Work, work, and more work

I don't know if I have any funny stories... how is that possible? I spent all last week in Mumbai training some colleagues. I guess when you travel for work your life is work so I only have stories about work. It was fun but not blog-worthy. The top picture is of one of the streets we work in, where most of the homes are brothels. I have been trying in vain to go to this one bar in Bombay that is a major setting in the book Shantaram. It's a true story about an Australian escaped convict who ends up living in the slums in Mumbai and working for the Bombay mafia. It's being made into a movie starring Johnny Depp. Anyways, I hear good things about this bar so tried to get there during this trip but failed. Instead I ended up at a mall in a bowling alley/arcade that once again reminded me how surreal india can be. This arcade could have been at the Hampshire Mall of my youth (except for that dancing game, which wasn't around back then). Lots of those driving motorcycle games, basketball shooting, the hand that's supposed to grab a toy but never does.

I went with two male research colleagues (pictured) who got side tracked at a window display with a live model pretending to be a mannequin. Huge crowd. I'm not sure I understand why. They have been showing the movie, "Mannequin"on TV lately.... maybe that's why?

Last Friday was Republic Day, a huge patriotic day here and a few of us attempted to take a long weekend trip but started planning too late and everything was booked. So instead we went about a block down the street and explored an ancient mosque and fort. It's so ironic how we never even explore our backyard. Then went with a photo club to take picts at the train museum. Very old trains. Not all that interesting, actually. But there was a snake charmer who was also charming a hedgehog. As you can see from the picture, the hedgehog didn't seem so charmed and seemed rather annoyed at all the noise, and would roll into a ball.

Orchha

Well I’m back to my normal travel schedule. But first, I had a classic, “wow my life is strange” moment last weekend. I play ultimate Frisbee on Saturdays and a friend there said to me, why don’t you come to tango class. There was a special two day course with a special guest teacher from New Orleans. And that night I found myself tango dancing with an overweight sikh man with a scratchy white beard and a huge turban. And he was really good! Aah, life.

Anyways, went to Jaipur on Monday afternoon to give a presentation and came back to Delhi on Tuesday only to leave for a company training in Orchha in the state of Madhya Pradesh. After a 5 hour train ride, we spent the afternoon sightseeing at an old fort. A huge part of which was built for a Mughal ruler’s (I think the guy who built the Taj but maybe it was his father) visit. It was only ever used on that one day. But the folks here were hindu and the Mughals were muslim so it’s a really interesting blend of religious symbols and architecture. Then tonight we went to a temple devoted to Ram. You know when you realize you are totally out of your comfort zone. Why are people spinning around? Why did everyone just squish to fit into a very small space when there’s plenty of room? And what’s going on up front?

The unique thing here is that they celebrate Ram as a king rather than a god. So there’s this military guy (a jawan although I my ignorance of military titles makes it all the more hard to understand the words here) who salutes the statue of Ram at 7pm every night. The other thing that’s interesting about this particular temple is that apparently the king liked Vishnu and the queen liked Ram (which has something to do with the king versus god but I didn’t get the connection). So the queen went to Ram’s birth place and in a vision Ram gave her this statue. So the king built this beautiful temple for it. But apparently the statue came with the condition that it would make its home at the first place it landed, which was the queen’s house. So the “temple” we went to today was actually her house which is next door to this beautiful, never-used temple.

The pictures aren't exactly telling the story. The one is of Orchha Fort (the part built for one day's use) but the others are just people in the town. I'm having fun playing with my new camera.

New Year's in Matheran

After a lovely two weeks in the US for Christmas (it was great to see so many of you!), I returned to Delhi on Thursday night only to leave Friday morning for a NYE trip. Muna and I decided to do something easy to get to and relaxing. It was a wonderful weekend but not at all what I was expecting. We booked a room at a Neemrana property. Neemrana is this "non-hotel" chain that takes old heritage buildings through out the country and refurbishes them into simple, gorgeous, no frills, mid range hotels. There's no room service so that's why they say "non-hotel". I've stayed at three others. This one is called Verandah in the Forest in Matheran. The description says it's about 2 hours outside of Mumbai at which point cars aren't allowed and you have to take horse, hand-pulled rickshaw or walk the remaining 2 km up the hill. So I'm thinking this is in the middle of nowhere and it will be a weekend of reading, napping and walking around.

The description was accurate, except that when we got to where cars have to stop about 45 people crowded around the car to get us to use their rickshaw and horses. I deferred to poor Muna to do all the haggling (as she's of indian origin). We ended up on horses and as we went I realized Matheran is a full on tourist destination with tons of cheesy hotels and souvenir shops and restaurants continually blaring Justin Timberlake's 'I'm bringing sexy back'. This was anything but quiet. However, the Neemrana place was outside the main area so it was quiet (minus the paper thin walls and obnoxiously loud neighbors) and true to form, lovely. The hills were crowded but if you walked just a little further than most, it became totally serene with stunning views that reminded me of somewhere between the grand canyon, utah's rock formations and california's hills. But the shorter walks, to the lake and such were true indian tourist style with the 'knock down the cans' game and 'throw the ball in the bucket' game. Didn't see very many foreigners, it's really a get away for Mumbaikars.

We almost had one more monkey attack in 2006 when a monkey went for Muna's chikri (indian form of peanut brittle) but I successfully scared it away. I did not prevent the monkey from attacking a french mom and son who were playing some dice game (the monkey just wanted to play and through the dice everywhere!). The hotel people came out armed with special sling shots for monkeys.


India never ceases to surprise me. On a closing note - I got an email from Cheinan who is still traveling around India listing what Christmas in India was like (for a Jew). My favorite
" 4. My breakfast masala dosa was shaped as a triangle instead of the usual roll. "For christmas," my waiter said. I'm not sure what the significance of the triangle is."

I didn't know the Christmas triangle either until Muna informed me that it's the indian universal symbol for the Christmas tree:)


Happy New Year!