Checklist

Today I got chased down the hotel hallway by a bat. Since this didn't completely surprise me, I figure I've seen too much. So, I decided to make a checklist.

Number of animals attacking me in hotel: 3 (rats, cockroach, bat)
Number of times my power went out in apartment: too many to count (2 due to toaster though)
Number of times water was shut off: 2
Number of movies I can watch in a trip from Minneapolis to India: 6
Number of planes I've been on during this assignment: 12

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure there are other stats that I'll add as I think of them.

Last Weekend

Well, I just had my last weekend in Mumbai. Leaving is bittersweet. I can't wait to see my friends and family but I'll miss the people I've met here. Being my last weekend, I had a virtual checklist I wanted to finish up. I went to a movie, dinner at Out of the Blue in Bandra, Drinks/Dancing at Gadda Da Vida on Juhu Beach, Brunch at Indigo in South Mumbai and one last mani/pedi in Powai. All of it was fantastic but I want to tell you a bit more about my movie experience. At first I wasn't going to put this on the list because I thought, how different could it be? After talking to another expat, I knew I had to go. You buy your ticket by seat so you have an actual seat assignment. I sprung for the expensive seat in the last row. It was 50 extra rupees but it was also a lazy boy. How could I resist. The movie was Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and in 3D. The movie had an intermission about half way through so you could take a break and order food if you want. I ordered two delicacies: a cup of corn (not popcorn but a cup of actual cooked corn mixed with salt - very tasty) and a pizza cone (a savory cone filled with pizza topping). Neither of these have made their way to US theaters yet. When I purchased the corn, I got it right away but with the pizza cone they delivered it to my seat after the second half of the movie had started. Now, since I had never had a pizza cone, eating my first in complete darkness was a bit scary. Except for the ketchup on top, it was delicious. I can't get used to ketchup as a pizza condiment though.

Toaster

What happens when you push down the lever of a toaster? Well if you believe Weird Al Yankovic, the wires get hot. Alas, that is what I always believed too. But apparently, sometimes the power goes out. Yes, I blew power to my entire apartment. I called immediately for assistance since a breaker box was no where to be found. When help arrived, they fixed it and had me push down the lever again and boom, out went the power. I have gotten a new toaster out of the experience. My old one served me well but this latest behavior is unacceptable.

Delhi & Agra

Sorry for the long break in blog activity. I was pretty scarred from the cockroach attack :) Last week I was lucky to have a visitor from home, my fiance. We spent several days in Mumbai but also visited Delhi and Agra. I was surprised by how clean and green Delhi was. Driving up to Parliment, it had parkways and trees between the traffic lanes. It was beautiful! Sites we saw include: India Gate, Red Fort, Lotus Temple, Raj Ghat, Capital Buildings, Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and the Baby Taj. The Taj Mahal lived up to expectations and mine were pretty high. The only downside was the entry. As a tax paying Indian resident, I am supposed to pay the resident price for entry when I show my resident book. I have yet to have this work. This means instead of 20 rupees, I had to pay 750 rupees. Frustrating when you have no recourse as there isn't exactly a complaint hotline. I'm including some pictures so you have an idea of what we saw. The upper left picture is of the Taj. The upper right picture is of the judgement area in Agra fort. The lower right picture is of a street in Dehli with interesting electricity line organization.

Time to come home

Well, I had my worst fear happen today. Maybe not worst but definitely up there. I had just woken up and was wondering about the backroom when I noticed something on my foot. After my eyes focused a bit, I realized it was a cockroach! A very large cockroach on my very bare foot! I screamed, shook it off and when it started running around, I covered it with a towel. It is now locked in the bathroom. Hotel staff is on the way. I can handle furry rodents but large bugs I can not handle.

National Park

Today I had a very different experience than yesterday. I went to the Buddhist Caves (Kanheri) about 45 minutes north of my apartment. They were really fascinating, much more interesting than the caves on Elephanta Island and much closer. Again, the monkeys sort of stole the show. We fed them for a bit on the drive up to the caves. We ended up hiking to most of the 100+ caves. Besides being interesting, it was a great work out! After the caves, we went on the Tiger/Lion safari in the park. The two tigers and one lion we saw were all sleeping. It was about 12:30 in the afternoon, I don't really blame them. No pictures of the safari because the animals are too far away for the pictures to mean much.

Reality

Saturday I toured the largest slum in Asia, Dharavi, which just happens to be in Mumbai. I can't say the tour was fun but it was very interesting. We saw two sides of the slum, the industrial side and the residential side. The primary industry of Dharavi is recycling in all forms. They recycle plastic, oil cans, paint cans, leather, etc. Honestly, the hardest part of touring this side was seeing the toxicity. They burn the labels off the paint and oil cans and boil off whatever was inside. Melting the plastic and recoloring it also created a lot of smoke and odd liquids. I felt bad because I was uncomfortable breathing the fumes for the two hours I was there and the people that live there breath it all the time. Especially the workers who live over their workshops.

Most of the 1 million plus residents live in what is called the residential area. Here the houses are packed in. Each one is about 10 square meters. The alleys that run between are about 18 inches wide. Even I felt very claustrophobic walking through. Only 1% of the residents have toilets so the rest share one public toilet where you have to bring your own water. Right outside of the public toilet is also where the trash is dumped. The trash pile seemed to be a favorite place for the children to play. All of the kids we saw were very happy, telling each of us an enthusiastic "Hi" at every turn. The guide said that when the trash pile gets too tall, they burn it. Again, not great for the environment. It was disturbing to hear that there are government workers paid to clean the toilets and carry away the trash but they just don't do it.

All in all, I was amazed at how organized the slum is. I was also impressed with the very strong sense of community there. Most disturbing for me was the pollution and how dirty it was. However, I really wanted to see this ever present side of Mumbai. I've seen the luxurious side but wanted to see this as well. One misconception is that only the poor live in slums. You may be surprised to know that most of the residents work in the city and even in many of the call centers you may talk to on a regular basis. Most of the houses have satellite dishes and electricity. Almost all of the residents have cell phones.