Kindness always comes back to you. People you piss on will eventually get you back (even if they don’t mean to). And you’ll find yourself connected to people in so many weird ways.

The world is small. Figuratively speaking, of course. Physically, it’s huge. Try walking to China.

I spend a couple of weeks in Dharamsala (India) every year. Because it’s a small tourist town, I know several people who live there, but I also run into a new set of tourists and travelers every time I visit.

Two years ago, I met Jon. He was an aspiring photographer, I was writing a piece for Elle. I asked him to do the photography, and he later came to visit me in Delhi. I’ve mentioned before that he came to pick me up at SFO and helped me settle in to my new life here in Berkeley.

This year, I met several more people. A Canadian who I spent a lot of time with introduced me to his friends from the Bay Area, who in turn introduced me to people who helped me look at housing options and gave me an idea of what to expect.

Several of my American friends, knowing the nervousness I felt about moving to America, have sent me detailed information about taxes, expenses, transportation, and food. Some have already planned trips to come over and see me, others have offered to take time off and show me around should I choose to go visit them in their home cities. One offered to send me plane tickets (I do have the most awesome friends, no kidding).

But the thing that threw me most was a connection I have with one of the Visiting Scholars from France. This year, while I was in Dharamsala, I met a group of four travelers who’d also come across each other while traveling through India. I would run into them a couple of times each day, and they’d always welcome my unique journalistic Indian view (also commonly known as “cynicism”). When the owner of their favorite Japanese restaurant refused to be interviewed for my article, they stopped eating there: “How dare he? Doesn’t he know who you are!?”

Anyway, turns out, one of the members of group, who was from Paris, is a really good friend of one of the French Visiting Scholars here. We discovered the connection on Facebook (how else?).

I’ve also found a Canadian connection with my landlady, several writer-ly connections (well, I do happen to know a LOT of American writers), and most surprising to me, a lot of people I’ve met have read/seen my boyfriend’s work (he was involved in the production of a very popular documentary).

It’s a small, small world indeed.