We interrupt this highly irrelevant blog to bring you...

...my first meme! Thank-you, oh invisible one.

1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, post this on your journal.

Last week

1) My car broke down on the way to work. The check battery light was illuminated the night before, but I drove 40 miles back home. The next day the lights started dimming, the speedometer went to 0, and I couldn't start the car once I pulled over. The alternator needed changing and so did the motor mount!

2) I had my wisdom teeth pulled-out. It went MUCH better than I expected, and I was fine 2 days after the procedure. I'm so happy that everything went fine, and that I have 4 less teeth to clean in the morning.

3) I got dinged at three schools, and waitlisted at two more. This event bugs me the most.

Gift Ideas

A friend drove me to the surgeon, waited, filled my prescription, wrote me detailed instructions on what to do, organised folks to visit me and kept on checking up with me.

I want to get her a present. I was thinking of a bouquet of flowers. Do you have any other suggestions? She's still a college student, and college students always need stuff. I don't want to give her a gift card or cash though. Do you guys have any ideas?

Mumbai - Day 2 (December 17, 2006)

Before I left the US for India, I had tried to schedule time in advance to meet my friends. But that didn't work out. Having grown-up in India I should have known better, but I didn't. The only person with whom I was able to schedule time in advance was with my Dad and my uncle.

Ever since his divorce, my dad has been gorging himself with food and has started to collect (fairly hideous) Chinese vases. Oh well, our family is completely dysfunctional and eccentric so no worries! In any case, he kept on looking at me askance every time I took a picture of what we were eating! I love eating at my Dad's house because he has a fantastic cook. The cook is from Goa and she cooks fantastic food. Really thin prawn curries, masalla pomfrets, and fried prawns. The food is absolutely divine. I was really looking forward to soaking my rice with curry, putting some kachumbar (sliced onions, tomatoes, and coriander) on top and squeezing lime juice on the top top.

Fried prawns and kachumbar

White prawn curry and rice

Vases

And more vases...

After lunch, we chatted for a bit and I shared my MBA plans and career goals with my dad in greater detail. He was very supportive of them, but my uncle was skeptical of my return. He pointed to the complacency, corruption, and the dysfunction of India and said that I wouldn't be able to adapt back to life in India. He's got a point to a certain extent. I'm considered impatient by US standards, which signals a very high level of impatience and that would be a fairly accurate assessment. But I really want to go back and try to work over there, and maybe, just maybe try to change things.

For far too long, we (as a country) have taken things as they are handed to us. We criticise a lot, but we don't try to change things. That is changing slowly, people are protesting miscarriages of justice, and patently unfair happenings, but we have a long distance to travel. I know it will be frustrating, but it's something I have to try to do. I'm getting bored out of my mind in my current location.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk by the Cusruw Baug agiary (Fire Temple). Fire Temples are the places where Zoroastrians worship. My family is Parsi i.e. a very small (about 100,000) strong community of Persian Zoroastrians who fled to India a long time ago.

Parsi's are very eccentric. In fact, that's our defining characteristic together with our love for food and drink (eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die out as someone said).

Picture of Cusrow Baug Aigiary

At night I went with my mom to a Parsi wedding. I was a little irritated to answer all those questions as to why I'm still single, but *sigh* it's one of those things that family/friends are pretty nosy about. And one Aunt tried her best to "introduce" me to all the "available" girls out there. I avoided her (the aunt) like the plague for the entire evening.


People attend Parsi weddings primarily for the food. The food is served on banana leaves and it's one of the few places where you can have a "Raspberry" drink.

Patra ni Macchi (Fish in leaves)

After the wedding, I went out to Geoffrey's (a pub) and chatted some more with friends.

Mumbai - Day 1 (December 16, 2006) -- Evening & Night

On my way back from D's office I called most of my friends and made tentative plans to meet each other. Most of the responses seemed to be "You're in town?? For how long?"

I had planned dinner with my mom that night, and at about 9:00pm (We eat late in India) we set off for Paradise restaurant on Colaba Causeway. En route, we stopped at Kailash Parbhat where I picked up mithai (Indian sweets).

Mithai

Paradise is one of my favorite restaurants in town. It's a small, quiet place run by an elderly Parsi couple and it has very simple food. My childhood favorites were the Chicken Steak and the Paradise Fried Chicken which was served with Pumpkin sauce. And the walls are adorned by Adam & Eve drawings by Mario Miranda, a famous Indian cartoonist.

Paradise had upgraded their decor and had finally installed air-conditioning, but the food was excellent. The waiters were still the same two gentleman and they recognised me and asked me if I wanted my usual combination of the steak and fried chicken. It was nice to see them after so long, and I left them with a large tip.

Adam & Eve by Mario Miranda

My awesome mom!

Later at night I was supposed to meet my friends at Mumbai's new lounge -- Shiro. Shiro is located in the old Bombay Dying mills compound, and I realized that it had been a while since I visited last when I was asked for a Rs 1500 (US$ ~35) cover charge. I coughed up the dues and entered. Shiro was huge, and I really appreciated that I could have a conversation with friends. Most nightspots in Mumbai are clubs which play loud music, but Shiro was different.

Once in I met quite a few friends and sipped on a glass of wine. I bumped into a guy I hadn't seen for 6 years and we exchange brief histories and e-mail ID. Turns out that he finished an MBA in the US and was working in the US, before returning to India earlier this year. That's pretty much the route I want to follow. Working in India --despite the many frustrations and low pay-- is so much more appealing to me now. I'll get to influence processes and actually contribute something. So that's my plan now, hope to get admitted into an MBA program, work in the US or EU and then return to India.

Anyway, I was talking with my friend and she introduced me to one of her girlfriends (S). S was very opinionated (why aren't more women opinionated?), intelligent, and kind and while we were talking I could feel the butterflies rising in my stomach. I haven't had this feeling for a long while (I hadn't been on a single date in 2006 until my India trip) and it felt very good.

Then S and her friends left and I caught-up with my other friends. I reached home at about 3:00 in the morning and I went for a walk behind my house by Apollo Bundar, the Gateway of India, and the Taj Mahal hotel.

The Taj Mahal hotel was built by J. N. Tata of the Tata family (India's premier industrial group) after Mr. Tata wasn't allowed into the then-famous Majestic Hotel. Indeed, the sign outside the hotel read "Indians and Dogs not allowed." So Mr. Tata decided to build a hotel that was bigger and better than the Majestic hotel.

The Gateway of India was built in 1924 to commemorate the visit of King George V. The last British troops leaving India left thru the Gateway of India as well.

The Gateway of India late at nightThe Taj Mahal Hotel

Mumbai - Day 1 (December 16, 2006)

Info on Mumbai

I got home at about 6:00am and I ventured out at about 12:00 noon. First call was to get a shave at Air Cool, next to Churchgate station in South Mumbai.

I've really missed going to a barber's shop where you sit back and the barber lathers you up and then shaves you with a very dangerous looking razor.
After the shave, I also had a head massage! Ahhh, the massage felt so good.

After that I headed to a friend's office in Bhuleshwar. I've seldom been to Bhuleshwar; it's a busy commercial area and I have no real work over there. But I desperately wanted to "fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run," so off I went to Bhuleshwar.

Bhuleswar (snaps above) is a very crowded commercial part of Mumbai and the name is a contraction of Bhulle (to forget) and Ishwar (God) and means "the place where God forgets his own name." There are many Temples, Mosques, Churches, and Jain temples cramped into this very small area -- hence the myth goes that God forgets his/her name while visiting Bhuleshwar -- hence the name.

I landed at the office of a close friend (D) who I've known since 4th grade and who's in the seamless pipe business. After lots of catching up and after getting an update of D's dhanda (business) we ventured out. First stop was to get me a cell-phone, since I didn't want to purloin my mom's phone for 8 days. Next stop was lunch and along the way walked past the Mumbadevi temple after which Mumbai gets her name. The temple was also targeted during the Mumbai bomb blasts.

Mumbadevi Temple

I was very eager to have food from stalls on the road. As a kid, my parents warned me to not eat food from the road as it was very unhygienic. And I listened to them for 16 years! It was only in Junior College (11th & 12th) that I started eating from stalls on the road after observing that none of my friend's fell sick. And I've never stopped since! Some of the best food in Mumbai can be had from stalls on the road.



We had Jain (without the onions & potatoes) Bhel Puri (pictures above), bought a plate of BP for a little boy, and then had ragda pattice, and jalebis (a sickly sweet sweet dish).

Ragda Pattice

JalebiOn the way back, D took me inside a Jain temple. I'd never been inside one, so I was very happy. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures inside. Here's a snap of the outside. You have to appreciate that this building is right in the middle of Bhuleshwar ( see pictures above), and so it seems rather out of place.

Pillar inside the temple

After visiting the temple, I went back to D's office, chatted some more, and took a black and yellow to my next destination.

Mumbai

I flew Emirates from JFK to Mumbai. It was a wonderful experience; the planes were new, the inflight entertainment had 600+ options, and the cabin crew didn't look at you with contempt. Yes, that's 600+. I watched Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and Woody Allen's "Scoop" starring Scarlett Johansson after which I fell asleep to "Carmen." Trust me, I'd rather fly economy on an airline subsidised by your friendly neighbourhood oil-rich sultan than on "business class" on any American airline.

I got a printed menu with my choice of entrees, an eyepatch, toothbrush, and a pair of socks. And the cutlery was real silverware including a real metal knife. There was even a thoughfully provided "Wake me up for Duty Free" sticker.

I had a short lay-over at Dubai airport, where I did some last minute gift-buying and then headed for my Dubai - Mumbai flight.
As the plane touched down in Mumbai, I was very, very excited. Close to two years of anticipation built up as I peered out of the window as we taxied to the gate. The airport was cleaner, and I went thru immigration very quickly. Baggage claim was still a mess. The conveyor belt was much to small, and the airport staff were removing baggage on either side of the belt in an effort to unclog the conveyor belt.

I finally got my bags and proceeded thru customs where the customs officials decided that the line was very long, so they just waived everyone thru. I was very impressed that no one had asked for a bribe or promised to get me thru in return for a "baksheesh."

Outside the airport, India beckoned. Crowded, chaotic, noisy, and full of life at 4:00 am in the morning. Oh, how I missed this!

On the way back, I noticed that the driving seemed a lot more chaotic than before. We in Mumbai have always prized ourselfs on our driving dicipline (by Indian standards). Anyway, halfway home, I asked the driver to switch places with me and I drove home.

I slept for about 5/6 hours (combination of jet lag and excitement) and then I headed out.

I'm back

I'm back from my holiday in India and Dubai. Over the last two weeks, I've had an absolutely wonderful time meeting old friends, family, stray dogs and cats, eating good food, watching a close friend get married, and -- after a long, long time --getting a tingling feeling while talking with a friend's friend at a nightclub (for the record, I hate nightclubs) in Mumbai! Oh, and not to forget the girl who came up to me at the airport, sat on my lap, and typed her name and number on my laptop.