Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I had spent too many hours on Kindness One. My legs were numb. My jacket was
drenched from the vestiges of a monsoon rainstorm. My head hurt. And there I was, freshly
arrived in Calcutta, and people were already running me off the road.
After I stopped swearing and the small crowd that had gathered to watch me began to
disperse, I remembered why I had come to Calcutta in the first place. If you might remem-
ber, I had a bit of a moment in Kosovo with a statue of Mother Teresa and had decided that
I would make it to the city she had adopted as her home. I would go to the charity that she
founded, and I would hopefully get out of these wet clothes.
I started up Kindness One and tried to maintain my calm as I worked my way across
town to meet Mother Teresa. And that's exactly what I did. Or rather, I was able to visit
her tomb. Walking around the mission she founded, I felt again that warmth I had met in
Bhutan. I stood in the room where she had made so many changes in this world of ours,
where she had experienced a vision of peace that few others had ever seen.
As I was walking out of the house, I stopped to read a letter Mother Theresa had written.
In it, she said, “It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” I stepped
back, feeling the weight of her words press down on me.
When I went back out on the crowded street, I was ready again to take on India. I de-
cided to go for a walk and try to find something to nibble on. What I found instead was a
man who operated an orphanage for children. Barik was turning a corner when he literally
ran into me.
He wobbled his head and apologized, “So sorry, sir.”
“Oh no,” I responded. “That was my fault. I'm just a bit lost.”
Barik stopped and asked, “How so?”
Well, my friend, let me tell you. It didn't take long for Barik's story to trump my own.
He ran an orphanage for children whose parents had either died or abandoned them to the
vagaries of life on the streets of India.
“So many children,” he shrugged. “We try to help, you see.”
I decided that I
would
see, and followed him back to the orphanage, where I was quickly
greeted by dozens of smiling faces. I couldn't believe how many children there were. They
all circled me, laughing and pointing, giggling and hiding as Barik introduced me to the
few brave enough to meet this new stranger.
Barik was probably in his early thirties, but there was a light in his eyes that echoed the
joy of the children around him. We started playing cricket in the yard, where Barik joined
in, right alongside the kids.
