The Beginnings

It was my first time to visit India and I was excited and nervous. It was the beginning of November and Diwali festival had finished all over India and I was waiting for my taxi at Delhi airport to drive me to Rishikesh, a seven hour journey to the bottom of the Himalayas. The yoga school had prewarned me in a rather foreboding email ‘Your taxi driver will be Mr Tayal. Mr Tayal will meet you at 04:30 at column 11 outside the Terminal. Beware other taxi drivers pretending to be Mr Tayal. Make sure your taxi driver is Mr Tayal. Do not take any other taxi’.  I was on high alert but I determined that I, a seasoned traveller and backpacker, could suss out any bogus taxi drivers pretending to be Mr Tayal.

Arriving into a new city at 4am is disconcerting for any traveller especially a solo female traveller. It was dark as I stepped outside the terminal building and Delhi was covered in a dense fog and a cold dampness filled the air. Another sign told me I could not re-enter the airport building. So I made my way to Column 11 to wait for Mr Tayal. A man appeared promptly at 04:30 holding a page from a copybook with my name handwritten and misspelled. He pointed at me, he pointed at my name on the page. Are you Mr Tayal? I asked. He nodded yes and pointed for me to follow him. I did, but I was like Sheldon asking over and over ‘Are you Mr Tayal? So you are Mr Tayal? Again he nodded.

The car, a vintage ford escort, a car my Dad used to drive, was going to take me seven hours to the bottom of the Himalayas. After driving in silence through Delhi in the darkness he stopped under a motorway underpass. He tapped on my passenger window and asked Chai?, using his cupped hands to mimic a cup of tea. Oh ok I said, never having tasted chai before. He locked the car doors and walked off into the darkness. Reappearing after what seemed like ages, he tapped on my window and handed me a plastic cup of steaming chai. I sipped and oh the taste, it was delicious, my fear melted away in the sweet spicy flavour.

My first chai, my first day in India. I loved it. I settled back in the seat and fell promptly asleep. I realise now that I was in serious fright or flight mode and the taxi driver sensed it and knew the chai would calm me. Seven hours later, after a tasty lunch of ‘Thali’ with the silent Mr Tayal, who turned out to be a better formula one driver than any Red Bull driver, I knew I was hooked - on India and on Chai.