was to be on our agenda? On our first trip to India The Ever Lovely and I were lucky enough to see tigers in Ranthambore, it was an experience that kept coming back in our minds. We wanted more tigers please.  Also, the Ever Lovely and her mother went to Amritsar and she wanted to share it with me. We were both attracted to Varanasi, to paraphrase Keith Bellows,  ‘reputed to more than overload the senses with the purest, most concentrated intensity of its colours, smells, tastes and sounds’ – as you will see later it certainly lived up to that.

We used a small firm in Shoreham by Sea www.sundownerholidays.co.uk and in particular James O’Farrell. What attracted us was his knowledge of the subcontinent. It also became apparent that James also had a fantastic relationship with his on the ground Operator, Periplus. Periplus’s attention to detail was exceptional and the guides they provided were excellent. I guess that’s one big recommendation. We were so impressed we booked again with Sundowners for our 2020 big holiday to Borneo… as I write in the depths of COVID-19 Lockdown we are uncertain that we shall succeed in seeing the land or the orangutans this year.

In writing these notes I am bound to offend the sensibilities of someone, somehow. This is not my intention I have the deepest respect for all traditions, beliefs and cultures. If in my oafishness I do transgress the lines of decency I fully apologise.

In each of these blogs you will find one of my sketches and two of my photographs relating to that blog. In this first blog the sketch of seven chilies and a lemon in Old Delhi (Keep reading my blogs for a full explanation in a later chapter)

… join me in Blog 2 on the journey of a lifetime, as my adventure unfolds …….