The Ancient Trails-Chapter 3: The Promised Land and Beyond

 

Photo by Alex Agrico: https://www.pexels.com/photo/scenic-rural-landscape-with-mountains-and-pathway-32492678/

The three friends spent an agreeable one week in the biblical promised land visiting the sites and places they were familiar with due to their reading of their religious books, but it was a different experience actually going there smelling the air and getting a sense of the history of the place, first hand. Their sense of shared heritage made them feel equally comfortable at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the church on the spot of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.

Except for their acute awareness of the fact that they were in Biblical land and the very eastern ambiance of the old parts of the town they visited, they did not find Israel much different from what it was like back home, including the way people dressed and lived, except perhaps the language. They had heard of trouble with the Arab population, but they came across only the odd one in the market place and they did not seem too different from any other Israeli.

All in all it was quite a satisfying and pleasant one week’s stay and by the time they reached the Ben Gurion international Airport in Tel Aviv to catch their flight to Delhi, they were raring to set out on the adventure of their lives in India. Their jet took off smoothly and soon they were flying high above the troubled area of the Middle East in the direction of the Himalayas.

Six hours later the plane began to descend over New Delhi. Arnold who sat by the window seat looked down over the huge metropolis that is Delhi, and saw that it was a modern city littered with grand and large buildings some of which seemed old and the others absolutely brand new. He was surprised at the number of cars on the city’s roads, and very soon the plane approached the runway of the Indira Gandhi International airport, and landed with a mild thud. In no time they were at the exit, and the Delhi heat met them in their face.

“Man!”“Is it hot or what?” exclaimed Joseph who had never experienced such heat in his life. Neither had the other two and they squinted their eyes against a very harsh sun. Soon they were outside the upcoming new airport terminal building, which was getting a much needed facelift for the forthcoming Commonwealth games-a sort of a mini Olympics of former British colonies. They had been advised to hire prepaid taxis to their hotels, as there was no haggling over the fare and they were safer than the regular cabs.

Soon the cab was speeding its way towards the back-packers’ paradise in the Paharganj area of the city, opposite the New Delhi Railway Station. The drive from the airport to the hotel was a long one and the size of the city surprised the New Yorkers. They found New Delhi to have wide and well maintained roads, and a whole lot of cars and motor-cycles. After a fifty minute drive their car approached Connaught Place, a graceful piazza from British times, and going around the outer circle, took a left towards the congested area called Paharganj, that was a haven to backpackers from across the world.

Their hotel was called Vegas Sun and this brought a smile to the face of the Americans. They unpacked their bags in the two adjacent rooms that were allotted to them. The room on the left had a large bay window which opened into a courtyard with a graceful peepul tree, where there was a cafe of sorts. The friends decided to keep their bags in the next room and had an extra cot placed in the room so that they could be together.