get me gone / home again home again jiggity jig

i was going to post a picture but looking through them they all seemed too depressing and i can't bring myself to post/look at/take any more pictures of sad brown people.

i just had one of those days/weeks where i am officially ready to come home and be done with mumbai. my backpack was inadvertently attacked by monsoon and molded through (RIP backpack), i got more bug bites last night than i've gotten the entire time i've been here, something i ate or drank liquified my insides, i went to colaba for a last souveneir expedition and my taxi broke down on the way back AND tried to overcharge me.

i'm so tired of being tired all the time from heat/exhaustion/haggling over prices/getting myself to and from places.

i'm counting down the hours until my flight. i can't wait to be somewhere else so that i can look back at this experience...but i'm kind of tired of experiencing it....

savor the flavor

that's what i keep telling myself anyway --- i'm alone again for another five days (total days alone = 10) but doing a much better job filling the time and not going crazy.

pictures: top one is a young girl cleaning laundry next to the tent where she lives on the sidewalk, middle is a woman on her way to sacrifice live chickens (hens? roosters? difference?) at the fishermen's temple i visited, bottom is the view from the karle caves (i climbed up the stairs on the right side of the image to get there)

on saturday i hired a car/driver and told him to just take me away from mumbai and get me out of the city - so he took me to these amazing caves and temples in the hills/small mountains outside the city. predictably, even though it was gorgeous when i woke up, it started pouring at soon as we got outside of the city, right when i started climbing slippery stone steps. less predictably, i came back with a really bad sunburn. you win some you lose some...although i'm not sure where the winning was between the rain and the sunburn...anyway it was fantastic to get out of the city and see GREEN and breathe fresh air and climb things and walk around. towards the end of the day my driver took me up to the top of this hill with a supposedly beautiful view of a lake and a dam and the hills --- and in typical Curtis family style, the fog rose with us as we drove and we couldn't see more than three feet off the lookout point once we got there. ahhh i love visiting places during monsoon/rainy season.

i don't know how to properly express how oppressive and aggressive mumbai feels - it truly feels like a constant battle in the city, no matter what's going on. to start, the air is incredibly heavy and thick with the heat and humidity and pollution. Add to that the constant noise of stray dogs and people and cars and the fact that the streets are always overcrowded and no one speaks english so every time you try to ask for something or go somewhere it's a battle to make yourself understood and taken together all the time everyday the city just starts to really feel ridiculously overwhelming. i feel exhausted at the end of every day, despite not usually having done that much - just getting there (wherever 'there' is) and back is an ordeal. it was amazing to get out for a little while.

i've also begun to haunt the restaurant across the street - ShreeJee's Vegetarian Wonders - going there for meals and chai and just sitting and reading and eating. it's surprisingly nice - i'd be tempted to write it off as being suspicious because its located so close to where i live and so far from nice areas of mumbai where most of the reliable restaurants/shops are, but it's one of the better/cleaner/cheaper places i've found. i like to just sit and people watch in the heat, although i will admit people watching is much less fun when all of the people you are watching are already watching you.... if you're curious about food, most places here are vegetarian, and it's only safe to eat meat/fish in nice restaurants. as i said when i came back from delhi, most of the food i usually associate with indian food in the states (chicken tikka masala, anything tandoori or served in saag) i have learned is from Rajasthan, or northern india - NOT mumbai. mumbai is more partial to peasant food b/c of the uber-impoverished majority, so food that's typical of mumbai is dal (served in the states as "lentil soup") - which is yellow and naturally pretty tasteless but they add spicy spicy peppers to give it flavor - the common cure for most food - served with plain white rice or roti/chappati (little pancake like things that are kind of rubbery and no where near as good as naan...or real bread, or actual pancakes...) usually i order a paneer (indian cheese) tikka masala gravy with butter naan, sometimes i mix it up with a mushroom tikka instead - those are basically creamy tomato sauces that are the least spicy of anything else on the menu. it's important to note that the spicy-ness scales here are soooo different from the states, they've killed their taste buds to the point that if you dare ask for something THEY think is spicy you will really really regret it. so i ask for no spice and still find it spicy.

overall the best foods i've had have been in my favorite two restaurants in mumbai - the rice boat ( the most amazingly sweet and creamy and delicious shrimp coconut curry i've ever imagined), and urban tadke (butter chicken that puts any chicken tikka masala or similar chicken dish to shame) - which even though i've only been here two months i've been to each of those place twice...and counting b/c i have yet to take the new roommates to them....hopefully i'll get one more meal at each before i go...

other than that i've been going to dance and yoga and reading and sleeping and taking care of whatever else i wanted to do. i'm particularly proud that tonight i went to this documentary/short film screening i randomly found a posting for online. the screening was at this high school in Mahim, which was a part of town that i was vaguely aware existed, and probably could've even pointed to on a map, but i'd never actually ventured into, and trying to get there and find it was was a great reminder of how narrow a slice of mumbai i've experienced/seen - even though i feel like i've been here forever and know my way around fairly well. the films were all very underwhelming (the final documentary was 75 minutes long and i probably would've cut 30 minutes from it --- not a good sign when it was a first time director who had worked his entire career previously as an editor...) but it was an adventure to try and find a strange building in a strange neighborhood and get in and around.

more later --

- h

rollercoaster mumbai

pictures: family on a motorcycle! (in case you didn't believe me), beggar with a naked baby (it's never for sure if the baby belongs to the beggar, lots of poor communities send people out to beg and give them children b/c they get more money that way), moment between impatient woman and bratling little boy at the bus stop.

first of all, everyone should check out this article in the nytimes about hollywood trying to break in to the bollywood market. very interesting.

this has been a rather eventful, extremely up-down week for me. on monday, i officially quit my "internship" with epigram -- i've started dancing everyday, 10-12ish, and then on mon/weds/fri i still do yoga from about 12:30-1:30, and after all of that on monday the idea of driving for two hours to do office work/nothing for six and then another two hours to come back late at night just felt overwhelmingly not worth it so i didn't go and haven't been back since - i gave them my apologies/resignation etc on tuesday.

dance has been absolutely incredible -- i'm going to this studio run by Habiba, a bollywood legend who has choreographed over 500 films - and, unlike most studios with famous choreographers names above the door, habiba has basically retired from most of her film work/travelling, so she comes and watches class most days. when she shows up everyone stops dancing/stretching/whatever to go and touch her feet ( a sign of respect) and then she sits on the side of the studio yelling at people and giving corrections from the sides for the rest of class. it's funny and fantastic. it took me a few days to get the hang of things and now i am just LOVING class every day. first of all, it's been more than 2 years since i've attended dance classes regularly, and second, bollywood dancing is just so much fun. it's cheesy and light and i can't help but smile the entire time i'm going through the moves (a big shift for those of you who have seen me perform before...usually i never smile - but here i can't help it i just grin like a buffoon the whole time). i think ariadna is going to come to class next week and record some of the routines i learn so that i can have them to remember and post them on the internet for my embarrassment and everyone elses enjoyment/amusement.

another odd thing about dancing here: in the states, i ALWAYS feel inadequate and insecure during most dance classes because of my lack of ballet technique, it's considered standard in the states and expected that you have a certain level of technique - and here i'm in a culture where it is rare for anyone to have any ballet training at all, i feel self concious during class b/c of all the little ways in which the technique i do have comes out. i always make fun of ballerinas who try and do hip hop (they can't help having technique and it comes out all funny when they try and dance hard), and that's the exact problem i'm having here -- all my western ballet and hip hop makes it hard for my style to look right doing the bollywood moves. but i'm having a blast anyway and that's what matters.

so that's the up for the week - moving on to the down: des and ariadna can't go to goa this weekend b/c ariadna's friend in delhi is going to go out of town soon so they're going to delhi this weekend instead. and not just forthe weekend - they're going friday-weds. which is a long time. and that not only leaves me alone for the weekend (during which there's no dance), that also means that i probably won't get to see goa at all (unless i go by myself this weekend - my time here is running out!). so that sucks. hopefully i'll find something to do with the time.

another good thing is that as the end of my time here nears, i'm finally getting good at creating activities for myself/being in mumbai - i'm determined not to leave any of those things that i wanted to do during my time here undone and watching the days go by on the calendar is really motivating me to get off my ass and make things happen for myself. i'm finally hassling the program coordinators into helping me tie all those loose ends together and hopefully i'll leave here feeling good about the way i spent the last two months.

it's been a really eventful and interesting summer - hopefully i can pick up the pace to cram in as much stuff as possible before heading back into the real world.

- h

happier, non-whiny, no longer lonely post

it finally occured to me that i should write the picture descriptions up near the top of the post where..you know...the pictures are - more pictures from rickshaws - they seem repetitive to me but i'd like to think they give you a more complete picture of mumbai -- the bottom picture are these shacks by the side of the road made from sheets of metal and tarps where some families live and work. shocking, but actually better living conditions than the people who live on the sidewalks near the busy roads and just have makeshift tarp/tent constructions. the shanty towns of mumbai look a lot like that third picture, except that they go on forever

happier note: people are here!!!! the apartment is full again!!! quick rundown of NEW apartment-mates:

lindsay: my new roommate, just came in from pen, she's doing her second month of the ymedical program now - from ohio, goes to ohio state, is also 20 and seems nice and drama free (desiree if you're reading this she doesn't compare and i still miss you and you should come back)

ariadna: came in two days ago, she's from argentina but lives in washington dc where she works for voices of america (the former dean of annenberg AND his dad were both presidents of said organization -- fight on) as a video journalist, she's here together with the other new roommate (with whom she attended a masters program in documentary film production in barcelona), taking a month off from work to learn about india/travel/etc -- oh, in case you couldn't get from that that she's a bit older than i am....she's 29 - but looks 23 i swear - i've had time to talk to her the most b/c she's been here an extra day and she is just super lovable and sweet -

des: came in late yesterday night, she's from greece, and still lives there, and produces documentaries for some production company there...i think...she and ariadna were roommates during their masters and haven't seen each other in a long time and it was fun watching them catch up last night, switching back and forth between spanish and english (ironic that all i've been craving during my alone time was people who spoke english as a first language and 2/3 of the people that arrive speak it as their second or third....but they're fluent and that's all i really wanted) she has a really dry sense of humor - i like her.

even though it was getting later and later into the evening and i was tired from stupidly going to work today -- it's been raining really heavily, and i couldn't go to work or really leave the apartment on friday b/c of flooding (which was the day after ariadna arrived - i think heavy flooding is mumbai's way of saying "hi, welcome" to new residents of 202 sargam society) anyway it took me over 2hrs to get there, and my taxi driver was an absolute moron and got us lost, and then when i got there they had more mind numbing work for me, although towards the end i got to "help" with photosets which was fun except the person i was "helping" doesn't speak english so it was more like watching with a purpose --- BUT, even though i was exhausted i stayed up for an hour or so just sitting in the living room and listening to people talking in languages that i partially and completely understood. it was magical. plus i really like ariadna/des -- we're planning on going to goa next weekend together (sans lindsay, who went last month with her roommates from pen) and i'm SUPER excited for that.

it's funny b/c each of them arrived seperately, but was brought here by mukesh (the coordinator who speaks the best english -- i'm learning to love and appreciate him dearly), who was always standing right there when they all asked me the same first question, "how long have you been here?" the answer to which was "about a month", and then "five weeks" and then "too long" and he thought it was very amusing - but honestly every time they asked (even though all three questions came within a 48hr period) i felt like i'd been here for longer and longer and longer...

it's really interesting talking to new people and answering questions about life here and the program and assuaging fears and kind of giving them the intro/orientation i never had (and creating realistic expectations about the somewhat lacking film program's programming). it gave me a lot of perspective on how much i've adjusted to being here and how much i've gotten a handle on mumbai and india etc. it always feels nice to realize that you know things and have gained insight/knowledge - especially after a week of feeling like india was just a frustration and a waste of time.

this is a useless story but i found it amusing so here it is: the first night ariadna was here we went to the mall so that i could buy some more books (my suitcase is going to weigh SO MUCH coming back filled with blankets and statues and the library of books i've accumulated while here it's ridiculous) - and we stopped in at the little supermarket in the mall so that she could pick up some facewash etc that she'd forgotten and just as she was commenting while we got online that we were the only foreigners in the entire store/mall -- i turned around and noticed that the man standing online behind us was white, with incredibly blue eyes. we waited online for about 20 minutes (only behind three people to begin with, i might add -- lines in india are painfully slow and inefficient and i have no idea why), and as we were finally paying i turned to the white man, who had been waiting all this time just to buy a single jar of mango jam, and asked him, making small talk, "wow - i hope that jam is worth the wait" and he smiled, and said "well it's not for me (at this point i realized he was russian), it's for a friend who requested i bring it back - and we call him 'Jam' as a nickname, so i thought it was funny, to go and get jam for Jam (at this point i laughed...i guess that is kind of funny - like me bringing back an ugly doll for rachel - OOOOOHHHHHHH, and then he added - ) Plus, i very much like the color of your hair, and enjoyed looking at you while we waited" awkward silence ensued....but it did answer why the only other foreigner in the ENTIRE mall/greater andheri area had chosen our line out of all 20 to stand in. (end of useless space filling story)

to answer zurow's (big haired gandhi? really?) question - no i don't have a shaved head, in fact quite the opposite - it's weird but my hair and nails grow freakishly fast here so my hair has gotten really long, and b/c of the rain it's not quite hot enough to warrant going bald in the name of comfort/conformity (sorry to disappoint) - also the matching little boys/children are seen everywhere b/c all schools here have uniforms and many have delightfully pink ones for the boys (oh and these ugly blue potato sack dresses for the girls) - and the fact that they're holding hands is one of those weird mumbai things that men/boys do where they....hold hands -- it's really disconcerting at first to see grown men holding hands while they walk down the street (when you KNOW they're not gay) -it's a friendship thing apparently.

it's amazing how much having people here has improved my mood/outlook on india and life.

love - h

lonely whiny post

so i've been here at the apartment all week by myself - going more than a little insane due to the combined factors of having no one around who speaks english as a first language, a lack of things to do, and being really frustrated with the program and really homesick.

the program coordinators failed to...well...coordinate anything for me for the past three days, so i spent them going stir crazy in the apartment after going on an 8hr bender and reading harry potter start to finish in one go. it was all fine and good for them to fall through on activities when there were other people in the apartment to laugh it off with and most importantly, go do something else with -- but when it's just me here it's not so funny and really frustrating.

however, today i finally got to start my internship with this company called epigram that does print and promo material for white feather films as well as LOTS of other bollywood movies so that's good. downsides are that it's an hour and a half away (each way), and that apparently interns are treated the same in every country (when i first got there they gave me a computer with photoshop and all the still images from a movie and told me to make a preliminary one-sheet...very exciting and scary and legit --- twenty minutes later a woman came in and told me that i had to scan 130+ pages of storyboards into the computer. interning = the dream/lure of doing something worthwhile and the reality of doing someone elses bitch work). upside: i like the people that work there, they do good work, and most importantly, it will keep me busy and give me something to do.

i started taking pictures while driving places in rickshaws - all taken while we're moving and with the camera perched on my knee so don't be too harsh --- i thought they might give you a good idea of some of the things i see all day everyday.

more later

- h

bunty and babli!!

it's been a while - i know, and i'm sorry.

i got back from our whirlwind trip to delhi/agra/jaipur on weds and have been unusually busy the rest of the week because all of the roommates are leaving this weekend so we were doing a lot of last-minute-before-i-leave-india things for everyone.

the trip: AMAZING. there's a weird LA vs NY type thing that goes on between Mumbai and Delhi - and everyone from Mumbai had been warning us about how 'aggressive' delhi was and how it was too spread out and miserable -- completely opposite from our experience. Delhi was beautiful and fantastic and made me hate mumbai a little bit. we lucked out and it rained before we got there and was overcast the entire time so instead of being 115 it was only 95-100 while we were there. the roads were clean and people obeyed traffic lights and we got a driver so we didn't encounter the "aggressive" side of delhi (apparently dealing with taxi's and rickshaws there is always a huge ordeal and they're very adament about ripping you off)-- and on our first night there at twilight we were taken to the india gate which is a huge public park where hundreds of family were eating and laughing and playing and there was bollywood music playing in the background and men blowing bubbles and selling ice cream and children playing in the fountains - it was incredible. i haven't seen a single public park since i arrived in mumbai and this one in delhi was one of the most beautiful and friendly i'd seen - ever.

additionally, our hotel directed us to a tourist agency that took our previously vague itinerary of tooling around delhi for a day and a half and then making our way to agra to see the taj and completely changed it to site-seeing in delhi, jaipur, agra, the taj - seeing all the important forts etc and putting us in better hotels -- all four days taken care of for $150 each. incredible. also - our driver was awesome and spoke english and was funny and perfect. his name was bunty, so naturally, i had him call me babli all week (oooh bollywood film reference!!!) however - the pace was pretty breakneck and i still feel like i'm recovering/absorbing some of the sights we saw.

all in all - i discovered that mumbai is kind of a shithole compared to delhi, and that when i was thinking about coming to india, all of the things i had anticipated were things found in northern india - the kinds of foods, sites, smells, clothing, culture -- all northern india and NOT found in mumbai. eh - you live and you learn.

best sights:

1) the fort in jaipur was incredible and you ride an elephant up the mountain/large hill to get there so that automatically makes it worth mentioning

2) the red fort in agra was beautiful and expansive, but unfortunately for it, right next to the taj so it's kind of the underestimated, underappreciated little brother of a wonder of the world.

3) the lotus temple in delhi is gorgeous and somewhat reminded me of the sydney opera house for some reason

4) no surprise, but the TAJ -- absolutely takes your breath away when you walk through the east gate and see it. incredible. i have no words -- but fortunately lots of pictures.

now were back in mumbai and everyone is leaving. it's a happy time in the apartment b/c everyone is in that 'make the most of it and laugh i have less than 40 hours left here' state of mind - but incredibly bittersweet for me b/c i have over a month left.....and thinking about all of them going home soon is making very homesick/peoplesick/foodsick/familiar things-sick etc. and- to make things worse - i found out that my new roommates don't come until next weekend so i'm alone in the apartment ALL WEEK. probably going to go insane- my one saving grace is that i purposefully saved the final harry potter book for when this time came.

pictures to be posted - for now you'll just have to make do with these three - just to mix things up, i'm in all three pictures -- can you find me?

i'll probably post a lot of whiny lonely posts in the next few days.

pre-departure pre-delhi post

no picture, sorry --

just wanted to give a quick update/hello before i leave for the week for delhi/agra -- i had the most ridiculous frustrating day so i'm going to try to keep this short so that i can go to bed and bring this day to an end

the week: visited post production facilities, including the editting bay where peter works. interesting to see nice really expensive machines and the people they lock into little rooms to work on them all day, but overall not really exciting and kind of completely underwhelming as a days activity. but - i did get to see the first edit for the Pankh trailer which was interesting -- i can't wait to see it when it finally comes out. and - i did decide FOR SURE that i do not want to do post-production next month. so that's something i guess...

today: i'm feeling completely bogged down by technological issues/obstacles. life here seems filled with simple things that get unneccessarily complicated by one element not working (examples: the key to our apartment only opens the door about 40% of the time, the internet is very spotty, my cell phone only charges if you hold the cord at the right angle and stand there...) little things like that were just building throughout the day leaving me VERY frustrated - today's specific battles included not being able to add money to my phone so that i could call home, not being able to send a letter i had written b/c i discovered the envelopes they sold me only had glue at one end and were basically folded pieces of paper, and my camera card breaking so i had to go buy a new one (which was ridiculously expensive - ironic and odd since they MAKE the camera card in india -- all in all i would say that little pieces of equipment that i can't fix myself and are completely dependent upon are the most frustrating things imaginable - ie cellphones, ipods, and camera cards) - and i was feeling time pressured because we leave for delhi early tomorrow morning and i obviously need a working camera card before seeing the taj/lotus temple/other beautiful things.

icing to the cake: weather forcast for delhi/agra is around 110-115 degrees for the week. i might die. but hey, at least i'll have died seeing the taj, right? now one of the official seven wonders of the world?

i might not have internet in delhi and depending on how things work out with the phone i might not be able to call anyone - so it's a possibility that you'll just have to take it on faith for the next week or so that i'm alive.

pictures to come of beautiful places --
- h

PS: quick clarification for zurowsky: when i use the $ sign i mean american dollars - i usually translate the cost of everything before putting it in the blog - and when i say rupees or rps i mean...rupees....which i think you already understood....anyway the conversion rate is about 40 rps to the dollar - and the gold seats cost 350rps, which is about $8.75