This was a visit to remember, to be sure.

Nutan (God’s Elder Sister, and Ravi’s little one – hmmm. What does that say about Ravi?) descended upon us three days ago with four of her dearest friends. With her in order above are: Cyndi, Korki, Masha and Suzanne.

She promptly got sick and so I had the pleasure of escorting them around Dehradun while she reclined on her bed of affliction. I took two days off from work and had an absolute ball – mostly the fun was in watching them engage with India.

It was not, however, just the typical experience with foreigners of watching them deal with crowds and traffic and monkeys and cows, though that was certainly part of it.

It was also the experience of being with a group of women who were all activists in their own country, women who had spent years working for public education in their communities and who brought their passion and knowledge along with them here.

I took them on the full-scale tour of the Foundation and watched as they buzzed with ideas for fund-raising, training opportunities in the US and networking possibilities with like-minded people in the rehab community there.

This is how so many things start: a group of women come together and decide to do something for society. It’s how we got public libraries in the US, how most special schools started in this country, and how the Red Cross was established. Think of Florence Nightingale,Rose Hawthorne, Dorothy Day – all my heroes!