Pre-Shower Schmee-Shower.

I'd like to make a correction to the Hindustan Times (if I may). What the city of Mumbai experienced yesterday was a light misting of the city. The "monsoons" would, in fact, begin tonight. As Ellen said in the car on our way home from work tonight, how do you describe this to people who aren't here? I'm going to do my best...

So we leave work around 7pm for what should be a twenty minute ride home and step out of the building to a thunderous, torrential downpour. Holding an umbrella, clutching my computer bag to myself, I sort of leap into the car across the gushing Mississippi River (what used to be a gutter). For about half the ride home, it was stop and go with taxis, autorickshaws, and motorcycles broken down in the middle of the road. We finally get to the more residential part of our drive home and everything comes to a dead stop. So, for the next hour, we crawl along the road at about 3 centimeters (I'm doing the whole metric thing these days) per minute. Oh, and on the radio, an Indian rapper is squealing about how "seeeeeeeexy" his lover is. Our hotel was like a mirage.

In other news, I wanted to fill you in on the Indian air-freshener situation: Moth Balls. Moth Balls are EVERYWHERE. They freshen toilets, urinals, toilet stalls, bathroom sinks, closets, cabs, autorickshaws, and any other confined space which might require the pleasant aromatherapy of a Moth Ball. I have a Moth Ball massage booked for next week.