Flight into India

We’re now beyond Greece, beyond Egypt and flying over the expansive and barren mountains of Turkey.  In a short while we’ll be flying over Iran and heading toward Afghanistan.  It’s getting dark outside, so I won’t be seeing much anymore.  One thing about travelling is that it improves my sense of geography.  The cabin’s monitor that continuously tracks our jet’s progress is a passive lesson in geography and I need one.

I am seriously jet-lagged and could count the number of hours I’ve slept in the past three nights on two hands.  It’s actually surprising to me that I’m still coherent.  Maybe it will pay off when we get to Mumbai at 11:50 p.m. tonight, which translates to 1:10 p.m. EST.   I’m hoping I’ll be able to crash for a long time and get a head start on my jet- lag recovery.  We’re also taking a homeopathic remedy for jet lag that I hope will help.  It seems that some people can sleep anywhere, as if on cue.  Not me.  The low but ever present roar of the engines stokes my energy just enough to keep me awake.  I look over to see Sam sleeping peacefully and feel a twinge of what?  Envy.  I wish I could do that.

Standing in the Amsterdam check-in line a few hours ago, we were talking with a youngish guy who often travels to India on business.   Last night the woman sitting in front of us said she makes multiple trips to India each year to stay at an ashram where, Amma, a vortex healer known as the “Hugging Mother” often stays.  She said that Amma has healed people with serious health issues and that ABC news did a story on her, documenting how she had healed a man with leprosy.  She offered to share some of the healing waters from Amma’s ashram with me.    I hope I can connect with her again before we depart from the airport in Mumbai.

Both of these people stressed what I have already read.  When one visits India one must adjust one’s expectations.  India does not possess the same near obsession with hygiene that we have in the US.  While we impregnate children’s toys with antibacterial agents, India uses holes in the floor in many places in lieu of toilets and hot running water is not a given.  Reviews I have read in Trip Advisor about some hotels complain of patrons being bitten by bedbugs, contracting head lice and evading large and plentiful cockroaches.  While I won’t say bring it on, I do hope to be able to take this all in stride.  It may take a few days at least.