Saturday 23 February
We didn’t get to bed until midnight, and had to get up by 5
to be taken to the train at 6 am … so of course I woke up at 4. Deepak was right on time and we were taken to
the New Delhi train station .. only to run into heavy traffic right near the
entrance to the station, which added about 15 minutes to the trip. But we got to the platform just as the train
pulled into the station, found our seats, and were well settled by the time the
train left. We were in an ‘executive
class’ car with reclining seats and slightly ok bathrooms (for Indian train
bathrooms). In this class they serve a rolling breakfast … one at a time
between stations – choice of zeera lassi or lime juice; a pot of hot water and
tea bag/sugar/creamer; corn flakes or choco-flakes with warm milk; choice of
veg or non-veg breakfast [I had aloo paratha with dahi, SF had non-veg omelet];
choice of banana or apple; another round of hot water & tea fixings. Train
arrived in Dehra about half hour late, but were met at the train by our
driver. We stopped at President Hotel to
use the nice clean facilities and to have lunch [chicken tikka and roti] before
heading up the hill.
We arrived at the
school by 4 pm and the key to our guest room was ready for us. We are in #1, which was for a time Mrs.
Biswas’s apartment .. large 1 bedroom apartment with full kitchen, dining and
office areas, larger hot water geyser and newer water filter.
There were a lot of students in the Quad area as some sort
of basketball tournament was underway .. we were inadvertently serenaded by
junior high kids as they sang while they played on the playground equipment!
We were so tired when we got here that we went down for a
quick supper at 5:30 pm, then were in bed and asleep by 7 pm.
