There is only one crow cawing with the volume of a sharp car horn outside my window. Every couple minutes, I hear couple of melodic beeps and the hum of motorcycles, cabs and busses bouncing along the gravel. An electronic tune echoes from the elevator next to my hotel room about twice an hour. This is Mumbai, “the city that never sleeps” of incredible India. And this is the quietest I’ve heard it in the last nine hours.

http://katiecarver.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/mumbai-by-moonlight/

My journey here would have been as smooth as a mango lassi if my body did not require sleep or movement. It involved a five hour flight from SFO between two engineers on their way to the Super Bowl, a one-hour layover in New Jersey, and a 14 ½ hour flight over the Atlantic, Europe and a portion of Asia next to two kind Indian women. I was then sped into this suburb in a little grey car by a man who introduced himself saying, “My name is easy. I’m Anthony.” During our journey through places in which “Slumdog Millionaire” was filmed, he explained that Mumbai is second most expensive place to live in the world (after London). I saw a few of the 20 million residents, none of whom were more than brazed by our car weaving between them.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been called either (a.) crazy or (b.) a “Brave Heart” for daring to travel alone through this country. My heart is still naïve enough to love exploring new places. I’ve had too many colorful, exciting journeys outside the US to think of travel in any other way.

I am here with three goals in mind: to better understand the way of life in Mumbai and Kolkata, to see how patients and volunteers operate within the Mother Teresa Houses, and to share ideas with researchers and clinicians around the world at the first annual International Children’s Palliative Care Network. I brought 15 lbs of clothes, 5 lbs of books and 5 lbs of protein bars to help me test the preconceived ideas of my Californian mind.