Blog

It is the morning of our fifth day in India yet it seems like we have been here much longer than that. We are now driving from Delhi to Dharamsala, a twelve-hour drive up into the foothills of the Himalayas where we will be spending the next five days. As I write, the sounds of honking cars, buses, auto rickshaws and motorcycles fill the air as they fight for space on the crowded roads. At first all this motion seems quite chaotic, but then you start to see the hidden rhythm of it and it begins to make sense. The sheer number of people everywhere is eye opening, everything and everywhere is filled to the brim with men, women and children selling wares, traveling to work, eating the wonderful smelling street food and of course, talking on mobile phones.

Most of our arrangements have worked out so far and we have interviewed four out of five of our planned interviews. Our first day in Delhi we met with Nirmala Deshpande at the Gandhi Ashram, who by some very strange twist of fate was meeting with a group of students from Mount Madonna School (the high school I attended in California) when we arrived. It was very strange running into an old teacher of mine in Delhi -- what are the odds?

Nirmala Deshpande is a strong and lovely woman who has been a prominent Gandhian and peace activist for more than fifty years. Now in her seventies she is full of energy and hope. She spoke to us about how Gandhian values are needed in the world now more than ever. Her strong yet gentle voice was quite an inspiration to us as she described how simple it is to live and treat others from a place of peace and understanding.