I found my way to the breakfast facility without difficulty with the Delhi Times and guide book in hand, thinking to get the lay of the land while S. had a continental breakfast in the room. That’s just one of the small ways we accommodate one another while traveling. The waiters were all in turbans and uniforms of the Raj and women in saris gave me the sense of being somewhere different. The buffet did not. Pretty standard stuff, but well done and extraordinary service in a lovely setting.
As I was cutting into my two over easy I saw Ron Gidwitz from Chicago who had recently run and lost for the governorship of Illinois. I’ve known Ron from our joint service on the Board of Governors of Boys and Girls Club of America. He’s recently retired as CEO of Estee Lauder and has become more and more politically active. His wife is the heir to one of the largest insurance empires in America….and a quite nice guy to boot. He joined me for a cup of tea and to exchange thoughts on India. He was at the end of a trip through Dubai (ostentatious in the extreme with no cultural foundation), Mumbai (where he had business contacts from the old days), Ranthambore (saw no tigers), Agra, Jaipur, and Udaipur. Pretty much our same itenerary. He said Jaipur and Udaipur were the highlights. I asked if they could join us for dinner tonight, but he had to decline as they were already committed to a private dinner with the Minister Of Energy whom he had known for many years. We agreed to meet for breakfast tomorrow before they left for London. As I was in mid-conversation with Ron, I was tapped on the shoulder by Bill and Susan Montgomery from Dallas. Small world, what…..we’re meeting them for drinks tonight.
More later…..of on our first tour of the trip.
OK, I know they speak English as well as twelve other official languages and forty-seven dialects, but I’ll be damned if I can understand them. Case in point. Last night, or yesterday, or whenever it was as we were crossing continents and time zones, I got up to stretch my legs after having cat napped for too long. I asked one of the stewards (more in an effort to speak to someone than for information), What’s our ETA?” Those of you in the know will know that I meant estimated time of arrival. He replied, “at 7:00 or in about forty minutes.” I thought how great, we’ll be early and we’ll have more time to make our connection, and said, “we must have had some great tail winds.” and went back to my seat to put my stuff together to deboard. I thought it odd that we didn’t seem to be descending until about five minutes after they started serving breakfast. Then it dawned on me, he thought I’d asked, “what time do we EAT?” ETA, EAT not a lot of difference, but pretty important if communication is the goal. And he was French. It’s only worse here where it sounds like they’re speaking english, but you can only understand every fifth word, and then out of context….Maybe our ears will adjust.
