Welcome to India

I have now been in India for two weeks, one in Mumbai where I got to experience spending time with the Jewish community. Being able to spend a Shabbat with the community is Mumbai and travel to the village where the old Jewish community is was an amazing adventure for me. I loved seeing the old temple and spending time with the community in Mumbai.

One of my favorite parts was being welcomed to Shabbat dinner and lunch of one of the community members in Mumbai and being able to see how they do services and enjoying a delicious Shabbat meal with them.  After our week in Mumbai we took an overnight train to the city we live in, Hyderabad.

The two weeks I have been here have been an experience I would describe as the Olympics for the senses. The aroma of delicious home cooked Indian food with dashes of all the right spices added to the mixed of the smell of pollution and urine permeating the streets, I dare not ask what splashed up on the back of my leg.

The tastes are incredible; I have yet to find a dish that I did not have the desire to eat more than the capacity of my stomach and the sting that accompanies each meal on my tongue. The colors are amazing everywhere is brightly colored cloths that shimmer from a mile away. The loud sounds of honking horns and rick-shaws chugging down the street coupled by the exhilaration of negotiating over what in the end ends up being over 20 cents with each new driver; sometimes I win and sometimes they win, the key to the game is time.