Global connections <3

My stepbrother William came to India back in May to hike the Himalayas. He made a ton of good friends while he was here, including a guy named Pope who happens to live in Mumbai. When Willie heard I was coming to Mumbai, he told me I must reach out to his friend. Pope is a restaurant manager and William assured me he is hugely into the food scene and can tell me all the good spots to eat. I reached out to Pope and he said, “I will take you to lunch. I will pick you up at 1pm.” He asked me what kind of food I was interested in and naturally, since I am in India, I told him I was in the mood for some really good, authentic, spicy Indian. He picks me up and takes me to his grandfather’s restaurant, which is high end Indian cuisine. The restaurant is usually only open for dinners, but they opened it up specifically for us for lunch, so we were the only ones in the entire place. They executive chef brought us out 3 different amazing dishes of food & desert. We had Biryani (which is a very popular rice dish in India), chicken kababs (he said this restaurant is known for their kabobs) and a delicious version of chicken tandoori (it was nice to eat meat since the Yoga Institute is vegetarian only). Everything was AMAZING. And when we were finished, we just walked out – didn’t have to pay a dime! After lunch, Pope just dropped me off, right back at the Institute. He told me to call him if I want to go out again or if he can do anything for me while I am here….. What an EXPERIENCE this was! And a huge eye opener. THIS is how welcoming, generous, warm-hearted, kind and overly-accommodating people in India are. And they expect absolutely nothing in return – they do this all out of the goodness of their hearts. They genuinely love making people feel at home. And they love their guests, especially foreigners. One man I was speaking to told me… “A family here in India could be impoverished and have barely anything to eat for themselves, but if a guest comes over, they will take any and all the food that they have in their house to make an elaborate meal.” A lesson for us all. Not only do they shower their guests with food and presents, but they give the most important gift of all, the gift of time!