Wampum

We'd two taxis to take the six of us -- Werner, Marcus, Elmar, Jordi, Normand, Amadeau and I, from the five star back to our modest hotel in in the Chaina Market area of Karol Bagh. Our drivers were from Himachal Pradesh, in the Western Indian Himalayas, and it was late, and they got lost (as did we, by this point we should have had the route down cold), and The Family Restaurant was closed, so we drove on a bit to a nearby Deccan restaurant.

The owner, looking as Deccan as his staff, chatted with us. We were French speaking (along with Catalan, German, and English) so he spoke to us in French, as well as English. He was from Punduchery, so his parents were French nationals until 1955, then dual nationals, India and France, and so he was a French national, as well as an Indian national.

The first world war did not start in August, 1914. The first world war took place between 1756 and 1763. Anglo-Americans know it as the French and Indian War. In Europe it was the Seven Years War. For us it was the end of the Beaver Wars, and for the French on the Back of the Turtle, and the French in India, it was the end of an era. The second capture of the Fortress of Louisbourg, the defeat of Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham, and in French India, the defeat of Lally at Vandavasi and the seige, and reduction, of Punduchery.

Many people from the south come to Delhi and stay, and eat, at Deccan guest houses and Deccan restaurants. And for this evening, he was our host. Dinner was 60 rupies, vegetarian, and wicked good.

My last night in Delhi the taxi queue lottery at the conference hotel awarded me one of the previous night's drivers, and with his assistance, I found Pashmina similar to the photo above.