justin arriving.... what a nightmare

a nightmare is really an understatement. After checking the flight status, confirmed to arrive at 6:30 am, i went to sleep somehow knowing that things were not going to go smoothly. at about 4 am, justin phones and has arrived at the airport. Since I was still sleeping at that point, we decided to meet at the hotel where i had made reservations for him. i showed up at about 6 am, and was told that he has not arrived yet. Another 2 hours go by, shit, justin's been missing for 4 hours. Now what to do with a big baby loose on the streets of bombay? As a normal person with good reason to fear, i panicked. As a person who has some sense, however, i contacted all the necessary authorities, including the airline, the bombay police and the Canadian Consulate. My friend Gila stayed with me and was immensely supportive, she called up her contacts at the airport and i called mine. now at 6 hours and counting, we were almost ready to assume the worse. We were on the way to meet with the Canadian Consular when justin rings me, he has been asleep at the hotel the entire time!! needless to say, i completely lost it. Back at the hotel, I gave them a good piece of my mind. They had somehow forgotten to record his name on the register that all guests must sign, and failed to make the connection that the 2 separate people who came for the reservation made by Ada Chan, were in fact, 2 people who knew each other. So continues the adventures of Bombay, next stop: Palolem Beach, Goa. O Kate Horan, I hope we can find each other without another huge ordeal, i don't think i can handle it.

In other news, the book club meeting was fantastic, Greg showed up and is a magnificent speaker. I'm sure no one reading this has read his book, so there's no point going into detail. But alas it has been a stressful week. Can I make it through one more day before Goa???

Excitement Overload!

Interviews with Indian Express Journalist: 1
Photos taken of me by crazy photographer: like a gazillion
Book club meeting with Shantaram this week: 1!
Days until justin gets here: 3
Days until Goa: 5!!!
Days until i see the Sexy Kate Horan (if she responds to my email!): 5.... ahhhhh!

Ahhh its been the most draining week, on every level possible... Work has been completely insane!! Before I was like, well i don't want to be the bossy foreigner who tells everyone what to do.... but now i realize i would rather be bossy and accomplish something than be the lazy foreigner who did nothing. so from doing about 2 hours of work a day, i'm now hauling overtime most days, especially with my upcoming holiday! Yahoo!
Also spending more time out of the office attending exhibitions and visiting slums... bit of an overload though.
Finally got a confirmation from Shantaram and I've somehow landed the job of organizing the event. Spent Sunday cruising South Bombay on a friends motorcycle (as a passenger, don't freak out mom) looking for a venue. South Bombay is beautiful on a Sunday without the usual crowds: Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Chowpatty Beach, all the way up to the Haji Ali mosque. And how is it monday again? o well, countdown to my holiday, woooooohooooooo!!!

Salaam Namaste

Ok, seriously, it might seem like that I'm turning into one of those overly dramatic and bubbly people who makes things sound more fantastic than they are all the time. I hope that is not the case. But its really because Bombay is a bit of a twilight zone where crazy things just keeps on happening. So here's the latest adventure. My friends Shaaroni and Gila know the owner or someone in higher management of the Taj Mahal Hotel. They invited me along to enjoy all the facilities, and it was sooo amazing! The design and decor of the place was just incredible. I went for a swim in the Taj pool (best view ever), and swimming pools are hard to come by in Bombay, even crappy ones. The room was magnificent and we ordered room service Real Chinese Food (as to Indian-Chinese food federicks style) while listening to a huge selection of soundtracks programmed into the sound system of every room, (really I didn't even know they had that in Western hotels, but I guess its because I rarely stay at fancy hotels). It was great!
We then joined some friends at a bar up in Bandra, and met some other interesting foreigners living in Bombay. The expat community in Bombay is incredibly small, everyone seems to know everyone else, and its so interesting to find out what brings different people to Bombay and what keeps them here.
Finally saw my first Bollywood movie, Salaam Namaste! The bloody song has been stuck in my head ever since... It was suprisingly good and the best part was how every westerner is portrayed to be shamelessly promiscuous!
I still can't seem to get use to the 6 day work week. This morning I woke up and thought, well yesterday was saturday, so today is Sunday, so I can sleep in. But that was entirely untrue - at 10:30 it hit me that I only get one sleep-in day a week and that today was in fact Monday. Oi, what a way to start the week....

Festival of Nine Nights

Yesterday was Dassera, the final day of the ten-day festival known as Navarati, not to be confused with the other ten-day festival of Ganpati in September. It is a celebration of Durga, the goddess of valour and power. All over Bombay, there are effigies of Durga, shown to have eight arms holding different weapons as she defeats a demon, a classic depiction of good triumphing over evil. The ten days is meant to symbolize the stages of personal/spiritual growth, while overcoming the temptations of evil.
On the ninth night, my coworker Siddarth invited me to a Dhandya (no idea how to spell, pronounced Dhaan-dee-yah). He lives in a slum community in central Mumbai, definitely not a regular hang out for foreigners. My friend Sara and I were greeted warmly by the community, and we joined them in their traditional ritual of "stick dance" (see photo: very flattering sweat stains). Very memorable night.
On the tenth day, a play of Rama and Ravanna is performed in public parks, ending with the burning of a huge paper Ravana, who is the villain. Stacie and I went to one such ceremony, which was pretty scary. The Ravana was over 20 feet tall, made almost entirely of paper, which means it went down in a huge flame within seconds. Had the wind been stronger, the entire park may easily had caught on fire and I would have been trampled on by hundreds of Indians. But lucky for us, that didn’t happen. I even managed to get some good shots of Ravana burning. Hopefully I can get those posted shortly. Well, the festival season goes on, stay tuned for the upcoming celebration of Diwali in November….

Earthquake... Not in Bombay

After some phone calls and emails of concern regarding the earthquake of Kashmir, I've decided to make a quick post informing all that I am okay. Some parts of northern India were affected, but fortunately, Bombay is further down south and safe from the disaster.
Carrie and April, you two are too cute!! Thanks for checking in. Glad to know that I'm gone but not forgotten. Love you lots.

What a Bizzare Week!

What a week. On Sunday, I played ultimate frisbee in at Shivaji Park with Stacie (American), Gareth (Kiwi), and Mukesh (Indian). We got a huge audience watching and cheering us on, wasn’t sure if it was because of the frisbee, the fact that we were foreign, or that there were actually females in the park. Anyway, we even got a few local kids to join us in a 3-on-3 game in the pouring rain, was really good fun.
On Monday, I met up with Trason and his family after work, and we ended up at a kareoke bar in Bandra. Oi, Ada plus beer plus microphone equals bad news! I also had my first Bollywood Celeb encounter. I had no idea who she was but apparently she is a somebody because the manager got mad at Trason for trying to take a photo of her…
This all builds up to the highlight of my week (so far) which was Thursday. Here is goes, I have recently finished a book called Shantaram, for the book club I mentiond previously. The book is based on the author’s experiences of living in Bombay during the 80’s after escaping prison in Australia. (It’s a great book by the way, check it out at www.Shantaram.com). In fact, it’s going to be made into a movie starring Johnny Depp, *anxiously awaiting its release in 2007*
So right, I left work early to run some errands in town, and ended up popping by the restaurant Leopolds to pick up some stuff for a friend (which I actually failed to do in the end). Guess who was there? (no unfortunately not Johnny Depp) but Shantaram himself!! So like the big shameless idiot I am, I went over and introduced myself, and he was super nice and invited me to join him and his friends. We chatted briefly, and he has agreed to come to our book club meeting! I am soooo excited! Hoorah!
Louisa is passing out on Saturday, I’m a bit bummed out that I’m the only person in our entire extended family who won’t be at the ceremony :( But I'll be there in spirit...

*O yeah, there's been an unusual huge crowd down the street from my house and I learned that they are having auditions for Indian Idol! craziness.

Photos as requested

Here's a random selection of photos, in addition to the ones I added to previous postings.

1- Monkey at Elephanta Island, located an hour away from Bombay by ferry
2- View from Canon Hill, Elephanta Island
3- Cutest photo of hei hei and louisa (random, yes)
4- My girls at the Prince of Wales Craft Exhibition, aren't they lovely?
5- Ada, Sara and Naomi and 2 plates of ice cream and brownies at Mocha (Bandra)
6- Me, at Elephanta caves, being a hardcore tourist

Cutting the Crap

After one point five months of acute observation, I have decided that the best way to describe Indian culture is that it truly cuts the crap. This can be noticed in almost every aspect of how they live, let me explain. No one ever says sorry, thank you, excuse me or any of those phrases that characterize manners as we know it in the West. If you push someone on the bus, no one says sorry because it was done out of necessity to get your ass on the damn crowded bus. In fact, I've been told that apologizing too much for small things actually demean the gesture. So I've had to refrain myself from the habitual "thank you" after every offer of food, "sorry" for accidentally touching someone, and "excuse me" after each burp or sneeze... Really, verbal communication is overrated.
Also, who needs cutlery when you can eat with your hands? and who needs tables and chairs when there's the floor and a couple of straw mats?
This is true even in their language: the meaningless words known as "articles" in the English language does not exist in Hindi. A phrase like "There is a spoon on the table" simply translates to "Chumcha maiz pur hai" (Spoon table on is).

Right, I've been getting request for more photos, and I'm working on it. There's only one computer in the office that can detect my USB, and its unfortunately not mine. Also I'm actually busy at work these days, doing a wide range of business development activities to support the handicraft unit. Thank god its Saturday, which means tomorrow is my one day off. Will spend it at the park playing frisbee I think....