Street (not) Meat

When I first got to India I was really careful about what I ate, I had heard the stories of days upon days spent confined to the bathroom from my co-workers in Chicago who had been here before I got here. But, as the weeks have gone by I have relaxed my strict criteria for what I will and will not eat for fear of getting sick. First I would forget to remain tight lipped in the shower, a la Charlotte in the SITC movie, thankfully I made it past that unscathed. Then there are the tiny cups of coffee that I drink, that may or may not be made with water that was brought to a full boil, it certainly isn't made with bottled water, still no terrible illness undertook me. A couple day's ago I started eating fruit with skin, that was most likely was washed in tap water, despite this my digestive system seems to be cooperating. Everyday I have been getting a little more brave or careless, whatever the case may be.

Yesterday was a turning point, with reckless abandon, I purchased my lunch from a street vendor. I ate Vada Pav, also known as the Indian version of the hamburger, from a vendor on the street. It was delicious! Vada Pav is some type of carbohydrate inside of another carbohydrate covered in chutney, what's not to like?

Since lunch of Vada Pav was a success, later in the day I ate 4 Pani Puri, also known as Gole Guppay. I had been wanting to eat these since I got to India, but had been pretty terrified because they are filled with pani, literally translating to water, which in actuality is water with a bunch of masala. I figured if I was going to get sick from eating Vada Pav off the street I might as well get really sick from eating Vada Pav and Pani Puri and call it a day.

When my Dad was in India he got really sick, despite being extremely careful the entire time he was here. After being miserable and not really talking to anyone for a couple days, one day out of the blue he declares:

"This is my last trip to India, I am never coming back!"

Although delicious, eating street food may have been the worst idea of my life, at this point this is TBD.

So...why are you in India?

Most people that know me know that I am India for work. However once in a while I hear from a friend that I don't talk to very often and they wonder why I have been missing in action for the last few weeks. The conversation invariably goes like this--

(8:33:31 PM) Friend: Where u been?
(8:33:36 PM) Me: India
(8:33:59 PM) Friend: Congrats how was ur wedding
(8:34:07 PM) Me: lol here for work
(8:34:23 PM) Friend: seriously tho u ok?

I am ok though, the first couple weeks were a little rough, but I think I have been doing ok holding my own in the worlds most heavily populated city.

The best 5K I ever spent

Ever wonder why why you see pictures of your friends and family on vacation in Mumbai they are looking a hot mess? Ever wonder why pretty much everyone, celebrities aside, are looking a hot mess in Mumbai? Well I have an answer for inquiring minds... even in the dead of what they would call "winter" here the high is at least 90 degrees and the humidity is off the charts. Ladies, its hard to look cute when you have to hose yourself down every time you get somewhere and you show up sportin' a hairstyle that looks like someones hand me down afro wig from a bad 70s costume party.

Most of you have seen my pictures on facebook and you must be thinking-- But despite the elements I am looking as cute as ever! I know I am pretty perfect, but I happened to have made one of the best decisions of my life, pretty unwittingly, before I left the US-- I got a super straight perm from Hair Mates in New York city. For around 500 bucks and 4 hours of my time I get to enjoy being able to have some of the best hair in Mumbai everyday. I am able to wash and brush my hair and walk out the door everyday. By the time I get to work my hair is pretty much dry due to the intense heat (even at 8:30 am).

For everyone out there that is tired of fighting with a blow dryer and flat iron every morning, I recommend you invest a few bucks and a few hours and get your hair permanently straightened at Hair Mates. The service is great there and the 500 covered, straightening and a hair cut. Hit the ATM first though, because the only take cash, don't hate though because C.R.E.A.M. too.

So that's 500 bucks, what about the other 4.5K you ask? I had LASIK at TLC Laser Eye Centers a mere 1 week and 3 days before I hopped on a flight to Mumbai. Everyone always raves about the improved quality of life they have after LASIK and I am jumping on that band wagon! Giddy up! I knew it would be great, but I never imagined it would be this great. I have perfect vision and I never have to worry about lost contacts, dust and dirt making my contacts uncomfortable to wear, etc. I have perfect vision from the time I get up until the time I hit the hay. I even have perfect, worry free vision in the pool where I will be tomorrow, with a stack of US Weekly's received via fed-ex today! (Thanks Gupi, love you girl!)

Shopping!!!

They say that there are somethings that transcend international borders global warming, pop music, NAFTA, etc. The thing that has followed me across the globe is... my love of shopping! I love shopping in Mumbai, it makes my day. In some ways its exactly like shopping back home and in other ways its completely different. All over the city you will find shopping malls, strip malls and sidewalk stands.

The shopping malls are for the most part exactly like American shopping malls, except newer. They are usually a couple stories tall, the floors are waxed to the point of making walking in the mall a hazard to anyone not wearing rubber soled shoes, and the food court is crawling with teenagers. The one thing that is different about the malls is- they are everywhere. I am pretty sure the mall square footage per person ratio in Mumbai is higher than anywhere in the United States by far, yes, including New Jersey.

I started out doing my shopping at the malls around my office and hotel in my free time.  The thing that I found shocking was that stuff was priced pretty equivalently to what things would cost in American Dollars.  Since yall know I love a deal, I found this to be pretty disappointing.  Not to mention I was not sure how people could afford to shop at the mall, because I know that not very many people are getting paid equivalently to what we would consider the average American mall shopper salary.  I don't even do all my shopping at the mall back home, everyone needs to stretch their dollars by looking out for the BOGOs at Giant, the price roll backs at Walmart and the unexpected cute finds at Kohl's and Target.    

So where were all the deals?  I did some asking around and I found out that there is more reasonably priced stuff to be had in the city of Mumbai.  Turns out Mumbai like New Jersey is filled with Malls AND Strip Malls!  There are strip malls all over the place with stores that sell a variety of things each usually specializing in one or two things- cell phones and cell phone accessories, shoes and handbags, men's shirts, fabric, electronics, etc.  This is where the average Mumbai shopper would be able to get a deal.  Unfortunately I haven't had as much luck here.  Why you ask?  Usually as soon as I roll up to the store front with my driver Murgan the sales person has me pegged as not being a local.  If I happen to have gotten dropped off somewhere else and walked into the store the sales person usually can spot the slightly confused/slightly terrified look that I am trying to keep under wraps.  If I still have them fooled I am busted as soon as I open my mouth.  I consistently see salesmen selling things to other customers for way less than they similar things to me.    

Ok, so not having a lot of luck with the strip mall scene, but I didn't give up.  Because I am a little ghetto and love a deal I decided to channel my love of buying stuff I don't need on Canal St. and head out to the sidewalk stands.  Yup you heard it!  The sidewalk stand scene is almost exactly like walking down Canal in August, except imagine all the Chinese people as Indian people.  

The following phrases peppered appropriately with head nods, looks of disgust at high prices, and fake walk aways have led to some awesome stuff and some awesome deals.

Vo dikhana? + pointing (Show that to me.)
Kithne ka hain?  (How much?)
Aur be colors hain? (Do you have other colors?)
500 rupees.  Final price.  (Just like "Who wants to be a millionaire?" the indication of the final price is how the sales guy knows you mean business)
My Hindi is pretty bad still, but the fact that there are a million people around coupled with the fact that there are a million stands that all sell the same things has made my bad Hindi moot.    I hope everyone likes what I got them!  

First weekend in Mumbai

I spent my first weekend in India out exploring the city of Mumbai. I was fortunate enough to have an awesome driver, Murgan, with me to show me all the sites of Mumbai and provide a personal insight into the city that only someone who has spent a lifetime in a city would have.

I spent the last three days seeing a lot of North Mumbai and Downtown Mumbai. Some of the places and things I saw most people visit when they come to Mumbai: Amitabh, Abhisheik and Ashwarya Bachan's houses, Haji Ali Dargah, Sidi Vinayak Mandir, Juhu Beach, Chowpatty Beach, Gate of India, Taj Hotel, Victoria Terminal, Fort Bandra, and The Malls.

One of the places I went to, I don't think many people make a point to see when they come to Mumbai: Chota Kashmir Garden. I would not have seen this place either had it not been for Murgun. We were at Chota Kashmir Garden on Friday, Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday in India. The park was filled with couples and families despite the heat. It was probably at least 90 degrees out that day. After visiting the park, I asked Murgan why anyone would come out to the park when it was so hot and not that fantastic of a park. Murgan explained that this was a "Relax Point" for the city dwellers of Mumbai. Many of the young single people living in Mumbai share flats with several roommates to make living in the city affordable, this park provides a place for them to go to spend time with their significant others and get out of the city. Hearing this made seeing the one couple breaking up earlier at the park earlier even funnier than it had been before.

Although its something you know you will see, you can not prepare yourself for is the extreme poverty that is everywhere in India. When we started out on Friday morning one of the fist things we drove by were a group of shacks near the road. I asked Murgan where the slums where in Mumbai. His very frank answer was that the "Slum Points" are everywhere in Mumbai. Over the course of the next few days I found that this was very true. The "Slum Points" and poverty are not something you have to look for in Mumbai- they are everywhere. The slums are not just confined to consolidated blocks or areas. Poverty is on the sidewalk, or lack of sidewalk. In North Mumbai you will notice that along some streets there are no sidewalks- just street directly meeting shop, or make shift dwelling. Murgan was able to explain how this very gradually came to be- people would start by setting up a tarp on a sidewalk to make a place to sleep that offered protection from the ground, the next month the person would construct a tarp as roof, as they got more money they would construct walls and maybe start a business of some sort. By the time they were done although not equipped with running water or electricity, what this person had was pretty sturdy considering it started as a tarp. Time and the influx of people into Mumbai (about 29,000 per square kilometer) has lead to many of the sidewalks being completely unrecognizable as sidewalks.

The sidewalk phenomenon is not something you will find in downtown Mumbai. Downtown Mumbai as described by Murgan is the "Hi-fi" part of town. Condos and flats are extremely expensive to purchase here. As we drove around downtown on our way to The Gate of India, I noticed that I lot of the buildings were extremely run down. I asked Murgan why things were so run down if they were worth so much and expensive to rent or buy. He explained that in the early 80s India was very corrupt and tenants were being treated very unfairly in Downtown Mumbai. Indira Gandhi introduced something along the lines of what we know as "Rent Controlled Apartments." As an artifact of this, there are people renting apartments in downtown Mumbai for 200 rupees a month, the price two people would pay to eat dinner at a diner. Because of this building owners can not afford to maintain these buildings for the rent they are getting and they can't kick out the tenants that are paying a ridiculously little amount of rent- so the buildings become run down to the point of being uninhabitable. Yes, there are a lot of poor people in Mumbai, but there are a lot of poor people all over the world. A lot of what I have seen in terms of makeshift/failing-infrastructure, liter/trash and poverty is similar to what I saw when I went to Ecuador last year (I'll post those pictures shortly).

One thing that I had never seen is the prevalence of people begging, not the semi-able bodied beggars I had seen in other places, people begging that were blind, or missing limbs, or disfigured or impaired physically in some way. This is something I knew I would see while in Mumbai, but actually seeing this, I was not prepared for how utterly unable I was to help these people in that moment. Knowing that the impairment that these people have had been orchestrated for the sole purpose of generating revenue was gut wrenching. The path to Haji Ali Dargah is a 3/4 mile long walkway from downtown Mumbai to the Dargah. The path is filled with people walking to and from the Daragh. On the side of the path you walk back on you will see one of these pour souls begging for money every 15 to 20 feet. Near the middle of the path there is a group of beggars lying in a circular formation with each of their missing appendages on display, chanting "Wah-wah, Wah-wah, Wha-wah," as people walk by. For the rest of my life I will remember seeing and hearing this group of men lying in a circle and chanting.

CODA

I have gotten a couple of derisive comments about this blog being negative and one sided. To this all I can say is, it is one-sided, it's my side, this blog is a first hand account of things I have seen while in Mumbai for the last week, that is the only side I can write about. It was not written with any negativity because I don't feel negatively about the experience that I have had thus far in India. The experiences I have recounted: going through customs, working along side the emerging Indian-middle class, having lunch with co-workers and sightseeing in North Mumbai and Downtown Mumbai were encountered as someone that is living and working in India. I am not trying to be Christiane Amanpour, I don't want to expose anything, I have no agenda to convey. I am only trying to convey as honestly and objectively as possible the things that I have found funny, sad, interesting, or disturbing in the time I have been here.

Eating in India

Everyone has to eat, its universal, you would think that eating habits would be similar across the globe.  It has taken a week in Mumbai to realize that this is not the case at all.  People eat very differently here.   

The most obvious difference is that all the food has an indian twist.  I understand that the intentions are good- the chef may be thinking to himself, "Why eat a cheese sandwich when you could be eating a cheese sandwich with tomatos, cucumbers, potatoes AND CHUTNEY!"  Now, this wouldn't be an issue if the description of the dish reflected what said dish consisted of, for instance "Cheesburger" should be more accuratly described as "Meat masala flavored sandwich topped with onions, tomatos and chutney."  I am not opposed to jazzing things up, everyone that has eaten anything I cook knows I love to jazz things up.  I, however, draw the line at the covert jazzing up of breakfast items.  There is nothing worse than biting into a warm, flaky croisant and finding... it is filled with sabzi (translation: curried indian cooked vegetables)!  Not the best start to my day.  This is probably why half the time when I cook things at home my mom thinks they are "phicka" (translation: bland), I guess she is expecting things to be "jazzed up" with some chuntey or turmeric or something.  

Not only is what people eat here different, how they eat is completely different as well.  Everyone is always talking about how much American's eat- watching people eat here puts things into perspective.  The average lunch meal here consists of one of the following:   

Chicken item, vegetarian item, 4 rotis 
Chicken item, vegetarian item, 2 paranthas 
Chicken item, vegetarian item, massive amount of rice  

Each one of these can be had for approximatly 30 rupees, which is about $.60.  Yesterday, I ate a Cheesge Saaandvich (20 rupees) for lunch and the two co-workers with me were like, "Is that all you are going to eat?".  Since when is a sandwich not a decent lunch?    

There is also this idea of the afternoon snack, which one typically eats around 3 or 4 PM.  The first day I came into work, I was pretty jet lagged and not hungry at the american lunch time of noon.  At about 3:30 I decided to go to the canteen (translation: cafeteria) to get something to eat.  I ran into a co-worker there, let's call him Robert, we start talking and I ask him "Does everyone eat lunch this late here?" and he says "Oh no, this is my afternoon snack."  He had a  Cheesge Saaandvich. :-)   

It's not that people are always eating here- sometimes they fast too.  Today around 1 PM Robert messages me and asks me if I would like to get lunch.  I am thrilled, of course, because for the most part not many people have been talking to me.  We are at the canteen and I ask him what he is going to get, he responds "Oh, I am fasting today."  To this I am thinking "Huh? Why would he want to go to lunch if he's not eating."  But I just do the indian head nod and go with the flow.  I go to one of the counters and order food and when I get back to our table I see that Robert has a plate of fruit and a bowl of yogurt.  Apparently, eating 2 of the 4 food groups constitutes fasting in India.    

Despite the giant lunches, interesting interperation of fasting, and snacks everyone here appears to be pretty tiny, I am not sure how to explain this.  I have a feeling that this is somehow related to they mystery of how a tiny japanese woman win's the Nathan's hot dog eating competition every year.      

In contrast to the giant meals the drinks here are tiny.  Coffee which costs 5 rupees (about 10 cents) is served in two sizes small and large (peculiarly they both cost 5 rupees).  The small size is served in a cup, literally, the size of a dixie cup.  The large size is served in a cup that is smaller than those tiny styrofoam cups, the ones that no one would dare to ever serve coffee in had the coffee been served in America.   Vessel aside, the contents of the cup are not exactly what one traditionally thinks of as coffee.  "Regular" coffee is comprised a tiny amount of very strong espresso (or what appears to be espresso) and then the cup is topped off with hot milk.  Of course, the milk is jazzed up with some sugar. The "Black" coffee is pretty much the same except the espresso is topped off with hot water.  I have switched to black coffee, primarily because I am afraid of drinking unpasturized milk.   

On a related note, there is an intersting hand washing custom that takes place in the cafeteria.  After lunch everyone goes to this small room to the left of the dish drop off station to and wash and dry their hands.  I suppose that this makes sense because it is customary to eat with your hands.  The interesting thing is I have not seen anyone washing their hands BEFORE they eat only afterwards.  

Tomorrow is Gandhi Jayanti, national holiday in India!  This means that I will have the day off- this will give me a chance to investigate things outside of the the office and the hotel.  I am planning on getting a cell phone and skype so I will be in verbal and txt communication shortly.