Chris Talks About Her India Trip

Hi All-
Now that I’ve been back from India for a while, I’ve had time to reflect on it and want to share just a glimpse into my experience the first few days in India.

I flew into Delhi after two days of travel and no sleep, but it was a truly elating experience nonetheless!
All the obstacles I’d had to overcome to get to that point were still very much in the forefront of my mind. But I was so grateful to finally be there!

Looking out of the airplane window I saw a sea of cars crawling on the highways like little ants in lines. I thought to myself, “I ‘m here! Baba, I am here. You called me and now I’m finally here.”

Pintu met me at the airport. It was so wonderful to finally meet my friend and partner in Baba’s Feed Project in “real life” after nearly 2 years of Zoom calls! He drove me to a restaurant about 1.5 hours away from Delhi called “Mannat” (one of my favourite places to eat on my trip) and we enjoyed a meal together while the sun was setting. It was the first of many beautiful sunsets I was to witness on my trip.

Within 24 hours of touchdown, I was bagging food kits with Pintu and his wife Annu and his children Dimple and Kunal. With the help of Gopal and Satpal, (Pintu’s friends and helpers of BFP) we loaded up the car and off we went to distribute food kits.

The photos I had seen over the past (nearly) 2 years had prepared me a little for my first visit to a slum. There was much excitement as we pulled into the area and word spread quickly that we were there to distribute food kits. What struck me first was the beauty of the people. They may be some of the most impoverished people on earth and yet they had the biggest smiles.

Although many were very shy to begin with, after a little while many people asked to have “selfies” with me (little did I know this would be a constant throughout my trip!)

We handed out all the kits (about 33 kits that trip) and spent some time with the families and children while they enjoyed eating the crackers and fruit immediately. We said goodbye and my heart was full! To finally be able to hand deliver food kits was such a gift and a blessing.

We drove off into the sunset. India has huge big orange sunsets that seem to take over the sky and Pintu and I agreed how happy we felt to have provided food!

Pintu told me that when he first started to distribute food kits for BFP his heart felt very sad for the people he was serving. But as time went on, he realised he was bringing happiness and that made him very happy moving forward!

For the next few days we delivered kits to various areas about an hour’s drive in all directions from Pintu’s home village of Narnaul, Haryana. The families were always so happy and grateful to receive food. Life is very hard for them as they work extremely hard physical jobs for very minimal pay. Often they are migrant workers never able to put down any roots, always on the move. As a consequence, the children can never attend school. Sadly, this pattern continues for generations.

It was then time to embark on the next step of my journey -Vrindavan, to visit the Neem Karoli Baba Mahasamadhi temple.

I would be back to Narnaul after a week of travel to deliver more kits with Pintu and Lauren, who by then had arrived in India.

Stay tuned for the next installment!
Love, Chris