I’M IN INDIA AND I’M ALIVE!!
That’s not a surprise statement. I’m not all like “holy shit I made it to India alive,” but it’s more like “I’m in India and I FEEL SO ALIVE!”
Flight was good. Had Indian airplane food for the first time and if you ever do it, “Mango Pickle” is very, very spicy.
First thoughts on the smell of Mumbai is sweet smoke w/elephant poop. I've never seen neither an elephant nor its poop. But I'm using my imagination.
This place is great, though. Let me give you a few examples.
The People: For me, the thing that makes a place wonderful for me is the people. And first of all, you should know, everyone seems to be smiling here. This guy Deepak picked us up from the airport yesterday in a Whistling Woods van, and he was so happy. I told him he had a nice smile. He even continued to smile yesterday when we dragged him around shopping with us. What a trooper.
All of the staff here at the apartment smile, too. The chai guy in the morning. The front desk man. A few dudes in uniforms when I got excited about a Bollywood song on TV and got up and danced.
The ladies in the convenience store all helped me select shampoo and lotion and stuff. Smiling. One told me that one particular lotion would make my skin soft and supple. I took her word for it. She smiled.
But, all in all, big two thumbs up for the Indian people.
RICKSHAW RIDING: Cheaper than any rollercoaster ride. And. Let me tell you. Drivers in Mumbai are world class. New Jersey drivers would have a shit fit. Nobody pays attention to lanes (in fact, I don’t think I saw painted lines for lane dividing purposes). Nobody really pays attention to traffic lights (were there traffic lights? We were going fast, I’m not sure). But nobody hit a thing! I came out not only unscathed, but lightly windblown, excited, and I wanted to get back in line to go again, but we were at our destination. Maybe tomorrow.
What it's like inside the rickshaw.
View of the world from inside the rickshaw.
The Money Situation: I just bought shampoo, conditioner, baby powder (hot and humid = chaffage), and body lotion for 10 bucks.
The Weather: … is tropical. It is perfect mango-eating weather (which I just did… eat… mango. I just slurped it right out of a hole I cut in the mango.) But it’s so humid my hair looks like a squirrel’s tail caught on fire (don’t ever set a squirrel’s tail on fire).
Some other things about Mumbai (Just things. Not good or bad things. Descriptive things.)
The way that the landscape is set out, it’s difficult to know where you are. It is a big game of fill-in-the-blanks.
Big, beautiful buildings are set out in clusters and in some random plops. Shorter buildings stick up from in between them… and usually these seem to be apartment buildings.
Then, right below, there are shanties, smaller shacks, and people people people stray dogs people pig people bottles and cans people people people.
Ok. I won’t lie. Mumbai is trashed. But there is an odd beauty to it. Like Tula once said to me “The people are gentle” and, aside from the hells on wheels driving, there is a serenity to it. Even the pig eating the garbage looks alright. The cows in the fields between the buildings look like they’re feeling alright. The stray dogs look a little bit sick, but I think they’ll be alright, too. I should mention that along with stray dogs, the people also seem stray.
But yes, the landscape is a big mishy moshy. I wish I could draw you a picture with crayons right here and color code it because it would look like a big dot painting. Like a paint-by-number.
You probably heard me mention Whistling Woods up top, there. I should probably mention it because it’s the reason I’m here. It is a university in Mumbai that is probably one of the best cinematography schools in the world. We learned about how Bollywood distributes movies and music today, we learned our way around, we watched a film called Rock On! (despite the name, it’s a beautiful movie with great music).
…but don’t be misled. There are no woods around Whistling Woods, really. That will be one of my questions of the semester. Figure out the metaphor.
So until next time… know I’m ok. I’m having fun on rickshaws. My hair is getting volume. And most of all, I’m meeting really, really wonderful people. That’s the best part. I’m about to learn a lot of really valuable stuff. I CAN FEEL IT!
Alvida!