Surviving The Mean Streets of Mumbai

OK, As I was walking today thinking pleasant thoughts of my last 7 weeks here in Mumbai and my last week as I held back the tears and had another epiphany: The Survival Pyramid of Mumbai. You know we have food chain pyramids, well here is a westerner's view of surviving the ever moving and less forgiving streets of Mumbai.

The bus. Top of the chain of survival. Don't walk in front of one and think that they will stop. Neither wind, nor rain, nor old bald white man, nor brown for that matter will prevent this vehicle from its appointed stop. Today the bus was travelling light, there are some laden with local passengers hanging on the windows from the outside while the rest are like sardines inside. I think the outside ride costs more because you can see where you are going and just drop off at anytime. That is why the Indian culture have no obese, they have to run and jump on some of vehicle in motion, no stopping, just like in Indiana Jones or is it Kevin Jones...not sure.
Ahhhhh, next in line is the Goods Carrier, smaller than a bus but able to leap most medians except the one on the way to the Accenture building where I waited in traffic for a half hour as one of these was straddling the median, all 4 wheels off the ground. Possibly tried to avoid a pedestrian...Nahhhhhhh, more likely a bus and he were headed straight on for each other and the driver let the bigger vehicle, I guess let is not the best word, the driver in fear for his life took the high road.

The next is your typical auto, can range anywhere from a suzuki version of a mini to a full grown Honda Accord or Mercedes. On my way home to write this a small compact and a small Goods Carrier could not share the road, recall in another blog, I said that there at times only 6 inches of space between vehicles, these two were like they were soldered together. The auto stops for nothing smaller than itself. It is usually driven by someone with no regard for human life or some woman looking for a new sari to wear to work on Monday.

OK, here we have the ever popular auto rickshaw. Capacity, 3 Idiots. I actually jumped into the back of one of these with Satish and Bhavesh last May while it was moving and carrying my laptop. Good times, good times. While in the auto rickshaw keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle(remember only 6 inches between vehicles) and if you have a bad back be prepared to see a chiropractor when you get out. However do NOT come to Mumbai and NOT ride in one. I will be taking Michele shopping in one when she arrives. Don't worry Michele, it's just like that wooden roller coaster at Hershey Park only there is nothing to strap you in and you can't raise your hands up and scream, well, you CAN scream, but it will do you no good because you won't be heard over the honking horns.

Lari, look , motorcycles!!! As I said, these puppies can carry one to 5 people and at times a whole family. If you could drive one of these for more than 15 minutes in Mumbai without getting in a wreck you could drive on one of those extreme tracks in the US. These are to me the most dangerous because they do not slow down for the speed bumps. I forgot to mention there are speed bumps usually on the side streets. the bikes can go around these and not slow down, and trust me just because you are walking and prone to be maimed or killed, this is not a deterrent.

These two were just sitting there, I am sure the drivers were somewhere tallying up the number of people they made go home and change their underwear today.

And next to last the bike. "Fat bottom girls you make the rockin world go round....get on your bikes and ride....." Again, prey to larger vehicles but more powerful than the pedestrian or westerner looking up in the sky to see the wondrous sites of plants on the top of the buildings and hotels.

OK, we are now at the bottom of the survival pyramid.

Here we have man, well sort of, this is Sundar, mentor for ORCHID and revered professor of telling tales out of school. He is here washing his hands after gorging himself on a meal I paid for. I guess he finally gave up(I.E. "washing his hands") on trying to surpass me in my weight loss. I am at 75.5 kgs a whopping 7 kgs from where I started around 15-16 pounds lighter.

Holi

Holi Celebration, Batman.
Satish took me to his neighborhood to give me the experience of the Indian Holiday called Holi.
Involves a huge bonfire. Also powdered paint which get APPLIED WHEREVER

One of Satish's frriend, an old man, and Satish's brother Sudish.

My spelling of some names may be off....

Prayers and offerings are given to the fire. I'm glad it wasn't me.....

And so the fun began.

And then things got better...This is Gigoo, Satish's best friend and Preeti Satish's wife. You can tell she really likes the two of us....

It got better........

Everyone LOVES Holi. This little princess danced the whole time.

I had a great time and it was a fun experience.
This was the last photo , Preeti,Satish and me. We actually went to a resturant later, where Preeti tried to convince me that marrying Satish has made her very happy..........someone is delusional..

Old fart at an old fort

A few weekends ago the team ORCHID took a trip to an old fort, Janjira Fort, that started being built in the mid 1500's and completed over a century and a half. The fort was never conquered. Below I have some pictures of that trip and the Arabian Sea.
The sunset was as beautiful as those in North Carolina and made me home sick.
I took dozens of pictures but will only upload a few .


The team had cottages that bordered the sea. We spent one full day and returned on Sunday.
Below is some native "scenery".


One of the cannons that protected the site was 18 feet long and whatever metal it was constructed from did not conduct heat so it remained cool to the touch regardless of the 90+ degree heat outside that day.
Boys will be boys. Obviously this was a joke.
We had one adult with us. This is Gargi and her son Swayam(spelling may be incorrect) I called him Trouble....

Many people took horseback rides Neha below has ridden horses for most of her life and lives up to the name on her t-shirt daily.....
The "princess" on board.
This was the last time Satish was laughing because the horse took him out to sea and we have not seen him since.

This is a view outside my cottage.
Morning tea.
On the way in the bus Sundar discovered we had a terrorist on board.

The Park

OK, so I 'found' this new park. I go there each morning and walk, it's about 3/4 to a mile from the Beatle Hotel and Gloria Jeans is about halfway. A win-win for me. So I thought this weekend I would hangout there, play some horseshoes or volleyball, do some wind sailing....OK they don't have any of these things in the middle of the city. LOL. But the park is beautiful and has many NC plants and flowers like crepes, lantana, something similar to a tulip magnolia, some plants like those giant glads we have on the medians off I40, just brings back a little feeling of NC in the spring to me. No daffodils though. Anyway I went there at 10:30 to find they close during the day...at 10:30, so i hung out by the wall near the fence that surrounds it and pouted for 2 hours and took pictures. I did manage to get a nice sun burn. It was an excellent day today. I went back at 5:00pm and it re-opened. It's so hot during the day that they close, what Indian in their right mind would go to a park just to hang out in the sun?? No one, so I see their point. But I did take pictures inside. In the mornings it is teeming with would-be runners, yoga instructors, meditating maniacs and a few lilly white foreigners like my self. Its very friendly and it is nice to see so many parents out with their children stretching and walking and playing before school. The park is surrounded by these massive "sentries". Buildings that reach to the clouds, one is brand new, not even painted yet, but spectacular, just like the girl who went out with Jerry in Seinfeld. This evening it was 70 degrees and a steady breeze, it was beautiful.
Sundar, I walked most of the day after getting on the recumbent bike for 12 miles. I dropped another KG. Sorry, you may as well give up and concede. Sundar, senior for the ORCHID group and most excellent mentor, has lost quite a bit of weight prior to my arrival, but not as much as me. I weighed in here at a whopping 82.4 KGS and now weigh 78.5 KGs on my way to 75 KGS. (181-172lbs). I feel bad for the "old" guy. LOL.
I know RTP got another 3-4 inches of snow. I feel bad for you there, LOL, I actually had to put some sun screen on today, Lari you would have been proud of me, I stayed out in the sun for about 6 hours. Melanoma, you got nothin on me...well maybe that little brown spot on my head....
Enjoy the snaps

Pastries from Sascha

I saved ALL the money that Sascha and Deanne gave me and bought two cakes from Ribbons and Balloons. One for the Rotigotine crew, the other for us peasants. Thanks Deanne and Sascha, hope you both have already bought pastries for a month for both Monheim and RTP with the $100 I sent to each of you.

Last weekend I was invited to the "Annual Town Hall" in Bangalore and accompanied Sundar and Satish. This is an annual event that Accenture Leadership sponsors and lasted from 2pm until 9 pm with skits, dances and singing. The entertainment was all local talent and the theme was Leadership. It was an excellent event.


Sanjay was kind enough to invite me to this event and I thank him for all his support to UCB and for his gracious company and he and Sridhar made me feel at home. They started the event by entering the pavilion on motorcycles!! Below Sanjay expresses his thanks to his employees.

Sundar( far left) and Satish( far right) have many friends at the Bangalore office. There was no way I could keep up with all the names.

A couple of bookends. Sundar and I are in a challenge to see who looses the most weight before I leave. I have the most weight to lose, so I really don't think there will be any competition.

After the leadership events it was disc time. Lots of food, drinks, even ice cream( there goes my diet) Someone likes to dance, guess who.

Mike , we missed you for Dances with Men.

I was resting here and took this wierd picture.

This is Archana and Priya.

Archana and the dancing machine.

Priya and satish.

I had a great time, it was a nice break and I had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Kumaresan who heads up the Narrative Writing on this side of the world partnering with UCB. It is always nice to put a face with a name, unless of course it is my face...LOL..

We all arrived safe back to Mumbai the next day.