En Route Munbai to Hyderabad

This is the first thing I wrote en route from Mumbai to Hyderabad. This is also about the time I started to panic about what I was about to do.

The first thing everyone probably wants to know is whether or not I made it to India. To my pleasant surprise I did. After a tedious/chaotic/stressful series of flights I am finally on the ground for good at last.

Now the rest of this email is going to be about reality. What is here. What is not portrayed with pleasantries and flowers, but what is real.

Reality is when you scan the horizon at the airport and see squatter settlements occupying any and every piece of land not occupied by a high rise or road.

Reality is when you either learn the norms of the society or get pushed around and taken advantage of (which happened to me when I first arrived in Mumbai)

Reality is when even at 3:00 am in the morning the airport is packed with thousands of people harmoniously orchestrating themselves in what I thought was chaos.

Reality is when the ratio of men to women is 10 to 1 (at the airport, it is more equal at ICRISAT).

Reality is when I see more employees working at a single airport than I have seen at the last two combined.

Reality is when the employees at the airport are found sprawled out all over the place sleeping. (They were sleeping in the departure areas, they were sleeping outside where the planes dock)

But most of all, reality is when you look at the front of your passport and see the  words “United States of America” and consider yourself the luckiest individual on the face of this planet.

Next time you think of how messed up America is, think again. You and I are incredibly lucky to be in the country that we live in. America represents our world’s best chance at bringing holistic happiness. If you don’t believe me, let me give you a tour of India.

Cabot……going on 24 hours of being awake