Early last year, I was feeling a bit flat and badly in need of a break. Everything seemed so routine and boring, it was driving me nuts. I decided I needed a vacation. After studying my options, and taking a quick look at the sorry state of my bank balance, I plumped on India as a choice, for no particular reason, other than that it seemed within my limited budget and there was this Indian character in my office,  who’s been cribbing for more than 5 years about everything he misses about his country. I reckoned that if he had so much to love about India, it wouldn’t hurt me to take a look.

I also have to mention that I’m a bit of a geek, and if you ask me to do anything, my first instinct is to fire up Google and look it up. So that’s what I did. I studied everything I could find about India, it’s people, culture, cities and places. In about a week, I had a pretty fair idea of what I was getting myself into – And I kindof liked the challenge. It all seemed so different, so exciting.

There was New Delhi, the capital with it’s bustling three-wheelers and a massive fort and with  Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, right next-door. Then there was Mumbai, or as it’s better known, Bombay – Seemed to be people hanging from every door and rafter. The smell and the colors and the staggeringly wide and differing  quality of life, from slums to high rise apartments and the Bollywood superstars all jostling for space, not to mention the booming economy – It’s all quite truly amazing, and has to be seen to be believed.

Next up on my itenary was to be the southern tip of India, the province of Kerala, with it’s idyllic beaches and waterways and canals and mild weather. Some truly beautiful, serene and peaceful places, where I could have spent weeks, simply lazing around.

And in between, there was a planned visit to the royal palace in Rajasthan, some wild times in Goa and a few stops in little known, but very special places.  And all this on a shoe-string budget. I calculated the whole gig down to the last penny, including flights, local travel, food and accomodation. All this involved sending a few emails and enquiries with travel agencies.

It was a great plan, one of my better efforts, and the plan went down the drain even before it was set into motion. Reality has a funny way of intruding on the best laid plans. I was told that August-Spetember is the best time to visit India, when the climate is moderate  – No rain, not too cold, no blazing sun. So I booked a flight for 12^th August, to be in time for India’s  Independence day celebrations in New Delhi, which is on the 15^th of August. Counting down the days and weeks, it was August and time to pack my bags.

I woke up on the 10^th with a searing pain wracking my right jaw. Dragging myself to the dentist, I came back out with no pain,  a medicated and numb jaw which I could hardly feel, and a second appointment to clean up the infected root canal scheduled for the 12^th. So what was I supposed to do? After thinking about it long and hard, considering all open options, I did what I usually do – Fired up Google.