Happy New Year

Today we woke up before the sun, a Muslim prayer playing through a loudspeaker soaked through our windows.  We were all excited, however still exhausted from the flight and the 3 and 1/2 hours of sleep we just got.  Breakfast surprisingly arrived at our room at 7:00am sharp, and we ate our eggs, packed our bags, and headed to Tata Institute of Social Sciences to meet Brittany and her team. 

We stepped onto the streets in attempts to jump in an auto rickshaw.  We asked a man if he knew where TISS was and next thing we knew there were eight to ten guys all gathered around talking to each other.  As we learned today the locals seem to flock to us.  After much discussion amongst themselves, they told us it would be Rs.180, which is about $4.00.  Although our knowledge is limited, we thought Rs.180 seemed a little pricey, so we kindly turned them down and took off up the street.  Eventually we found a black and yellow cab that gave us a ride for Rs. 28, or 62 cents. 

We arrived at TISS, met with Brittany for a second breakfast and were introduced to the other Harvard students.  The chai tea was amazing and will be something we all miss when we get back to the states.  After breakfast we went through orientation with the Indian professor who unfortunately had no idea about our documentary.  He was clearly uncomfortable with us being there, and we’ll have to see what develops.  We learned some amazing statistics about Mumbai and decided to go off to the slums with some local Indian students.  We jumped in three different rickshaws.  Bakes, Andy and I were in our own and it was complete chaos as the other two rickshaws took off.  Apparently saying “Follow that rickshaw!” doesn’t work.  We ended up on our own, and lost.

Our rickshaw driver pulled over and clearly had no idea where he was going, and neither did we.  So we got out, paid up, and began walking the streets.  We were all a little uncomfortable at first since we were always the center of attention.  People would point and talk about us everywhere we went.  We stumbled across some guys playing cards on the sidewalk and decided we’d try to make friends.  Next thing we knew they were shaking our hands, touching our feet and our chests, smiling, and saying, “God bless you.”   We then realized that all the looks we’ve been getting are simply based off of curiosity and so far no one means any harm. 

The greatest part of today was the kids.  And I feel like I might be saying that a lot on this trip.  Kids would sometimes be shy at first, however eventually they would flock to us, shaking our hands, laughing, taking photos with us, slapping each other to show off.  Sometimes there were up to 25 kids at a time, and each one yelled “Happy New Year!” as we walked away down the street. 

Our discomfort that was almost smothering yesterday has already faded dramatically.  The kindness and hospitality of the people here is absolutely amazing.  I’m looking forward to what tomorrow brings. 

- Brennan