Earlier this month, Komal and Sunny Shah’s four-year-old daughter, Maahi, surprised them by gifting her mother a necklace, and her father a keychain. The Indian-origin Kenyan nationals now living in London were particularly impressed because she had bought both items after saving her pocket money, something she had never done before. “We found out that she had not only started saving her pocket money, but also analysing whether she really needed whatever she had bought with it so far,” Komal tells mid-day.

The change in their daughter’s behaviour, her parents realise, was a direct effect of a two-year trip across 15 countries, which began with Spain in October 2021 and culminated in Mumbai in June 2023. The Shahs, or the Nomadic Shahs, as they call themselves, withdrew Maahi from formal education and took her with them because they wanted the experience to educate her.

“I dismantled a car and made several changes to its chassis so that it would be more durable for our adventure,” says Sunny. Even though their travels culminated in India, the country influenced their trip before they even got here. “We were the most apprehensive about crossing the Turkish border into Iran. But we mentioned our Indian origins to the Iranian immigration official at the border, who went back excitedly to his superiors saying, ‘Amitabh Bachchan! Amitabh Bachchan!’. The country clearly loves the superstar because we breezed through the border after that,” Sunny chuckles.

After Iran, the Shah went to Pakistan and then came to India through the Atari-Wagah border, which let them witness the Retreat Ceremony from both sides of the border. They also interacted with the locals in both countries, who live with the scars of Partition to this day. “In Kashmir, the locals fed us the Gucchi mushrooms sourced from 2,000 meters above sea level for free, which is usually priced at Rs 30,000 a kilo,” Sunny gushes. For Komal, meanwhile, the best experiences was were the Ganga Aarti in Rishikesh and meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.

“Chanting with the monks at the Tibetan monastery was spiritually awakening and meeting His Holiness was pure bliss. I love their minimalist way of life,” says Komal. Sunny, too, was not left unmoved. “We went to Vaishno Devi just for the sake of it, but it helped me connect to my roots in a way that left even me taken aback,” he says. But perhaps the biggest change, they feel, is in Maahi. 

“Having seen how scarce resources like electricity and water are in the rest of the world, Maahi now uses them more responsibly. She manages her money better. She chooses nature and adventure over her mobile phone. Besides, she is less fussy about food now,” says Komal. She adds that the change started manifesting itself during the trip itself. 

“Her questions got wiser as the trip progressed. As also saw her noticing small things she had never noticed before. For example, if her friends forget their toys at our place, their parents call us up several times till the kids gets their toys back. In rural India, she noted how the children shared everything with her and even offered to let her keep some of their toys,” says Komal.

Despite touring the orange tree-lined Seville in Spain, to the Christian monasteries in Meteora, Greece, the Tabatuski Lane in Georgia and the ruins of Persepolis in Iran, which was the capital of the Persian empire, it was Dharavi in Mumbai that changed Komal’s perceptions of the world. She stopped feeling pity for the under privileged due to the potential she saw in the people there. 

“The west thinks of Dharavi as a dangerous spot with people begging, but I saw hard working people and innovations that would be cherished. People were kind, hospitable and I did not feel unsafe at all,” she says. The Shahs also met a woman from Asia’s biggest slum who managed her house, her toddler and her bag-making business effortlessly.

“When one of her relatives walked in with a crab costing Rs 400 that he had managed to get at R150, the entire house erupted in joy and celebration. There are so many little things in life that we take for granted,” says Komal.

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