With Jigar and Maulik...

It was definitely a welcome sight seeing Jigs and Maulik. =P We picked them up from the Mumbai airport early Monday morning, and have been wandering around Mumbai with them over the last couple days.

The highlight of my time with them was actually when they were showing us pictures of their three weeks in Karaikal doing Tsunamai Relief work with an NGO down there. They were there for 3 weeks... listening to them narrate their experiences as we went through all the pictures was really inspiring. In 3 weeks, usually, one can't really do that much "constructive" work. But, what one can do is show children and those less fortunate that they care, and they can make a connection with them. Lot of these children, disable people, and those that are less fortunate have never really been shown love and care. Jigs and Maulik definitely treasured this part of their experience the most. I think Sampat and I have came to a relatively secure conclusion of taking up short-term (approx. 1 week long) service projects as we travel. More on this in future bloggings.

For more on our Mumbai excursions...you can check out Sampat's blog and I am going to just cut-n-paste a section of Jigar's writings:
"We arrived in Mumbai quickly in a propellor plane. Everyone is alwaysin a hurry here - the plane had yet to stop and people were alreadylined at the door ready to take the stairs down adn into the large busto the main baggage claim. Raj and Sam picked us up - really oddseeing LA folk in a completely new environment. Describing Mumbai(Bombay) is very difficult. It is a city of massive contradictions andparadox. At any given moment you will see a paralyzed begger pushinghimselves on a a wheeled cart to get money from a series of Mercedes.At other moments you see the proximity of the Mahalakshmi temple andthe Hajj Ali Mosque. There are series of small shops on the way toboth, offering similar, yet slightly different garlands, similar butslightly different "chadars" (cloth) - the articles of faith almostseem to be confusing. Me, Raj, and Sam put on handkerchiefs on ourheads and walked the bricked walkway through the ocean to the mosqueand were surprsied to see the variety of Muslims and teh presence ofseveral Hindus at the mosque. The Mumbai Central station is a stunningexample of the city. Beggers are of all religion and age, somedisabled while some charred and burned with no appendages. One forexample on the way to dropping Sally at teh train station was in themiddle of teh walkway, charred and no limbs, with nothign except acloth on his body adn his eyes closed. At first glance it would seemthe person is dead, but any clinging of change on the cloth will issuea slight nod. Many can be seen in the train stations - whether smallkids singing or elderly blind men blaring their voices left to rightto get a penny. It's very surprising they do this because thetrainstation is PACKED. For instance, one time this guy tried to rushin as traffic was jumping out and he spun around after a guy hit himand said "Eh, jaane do yaar". He looked at him stupified, it waspretty hilarious. Durign traffic time it puts teh 405 to shame. Pushcomes to shove often and several shoves hit my toe - I was prettypissed. Besides that, Mumbai is a spectacle and a rush. Everything isconstantly moving and everything is flooded - people, not necessarilywater. Cows sometimes sit in the middle of the street not giving acare. I walked into a pile of shit near another Mumbai gutter andalmost fell near the Gateway to India."