India Darshan and tortoises.

The conference in Kanpur was super cool for a variety of reasons including the talks that one got to hear from virtually the gurus of Computer and Compiler science :) . The other reason why Kanpur was cool was because of the weather. It is freezing cold in Kanpur , the sun rises at 6:45 in the morning and sets by 4:45 in the evening. By 5:30 its pitch dark and afterwards roaming outside in the cold weather is quite an act of bravery for a person not used to such cold dry climes. The wind is chill and hits you as though there are knives about in the air.

The train journeys to and from Kanpur were very interesting both of them were epitomes of why the Indian Railways will always remain very effective and punctual here and in the South of India but never in the North of India. The jury is still out on the East of India but looking at when trains from the North - East and the East arrive in Madras or even in Pune (atleast 8 hours late !) . Trivandrum - Guwahati 12 hours late. In any case while going forth self had a first a.c. ticket for a train known as Pushpak Express which was before time at all stations till the Rani of Jhansi started delaying it on its path to Kanpur with the result that it reached an hour late. Travelling in first class with a director of the railways (with whom I had rather interesting conversation regarding how good or bad the railways really were ) was an educational and comfortable experience with the attendants pretty much fawning on us. The return journey was by a train called the Awadh Express that comes all the way from Gorakhpur and comes to Bombay after almost going almost as far north as Delhi (it crawls through Agra so you might as well say thats close to Delhi) . So to come essentially south west as the crow flies , I was on a train that was going all the way around India by first going North , then west, then North West and finally south , south west and south east . This was also quite educational because this is when I learnt the virtue of patience and accepting a situation where one can never have enough.