2010 has already been a year of great contrast.  Having spent New Years Eve in London with friends who included a personal shopper for Selfridges and a Face Designer for Armani (I'm still not sure what a face designer does, though it sounds slightly creepy) I boarded a plane on 2nd January to head to Delhi, where people¹s faces have been designed only by the frenzied nature of this extraordinary city.  I'm here for the Bharat Rang Mahotsav festival of contemporary and traditional Indian theatre and for Theatre Sutra, a round table event of British and Indian theatre artists and producers organised by the British Council who are keen to see some collaborative artistic relationships develop between UK and Indian theatre artists.

As I'm only here for four full days in total I arrived a couple of days in advance of most of my colleagues for some initial meetings and to try and get a sense of the place.  Having spent lots of time travelling it's too easy to get sucked into hotels, meetings and performances without ever really getting a handle on your destination.  And given it's my first time in India and were keen to develop some partnerships here I thought that was pretty important.

My airport transfer set the tone for the trip. Hurtling down six road carriageways in thick fog (its disappointingly cold here) and only illuminated by his hazard lights my driver undertook, overtook and squeezed between several large lorries whilst most of the time looking over his shoulder and talking about cricket.  And that has been one of the safer driving experiences I've has here. Still we arrived and the hotels pretty good so after a good nights sleep I was ready to begin exploring.