Into India, a rude awakening and a deep sleep

I haven’t posted in a while but I wanted to fill in the gaps of what has happened. So that I remember.

___On September 28 we traveled to India. Our appointment with Dr. Patel in Anand was scheduled for October 5. September 28 was the only date to get us to get us to India on a direct flight to Mumbai. We really wanted the direct flight. So we spent a few days in Mumbai, before traveling to Anand. Well the first two things about arriving in India are the 1)heat and 2) the aroma.
___First, lets talk about the heat. When we arrived in Mumbai at 10 pm on September 29, the temperature was 86/30C. That is a bit warm. Then add in the humidity. We had prearranged with our hotel for an airport pickup, as we waited with our hotel usher, for our driver (about 5 mins), the air became hotter and thicker and stickier. Then, the air picked up a distinct aroma.
___How do I describe this? A conspicuous stench of every foul odor I have ever inhaled. Standing at the outdoor waiting area of the international airport, this odor is assaulting and strange. The international pickup area is VERY clean and neat, even by western standards.* But the smell is there and no obvious cause of it. As soon as, our driver arrives and we head off to our hotel, we understand that the odor is the city. Even with the limited visibility of a five minute, nighttime car ride we begin to understand the smell, and we see the throngs of very, very, poor people everywhere. We start to see that the odor is from all of the people, cows, cars, rickshaws, and every other animal and machine known to man that crowd the streets of Mumbai. It is not just the internal combustion engine and cows that contribute to this smell, with about 200,000 people living without housing, their life is outside, that means street side fires for cooking and no public restrooms in Mumbai.
___45 minutes after we step outside the international terminal, we are in our hotel room. Exhaustion from the 16 hour flight, and the sudden culture shock that is a first arrival in India, take its toll and we quickly call it a night and drop into a jet lagged, semi-comatose sleep.

*This is intentional. Indians take great pride in making sure the first impression of foreigners is a positive one. The international airport pickup area was the last truly neat and clean public area we would see for a very long time.