Mumbai Day Five: Piddling in Pune

Wake at 5am. I just can't seem to get in a good 8 hours like I do when I'm home. I'm not sure if this is lingering jet-lag, or just my mind and body adapting to a travel schedule where there is so much to do. Regardless, I feel rested and don't zonk out during the day, so I guess it doesn't matter. I do some work on the computer, get breakfast, and meet the group in the lobby a little before 7.

Today we are driving to Pune (pronounced Pu-na), which seems close by map, but is a good three hours by car. It takes a while just to get off the island of Mumbai (which was once seven islands, now fused together). After that we soon begin to rise into the Western Ghatt mountains. These are not very big - more like large hills. In fact, the old Brit installations that have grown into cities up here are called Hill Stations.


School setting at the hill station

In one of these we stop of at a college teaching business and hotel management. Once again, this isn't a great place for me to get students. In this specific case, I don't see how this stop was a use to anyone in our group. We were given a tour of the campus and didn't even have a chance to talk to students. Maybe if the tables were turned, and we were sending students to India, this visit would have made sense. Aesthetically, it was pleasing, and they served some good samosas, but other than that it was a complete waste of time. One piece of info we did pick up is that the road we are driving on has been designated the most dangerous in the world by the BBC. Great. I do assume however, that they are not counting highways in Iraq.


Hotel management students preparing for a Valentines party. Our silly holidays have spread so far...

Much of the scenery on the way to Pune actually reminds me of parts of Central America during the dry season. Like, C.A., they say that when it rains here, everything becomes lush and unbelievably green. Once in Pune, we go through the now familiar and annoying effort of finding where we are supposed to be going. We arrive at the college library to set up just as our fair is supposed to be beginning. Luckily, we are not swamped with students. At this location we've decided to give half-hour info sessions as well as set up booths. Other than during training, I've never had to do this before. We were supposed to have a separate room, but we end up doing it in the rotunda in the middle of the general fair. It wasn't that bad. It helps that I have great support material on the DVD that I was able to show on a big screen. Afterwards I talked to a few students who seemed relatively interested, even though this is mainly a technical school. I also got an app from a girl I'd been e-mailing with.


K____ from Ontario (married, before you ask)

Having been served huge samosas during the fair, we all decide to forgo stopping for dinner and drive straight back to Mumbai. Making the trip worse, the light was fading so I couldn't read, and I am then forced to listen to all the married people's stories of how they proposed or were proposed to. Gag.


Sunset over the Western Ghatts, from the car.

We get back to the hotel around 10pm. Though we'd all talked mightily in Pune of going out for a drink, now that it is put-up time, we all decide to just hit the sack. I don't even manage to undress or turn the lights off. To any of my friends suspecting that I'm leaving stuff out, I wish I could say I am, but unfortunately I am not.

Mumbai Day Four: Brush with Bollywood

Technically this is supposed to be a day off, as far as the organized tour goes. I however, have booked a couple meetings downtown of my own. M____ from B___ State is going that way for some shopping and sight-seeing, so we get a lift together. It takes over an hour to go about 10 miles. I thought of a good metaphor for Mumbai traffic: you remember those films you saw in school of the human circulatory system? All those blood cells careening through arteries and veins, all crammed together, starting stopping. That's how it is, except going in two directions at once. Ok, I hear you, enough about the traffic already.

My first stop is at the local Fulbright office. It has a loose affiliation with the American consulate here. It needs to become tighter. The Brits and Aussies are kicking our asses when it comes to gov't assistance in promoting their schools overseas. I meet a couple of the employees, one who I've been e-mailing, chat a bit about how we can work better together, and drop of a box of materials to give to interested students.

Afterwards I walk to the next office, yes walk. It feels so good to get out of the car (which M____ has taken shopping). I get a lot of looks from the locals. I'm kind of tall and kind of white, compared to them. There just aren't a lot of Yankees street hiking 'round here. The EDU World office is nearby. There I meet with Rushabh about how we can better promote my university in Mumbai. His organization is what we call agents. They get us students. We decide I should definitely try to make it back in April for the huge Times of India (newspaper) education fair. Students have just finished exams and 100,000 of them pass through the doors in two days looking for what to do next. He wants my university to man a booth at EDU World's display space, with me and perhaps a professor or two, then stay for a week meeting with interested parties. I tell him I'll give it a go.


Dude outside the pizza place

Meetings done, I call M____ and I grab some pizza at a little place nearby on Marine Drive. Finally, a cold beer. Marine Drive is what best characterizes Mumbai. If you look back at that map I posted previously, Marine Drive runs all along the edge of the inner "claw" the lower peninsula forms. Great views, lots of stores and hotels, and even a little beach, called Chowpatty. Whenever I get time, I'd like to take a stroll down its length. Not today.

M____ wants to go see the Ghandi house, which I have already seen. No problem, I go on a little safari while he takes a peek. See pics below.


Those damn cows just can't stay out of the streets


I told them later what frat boys do with those cricket bats...


Park near Ghandi house


Read this sign, great stuff

Another hour in the car and we are back to the hotel. I'm tempted to sleep, but do some e-mail and such. As the sun starts to go down, I put on my flip-flops and decide to take a stroll out to the point where there is an old fort. Whattaya know, they are in the process of filming a movie there, a Bollywood movie. For those who don't know, Mumbai has the largest film industry in the world. Yes, the world. Their films are more like musicals, and what is being filmed now is a choreographed dance scene in the old fort at sunset. There are tons of Indian guys clambering to get a look. Apparently the star is pretty hot. I climb up to the top of a cliff with a bunch of other guys and use my height to get a good look. The director doesn't seem happy. It's windy and the girls hair keeps getting blown in her face, and she or her partner screws up the steps. I don't think they got all the shots they wanted, so they will probably be back tomorrow night.

Lemmee see!!

The stars are in the bottom left

Mumbai Day Three: Ahmedabad by Day

Woke at 3:00am. Oh yeah. In the lobby at 4. The drive to the airport was actually quite nice. There was absolutely no traffic. Without all the bustle and noise it seemd like a whole new city. Plus, I was seeing it all illuminated by cleansing artificial light, rather than sunlight filtered through a lot of floating dirt. It almost seemed...Western. Then we got on the plane. It looked like it had been bought at a pawn shop. If you are ever in India, never stray from Jet Air. You will pay for it if you do.

Sunrise at Ahmedabad airport

First thing we did is stop to check out the hotel where the afternoon's fair would be and have breakfast. Not bad. Then it was another game of find the school. This took well over an hour of zig-zagging through town. Ahmedabad is much more open than Mumbai, but there is still tons of traffic, it just moves a lot faster. At any given time, vehicular motion and vehicular manslaughter are only about 5 centimeters apart. Throw into the mix a lot of people on scooters and bikes, cows wandering in the road, mules and camels pulling carts, lots of stray dogs, and a few monkeys here and there scratching themselves. So, at least the ride was interesting. The school was not. Best management school in India. 134,000 people compete for 250 spots each year. They are not going to any other school after this. I will cut off an apendage if I get an app from one of these kids. They looked at me like I was ... I don't know what, a third nipple?

The fair was good, however. I met some very interested students, got two applications for our M. Arch program, and met about 5 people who had already applied, two who showed me their amazing portfolios. One day I'll be bragging that I recruited these kids, seriously.

After the fair it was back to the airport. Wouldn't you know our flight was delayed 4 hours. Since the flight is only 45 minutes long, we figured this meant it would never come to pass. After much haggling, gnashing of teeth, and pulling of hair, we bought tickets on Indian Air. I almost pulled their clerk through that little hole in the glass booth. It would have been worth the jail time. We had to pay a "Yankee tax" if you know what I mean. We still had time to kill in the airport.


Our intrepid travelling reps stuffing face in the airport. From left Baiju (no idea if I'm spelling that right) from the educational mag, S______ from Toronto, K____ from Ontario, and M____ from B___ State University.

Got back to the hotel in Mumbai at 11pm. I promptly fell on my bed and passed out. Woke up at 3am and started doing some e-mail and making these entries.

THE END

This looks like I felt at the end of the day

Mumbai Day Two: Mumbai Marathon, Part Two

View from window of first school visit

OK, so we met up in the lobby at 8:30 and hit the streets in a couple of little SUVs. We drove from our hotel way down to the southern tail of Mumbai, called Colaba (see map below). There we visited the B. D. Somani school, which seems to have a great program. We had an opportunity to do brief overviews of the school, take questions, and then meet one-on-one with some students.


Map of Mumbai, taken from a newspaper ad

Next it was way back past our hotel, to the northern part of Mumbai. On the way we grabbed McDonalds. None of it is made with beef here, for obvious reasons, so I had a Big Mac made of pressed chicken patties. Yummy. School two wasn't so great, but we got to see Juhu Beach on the way there, and the house of India's most famous Bollywood star. You've still never heard of him.

School three, the RIMS school, was another good one. Only got a chance to meet with a limited number of students, but they were all very interested. I'll be looking back in on this one and the first.

So, all that sounds fairly simple, but we did not get back to the hotel until after 5pm. Mumbai traffic is hell. The A/C wasn't working so well either. And our drivers only had an idea of where the schools were, so there was lots of U-turning etc. Mumbai is a complete maze. I have no idea how you would map it, let alone create a phone book or something. It's chaos.


Lite traffic, seriously

Back at the hotel I walked around the grounds a bit, did some more e-mail (surprise), and went to bed before 9pm. Wait 'til you read about day three.


Hotel grounds. Notice new causeway construction in upper right.

Mumbai Day Two: Mumbai Marathon

Oy, I'm beat. We drove all over town today. Tomorrow I have to wake up at 3am so we can catch our flight to Ahmedabad. Coming back tomorrow night. If I'm not dead, I'll try to post some of my new pictures.

Snore.....

Mumbai Day One: Settling In

Well, I did ok on the jet-lag front, but not great. I worked on e-mail all morning (exciting, huh) and into the afternoon, taking breaks to read chapters of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I'm now 300 pages in - this isn't going to last me as long as I'd hoped. On one of these reading breaks, lying in bed, I decided to rest my eyes, then woke up at 6pm, the time I was supposed to be meeting the rest of the group in the lobby for dinner. Luckily I had some non-wrinkled clothes I could pull on fast.

There are just three other reps on this trip (1 Yank, 2 Canucks), and one Brit who represents an educational periodical. Hussein, our organizer and guide, along with his wife Rupali, took us all to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. There we were introduced to about a dozen Indians somehow involved in the educational scene of Mumbai. At one point, I thought dinner was done, then realized we hadn't been served the main course yet. It is going to be a struggle to keep the pounds off if they keep putting so much food in front of us and talking for so long.

After dinner I went to my room and answered MORE E-MAIL. Due to my long afternoon nap, I was not able to get to sleep until late, and then woke promptly at 6:30. I knew I wasn't dozing off again soon (I felt way too clear-headed), so I just went down to the gym.

I should start putting up some new pictures. Today we visit three local schools.

Countdown ( 0 )

So, my last night in town for a bit. It was fun. Not as fulfilling as I’d hoped, but fun nonetheless. I said goodbye so a few of my better friends, got drafted to help behind the bar and with security at Mercury, and took advantage of my upcoming two month absence to say some things to people that otherwise I would not have. If you are reading this and suspect you are one of these people, you probably are. J.C. impersonating a wrecking ball.

Next morning, locked the house up and left. Taxied to the airport. Caught the same flight out of Southville as one of our visiting international counselors, Steve, from Paris, France. In Newark we grabbed some food and drink together before heading off to our respective departure gates. Twice now, from two different airports, I have seen the New York City skyline, but never been there. I’m thinking now, that when I return in two months, I might have to stop for a night or two. Maybe I can crash at The Turk’s place.

Now I’m in Schipol airport, outside Amsterdam. Security really gave me a working over here. I haven’t gotten it this bad since having long hair, returning from Central America, and making the mistake of telling the customs officer that I worked in the bar industry. This Dutch guy takes a gander through my passport, then looks at my itinerary, and the fact that I do not yet have a return ticket to the US, and decides I am Up To Something. He asks what I do, then doesn’t seem to buy it and asks a bunch more questions, including, but not limited to:
“Who pays for all this travel?” (about three times)
“What do you study at this university?”
“Why do you need international students?”
“Don’t you have enough people in the US?”
“Do you speak Arabic?”
“What were you doing in Cyprus?”
Now, I quickly get it that the whole purpose of this is to get under my skin and fluster me, so that if I am Up To Something, maybe I will contradict myself. This realized, it still does not quell my urge to snap at him after awhile or say something smart-assed that will end up getting me a cavity search, like:
“Cyprus, oh you know, brokering arms deals. Wait, wait, sorry. Different trip. I mean attending an educational fair at the US Fulbright office. My bad.”
Luckily, I control myself. Feeling he has given me enough scorn and distrustful looks, he lets me pass.

The flight to Mumbai is not bad. The plane is packed, but I’m on an aisle and the seat next to me is one of the few empties on the plane. Score. At this point I’m trying not to calculate the time in the US, or how much sleep I have had. The flight arrives at 11pm local. I wait for the tour organizer for about 15 minutes, but still not seeing any sign with my name on it, I get my own cab. It’s about a 12-mile drive to the Taj Lands End in Bandra (North Mumbai) and only costs about $6.50 US. Love it.

I check in and then decide to see if I can’t begin resetting my internal clock. One trick I believe in is going to the hotel bar for a late night drink. My brain may still know it is only early afternoon in the states, but my liver and kidneys are fooled into thinking it's last call, and together they carry more weight. My brain will have to fall in line. Inside the faux English pub are a few stragglers and a couple of Filipina OCWs (Overseas Contract Workers) singing Indigo Girls and Guns n’ Roses. They finish their set and one joins me at the bar, inviting me to eat at the hotel café with her and her singing partner. I sit with them for awhile, but now getting tired, and suspicious of a business pitch around the corner, I excuse myself and go to bed. I wake at 7:30am, grab some breakfast buffet, and now here I sit. We’ll see if I can beat jet-lag in just one day. Oh, and catch up on all my e-mail. Yuck.