the streets of mumbai

double picture post! (to make up for my laziness over the past few days)

to start with the shittier picture on the left, i'd like to describe for your entertainment the streets of mumbai. to begin with, you must understand that there are no enforced driving laws here, and no traffic cops to enforce the laws were they to exist. driving in mumbai is a free for all. the roads are all quite wide, and because lots of different things of different sizes use the road, no one uses lanes and everyone just squishes together and around each other and gets in about 100 near-accidents per day. regularly occupying the road are stray dogs, stray people, cows (always causing traffic), bicycles, motorcycles (often with entire families on them - mother, small child, father, small child - and the women all sit side-saddle which is particularly terrifying to watch) small cars, big cars (almost always for tourists, or celebrities), trucks (usually with something that smells awful in the back), buses, rickshaws, and - as you can see from the picture above - the occasional elephant (the picture is bad b/c i was caught by surprise and didn't roll down my window and the flash went off and then we drove away so i couldn't get a better one). oh, and a few days ago i saw a man walking down the street with a monkey on a leash.

\transportation here is a big problem b/c it's a big city with lots of people and everything on the road is at least 15-30 years old so the fumes and exhaust are relentless and its very polluted. i thought israeli driving was crazy - this is absolutely INSANE. in order to turn right (across traffic - they drive on the left here) - they don't wait for lights or turn signals, they just inch into the intersection beeping like a maniac while other people stop short inches away from each other - beeping like maniacs - and then you hold your breath and pray you don't die as your rickshaw driver swerves across the lanes. this is something i deal with every single day. also - pedestrians don't have right of way or crosswalks so i have acquired a very rational fear of crossing the street here b/c cars WILL NOT slow down but will opt to speed up and swerve close instead.

OK -- update for the week! we've been visiting random sets all week - monday we went to a TV set where they were shooting a sketch comedy show (as one actor described it to us - "it's like SNL, only not live, and it doesn't air on saturday, and we have a lot more censorship...and we're not as funny...") and that was a fantastic day - the set was really relaxed and the actors were hilarious and really fun to hang out with and talk to. we had a long discussion with one of the girl actors, purbi, about her impressions of america when she visited (people were surprised in NY that she spoke english, one person remarking, "oh but it makes sense you speak english now that i think about it -- isn't india under british rule??" - no surprise people think americans are ignorant....) and how she felt about being a non-bollywood actress in bombay (now here's something interesting: people in the city above a certain income mark and involved in things that are seen as "western" - ie cinema - all call mumbai bombay -- odd, no?) and lots of other things and she was very articulate and funny and hopefully we'll be seeing more of her later.

tuesday we visited the set of a white feather film called, "Pankh" which is their first 'art house' film and looks really good and interesting. when we asked the directed what it was about he just waved his hand at us impatiently and said "oh - it's a mindfuck----" and then didn't elaborate. laster on he explained to us that it's about a little boy whose mother forces him to dress and act like a girl so that he can act in bollywood films (a really common practice here in the 70's/80's - not so much now), and the film follows him in his early twenties as he struggles w/ identity and as his mother is trying to push him back into film but this time as a male actor etc etc --- actually sounded really interesting and the lead male actor was really cute.

weds - ben came back from his trip to delhi and since it was his last day our friend robby (owns the bar across the street and a hotel in juhu) decided to take us all on a scenic drive outside the city to a resort town called lonavla (picture on the right). it was SO NICE to get out of the city and breathe fresh air and see green living things -- b/c it's monsoon season the landscape was just ridiculously green and lush with waterfalls everywhere and monkeys congregating all over the side of the road. it was a really nice drive and break from the city/road/noise/pollution. i was happy for the occasion to get out of the city, and not particularly sad to see ben go.

today: so far somewhat dissapointing - we went to the movie theater to get tickets for harry potter and they were sold out ALL WEEKEND. it's ok we'll go back on sunday and get tickets for monday but it's sad b/c i was very excited to see it tonight. oh well. we were supposed to go back to the pankh set but instead they set up a meeting for us (well, me really) to talk to Farah Khan - one of the biggest and most highly respected bollywood choreographers. i'm trying to convince him to let me enroll in his dance academy for six weeks (even though the term is six months) and just generally i'm excited to talk to him. when choreographers get respected enough they also direct and produce -- so for song sequences in the bigger movies the whole movie is directed by whomever, but for the songs they completely hand the reigns over to the choreographer - they set up the budget, book locations and dancers and decide everything for those scenes (another reason why songs sequences in the big bollywood films seem incongruous iwth the rest of the film)


that's it for now - more later...