So what was I doing halfway across the world in Mumbai? For that, I have to go back in time, and talk about the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.

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On March 17 1959 the 24-year-old Dalai Lama left the capital of Lhasa on a two-week journey across the Himalayas into India, as the Chinese military occupied Tibet, overcoming a tenacious resistance. He was accompanied by a small retinue of about 100 people, but many thousands more would follow him into safety in India.