Day 1- Mumbai - Waterstones Hotel

Don't drink the water. Don't buy from street food vendors. Take malaria pills. Bring plenty of hand sanitizer. Apply mosquito repellent. Wear clothes that cover your "lady parts."

Heed the advice above or live dangerously...

You know you're going somewhere life changing when everyone emphatically shares how they survived (or how they didn't quite survive) this journey you're about to take. 

I'm sitting in our first of many hotel accommodations along the path of this pilgrimage of India with Arun Gandhi. For over a decade, many have experienced this same route with Arun as their guide--but for us, it will be our own.

There are two competing story lines here: One is that this tour of India is for my grad program. After my professor's many research trips to India, she was compelled to make this a two-week field study course. Upon completion of this tour, I'll have earned two more credits towards my masters degree. But moreso, this trip offers me a perspective of how others are changing a country that in so many ways has been left in ruin. I'm not just along for the ride here. I'm studying the ways in which Gandhi had envisioned his principles, how his legacy is to be carried forth, and I'm hoping to apply it back in the states to our own educational system.

The other story line is really not my own but equally important.  My travel companion (a.k.a. my husband Mat) is shooting a documentary of this journey -- and with that means we will not only be dealing with the immersive feeling of being somewhere new and learning what we can, but also confronting the task of recording this journey in a meaningful way. 

In addition, it meant that we had to plan and pack an extraordinary amount of gear: gaffer tape, camera housings, 2 tripods, 3 cameras, and enough batteries and chargers to keep him powered for days. Our itinerary required all of this to be stuffed into our two carry-on bags and backpacks. I don't know how we ever made it through security.

Even the journey to get here for the Gandhi Legacy tour was not simple. It began by renting a car Wednesday morning and driving four hours to Miami.  From there we took two flights, about eight hours a piece; the first leg of the trip to Zurich, Switzerland was followed by the second from Switzerland to Mumbai.

Entry into this country was rather painless. We swung our loaded backpacks over our shoulders, and rolled our suitcases into the airport (a rather long way to customs).  A customs agent fingerprinted each of us, and our bags were haphazardly scanned by a security agent.  As we walked out of the airport, a crowd of people with signs waited. Amongst them we found the appointed travel company and headed the short distance to our hotel.

It didn't take long for me to notice the complete desolation of India, even in the darkness. Stray dogs walking through the airport parking lot, street vendors next to their carnivalesque pop-up shops, people everywhere. We were escorted through the iron security gates of the Waterstones Hotel, guided through a metal detector, and headed to check in. 

The view of Mumbai from our hotel window.