5/1/12
- 6:10 pm
Coming
to India this time is the least daunting it has ever been to me. Or the least foreign. Maybe since this is the third time i've come
in 4 years, everything is less shocking and just feels more comfortable. Getting off the plane, the smell hits you
right away - this time a camphor like cleaning compound mixed with body
odor. The overly aggressive machchar
gave their welcome at the baggage
claim. Since the flight came at 3 in
the morning, customs and immigration took about 10 minutes total. When coming out of the airport here, they
have a tented type area - much like in the prophet's masjid - with people lined
on either side. I looked to the left as
the driver had told me where he'd be holding my name on a placard, but I walked
by and didn't see it. It ended up being
that he thought my name was "Ahvinaan" which is why I didn't
recognize it.
I
ended up finally getting to bed after 24 hours of traveling at 5 in the morning. I think being on call as a resident helps
with traveling as I don't feel the jet lag much and as long as I could get a
block of sleep, i didn't feel the need to catch up. I woke up to uncle looking for his clothes in the closet in my
room but acted like I was asleep while he was doing this.
The
apartment is extremely comfortable. The
shower head is impressive as it is the humongous rain shower type head. Uncle and auntie are very nice and
hospitable. They seem to be like the
friendly Christian family you see in a Bollywood movie shot in Goa. They are extremely stressed these days in
the setting of them planning their daughter's wedding, so I'm trying to be as
least of a nuisance as possible.
Mumbai
has a lot of ways to get around, but I chose taxi. It's the costliest, but the most comfortable and easiest. I'm finally starting to realize that
contrary to what many of my family members do, you SHOULD convert rupees into
dollars sometimes and realize that a 3 dollar cab ride really isn't that bad
compared to a 1 dollar train ride. You
can see the pictures, but my day was composed of a multitude of old Mumbai
sites including Victoria Terminus, Oval Maidaan, the High Court, Bombay
University, an old synagogue (interesting Jewish presence in old Mumbai area),
Gateway of India, and Taj Mahal Palace.
I feel like I've hit the high points and now I'm going to try to get
into more of the cultural sites. There
are a couple of pictures at the end for Abu - a new suspension bridge built
that circumnavigates traffic to go straight from the South Side into the posh
area where I'm staying.
A
quick note on Indian hospitality.
Though I've been warned by Mammi and Pappa 38 times to be wary of
strangers, I've already had experiences showing the opposite. While eating lunch in
"Gulshan-e-Iran", I sat in the "singles" area where you
share a table with other "singles".
I started the conversation off by asking him "what's good here?"
and he recommended the Karahi Chicken.
We ended up talking during our lunch while there, he shared some of his
amazing veg pulao with me, bought me a cold drink, and bought me custard for
dessert. I was still apprehensive that
he'd want something else from me at the end, but he ended up leaving before me,
gave his salam and he was gone. It's
amazing how nice strangers can be to each other in the mother land - I always
leave with a multitude of good experiences, but rarely bad apples to ruin
the bunch.
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