This man is a LEGEND

This is Raghav.  He is a legend.  Seriously.

My time in Delhi has completely changed in the last week.  After spending each night at the physio for the last two months I'm now out every night.  Much as my physios are a cool gang, hanging out in Delhi city in the week at night is a lot more fun.  The pre-monsoon rains have also arrived bringing with them a refreshing dip in the temperature and sites such as shower caps to cover turbans and aquaplaning Rickshaws. 

Last night I went to Bhajan at a temple about 5 miles from where I live.  My friend Deepak took my on his moped but had to leave early to get back to work.  

A Bhajan is a Hindu ceremony involving devotional singing and although I'm not Hindu I like a good Bhajan!  So after the Bhajan, usual friendly stares and Q&A sessions with a number of the congregation as to what the only white boy in the room was doing there, whether I was married, and my occupation, I left. Despite the madness outside the temple (Bhajans are big business!)  I couldn't find a rickshaw (being a westerner a more common problem is getting rid of all the rickshaw drivers blocking my route and asking for business), so opted to walk.  

For those of you who have been to India, be it rural or urban you'll know a walk at night can be fun.  I was walking along a very busy Delhi road (somewhere in between rural and urban!) with no lights, and with pavement made up of potholes, uncovered manholes, random big chunks of concrete and the occasional stray dog with rabies eyes.   Despite the constant horns most vehicles are usually pretty good at avoiding pedestrians; apart from trucks and buses who like to play target practice.    This wasn't a walk in the park, it was a walk on a building site.

It was the first time in a while I'd been stuck without a richshaw.  During one of my routine looks over my shoulder to see how big/close the next truck was Raghav came to the rescue.  He was pottering along on his bike and pulled over and with the help of some Hinglish and sign language communicated that he wanted to carry me on his bike.  Now I'm used to being on the back of mopeds and the occasional Royal Enfield motorbike but I'm 13 stone.  I'm not built to go on the back of a push bike.  Raghav had other ideas, after two false starts during which we both fell off and the bike was within inches (and I mean this) of the wheel of a truck we got on and finally made it work.  

It was a pretty interesting ride.  Possibly the hardest balancing act I've ever done to balance out Raghav's enthusiastic effort (not sure if he realised that swaying from side to side didn't help).  I found myself leaning towards invisible potholes and leaning away from trucks with the signal being the heat coming off the metal bodywork against my skin. I've done some pretty crazy things and this was madness but 20 minute later somehow we managed to get to Karol Bagh without falling off again. 

The photo above was back where street lights existed and show one very interesting thing  that i didn't realise during the ride.  Raghav had two flat tyres.  Like I said, Legend.