An octogenarian, Padma’s mother, Mercy, doesn’t think she’ll be able to make the long and tiresome trip to India for much longer. But she reckons she’s still good for one more trip to bid farewell to the homeland and extended family. Mercy wants to ensure that the family’s Indian heritage is never forgotten so she has invited her grandsons, Joseph and Xander, and her son in law, me, to get better acquainted with the extended family in India.

We’ll begin the farewell tour in Chennai but only as a stopover as we then travel up the coast to the home of Mercy’s youngest brother, John, to attend the wedding of his granddaughter. Then we’ll ride the rails and travel to small towns in Andhra Pradesh where we will visit the extended family and spend Christmas with family in the town of Gudur.

On the third week, we’ll leave Mercy in the hands of family and we’ll fly north to Dehli and the Taj Mahal. Then off to the far northern state of Kashmir. We’ll fly into Srinagar and then drive up to the Himalayan hill station of Gulmarg where we’ll try some downhill skiing in one of Asia’s most remarkable ski destinations. We’ll then spend New Year’s Eve on a houseboat on Dal Lake and start the new year with a dawn boat ride on the lake to see the floating markets.

For Joseph and Xander it will be their first trip to India and their introduction won’t be as tourists but as visiting family.

For me it will be the culmination of a trip first planned 37 years ago. When I was 19 I studied Eastern Religions at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. I became fascinated in Hinduism and all of the religions and culture of India. I spent several months planning a trip from south to north of India. I got as far as Sumatra on that trip and never made it to India. Finally I get my chance to see India.