I arrived in Bombay/Mumbai on Wednesday on half an engine thanks to almost a complete day of traveling. I transited through Amsterdam because I couldn’t stand the thought of spending 15 hours plus on a plane.

I’m here to speak at a conference called “Responsibility to the Future”. I’ll be on a panel on Friday on the media, extremism and conflict resolution.

A drive called Arun was fortunately waiting for me at the airport, armed with an umbrella for the rains which thankfully so far have been very mild. We had quite a long drive to the hotel and although I know it’s such a cliché for journalists to quote drivers during their blink-and-you’ll-miss-them visits to cities around the world, Arun and I exchanged quite a few gems.

I’d told him I’d arrived from the U.S. but that I was Egyptian but he chose America as my country – e.g. how much do drivers make in my country, does my country have roads like the highway which starts shortly after the airport, etc.

“Do you know Ganesha?” Arun asked.

“Yes. He’s an Indian god, right?”

“Yes!” Arun said. “What is the American god called?”

Good question!

I was too exhausted for irony so I gave it to him straight – there are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Seikhs, Buddhists in America, all worshiping their own god. And then I told him I was a Muslim and asked him how relations were between Hindus and Muslims.

“Like brother and brother,” he said. “How are relations in your country?”

“Sometimes like brother and brother,” I replied. “Sometimes difficult.”

“Yes!” Arun said. “The same here.”

At my hotel, exhaustion be damned, I stayed up to watch the Turkey-Germany match, half of which was untransmitted because lightening ruined reception from Basel. What an emotionally fraught encounter!

I also called my niece in Ohio to wish her a happy 5th birthday. My microphone was misbehaving so the sweet little thing couldn’t hear everything I asked her but she got the card I sent. I’m really upset I’m missing her party this weekend. It reminds just how far away I really am – 10 and a half time zones.

The conference officially began with a ceremony at Mumbai University this afternoon at which the president of India – the first woman president – spoke.

I had a fascinating discussion on the Middle East with a former Pakistani ambassador to Syria and Morocco among other places. He told me when in Damascus he would often get the kind of access to Assad the father that was envied by Arab diplomats. Why? Because Pakistani pilots flew alongside their Syrian counterparts during the 1973 war against Israel. Why? Because Assad the father had asked Bhutto the father to train the Syrian air force. The Pakistani air force was training their Syrian counterparts when the war broke out and they volunteered to fly missions with them out of religious solidarity. And hence was Pakistan’s reputation as a favourable nation sealed.

More soon. I’ll be in India till July 6 – between now and then I hope to visit Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.