Our Tuk-tuk drivers weaved across the city and took us to the Albert Hall Museum. In 2012 the front of this grand building seemed tired, it is set in the middle of a large roundabout and like a lot of India that we were to see it was affected by pollution.

This is a British designed building, a reminder of Empire. We had not seen many acknowledgements of the British in India, I had expected to see more. Having been up to the Amber Fort we were a bit tired to take in this impressive museum. It is the state museum of Rajasthan and I wish I had more energy to appreciate it.

Within the building there are grand collections of art, jewelry, carpets – on every wall someone looks down on you or important artefacts tell the story of Rajahstan.

There are elements of the British here. I think, and it is purely my own opinion, that the British time in India is hidden away. We visited many buildings and places of interest that would have been linked to the colonial past only to find no reference. I am not saying this is a bad thing, it’s probably important for India o demonstrate that this was its past and its history goes on for thousands of years before and it is in many ways a forward looking country.

The group were tired. We started playing a game where you had to start following other tourists without being spotted. Yes, I was meant to be the responsible teacher but I still needed to relax like this.

We had to call it off when an American lady asked me if the student who had been following her was part of my group…

And so we returned to the Umaid Bhawan hotel. We were a different group. We felt like a school group but we were now tourists. Thanks to our guides we had stayed away from the reality of Jaipur, it has its slums and its problems like every other city in India. We were hidden behind the impressive facade of the hotel. We had ventured to the tourist spots and enjoyed ourselves. We had only seen glimpses of the real Jaipur, this is what tourists do. In Delhi we had seen the reality, in Wardha we have been proactive, these moments were needed before the journey ahead.

The hotel and Jaipur had been perfect. As we packed our bags and met in the lobby the next day there was a buzz among the group, some news had come through from England. The story was that a popular teaching assistant had died during the night. Some of the students had known him all their school life. I had spent time with him on school activities and trips and he was a lovely man.

As this was the early days of social media I said that we could not rely upon what they had read. What if one person had posted it as a joke and then it had spread, even here. I fired off a couple of quick messages to people within the school to see if I could get some information. Gilly was the leader of the group but I felt this was a situation that I could take some responsibility for.

The sad news was confirmed. It was a body blow to us all. We had experienced a wonderful 48 hours and now we were hit by this news. I talked to the group about what we could do. We could only reflect at the moment, remember him and support each other.

Who would have thought the trip could be affected in this way by events from England.

We were taken to the train station and set off for Udaipur. It was a sullen and sad day. The chain of events was unfolding.