This chalkboard hangs in my apartment's kitchen, and when karass-sister Kayan drew a map of India on it, telling me to add the cities I wanted to visit, suddenly the trip I'd wanted to take for years became real. Everything crystalized in that moment, and then there was no escaping it: I was headed to India. Soon. It happened like the chalk shows: I started in Mumbai, and then arced north and eastward across the country until I got to Kolkata. Then a flight back to Mumbai, and then, home. Total time in-country: 25 days.