(internet connectivity has been a little sketchy, so i havent been able to post in a while. )
8/9/07
Second Day Out
I relied a little less on the guidebook for my expectations this time, and I think that worked out well.
I decided to hit some of the stuff that is a little north of downtown today. I took the train down into the city, but got off 2 stops earlier than last time. I walked west to Marine Drive, the street that sweeps up along downtown’s west coastline. It has a pretty promenade all along it that I walked up, following the water north to Chowpatty Beach. Here is a picture from Marine Drive that I took a few weeks ago, on towards dusk.
On my way up to Chowpatty, I got accosted by a friendly group of young guys. They walked up to me as I was trying to take a picture and started chatting.
“What’s your name?”
“Why?” (My name? What are they up to?)
“Do you like Mumbai?”
“Yeah, I like it. It is a lot of fun.”
“Where are you from?”
“I am from Seattle. In the US.”
“Where is that?”
I held up my hands and made a rectangle with my forefingers and thumbs and then used my right hand to point to the top right of the rectangle.
“There!”
“Aaah, ok!” and laughing.
“My name’s Vinod!” “My name’s Avneesh!” “My name’s -”
Lots of names and lots of hand shaking.
Smiles all around, lots of nodding.
Then we all sort of stood there for a second.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I was supposed to do next.
“Mmmm, ok, well, I’m going to go now.”
“What’s you name?” (Hmm, ok, I suppose they are just being friendly. Aggressively, arbitrarily, overwhelmingly friendly, but just friendly.)
“Evelyn”
Various pronunciations of Evelyn.
“Ok bye now!”
“Bye!” “Bye!”
It was so random.
Then I went on my way, and walked up to Chowpatty.
Chowpatty is a big deal because a lot of political meetings were held there before independence. It was nice, and remarkably litter free. Lots of people hanging out. Families, groups of school kids, couples. I went down to the water, got my feet wet in the Arabian Sea, looked around, watched some kids play in the (probably filthy) water, took a few pictures, imagined a few political rallies; essentially just wandered around a little. Then, as I was turning around, a group of friendly girls came out of nowhere and burst upon me with friendship bracelets. Honestly, I was just walking up the beach and this group of giggling girls materialized beside me and asked if I was having a good day. They also wanted to know if they could give me a friendship bracelet. Hmm, . . .sure. So one of them untied a ribbon with “Best Friends Forever” written on it and tied it tightly and firmly to my own wrist. Then they said “Happy Friendship Day!” and, each of them smiling, one at a time they shook my hand.
Why did two groups of total strangers set upon me with wishes of friendship in the space of an hour? I was mystified. Maybe it was national friendship day, or gangs of kids here are into this weird extracurricular activity, foreigner spotting. As the girls set off in search of their next victim, I took off my bag to see if there was something written on it, or some sign or something attached to my back. Nope. Ok, whatever. I took off for my next thing.
Second Day Out
I relied a little less on the guidebook for my expectations this time, and I think that worked out well.
I decided to hit some of the stuff that is a little north of downtown today. I took the train down into the city, but got off 2 stops earlier than last time. I walked west to Marine Drive, the street that sweeps up along downtown’s west coastline. It has a pretty promenade all along it that I walked up, following the water north to Chowpatty Beach. Here is a picture from Marine Drive that I took a few weeks ago, on towards dusk.
On my way up to Chowpatty, I got accosted by a friendly group of young guys. They walked up to me as I was trying to take a picture and started chatting.
“What’s your name?”
“Why?” (My name? What are they up to?)
“Do you like Mumbai?”
“Yeah, I like it. It is a lot of fun.”
“Where are you from?”
“I am from Seattle. In the US.”
“Where is that?”
I held up my hands and made a rectangle with my forefingers and thumbs and then used my right hand to point to the top right of the rectangle.
“There!”
“Aaah, ok!” and laughing.
“My name’s Vinod!” “My name’s Avneesh!” “My name’s -”
Lots of names and lots of hand shaking.
Smiles all around, lots of nodding.
Then we all sort of stood there for a second.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I was supposed to do next.
“Mmmm, ok, well, I’m going to go now.”
“What’s you name?” (Hmm, ok, I suppose they are just being friendly. Aggressively, arbitrarily, overwhelmingly friendly, but just friendly.)
“Evelyn”
Various pronunciations of Evelyn.
“Ok bye now!”
“Bye!” “Bye!”
It was so random.
Then I went on my way, and walked up to Chowpatty.
Chowpatty is a big deal because a lot of political meetings were held there before independence. It was nice, and remarkably litter free. Lots of people hanging out. Families, groups of school kids, couples. I went down to the water, got my feet wet in the Arabian Sea, looked around, watched some kids play in the (probably filthy) water, took a few pictures, imagined a few political rallies; essentially just wandered around a little. Then, as I was turning around, a group of friendly girls came out of nowhere and burst upon me with friendship bracelets. Honestly, I was just walking up the beach and this group of giggling girls materialized beside me and asked if I was having a good day. They also wanted to know if they could give me a friendship bracelet. Hmm, . . .sure. So one of them untied a ribbon with “Best Friends Forever” written on it and tied it tightly and firmly to my own wrist. Then they said “Happy Friendship Day!” and, each of them smiling, one at a time they shook my hand.
Why did two groups of total strangers set upon me with wishes of friendship in the space of an hour? I was mystified. Maybe it was national friendship day, or gangs of kids here are into this weird extracurricular activity, foreigner spotting. As the girls set off in search of their next victim, I took off my bag to see if there was something written on it, or some sign or something attached to my back. Nope. Ok, whatever. I took off for my next thing.
2 comments:
You might check out maps.google.com or maps.live.com (if you feel like supporting the home team). They both seem to have some level of detail for Bombay (I just typed "Bombay, India" in the search box.)
They seemed about equal to me in their street-level detail (with maybe google having a few more landmarks/buildings marked.) But, I don't actually know if this is detailed enough - I'm not sure if you're getting every street in this view.
I also don't know how well it will work to find addresses, but I typed in the address for your office, and google claims to have located it:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Khar+Linking+Rd,+Bandra+(West)+Mumbai+400+052,+India&sll=19.071669,72.834064&sspn=0.028311,0.037937&ie=UTF8&cd=1&z=15&iwloc=cent&om=1
I tried Mani Bhavan as well:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mani+bhavan,+mumbai,+India&sll=19.071669,72.834064&sspn=0.028311,0.037937&ie=UTF8&z=17&iwloc=addr&om=1
I'm pretty impressed with google. Live maps didn't do very well on the address search, and put my in Pakistan. Sigh.
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