Because life is not only what you see but also what sees you (Captain Peng)

The last three weeks before the start of the trip to India were somehow full of goodbyes: to the job that will be different from April on, to great colleagues who didn't make it easy for me; to dear people in Hamburg, Berlin, and Eichsfeld. After looking forward to the next three months almost every day in the past year and a half, I was surprised by how much melancholy suddenly hung in the air. I don't see many of the dear people more frequently than once every quarter, if at all, but we all agreed that this time it's somehow different.

Anyway, I thought about keeping you updated here. Let's see if and how regularly I can provide you with information and pictures.

At the moment it's 06:47 am in India, 02:17 am in Germany; I am sitting on my sleeper in the night train, waiting for it to get light outside so that I can finally see some of the landscape. After spending the first three days of the trip in Mumbai, we are now on our way to Goa.

I was extremely worried about Mumbai - such huge cities often overwhelm me and I had read some things in travel guides and blogs beforehand that didn't necessarily reduce my concerns. But it's always good to form your own impression and I can now say that I was positively surprised. Everything worked great at the airport, even the luggage arrived with us - I have experienced it differently before. Since the arrival time at 0:45 am was a bit inconvenient and Smit, our Air BnB host, could only let us into the apartment at 10:30 am, we simply passed the time at the airport with chai, samosas, and reading. At some point, we took a prepaid taxi to the Bandra West district, a northwestern, rather affluent district. It took us a while to find the right street and the house with Smit's apartment, since street names are somehow not well-known and the driver didn't know any of the places nearby that I could name; but it worked out well with the help of friendly people on the street and a picture of the house on my phone. When we arrived, Smit opened the door for us with a massive hangover and we all quickly agreed that it's a good idea to get some sleep first. Before that, he briefly shouted something from his balcony onto the street, whereupon five minutes later a man with a tray and three cups of chai tea stood in front of the door - genius.

So we chilled for the rest of the day and then explored the area a bit on foot and ate Masala Dosa (a type of crepe made from rice dough filled with a very tasty spicy potato mass).

For the first proper day in Mumbai and the last day of the year 2017, I had reserved a guided tour through the Dharavi slum - the 2nd largest slum in Asia. You can discuss whether it's okay to walk through a slum with tourist groups. The tour operator "Reality Tours and Travel" has received several awards for socially responsible tourism and seems to be aware of its responsibility. 80% of the profits flow back into the slum, there are educational and sports programs, as well as health programs. In addition, there are rules for participating tourists, including appropriate clothing and a ban on taking photos after entering Dharavi.

The tour was absolutely interesting and impressive; Dharavi is a special slum because it consists of two parts: the "Commercial Part" with shops, restaurants, hair salons, and above all a huge recycling industry - in Dharavi, 665 million dollars are generated annually. The life expectancy of the workers here is not very high, they live to an average of 55 years, as our guide Janna explained. It smells like paint and chemicals everywhere, nobody wears a mouthguard, and breathing was sometimes very difficult for me. The men work there every day and make tiny particles out of all kinds of plastic objects, which are then sold for further processing, for example to the textile industry. In addition, there are several schools, mosques, churches, and Hindu temples.

The other part of Dharavi is the "Residential Part" where people live. To my surprise, it's not only very poor people, but also many from the middle class, as Janna reports. They live in Dharavi for several generations and appreciate the sense of community that prevails here. A short walk through the unimaginably narrow and dark alleys allows a glimpse into the living conditions. Whole families live in a room of about 10 square meters, which serves as a bedroom, living room, and kitchen at the same time. One big problem in Dharavi is the sanitation situation; there are nowhere near enough toilets for the 1 million residents of the slum. The future of Dharavi is uncertain, the slum is located in the middle of the city and is therefore a gold mine for real estate investors.

Oh yes, it was also New Year's Eve: Our host Smit, who also runs a guesthouse and several other businesses to finance his travels, had already invited us to his New Year's Eve party upon arrival. That was a stark contrast to the morning program, but it was also totally worth it. Mumbai is said to have the best parties in India and this was certainly one of them. Meeting so many different and nice people on the second evening after arrival was pretty awesome and a bit crazy. Especially the nighttime drive in the car (to the "after party") with a driver who obviously sat behind the wheel for the first time but was the only sober person around, and with two extremely fresh couples - one on the front seat, one on the back seat, where the four of us were sitting. It was dark and there had been quite a lot of alcohol before, so the lady next to me probably didn't notice that she kept stroking my arm instead of her boyfriend's - maybe she didn't care though. :-) Since the "after party" ended about 15 minutes after our arrival due to the previously sleeping apartment owner, we wandered through the streets of Bandra West with a group of other travelers and Smit's friends at 5 am and came across some young Indians with a guitar in the courtyard of a church, who welcomed the new year with songs by Oasis and the Beatles. That was also kind of crazy and it gave me a feeling of "the world is somehow small".

Definitely one of the New Year's Eve nights that I probably won't forget.

I was really grateful to Smit when he said at home, at 6:30 am on January 1st, that he won't have new guests and we can just sleep through the day before getting on the train at 11 pm. That worked out perfectly as well and I was prepared for a lot - from trains with a 7-hour delay to platform changes that aren't announced, so you miss the train, I had heard it all. But nothing like that happened. We were very early at the huge and truly impressive Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus), which the English built in 1888. I could have watched the people in the waiting halls and on the platforms for hours, it was a huge bustling crowd and yet I perceived it as much less stressful than, for example, Hamburg Central Station. I think the magic word is once again serenity.

By now, we have arrived in Agonda Beach (Goa) and you really have to try hard not to be relaxed here. ;-) Until January 9th, there will be sun, beach, palm trees, and the sea every day. The sea here is really fantastic, I haven't seen anything like it in Southeast Asia - there are even proper waves here! We are excited that we can spend this time here together with our friends Ulrike, Udo, and their son Iven.

Now I will devote myself to my book 'The God of Small Things' again - there are so many wisdoms in the first 100 pages. Thank you very much for that. ;-)

Best regards and see you soon.