Holy crap, the sky is blue

So we're back in Chicago, so I thought I should close out this blog with some reflections...
I'm going to miss my new Mumbaikar pals, eating everything with my hands, the constant opportunities to be out of my element and do something new. Also, colorful clothing and eating a lot of paneer. It's pretty amazing to me that we were nearly 180 degrees of planet away, an experience I'm nothing but grateful for, especially when I think that most people in America will never make this kind of trip.

That said, it's been a pretty incredible 16 hours since leaving O'Hare. Our cab driver spoke English and knew the location we mentioned...and it was an address, something virtually nonexistent in Mumbai. I wanted to hug him. And the roads were consistently paved, and there wasn't constant honking. Generally, it's just so quiet, not to mention green. I didn't really process it while I was away, but the sky was gray every day...between the clouds and smog, I didn't see a scrap of blue. It's just gorgeous here. Also, the farmer's market this morning was awesome...fresh veggies and fruit are amazing. I was sad to find out that the berry stand is not here this year, though, as the farm was rained out and the harvest was not good enough to bring into the city. (Being a farmer is rough, I don't think I'd be cut out for that kind of occasionl disaster.) Overall, it's just an incredible experience to realize how much context there is to life and how hard it is to be in a place where the most routine of activities requires so much thought. Props to people who move to other countries, particularly Asian ones, for longer than three weeks.

This morning on the way to get groceries (walking down a perfectly paved sidewalk surrounded by plants and trees), Mark and I walked down a block that was decked out in red, white, and blue in preparation for their block party. (In our neighborhood, each block has an all-day party at some point during the summer.) Normally, my reaction the the excess of American flag decor and neighbors in red, white, and blue outfits would be to consider it somewhat lame and keep walking, but today I actually thought something to the effect of, "What a nice gathering." Not that I'll be breaking out any flagwear myself, but I find myself feeling a little bit more love for my country now, not in a nationalistic or prideful way, but in an appreciative way that comes from having been away. It's home.

A religious (and commercial) experience

The tour of some of Mumbai's markets yesterday was a major highlight of this entire trip. In just a few hours, we experienced a lot, so hang in there while I recount...

• The first area we walked through was a mainly Hindu area, and one of the first places we visited was a temple devoted to Krishna. We got to hear some chanted prayers, and our guide, Sandhya, told us about the Hindu zodiac and associated deities. We also saw some cows living in the temple grounds (Krishna is associated with cows.) There were also numerous shops selling devotional items like prayer books, small shrines for in-home use, and all kinds of decorative garb, crowns, and jewelry to deck out your Krishna figure at home. Sandhya got a kick out of showing us the dress-up items and compared it to dressing a Barbie doll, which I appreciated as a former Barbie aficionado. We didn't get to see Krishna in the main temple, though, because it was still during his afternoon nap (no joke). Sandhya said that he is treated as a member of the family, so the same courtesies (like nap time) are paid to him as to others in the household.
  
• We also saw the rebuilding of a Jain temple, which was intricately carved in marble and was quite a stunning sight coming around the corner. Something I find amazing is that the temples and other religious buildings are in the middle of other buildings, so they don't have full, street-facing facades. They are either tucked away in the middle of some open-air walkway or towering above the surrounding businesses, often with gates at the street through which to enter the interior.


• We stopped by an animal sanctuary, which mainly houses cows but also injured pigeons, ducks, and geese. Sandhya didn't want to waste a chance to pay her respects, so she got some grain balls in a dish (not sure what they're called, something other than grain balls for sure, but they were about 2-3" in diameter and wet), and we helped her feed the cows. It was difficult to get to the small ones, as the big ones would nose them out of the way. Unfortunately, as it is a sacred site, we could not take pictures once inside, so you will just have to go visit to check it out. I did get a photo of the cow-themed frieze above the entranceway:

Another interesting thing in this area were the resident astrologers who live in small cubicles along the market path and provide horoscopes for a fee and/or an offering of clothing or some other gift. There are stalls across from the astrologers' cubicles that have clothing that people can purchase as offerings. At the end of our Hindu devotional tour, we visited the Mumbadevi temple, which was built in the 18th century. Mumbadevi is actually the goddess after whom Mumbai is named, so it was nice to see the city's namesake. Once again, we could not take pictures once inside, but we got a few snaps from outside. It really doesn't do the temple justice, though, as it's very intricate and colorful, with a great deal of work in silver as well. One of the more entertaining things that we saw was a priest sitting at the shrine of Anna Purna (another goddess venerated within the temple), talking on his cell phone. Sandhya noted that it was a shame that we could not capture that on camera. I was just grateful that the Hindus seemed so open to having us come through their ritual spaces, and Sandhya was very helpful in explaining background and beliefs. She made an offering to Anna Purna while we were there and received in return a prasada, or a portion of the offering that has been blessed by the goddess.

• The hordes of people everywhere, the lack of a firm concept of "personal space," the extended families living close together in small living spaces (Sandhya said about 10 people in a two bedroom apartment was not out of the ordinary), and the multiplicity of deities in Hinduism all seem to be different pieces of the same picture. I am realizing just how individualistic the US is, and how the concept of "many" is something that we don't really comprehend the way that it is here.
  
• We stopped by a restaurant for a snack and some tea (which here comes spiced and sweetened, with milk mixed in as well.) We had dosa, which is a large rice-based crepe filled with a spiced potato mixture, some potato fritters, and gulab jamun for something sweet. The tea was lovely and had lemon grass and mint in it -- very refreshing.
  
• We got to see markets for jewelry, kitchen cookware, spices, and clothing/fabric. We actually didn't buy much because we were a little overwhelmed, but we did get some masala spice for tea. I got a picture of the man who sold us the masala -- he held it up for us to smell first, which was nice. I think he actually liked having his picture taken, as after the photo was captured he smiled, not realizing that I'd already taken it.
• We also saw people selling pottery, as well as a man whose specialty was sharpening knives (see photos of both below.) There is a ton of entrepreneurship here, and people set up stands in front of all of the shops. Most of these makeshift shops are not legally licensed, and we saw areas that had temporarily cleared of vendors due to random municipal patrolling, which prompts a quick cleanup and getting out of sight until the authorities have passed.
• We also got to see the Jama Masjid mosque, which is over 200 years old. The sect that maintains the mosque is the Konkani, and they are easily distinguished from other Muslim sects by their dress. Rather than wearing entirely black clothing and veils, the Konkani women wear distinctive and colorful embroidered clothing, which you can see in the picture below. Of course, we were not allowed inside the mosque since we are not Muslims, but it was beautiful from the outside.
• On the drive away from the bazaar, Sandhya pointed out a Parsi (Zoroastrian) fire temple as well. I was pretty excited to see it since the Parsi population is quite small and I read a book a few months back in which the main character was a Parsi. (Sadly, our pictures are all blurry since we were in the car.) Sandhya explained that Parsis are a pretty exclusive group -- not only can you not enter their fire temples if you are not a Parsi, but if a child is born to a Parsi mom but the father is not Parsi, then the child is not accepted as Parsi.


• Also in the car after the main part of the tour, Sandhya was sharing that she has been helping her brother's wife find a bride for her son (she said that about 80% of marriages are arranged in India.) The brother's family lives in Thailand, so finding a good Indian match is proving difficult. I guess they've signed on with a professional matchmaking service online, and they've found a few prospects and arranged for meetings, but to no satisfactory end (marriage) so far. Mark and I found it really interesting that not only are parents doing a lot of the steering with marrying off their children, but they are doing what American singles often do and enlisting the help of the internet to help them network.

Goodbyes

Yesterday was my last day in the office here, which made me very sad. Everyone "surprised" me with cake (they had been acting suspiciously all day, and I've picked up on their tendency to buy cakes for events like birthdays and goodbyes, so I wasn't shocked...but it was still nice!) I told them all that one of the things I will miss most will be eating with my hand, which I don't think will translate well back in Chicago. Here's a picture of one of the cakes -- it is signed from DC, which is my department (Diagnostic Consulting), and Sujoy decided to personalize it by carving my initials into the frosting.


They also gave me a round metal wall hanging (about 10" in diameter) with Ganesha on it. It's fantastic, and I said that I'd hang it in my entranceway at home. Nitesh then informed me that this is the best place for it, as Ganesha is the first god that they pray to when they are saying their prayers, and the info sheet that they gave me on him also says he is the god of beginnings.

I managed not to tear up until I had basically gotten to the front door of the office, so only Sujoy and Abu actually saw me red-eyed. I hate my tendency to cry at goodbyes and other dramatic moments...it can be pretty out of control at times. I'm hoping that they will all continue to keep in touch and email.

Finally, here's a picture of the group:

In the front row are Sujoy, Abu, me, Hari, Indranil, and Biswarooop; in the back are Pranita, Nitesh, Mayuri, Brijesh, Pallavi, and Uma. Pranita and Pallavi kindly added some decorative touches to Sujoy and Hari's heads. :)

Today Mark and I are going to take another tour, this time of some markets, where hopefully we won't be too overwhelmed and will manage to get some more souvenirs. I'll report back on how it goes!

Drinking tea and crossing the street, among other challenges

I think I may be a tea thief. Today, as I was leaving work, the man who brings tea to everyone at various points during the day stopped me and seemed to be asking for something, but I didn't understand. Hamid, my driver, talked to him and the man left. When I asked Hamid what he had wanted, he said that he wanted money for the tea I've been ordering. For some reason, since the guy has not requested money from me since I've been in the office, I figured the tea was an office-subsidized phenomenon (like soda is in Chicago.) But alas, it is not, and I'm not sure if I have a weeklong-plus backlog of tea money that I owe him, or if my coworkers have noticed that I don't get the system and have been paying for me (a source of this suspicion is that they sometimes won't accept my fair share of lunch that we order in, which is silly to me since I can expense it.) So tomorrow I'll have to ask and find out. I feel really bad, though -- I don't want to be the jerk who won't pay for her 3 cups of tea a day.

This kind of misunderstanding makes me wonder whether I'm just totally clueless and being rude all the time, and it makes me crave my home context where I don't have to question how I am expected to respond, and social life makes a little more sense. Fortunately for me, I have been surrounded by English speakers for most of my stay here, so they've made life easier for me. I asked Hamid today how many languages he speaks, and the number is 5: Urdu is his mother tongue, and he also speaks English, Hindi, Marathi, and Arabic. And he's a driver, not a professional interpreter or some such glamorously multi-lingual worker. Unbelievable.

For those who are interested, I read up on Urdu on Wikipedia as well. Very interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu

For those who refuse to click the link, Urdu is notably the official language of Pakistan, and "it developed under Persian and to a lesser degree Arabic and Turkic influence on apabhramshas during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1526-1858 AD) in South Asia." It is apparently somewhat similar to Hindi, so Hindi and Urdu speakers can understand each other fairly well. I ride by a huge, beautiful mosque each day on the way to and from work, and attached to it is an Urdu school. I need to try harder to get the picture of this place, which has been eluding me behind traffic and blurred windows.


On a totally different topic, I keep forgetting to mention another funny thing that I have seen repeatedly during my commute. It's possibly the worst name I've ever seen for a restaurant: Aaswad. That's just unfortunate. And hilarious.

To end, I will leave you with a video I took of crossing a busy street, Linking Road, yesterday. It doesn't capture some of the vehicles that were inching up behind us (although you can hear them honking), but it helps illustrate the frogger scenario that Mark has described:

Space and Time

It's been a couple days since I've written...this is going to be a little piecemeal, I think.

Yesterday, Mark was not feeling well, which was confusing since we ate identical dinners the night before. We did manage to get out and shop around our neighborhood in the morning and early afternoon, picking up some souvenirs before it's time to return to Chicago. There were a lot of beautiful textiles and artwork to choose from, so it was difficult to make up our minds at times. I think that each shop must have double the concentration of salespeople as we do in typical stores in the US. There is always someone following you, watching you, standing between you and what you are trying to look at. To Americans, this can be trying, since I think we have a much stronger sense of personal space than anyone here seems to. With so many people competing for a limited amount of space, though, it makes sense that people are more generally assertive and less territorial. I've been pretty surprised at times by the way people do what I consider "cutting" in line (one of the first social faux pas we learn to avoid as children in the US), but to them the logic seems to be, "I want to be at the front of the line, you're between me and the front of the line, so I'll go around you if it gets me there faster." It's an everyone-for-themselves sort of place, so you can't be too shy. At times, the introvert in me longs for the relative privacy and indifference of the people of Chicago. It will be nice to walk down the street without constantly dodging people and vehicles of various types that are competing for the road!

Along the lines of coming home, this week is going to be pretty bittersweet for me. I feel like there's so much more to see of India, so it's a shame once we've come so far not to see the northern part of the country with the Taj Mahal, the Ganges, Delhi, the Himalayas, tea growing areas like Darjeeling and Assam, and other things I'd love to check out. But we'd need months to cover it all...I hope that we get to come back someday. I actually had a pretty emotionally disturbing dream on Friday wherein I had to tell everyone at work goodbye, not knowing if or when I'll ever see them again. In the dream, I think I even told someone, "Just tell everyone that I love them," which is pretty melodramatic and overstated (as my dreams tend to be at times, perhaps making up for my lack of overt emotional reactivity in most of life.) But when I woke up and realized that I really might not see any of my coworkers again or at least for a very long time, and that moreover we will also have few common waking hours in which to correspond via instant messenger, I was pretty bummed. It's going to be hard to say goodbye, but we still have a few days to enjoy first.

On a happier note, I had McDonald's for lunch on Friday (my coworkers' choice, not mine). I got a McVeggie Burger with cheese and some fries, which were all pretty tasty. The yellow cheese and the fries were exactly as in the US, so there was some element of comfort food even though I haven't eaten at McDonald's in the US in probably a couple of years now and consider it basically repulsive. My favorite localized item on the menu was the "Paneer Salsa Wrap," which I didn't get a chance to try, not that I'm terribly disappointed. The fact that I had McDonald's for lunch makes me even more surprised that Mark was sick and I wasn't yesterday -- I kind of felt like I was the one inviting it, eating a veggie burger with mayo and lettuce.

Also Friday at work, someone decided that we should all wear green (this was provoked by 3 of the women accidentally coordinating orange outfits on Thursday), so most of us did. I have something close to a group picture on our "Green Day", but we all thought we were waiting for some stragglers, so the snap didn't capture everyone, and those in it are mostly not paying attention (I am personally picking my fingernail, not my typical photo pose). On the front left is Hari, behind him is Pallavi, and then working to the right we have the top half of Pranita's head, Mayuri, Ashwini, Harshada, Nitesh, Uma, Brijesh, and Indranil -- and then again in the front on the right is me. The ones who are missing are Abu (who set the timer for this photo but didn't get in the picture -- he's basically the group photographer), Sujoy, Biswaroop (he was out of the office), and Purnima (who was busy).
I'm hoping to get a more complete and formal group pic this week...

Switching topics entirely, some evenings here, Mark and I have flipped on our Indian cable TV in search of something that is in English and that will hold our interest. A few nights ago, we opted for an early 90's version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" starring Michael Caine. This was a mistake, of course, because it was a terrible movie. But I feel like it provides a fairly apt contrast between Whitney when in air conditioning (Jekyll) and Whitney outside (Hyde). It takes about 5 minutes for me to go from congenial and adventurous to angry and aggressive. Unlike in the movie, though, this is a basically involuntary process for me, unprovoked by the consumption of strange chemicals.

To end, I'll share a video that I took just a little while ago by our apartment as we were returning from brunch (we found a place that serves french toast and waffles, which were glorious.) A group of boys in the neighborhood were playing a game of cricket in the street, and each bowl had to wait for several autos, cars, etc. to pass through. The video shows the intermission between bowls and a quick play before another auto buzzed through.

A 25" Pizza and Props to Hamid

Today was good. It involved a 25" pizza that the restaurant didn't have an oven big enough for (not sure why they advertise a size they can't accomodate, except it did intrigue us enough to order it.) Anyway, it came in 4 pieces, each baked and packaged separately. We made Pranita, who is tiny, stand by it for a picture, with dramatic effect:


Also, over lunch yesterday, I learned an interesting thing from Hari about South Indian names. I guess in South India, many people don't have last names, just first names and one or more initials signifying the names of their father, grandfather, and/or hometown. So Hari's name is V S Hariharan, but since nobody who keeps records allows for him to be called simply, "Hariharan," he had to enter "V S" as his last name on his employment paperwork, resulting in his name being listed in the company directory as "Hariharan Vs," which he noted looks like it's missing the person he's facing off against at the end. Similarly, Sujoy's name is just Sujoy, or actually J Sujoy.

A funny thing that I passed on the way to work the other day was a shop offering funeral arrangements, which had a sign out front with the irreverently punny line, "Dead Center of Town." I unfortunately did not get to snap a picture, but here's a less amusing fabric shop storefront, to give you an idea of the open-air shop setup that is so common here:

Also on the way to work the past few days, I've noticed a lady who sits on the sidewalk at a particular intersection each morning with a pile of grass and a cow tied to a fence by the road on either side of her. Passersby from time to time stop and pick up some grass and feed it to one of the cows. I don't totally understand the ritual, but it's one of the more idyllic-seeming sights during my morning commute.

And since I mentioned him yesterday, I snapped a photo of Sri Sai Baba as a decal on the back window of a cab. The cabs are quite decorative here and often have decorative painting or decals on them. Sri Sai Baba's face didn't come out very well, nor did the much smaller Ganesha to the right of him, but you get the idea:


Up until now, I've talked more about my commute than about Hamid, my driver. I have had an ever-increasing sense of weirdness about having a driver, especially as I've seen the class interaction dynamics here. People in service positions are spoken to pretty brusquely, so I find myself wanting to hand Hamid cash and bring him cake whenever I see him. This to make up for the class system in general, but more specifically to make up for the fact that he has to come pick me up every morning at 8:30, drive me through aggressive traffic for 45 minutes, then park the car and find something to do with himself until 6:15, when I am ready to leave and he drives me back home for 45 minutes to an hour. Oh, and did I mention he leaves the car here and (I assume) takes public transit home after that? Ugh. And on top of that, he's really nice and doesn't seem to resent me at all. One of my favorite things about riding with him is that he is really helpful in suggesting photo opportunities, and he is especially engrossed with the huge bridge that is under construction to connect the suburb of Bandra to the Worli neighborhood in Mumbai proper:

It may not look super impressive in this photo, as it's off in the distance and kind of hard to see (the guy in the foreground doesn't help matters), but it's pretty huge, and the city doesn't really have any other bridges on this scale -- so Hamid's fascination is understandable. Plus, it might just make the repetition of driving back and forth from Bandra to Parel a bit quicker, or at least different. Hamid's been driving for various people in my company for the past few years, so he gets bored. An alternate route can't hurt.

To end tonight, I thought I'd leave you with one of the funnier billboards I've seen here. It's for a new show on the Sony network called Arslaan. The online synopsis I found says, "It is a coming of age magical story of a young boy who goes on to become a Superhero Arslaan! It is set in the olden times, 3000 years ago in the past. His quest for identity takes him on a journey that brings out the superhero within. His supernatural powers ultimately help him in vanquishing the evil lord (Zaakfaar), to reinstate goodness in this world.” As far as I can tell, it involves plenty of long-haired men in loin cloths and capes swinging maces at each other. What more could you ask for?

Translations, Explanations, and Good Luck

So the training presentation went fine today, which was a relief. I'm happy right now to have an evening free of work, as I've generally been spending evenings preparing for the next day's training.

A few more tidbits for the day:

• There are a lot of buildings in this city that are under repair/maintenance and have scaffolding grids on the outside. The thing is, the scaffolding is all some kind of sturdy natural cane or wood, tied together at the joints. When construction workers are on it, it looks kind of like a jungle gym, only way scarier.
• A lot of the cargo trucks and other transport vehicles have the phrase "Horn OK Please" painted above their back bumpers. In this city, I think the loudness of a horn is a main criterion when considering a new vehicle purchase, because people constantly honk at each other and jostle for position on the road. I guess the less-than-fluent plea on the trucks means something to the effect of, "I know I'm big and you can't get around me, now kindly lay off the horn."
• Also, people here drive very small cars. They are certainly better for maneuvering through traffic, but it also makes sense given the large number of cars contributing smog to the air. I find myself noting how luxurious mid-size Hondas look.
• One of the kitchen cabinets has a small poster of a saint in the back, with the name Sri Sai Baba on it. Since I like to know who's hanging out in my cupboards, I looked him up on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi I think it's interesting that he's held in high esteem by both Hindu and Muslim faithful. Since seeing him here, I've seen his image all throughout Mumbai -- in store windows, at desks, etc.. I think I have actually seen more of his likeness than of Ganesha's, which has been surprising to me.
• The swastika produces a visceral reaction in Americans, but as many of you know, it is a symbol of luck here in India ("swastika" is Sanskrit just means a good luck charm/object), and it is also all over the place. I swear, though, the other day, I saw a guy with a bright red t-shirt with a white circle in the center and a black swastika inside the circle. Maybe that man had the inverse experience that Americans have upon seeing the swastika, with his main reference point being the positive application of the symbol. So when he saw the Nazi flag version, which unfortunately in the West connotes a genocidal regime, he thought, "Oh, that's nice. I'd like to wear that." In his defense, though, who wears a Nazi flag t-shirt? I guess I don't know any die-hard skinheads, but this seems like a pretty rare taste even among the fanatical.
• Biscuit = cookie, hotel = restaurant, petrol = gas. I've heard these before, but these are some of the word transitions I've used most regularly here.

pppptttthh

Today was pretty nondescript, so I won't keep you long. Work was good, but no real novelties to report. I just prepared for a training that I am giving to a group of people from another department tomorrow morning...I'm kind of nervous, because I think it will be my biggest audience to date, and some of the people in my department are also coming so that they can see a "pro" present (hopefully I don't disappoint!) And now I'm quite sleepy as well, so I'm going to head to bed soon.

One thing that I can say about the past week or so is that I am grateful that Abu takes care to make sure that I get something reasonable ordered for lunch each day...sometimes I'm totally lost trying to read the menus. He's a pretty high quality guy. :)

How could I forget a little piece of home?

After writing last night, I felt like I was forgetting something, and this morning I've realized what it was. On our way to dinner last night, Mark and I were stopped on the street by a guy with a blond mop of curls (our first clue he wasn't Indian), who looked a little desperate and asked us if we spoke English. He was looking for a particular restaurant, which we didn't know, but we did our best to direct him to the Gold's Gym that we remembered seeing, which he said the restaurant was near. He asked where we were from, and I said Chicago, and he said he was also from Illinois, a town called Sheffield, and was a student at U of I. I told him I was originally from near Peoria, and he said that his friend was also from Peoria. He was in a hurry, so after a few more niceties, he ran off to hop into the autorickshaw where his friend was waiting. A few seconds later, a head popped out of the autorickshaw and said, "Peoria?! What school did you go to?" I said, "Actually, I'm from Eureka." And he said, "I grew up in Dunlap." So it is a small world after all -- I came to the other side of the world and met someone who might have been born in the same hospital as me. Weird...in a nice way.

Corn Pizza and a Doggie Jam

Monday went by mercifully fast. I trained the new department members on a technique that they'd seen before but wanted to see again for a refresher -- it was funny, because 5 of them showed up all together at my work station around 9:45 this morning to request it, so how was I to refuse?

For lunch I had yet another pizza, this time with the amusing topping of corn, which seems to be fairly common here. It was okay, but I can't say that I think the corn added much. I also got to try a real treat because Brijesh brought in some fresh dates from his native Gujarat (the state north of Maharashtra) -- I'd never tasted a fresh date before, as the only ones I've seen in the US have been dried. They were very crispy/crunchy, a little firmer than an apple, with the familiar date flavor. Mmmm.

On the way home, I saw a traffic jam of the oncoming traffic because of a dog nonchalantly lying in the street, apparently unperturbed by the line of impatiently honking cars it was holding up.

Fort and a Promenade by the Sea

Today was a good day. Mark and I took advantage of the opportunity to be tourists and spent the morning on a tour of the oldest part of Mumbai, Fort, which is, as you might guess from its name, where the British established their fort when settling in the city. We hired a tour guide to walk us and talk us through the area -- and the experience is best shared via a few of the many pictures we took, I think (or maybe I'm just being word lazy...)

This first picture is of an old city well, which is still in use. The city lets the water flow for a couple of hours each morning, and people come and fill up tanks to store or sell throughout the day.

This one is a building facade with an elaborate balcony, which was built by a man whose main source of wealth was the opium trade. Our tour guide assured us that he also gave a lot back to the community.

This incredible art deco building is the Eros Theatre.

Below is a view of the Maharashtra High Court and the Bombay University clock tower, with the Oval Maidan in the foreground. The Oval is some of the scarce green space in the city, and it and its counterparts to the north and south were preserved not for the sake of greenness, but because they were originally swampland and not good for building on. In fact, they were also once seafront, before the massive landfilling effort that linked the original 7 islands and extended the land westward into what was previously sea, creating the now-continuous piece of land that is modern Mumbai.

And finally, a shot of Mark and me at the end of our tour, at the Gateway of India. This is where King George and Queen Mary arrived on their first trip to their empire in India in 1911. Although there were archways to welcome them, the Gateway itself was not constructed until after, as a commemorative touch.

After returning from our tour around noon, we relaxed for a little while before heading back out to get some lunch. We got a couple of pizzas from our neighborhood Domino's (yes, hilarious) and put one in the fridge to save for another day. After Friday's lunch at work, I thought Mark needed to sample some spicy pizza, and I had a craving for pizza besides. I also talked to Mom and Dad via Google chat, which has an excellent computer-to-computer calling option, so we were able to literally "chat" rather than just typing back and forth.

In the early evening, we decided to take a walk and check out the seafront promenade near where we are staying. A picture of Mark by the Arabian Sea:

Finally, on the way home from the promenade, we stopped by a French style bakery and got a small chocolate truffle cake to share, which pretty much capped the fantasticness of the day for me.

All that's left now is my daily oddity to share. I kid you not, I think this is the thing I've found strangest to encounter in the 'hood here (from yesterday, but I didn't post then):

Don't drink the moist towelette

I'm very grateful that it's Saturday today...for once, Mark had to wake me up this morning so I wouldn't sleep the day away (it was 9 a.m., way later than I ever sleep at home). After lazing for a couple of hours more, we headed out in search of an ATM and somewhere to eat. We ended up at a high-scale traditional Indian restaurant, where we did our best to order from a still unfamiliar set of options. I got a dish with masala sauce, which was very tasty, especially in combination with the garlic naan we ordered. Mark got a dish with potatoes and shredded spinach, which was okay but not as interesting as mine. At the end of the meal, our waiter thought we must not like the food because there was so much left, and I don't know that we really convinced him that we actually did like it but were just full. I'm learning that Indians are both big eaters (my coworkers would have polished off the whole meal easily) and concerned hosts, which is tricky to negotiate when you don't have any room left to eat more food.

After the dishes were cleared, the waiter brought us each a cup with warm, clear liquid and a lime wedge floating in it. Not knowing what it was, I thought it might be some sort of post-meal refreshment and began to raise it to my mouth to take a sip. At this point, the waiter came rushing over and told me that I should not drink it, it was water for washing our hands after the meal. I'd eaten semi-Indian style (they tear bread and pick up their food with it, so they largely eat with their hands), so it immediately made sense, but I of course felt like an idiot for trying to drink the hand-washing water. In a few minutes, after I recovered from the shame of it, Mark and I just started laughing, because it would have been ridiculous to the other people in the restaurant if they'd seen me gulping down the cleaning water -- in the US the most analogous situation might be someone opening the post-meal moist towelette pack, noting the pleasant lemon smell, and chomping into it.

I am happy to report, however, that I was familiar with the dish of breath freshening herbs that the waiter brought after that, so I was able to correctly ascertain that they were intended for consumption. :)

Gods and Babies

Today was pretty fantastic foodwise -- full of Indian Italian, so I got to have pizza for lunch and fettucine alfredo for dinner (which I don't typically choose in the US, but it sounded nice and creamy and innocuous). Both the pizza and the pasta were spicy-ish, because in India they are not going to stand for things being bland. I don't really blame them, but I also find the infusion of spice into even the plainest of Western dishes amusing (but enjoyable). I'm kind of ashamed of myself for not fully embracing an Indian diet while I'm here, but I don't think I can do it, so I'll allow myself some indulgences. I did have an Indian sweet today called gulabjamun, which is a ball of spongy pastry soaked in some kind of sweet, sticky sauce. It was tasty, especially since it was homemade by my coworker Pranita's family. We also had birthday cake since it was her birthday, and to my surprise, they actually use the same birthday song that we do.

Interesting bits of conversation:

• Today Hari told me a little bit about Ganesha, the favorite god of Hindus in Bombay. He is loved for being the most easy-to-please of the gods, and people adapt his likeness to suit special occasions (like the World Cup, when he was depicted as kicking a soccer ball) and regional tastes. Offerings made to him with sincerity are generally accepted, even if they are small, such as blades of grass. Hari seems to have a very practical, rational understanding of Hinduism -- he explained to me that the proliferation of deities was in order to suit the varied tastes of the many people who were prospective followers. If there was at least one god that people would put their stock in, then the principles of the faith could be instilled through that god. He also said that the rituals that have a religious basis have an underlying practical purpose as well, and that the faith is more compelling to make people follow beneficial practices than reason is. I don't think this is unique to Hinduism. :)
  
• Yesterday, I asked Purnima if people in India find out the sex of their children before they are born. She said that generally, no, they do not, and actually it is illegal for doctors to disclose this information lest people choose to abort their female fetuses. She also said that in her community, it is considered an invitation for trouble to plan too much for a child before it is born. This makes sense in the context of historically high infant mortality -- and it's in stark contrast to the US, where it seems that more often than not, people now find out the sex of their babies as soon as possible and create themed nurseries and registries for months preceding the birth. I personally like the idea of not knowing in advance, but I think that having the option is nice. And I'm also excited that our American norm means that I know that I'm going to have two brand new nieces this fall. :)
  

Since I've been depriving my readers of imagery (I actually haven't taken any pics for the past couple of days), here are a couple of viewable bits for you:

• First, a picture of the burly crosswalker sign I mentioned yesterday (Mark thinks it looks like a rugby player with a purse):
• And a video clip from my commute home today, so you see a few of the sights I pass. For those in my small group, watch for a special cameo appearance at the end:

Infidels in Outer Space

Today was better than yesterday for me since I feel much better, but unfortunately now Mark is the one under the weather. He's off to sleep (or at least eyes closed and under the blanket), so blog time is especially quiet tonight.

Today I spent the first half of the day at a restaurant called the Copper Chimney, where we listened to a talk about the importance of client consulting and presentations for a couple of recent papers that were presented at a client conference. Lunch was an Indian buffet, and I ate a pretty small amount because my appetite is not at full force due to residual jet lag, and it also became a lot of work to tear my bread using only my right hand (an Indian custom) and use it to pick up the other parts of my meal, which was comprised as usual of various spicy-sauce-and-veggie combinations. This way of eating is not terribly compatible with my long fingernails, which are a total mess afterward. It was tasty, though, especially after the mediocre fast food "Chinese" we got yesterday -- typically, single women still live at home with their families and so they have lunches packed for them each day, while the men order in lunch from one of the various restaurants whose menus they have in the office, laminated and encased in a binder. Since my family isn't here and wouldn't prepare me lunch every day anyway, I order with the guys. Yesterday's guys-plus-Whitney order-in choice was Chinese, and I selected something called "American Chop Suey" -- which was something like spicier sweet & sour sauce with a few veggies and some crunchy noodles. The others who ordered the same were also not big fans.

A few additional detail observations from the past few days...

• If you ever meet someone whose last name is Banerjee or Mookherjee or some other ______jee, they are likely Bengali (from near Calcutta).
• I saw an actual crosswalk today, which I thought was strange since everyone crosses wherever they want across as many lanes of traffic as they like, and cars don't seem to regard the crosswalk differently from any other strip of road. The sign has a burly-looking silhouette in full stride on it, so maybe what it's really indicating is that some particularly large people live in the area and will do some serious damage to your car if you don't let them pass...
• A couple of store names that I've enjoyed: Wotever (not sure what they sell since they're pretty non-descriptively named), Body Soup (also not sure what they sell, but it sounds kinda icky)
• Churches here are similar to those in the Midwest in their affinity for posting slogans on signs outside their doors -- one that I saw said, "WHEN LOOKING FOR FAULTS USE A MIRROR NOT A TELESCOPE," and it made me feel a little more at home in a strange way. And confused, too, because telescope seems a little extreme unless you're looking for sinners on Mars -- maybe binoculars? Maybe that's just too creepy for a church sign.
• Today was the first truly rainy day since we've been here, which is unusual since it's monsoon season, and it typically rains every day this time of year. It was nice.
• It's hard to write down tidbits like this to try to capture some pieces of this place...I think the way that I feel about it was aptly put by one of my coworkers when we were talking the other day about places to see in Mumbai -- she said, "There's nothing to see, really, it's more about experiencing it." I mean, of course there are things that I would like to see, but the feel, smell, and tone of it is really not something I can convey effectively. I think I have a few more wrinkles in my brain now, and hopefully I'll have more before I come home. So you should all visit this great city sometime if you ever have the chance!

Down day

Today was little bit of a downer mood-wise...I had nausea all day, including during a 2.5 hour training session that I led with 12 people. I think my body is revolting against the sauciness of every single meal I eat (Indian food is largely some kind of sauce with veggies/cottage cheese in it, along with bread and/or rice.) I like Indian food, but I would pay many a rupee for some fresh cheddar cheese, fruits, and veggies, which are the staples of our usual summer diet. But here, everything has to be cooked, or we'll be sick -- fresh produce is likely washed in tap water, which we're not allowed to have. On top of that, while my sleep cycle has adjusted fairly well, my stomach is a little finicky still about eating palaak paneer at what it thinks is 3 a.m. When I got back to the apartment, Mark was also bummed and craving something familiar. So we ate PB&J sandwiches for dinner, which was lovely if for no other reason than it was a cold meal -- and shortly after, my stomach has settled. Who knew?

But enough whining...today was relatively uneventful, a pretty calm day at the office. At lunch, the regional teasing fired up again between Nitesh, who is from Delhi, and the Mumbaikars, and to a lesser extent also the mild-mannered Bengalis. Nitesh is pretty insistent that Delhi is wonderful and less hectic than Bombay, but of course the natives here disagree. It's kind of fun to listen to them all try to sell me on their own cities' finer points. It's too bad we won't get the chance to visit much outside of Bombay since we have only a couple days here and there to travel...

Fine Art and Funerary Rites

So I saw this sign on a shop on the way to work this morning:

I'm thinking they must mean memorial sculptures? Or maybe Mr. Manoj is just multi-talented. :)

Other things I saw on the way to/from work today:

• People sleeping on the sidewalk...so many people, so many sidewalks, it's staggering
• Children being bathed in puddles on the side of the road
• A commuter train packed to the brim with passengers hanging out of the doors
• People weaving baskets, huge baskets that were round and about two and a half feet in diameter
• A goods carrier truck (they are huge and say "Goods Carrier" on the top front and are generally decoratively painted) stopped in the road, with a motorcycle sitting on its side next to it and the driver of the motorcycle yelling in at the driver
• A lot of beautiful roadside shrines that I want to peek further into

One small anecdote for the day is regarding a discussion about pets -- Abu commented that I must have seen a lot of stray dogs, and I said I had, and that I had only seen one person walking a pet dog. I asked if pets were common, and he said yes. Nitesh recounted that his friend had visited Australia and found it remarkable that when people went on trips to visit family, they would take their pets somewhere to stay -- I hadn't thought of boarding pets as odd, of course, but I guess an animal hotel is a humorous idea...especially if you picture all the dogs with mint biscuits on their pillows when they arrive. :)

Meet the coworkers

Today was my first day in the office, and I basically spent it getting to know my coworkers here: Purnima (who I met previously in the US), Sujoy (who I also previously met), Pallavi, Mayuri, Pranita, Hari, Biswaroop, Nitesh, Brijesh, Ashwini, Abu, Indranil, Harshada, and Uma (ha! that was from memory.) In short, they are all fantastic. The day flew by, and I really just got to know them and tried to spend some time with them as they worked to answer some of their pent-up and incidental questions. Tomorrow I will again "play the field," but I will also spend some time giving a training on online data set-up and processing, as most of the studies that they have seen so far have been ones where the interviews were conducted door-to-door, which has a different format than we receive when the interviews are online. Anyway, enough shop talk, but that's the plan.

We went out to lunch together to a nice buffet restaurant, and the highlight for me was not only the authentic naan (just like what I get on Devon, which makes me even happier to live so near to Little India), but also a dish called "Veg. Diana," which nobody else recognized either, but as far as I could tell consisted of mixed veggies (carrots, peas, green beans) in a creamy sauce with rosewater in it. It was fragrant and delicious. Of course, the 4 different desserts I tried weren't bad, either. :) On the way out of the restaurant, I got to try some breath freshening sweets/herbs (not sure what exactly they were, but sort of like a handful of small candy/seeds...Sujoy didn't know what they were either, just that he liked them) -- these were really nice as well. On the way back from lunch, our black & yellow cab took us past Mahalaxmi racecourse, which is situated near Mahalaxmi temple, a landmark of the city and, as Hari told me, what some Hindu faithful believe is the reason why Mumbai is India's financial capital (Mahalaxmi is the goddess of wealth.)

Other interesting tidbits:

• Brijesh informed me today that it's typical for a man to order for both himself and his female companion in a restaurant -- this explains some awkwardness with waithers that I've detected when Mark and I have dined out together
• Hari was interested in why I am a vegetarian because the idea of a vegetarian-by-choice is pretty rare here -- he said that the large number of non-meat-eaters here is mainly accounted for by tradition and culture, not personal conviction
• Among my coworkers, only one, Nitesh, is a native Hindi speaker. He is from Delhi, which is in the northern part of India, where Hindi is spoken most purely. Everyone else teases him that his Hindi is so pure that they can hardly understand it, as they are used to central-to-south Indian Hindi, which is largely mixed with other languages like Marathi, English, etc. The rest are native Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, and Malayalam speakers, although their English is also excellent, as evidenced by their responses of comprehension when I can't help but lapse into a bit of slang.

Insomnia Hertz

I'm leaving shortly for my first day in the office after my first night of insomnia -- I woke up around 1 a.m. and was wide awake and hungry (it was 2:30 Chicago time and according to my body), and it took 3 hours, a few herbal "Calms" pills, and a sleep mask to finally fall back asleep. But not before I'd woken Mark up and ruined his sleep as well. Hopefully I won't fall asleep at lunch with all of my coworkers!

On the upside, a couple of mysteries have been solved. I figured out the right switch-n-valve combination to get hot water for my shower this morning, which was crucial to keep the belligerence to a minimum. Also, my brother-in-law, Pat, has been offering his knowledge from his experiences overseas to help me figure things out -- not only had he used the free-form shower while serving in the Army in the Middle East, but he also advised that it's not just the voltage that matters in the electrical system, but the hertz as well. So my alarm clock is expecting 60 Hz and is only getting 50 Hz, thus the loss of 10 minutes an hour. So at least I can time it each night, or as my sister suggested, just buy a new alarm clock (if I can find a shop that has one) or get a wake up call each day. I still don't really get the electricity thing, but oh, well.

My address for three weeks...

...is Near Mini Punjab Restaurant, 16th Road, Bandra West. Getting used to the relational address system here is tough. You can Google just about anything, such as an electronics store (which I did since my alarm clock loses 5 minutes each half hour for some reason), and you will get something like "Universal Electronics, Pandurang Vila Co-Op Soc., Next to D. P. Zaveri Jewellers, opposite 7th Road, Khar Pali Road". And so we'll set off down Khar Pali Road (which we know is Khar Pali Road because it is the first cross street north of our apartment according to our maps, not because it is labeled as such), count and benchmark our way down to 7th Road, and alas, there is no Universal Electronics to be found. It's possible that it has closed, or that the name is different on the store itself, but in any case, we have struck out. I will just have to calculate the time that my alarm clock will display when it is time for me to get up. We've also ended up at In & Out Convenience Store twice in lieu of a grocery, because the first grocery charged us an especially Western rate and it's eluded us to locate another grocery with the maps and Google. This means I get to try a lot of British candy bars that I otherwise wouldn't, so it's not all bad.

In our initial electronics store quest today, the first thing we encountered on our street corner was one of Mumbai's famed free range cows, just wandering through an intersection as vehicles and people wove around it. I of course had to pause and video it...near the end of the video, it may not be audible, but Mark was voicing concern that the cow was approaching and was quite near to us when I decided it was a good idea to cut and cross to the other side of the road. I'm a little curious if it would have gone around me or become aggressive had I not cleared its path.



Finally, one last interesting detail that I've learned is that men who are friends frequently hold hands, often when crossing an intersection together. It's such a departure from the US's "don't touch me or I'll think you're gay" vibe and the general lack of hand-holding between people who aren't parent-and-child or romantic partners. I'm not a very touchy-feely person, so I'm not too eager to bring the hand holding back and try it out with my friends (I know you're all disappointed), but I think the social difference is interesting in a nice way.

Props to shower curtains

So my first attempt at showering in the bathroom-at-large was only half successful, as I was unable to figure out the hot water. There is a hot water heater on the wall, but I'm not sure what combination of valves and switches need to be opened and flipped to make it happen. The water wasn't freezing, so in any case, I am clean, but the bathroom floor is a wet mess. The toilet paper got splashed, the toilet seat is wet, and I'm happy to have had the foresight to take the toothbrushes out of the bathroom before turning the shower on. I have to say, the shower curtain and tub combo is a system that I won't take for granted anymore...it's always the "little things," I suppose.

Also, to keep the image ball rolling, here's a map of where we are staying in the scheme of Mumbai, marked by the letter A in the pink bubble:

Day 1 in Mumbai

I've been on sensory overload so far just taking in how this city moves and operates, and I'm a bit jet lagged, so I might not write in complete sentences. I do have to say that I did much better than I expected in nearly 20 hours on an airplane. (I didn't cry during takeoff!)


Highlights of the plane ride:

• getting to see downtown Frankfurt, Germany from the plane window as we landed there...although that made me sad not to actually visit Germany at all in my first landing in Europe
• flying over exciting places like Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan...although again, I didn't get to visit them, or even see them out the window since I wasn't very near to one and it was cloudy anyway...but it's still pretty awesome to fly over a place like Tehran, I think
• the last in-flight movie was a Bollywood flick called "Krazzy 4," which to my surprise I actually thoroughly enjoyed. the basic storyline is that four men who are in a mental hospital end up having to save their caring and supportive psychiatrist when she is kidnapped by a criminal who needs her to deem him insane in order to clear him of criminal charges. lots of hijinks, lots of singing, in Anglicized Hindi (I kid you not, "Why should I care?" was uttered in fully intact English in the middle of an otherwise unintelligible-to-me dialogue.) my favorite part was the theme song, which the beauty of YouTube brings you: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XbtFVTFe2AI

We landed around midnight, a little bit later than scheduled but not complaint worthy. The driver was waiting for us when we stepped outside the airport, and fortunately his sign with my name on it stood out among the melee of people waiting for people. We got to the hotel and checked in around 2 a.m. -- we got to spend our first night on Marine drive across the street from the Arabian Sea, which was awesome even in its choppy brownness. The hotel room was beautiful, so it was a shame we had so little time to enjoy it. After a minor snafu wherein the driver that I was told would arrive to pick us up at 11 did not (we only spent one night in the hotel before transitioning to our apartment hotel with kitchenette and wireless internet), we ended up having a driver from the apartment hotel come pick us up. But when we got to the apartment hotel, the power was out due to some kind of maintenance in the area, and our room wasn't quite ready yet. But around 6 we did finally have the power kick in, so we're happy to have some air conditioning going.

More interesting things in bullet form since I'm tired of paragraph-based reportage:

• the title of this new blog is on account of the herds of autorickshaws buzzing around (among other things like black-and-yellow taxi cabs, bicicyclists, motorcyclists, loads of pedestrians, buses, cars, and the occasional ox-drawn cart)
• it's incredible how unregulated the streets are -- there aren't really any traffic signs or signals in our neighborhood, so it's a game of "make a break for it when you get a chance" -- and don't be shy, because no one's slowing down for you, and everyone's honking at everyone else.

• there are a lot of stucco buildings, mostly peeling, and a lot of rough patches and craggy, puddly areas on the roads. most shops (at least in our area) are small open-air deals.


• at first, Mark thought there wasn't a shower in the bathroom, because there's no tub or curtain. but there is a shower sans tub and curtain, you just stand in the middle of the room and let her fly, and then the drain is on the side of the room...i'm looking forward to tomorrow morning's shower being my first freeform hose-down.



• one of the more random things i've seen so far are Kettle Chips at the grocery store we stopped in. sure, big name brands like Cheerios and Tropicana I can understand, but a fringe player in the market like Kettle Chips? random. didn't get a snap of those, though.
  
• so far i've been surprised by how people in the neighborhood where we're staying, Bandra West, are pretty indifferent to us. i guess since it's not as much of a tourist trap as some of the places closer to downtown, there may be fewer people out to try to get a few rupees from us.
  
• i was not surprised by the humidity, but i was also not totally prepared for it. it hasn't rained yet since we've been here, but windows of air conditioned cars and buildings get wet enough that the water drips down them.
  
• i also didn't realize beforehand that bringing Mark along would mean that everyone would address him first as the male representative. which doesn't work well since Mark is one of the shyest people on earth and not a good nominee for "lead man." but we're getting by fine for the most part...hopefully i'm not totally weirding people out by speaking up at times. :)

I think that's it for now...If I've forgotten anything, I'll just write more tomorrow!