UP ON THE ROOF
After 2 days spent choking on the thick toxic haze of Delhi ( the worlds worst polluted major city ) my son Danny and I took a relieved 5 hour train down to Jaipur, Rajasthan. This city of 4 million people is absolute brilliant madness ! Great folk, roads teeming with insane drivers, pigs, goats , elephants, cows and monkeys !! The surrounding mountains and forts are stunning and from a fairy story and it’s one of the most colourful, loud, vibrant cities we’ve visited ....and the curry is unbelievable! (I’m never eating at the Nila again 😂) Managed to achieve a first today and have a game on a roof-top with Raman and the staff from our guesthouse ..Rohan, Sanjay , Rajan and Mukesh . Rohan and Mukesh were on my side and the others on our Danny’s. We played first to 10. For them, Sanjay (18) was a good technical player, Rajan (30) stared a lot and looked scared to touch the ball in his sandles. Danny was playing great - scoring too many goals for my liking. Ram in their nets was very competitive . We had Mukesh (13), who had a cannonball for a right foot, and Rohan (18) who was a brave and energetic keeper. I looked like the quiz master from Slumdog Millionaire, playing with a Bollywood bouffant hairdo given to me by a barber earlier in the day..much to Danny’s amusement 🙄. We played first to 10 and it was nip and tuck all the way , until we finally ran out 10-8 winners . These boys had been brilliant today ..very friendly and gentle people, as have most people been since we arrived - apart from the taxi drivers...again !! (Same the world over those highway robbers) India so far has been everything everyone said it was and more ! A total attack on the senses . As Sadar Khan , one our tuk-tuk drivers put it “This is India. Everything is possible”. Superb . A few hours more in Jaipur tomorrow then off to Agra . Hope all’s well at home ❤️⚽️