Greetings from Mumbai, where Ken touched down late last night. He claims to be no fan of foreign travel, claiming the enforced absence from his children (one of the few occasions he breaks his rule never to talk about his personal life) makes it a chore. Not that you'd guess from a Mayor who has visited San Francisco, New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Havana, Singapore, Paris and now India in the last couple of years. But travel makes him weary. Though in good health, he is 62 and has a demanding schedule. There are lots of hands to shake, protocol to follow and names to remember. Alas, only a few hours after arriving in Delhi following a nine-hour overnight flight, he accidentally got China and India mixed up when he was talking about Mahatma Gandhi. Luckily it was only a TV crew who witnessed his blunder. But his second slip of the tongue was enjoyed by an audience of several hundred VIPs and onlookers at the unveiling of a replica of Big Ben in Delhi's equivalent to Trafalgar Square. After saying that he expected all future London mayors to follow in his footsteps and visit India, he began to introduce Delhi's tourism minister. But all he could remember was the minister had a somewhat distinctive surname. "Minister Cleverly!" announced Ken, before realising his error and returning quickly to the microphone. "Er, sorry, Minister Lovely!"

Ken was famously a nerdy schoolkid who preferred to learn about amphibians than play football or mess about on bikes. But now the 2012 Olympics are in the bag, he is happy to joke about the scale of his disinterest. "I have never liked sport," he told a seminar examining links between the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and the London 2012 Olympics. "The only medal I would have had a chance of winning would be for backstabbing."

Like his boss Mayor Ken, TfL commissioner Peter Hendy has been freed from the everyday hassles of London and looks considerably cheerier as a result. Mr Hendy was recently in Caracas to provide the Venezuelas with ideas on easing traffic gridlock. But in Delhi he could only admire the city's modern metro system. Another thing that will have brought a smile to his is the fact that the Delhi authorities dislike pedal rickshaws almost as much as he does. TfL has spent years trying - unsuccessfully - to licence "pedicabs" in London. In Delhi they blame them for congestion and want them swept from the streets. Motorised "tuk-tuks" remain hugely popular, though - and are known locally as "Indian helicopters" because they emit a similar noise to a chopper.