We have been in India for four days, and I love it. We arrived two days before our tour started and explored parts of Delhi.

On our first day, we hired a cab to drive us around to famous sights like the India Gate and Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, a Sikh Temple.

Our second day was fantastic. We booked a private tour that took us to a slum neighborhood. Our guide was a fill-in for a friend who was unavailable to do the tour, and he was excellent.

Sunny lives near the slum, so he toured us around his neighborhood, even taking us to his home where his mother made Chi tea. He then took us to the railway colony. We crossed the tracks into the colony and were immediately met by curious kids.

We purchased some crackers to hand out to kids and some seniors. At one point, once word got out, there was a mob of kids around Norm. Everyone there was curious about us and friendly.

Years ago, Sunny took some English training in a program run by Deepak Chopra. He pays it forward by volunteering in a mentoring program to help encourage the kids here to learn and practice English. We visited the room they teach in, and some girls in grades 6 and 7 and a boy in grade 11 came in to visit. I asked one girl if her mother did the henna on her arm, and she said she did it herself. She asked if she could do this on my arm, and I said yes. It's still visible today.

We met the group we are touring with in the evening and went out for a nice dinner together.

One of our activities on day 3 was a neineighbourhoodur near a large railway station, where we learned about a local program that tries to get kids off the streets. They help about 10,000 kids a year. Homelessness is a big problem here. This is not surprising, considering Delhi's current metro area population in 2024 is over 33.8 million.

The highlight of our fourth day was a visit to the magnificent Taj Mahal in Agra. Known as the world’s most incredible love story, the Taj Mahal tells the heart-warming tale of everlasting love where a dying wife of a king passing away after delivering their fourteenth child asked him to build her a monument so grand that nobody would question their love for each other.

It truly is stunning and awe-inspiring. It was worth the 4 am wake-up time to get there for sunrise and ahead of the rush of people and sweltering heat.

A unique way to sell gold fish

This lady sells her spices on the street

Narrow streets in the colony

It can be a long wait for the train to pass.

We are just arriving to the colony and kids already come to say hi.

I love the warm colors of the historical buildings here.