Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Mumbai
Mumbai is loud. My ears have been in a constant state of soreness since we arrived, much like the dull ringing of having spent four hours right by the speakers at a rock concert. It's the horns mostly, and how they are pretty much leaned on by drivers at all times. There seemed to be some reason to this at first but last night as Lee and I walked back to our hotel from Chowpatty beach down the mostly quiet streets a car whizzed past, horn a-blarin' for no apparent reason other than it may have been too quiet for them.
There are people everywhere, seemingly just sitting around, almost all trying to set your attention on their wares, whether they be pashminas, drums or hashish, with the greeting of 'Hello Friend'. At night these people spread a mat and lie down to sleep, some on top of or next to what makes up their display stand during the day, others align themselves on the sidewalk.
It hasn't exactly been fun so far. Sleeping for twelve ours straight the day we arrived fortified us, as did a plate of the best chicken tikka masala either of us have ever had. But it's hard to feel relaxed in a place where there is so much poverty. Where eight year old girls carrying eight month old infants follow you with their hand out asking 'hello money?' This is a place where men offering head massages or giant balloons or chai get in your face and stand there, expectant, until you get up and walk away. And I've never been laughed at so much in my life. I don't know what it is, because I'm white, a woman, red faced because of the heat, a good two feet taller than the woman here?
But last night, as Lee and a made our way back to the hotel and found ourselves a little lost, tired from a long walk and depleted from our constants 'nos' a man approached us, gave us accurate directions without a demand for compensation and amazingly redeemed India for me in one fell swoop.
tonight we fly to Kolkata (Calcutta).
There are people everywhere, seemingly just sitting around, almost all trying to set your attention on their wares, whether they be pashminas, drums or hashish, with the greeting of 'Hello Friend'. At night these people spread a mat and lie down to sleep, some on top of or next to what makes up their display stand during the day, others align themselves on the sidewalk.
It hasn't exactly been fun so far. Sleeping for twelve ours straight the day we arrived fortified us, as did a plate of the best chicken tikka masala either of us have ever had. But it's hard to feel relaxed in a place where there is so much poverty. Where eight year old girls carrying eight month old infants follow you with their hand out asking 'hello money?' This is a place where men offering head massages or giant balloons or chai get in your face and stand there, expectant, until you get up and walk away. And I've never been laughed at so much in my life. I don't know what it is, because I'm white, a woman, red faced because of the heat, a good two feet taller than the woman here?
But last night, as Lee and a made our way back to the hotel and found ourselves a little lost, tired from a long walk and depleted from our constants 'nos' a man approached us, gave us accurate directions without a demand for compensation and amazingly redeemed India for me in one fell swoop.
tonight we fly to Kolkata (Calcutta).
