India: memories seared in our brains
Posted on April 24, 2026
It’s been over seven weeks since we returned to from India. We’re back to our normal routine! The memories – particularly the experiences that got us out of our comfort zone – are seared in our brains forever! I enclose a list of those things that we will never forget. It’s a long one. Here are six highlights.
• The bicycle rickshaw ride in Old Dehli. The seats on the rickshaw are narrow. You had a small place to brace your foot to stop you from being thrown out if you hit something or if something hit you. The lanes are narrow. It was crowed, crowded, crowded. It was noisy, noisy, noisy. There are motorbikes and scooters aimed right at you as you ride through. Horns are honking. There’s an incredible tangle of electrical wires overhead that is almost unbelievable. And monkeys. There’s a man pulling a cart of wholesale goods. There’s a Brahma bull pulling a cart. The shops are all one kind along the street: jewelry stores; fabrics for saris; wedding dresses; kitchenware. Incense is burning from a shop.
• Sheikh temple in Dehli. All Sheikh temples feed people for free: selfless service. This temple feeds maybe 20,000 per day. 20,000 bread servings, chapati. All the food is donated. All the labor is volunteer. I think there were 500 at a seating every 20 minutes. Nobody looked particularly poor. You must be barefoot in the temple, and we were there about 45 minutes. We’re not used to that.
• Tiger safaris, Ranthambore national park. We went on three safaris and saw a total of six tigers. We must’ve followed a tiger as it walked down the road for maybe a half a mile. Our guide in our jeep said only one in five safaris see a tiger. We also saw a sloth bear, which is pretty rare.
• Traffic in Jaipur. The traffic was unbelievable everywhere, but particularly in Jaipur. We first stopped at a busy intersection and visited a small Hindu temple. I will always remember the holy man who is the caretaker of the temple. We crossed the street and walked along an area with shops. There are no crosswalks. The traffic does not stop for people walking across the street. You have to just hope they slow down and don’t hit you. We were glued onto Raj, our guide, as we cross a street.
• Hugging elephants in Jaipur. We visited a site that had two rescued Asian elephants. (2 ½ hour drive to go 15 miles.) They no longer carry tourists up the hill to the courtyard in Amber fort. Each elephant has a caretaker who lives with them 24 hours a day for 11 months of the year. The caretaker gets one month off to be with his family. The elephants do not particularly like the replacement caretakers for the for the one month!
• Funeral pyres along the bank of the Ganges in Varanasi. Hindus are cremated, and ideally they are cremated with their ashes tossed into the Ganges. This is a faster path to meet their god. The funeral pyres are burning 24 hours a day every day of the year.
Conclusion: Our guide in India, Raj, told he was going to make memorable experiences for us. He sure did. India sure did. We have memories seared into our brains. We’ll never forget.