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!