Goodbye Mumbai

Tomorrow is our last day in Mumbai. We leave at 12:00 p.m. for a month of yoga instruction in Kerala. Today was a wonderful day. We took our last trek through the city, stopped by the Jain temple to get our saffron and sandlewood forehead dot, had Thai massages, ate amazing exotic food (which we didn't really recognize)and shopped for Sarees. Hollie had a private healing session with one of Shailaja's friends and yoga instructors. The poverty in India is sometimes hard to comprehend. When I was a child, I remember reading advertisements from non-profit charities, which claimed to help poor children in Africa, India, Haiti, etc. I always wondered how the photographers could walk past these beautiful children without giving them something right away. From the photos, it really looked as though the children were simply photographed and then left alone. From my experience in these countries, this was and is usually the case. Resources and attitudes are simply different here than in the U.S. Because of the sheer number of people in need, slum lords and a systemic corruption, it is difficult to get resources to these children. If one gives money to a child begger, it is immediately taken away. I need to ask more questions and find out more about this situation. Shailaja told me an interesting story about a different class of beggers, the eunuchs. Eunuchs look like men (of sorts, they were actually born transgendered before a doctor made the decision to castrate the man/woman)but, dress in (quite pretty) sarees. They are incredibly agressive beggers who are known for demanding huge sums of money from passerbys. They also find out the dates of weddings, funerals and other special events, go to the homes of the affected family and demand even larger sums. When Shailaja's oldest son was married, the eunuchs showed up at her door twice. Once when she was alone at night and another, just as the family was leaving for the ceremony. She said that it was a frightening experience. She and her family had to pay around 70,000 rupies (roughly $1,200 USD). They just stuck their foot in the front door and sat ontop of the cars until the family paid the sum.