The original plan for the team for this trip was to arrive on Saturday morning and leave for the airport on Thursday night after work. I extended my trip an extra 2 days to leave Saturday night so I could explore on my own. In order to do that, I had to get manager approval which was an easy sell because my flight was $1000 cheaper than the rest of the team. Due to the outdoor heat, challenges getting local transportation, and difficulties eating food that didn’t set my mouth on fire, Joanna suggested on Wednesday that I ask the airline if I could leave to Amsterdam and spend my extra days there since that’s where my layover is it would be easy to coordinate, the weather was more hospitable at 70f, and I could try out food that probably wouldn’t make an appearance on Hot Ones. I thought it was a fantastic idea to add another stamp on my passport and new city to explore. I basically spent the entire day coordinating with the airline to give up my business class seat and switch to an economy seat so that I could depart earlier than scheduled. Before I could make the final decision, the price of the flight doubled where I couldn’t use the original value of my seat to cover the trip and would have to pay an extra $900 to cover. I was a bit bummed but with all things considered, I think I would have been more exhausted going into the new work week as I would have wanted to run around Amsterdam to take in the city as much as possible with my limited time there. With it being as hot as the surface of the sun in Mumbai, I’d be forced to stay in and relax during the day.

The last day of work on Thursday was really fun, the entire team got together to review accomplishments from the last quarter, celebrate anniversaries/birthdays, and do some team building games. Everyone got together in groups of 8 and one person had to be selected to be the “model”. The teams were given newspaper, tape, and colored paper and were told that they had to make an outfit out of those materials in 15 minutes. The model would then have to walk down the runway and then judged on poses and outfit creativity. I think you can guess who got chosen as the model?

This week coming to the Mumbai office was really great. We were able to accomplish what we planned to get done, but more importantly, we built really strong personal connections with people we’ve only met online. I love working remotely, however I thought this was a really important trip to meet in person because I don’t think that we would have worked together as well had we tried to do this online only.

As I had an extra 2 days in Mumbai, I had to figure out what to do with my time here for Friday and Saturday. Ketan listed out a few places but my ears perked up at his suggestion of going to Sanjay Gandhi National Park which is a 38 sq mile nature reserve established by the government in the 1960’s. I was worried on how I’d be able to get there and back but the hotel offered a car service for $48 and 4 hours where the driver would take me in the morning, wait for me to be done, and bring me back.

I scheduled the pick up with enough time to arrive when the park opened. Once we got there, I expected the driver to just drop me off and wait in the parking lot but he insisted on coming with me to help me with navigating the entrance fee. I saw on the sign listing out park fees that they charge $3.65 for a photography fee for visitors with a camera. I pointed it out to him and he waived it off saying it’s fake.

I said goodbye to my driver Moray, but he insisted on going in with me a bit further. I thought maybe he’s been here before and wanted to be my guide? He lead me to a group of guys standing around and asked if any of them spoke English. One guy came forward and introduced himself as Ravaba and that I could hire him for his services. At first I thought I was getting scammed but it’s a huge park and a 4 mile walk to get to the caves I read about so I went along. The charge was $48 for a 2 hour tour and he would drive me in the park as well. I said sure and off we went. My driver came along too and hung out with Ravaba’s driver which was a relief to me because I felt bad he would have to sit in the parking lot by himself while he waited for me but now he had a buddy to chill with.

We drove for about 5 minutes and Ravaba started telling me about the park. There are 5000 people split among 11 tribes that live here. The park closes at 6pm in the evening every day because there are 48 wild leopards that live there as well. The leopards eat dogs, goats, and white people so I have nothing to be worried about.

We stopped in front of a few small tin roofed shacks and he asked me “Would you like to come see my house and meet my wife?” I didn’t want to be rude so I said sure. Out of respect to him and his family, I didn’t take any photos but it was a one room house with a metal roof which reminded me of homes that we built in Guatemala during my mission trips in college. He asked if I liked his house I said “Yes, did you make this yourself?” which he proudly replied “Yes the walls are made of mud and cow shit. It stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter.”

He brought me into the kitchen and introduced his wife who was awkwardly looking at me, a random stranger, her husband brought home. Honestly this reminded me of the beginning of Borat where in the sense that he was very happy and proud to show off his home.

We got back into the car and drove to the Kanheri Caves which were built by Buddhist monks over 1000 years starting between 1-100 ad. Along the way, he pointed out several houses that had intricate paintings on the outside. He explained that the paintings showed which caste and tribe the family belonged to.

There were signs around the park welcoming people from the recent G20 summit that occurred. I asked Ravaba about it and he said that the government forced everyone to quarantine in their homes for 3 days. The government did not compensate the locals for their inability to work. His main source of income is giving these tours which have been few and far between since the pandemic started. At one point he had no choice but to drive a rickshaw to put food on the table.

This tour was extremely fascinating, he told me that the Buddhist population was very small at the time and were persecuted and killed by the Hindus so they went into the forest to avoid further violence. It took several hundred years to carve the caves out by hand and then several hundred more to create the intricate sculptures, designs, and writings into the walls. There are a total of 109 caves that were created of various sizes and purposes. During the monsoon season, rain would travel down channels that were created in the rock and fill very deep hand carved basins to store during the dry months.

I asked Ravaba about the tourists that employ him as a guide, which countries do they typically come from. He said they are mostly Buddhists from South East Asia. This place is famous within the religion and many come here to visit and pray.

He had me stand in between two large statues of Buddha and asked me if I could spot the difference. I couldn’t so he told me the story of the Buddha who was once known as Siddhartha.

His father was a great king who was told that his son would either become a religious leader or a king. Afraid that his son would give up his titles to solve people’s sufferings, he told the people to pretend to be happy when his son visits. So the son came through town, everyone was cheering him, but then he snuck back into town a day later and saw a family carrying a dead body and a woman that was very sick in the street. He went back to his father and asked him why he lied to him that everyone was happy. Then he went away and meditated for 7 years and became enlightened.

One statue depicts him from the story where in one he’s smiling and the other sad.

Ravaba said that he comes up here every day to mediate and pray. In fact, many of these caves are still used for festivals as recently as last week during the full moon. The large room here has a stupa (a Buddhist Pagoda) with holes cut out in the middle and around to hold candles and flowers.

We continued to climb up the mountain using steps that were cut into the rock. I turned around and was able to see some of the Mumbai skyline. At this point I was dripping with sweat and drank one of the three water bottles I brought. He suggested we take a break in one of the caves as it was about 95f but with humidity it felt more like 105f.

This cave we were sitting in was used as a classroom and dining hall. Really amazing to see the seats carved into the stone like this. He asked me how much Hindi I knew, to which I replied none at all. So he gave me a few short phrases to remember.

I know I botched the spelling really bad on this but I wrote it phonetically to the best of my ability:

Gaisay ho- how are you?
Ah cha hey – I’m good
Dan ne wat – thank you
Water – panni
Panni doh- give me water
Kit thea ni ka hey – how much?
Kum ka ro -make it cheaper
Ba hot Garum hey – it’s very hot

I pointed out to him that we are still using this cave as a classroom with his short Hindi lesson with me. As we continued walking and passed security guards he would make me practice asking “how are you?”

We got to cave number 90 where Ravaba asked me to take my shoes off and invited me to sit on the floor to meditate with him. When he started chanting, his voice was echoing throughout the room in a way that made it feel huge with my eyes closed. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a spiritual experience like this before. His strong voice enveloped the entire room, which caused my mind to be clear and focused on my breathing. I could feel each drop of sweat drip down and fall off my chin. It was probably only a minute long but it felt much longer than that.

When he was done, he asked if I wanted him to do it again but film it this time to share.

I showed this video to my friend Sandy who was able to find the mantra that he was chanting:

Buddham saranam gacchami
I go to the Buddha for refuge.

Dhammam saranam gacchami
I go to the Dhamma for refuge

Sangham saranam gacchami
I go to the Sangha for refuge.

In this moment Ravaba also shared with me the 5 rules or code of ethics for Buddists:

Refrain from taking life. Not killing any living being.
Refrain from taking what is not given. Not stealing from anyone.
Refrain from the misuse of the senses. Not having too much sensual pleasure.
Refrain from saying bad things or lying.
Refrain from putting things in your body that that cloud the mind.

We headed back down to the car and along the way, I noticed monkeys following me. He would turn and chase them, they would run a short distance then turn around and hiss at him. He laughed and said they know him since he’s there every day. I asked why they were following us. He said they typically don’t but I have a banana in my side pocket which they want (duh).

There was also a really cute snake I got a picture of. I was instructed to keep my distance because it’s a very venomous viper. BUT IT’S SO CUTE!

We got back to the car and they took me to a Jain temple. I’ve heard of this term before but didn’t know much about it. I guess this is a shrinking religion in India with fewer than 5 million followers who live a very strict vegetarian lifestyle where they don’t eat things that grow below ground for fear of killing bugs when removing food from the soil. I noticed that all the statues were naked men. He explained that the spiritual leaders don’t wear clothes as nakedness is seen as lack of body consciousness or identifying with the divine spirit.

At the end of the tour I started stressing out that I wanted to pay him more than his asking rate as it was an amazing experience and I felt the push to help him considering he was unable to work during the G20 summit.  I wasn’t able to get google pay to work but thankfully there was an atm right outside of the nature reserve where I was able to take out cash. I handed him the money, he smiled and said he doesn’t need to count it and knows I gave him more. While walking back to the car he invited me to stay with him the next time I returned to Mumbai and that I should also bring my family as well.

Not only was today a great historical experience but it was also a great reminder of all the blessings I have in my own life and that others live their lives with such generosity and happiness when they have so little.

I offered to take a photo of Ravaba and send it to him via whatsapp as a thank you.

I said my goodbyes and texted him the photo. He responded back
[12:11 PM, 5/12/2023] Ravaba Sardar: Thank you for giving more mani

I worked really hard the last 2 days trying to get out of Mumbai early and to Amsterdam but nothing that I planned had worked out the way I wanted. Now looking back I think it was probably God’s plan for me to meet Ravaba and have this experience that I could share with you.

Also (probably more importantly) on the way back to the hotel, my driver Moray stopped at Subway for me to get lunch. Finally got a meal that wasn’t spicy, it was delicious. PTL!

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