Reflections on Mumbai

Mumbai is on the coast, the Arabian Sea and the hotel overlooked the sea. It's just a shame I could not get out and enjoy it a bit but since I'm working nights, it's hard. As I said in the previous post, the traffic was insane with the drivers basically competing to get ahead of one another and honking horns every few seconds...it's very noisy. The buildings all looks old, even the ones that are fairly new. I don't know whether it's the pollution or the dust but all the buildings look dusty and dirty. The architecture is interesting though but the city looks in a perpetual state of upheaval, like the roads and buildings are being rebuild constantly...not all but most.

The city was busy and filled with people and bicycles, motorcycles, motorized rigshaws, taxis, cars, buses and trucks. There were shops everywhere...each one selling something different. Lori told me that when she first came to Mumbai they didn't have grocery stores like we do in the US but do have them now. Wal-Mart is even coming! Wally World is going to be everywhere. They do have Dominos pizza and lots of other American fast food places.

You can see the European influence. As much as India would like to distance itself from that part of its history, it's embedded in the culture now. English is almost as common as Hindi in Mumbai. I'm sure not everyone speaks English but lots of people do. Once again, my desire to have the ability to learn other languages hits me hard. I'm going to make it a goal to learn several over the next 5 - 10 years. I'll start with Spanish since it's a natural with all the Spanish speaking people in the US but definitely want to add Hindi, Chinese and perhaps Arabic. These will be the most challenging languages to learn but if I don't give it a try, how will I know I can't do it for real? I hate the fact I only know English.

The hotel in Mumbia was nice and the food was good. The staff was so very nice. I ate at the hotel several times and also had lunch from an Indian restaurant with the agency. All the food was good...but like what seems the rest of the world, they are in love with bell pepper! I surely wish I liked it and that it agreed with me...alas, I'm one of the few who can't stand bell pepper. I was not that impressed by the airport in Mumbai. It is in much need to repair and was very hot.

The poverty was very evident with homeless people sleeping everywhere and beggars on the street. Lori explained there is a type of beggar mafia in Mumbai. I'm not sure if it exist in other parts of the country, but there are mafia leaders who send poor people out to beg but the beggars don't actually get to keep very much of the money or goods they collect. Some of them allow doctors to cut off their legs or arms to help gain sympathy in their begging efforts. This is such a sad thing to hear about.

Well, that's all for this early morning (it's just after 6 am here in Hyderabad and while it's 7:32 am in Atlanta). Converting the time from zone to zone can be confusing and to add to the confusion, the US will begin daylight savings time which is not observed in India so that will mean the time will change by an hour...I think it will mean there will be 1 hr less difference but Lord knows I'm not that good at converting the time!

Good night dear blog and possible reader.