Sleepy.

I started to write an entry tonight and realized that it was making zero sense. I'm just too darn tired. So, in place of an entry tonight, I've decided to post a pretty picture of the Arabian Sea. I promise to write soon. Enjoy...

Udaipurrific.

As most of you know, I have a tendency to want to tell the tiniest of details whenever I am telling a story. I'll try to restrain myself...

This weekend was the big trip to Udaipur. It started Friday evening with a phone conversation with MOM, which made me so happy. Then Andy and I went to Pure for dinner - the organic, uber-trendy, upscale restaurant in the Taj. It was my first time, which is probably a good thing because I kinda want to go back every night for the next five months. I started off with a horseradish infused vodka basil martini (strangely delicious) and it only got better from there. Three hours later we were full and had a game plan for our weekend.

Wake up call at 3:40am and arrival in Udaipur at 7:40am. Although it was supposed to be 115 (5 degrees hotter than it was in Jaipur), it certainly did not feel like it, and was actually very pleasant. (Don't get me wrong - I was sweating the whole time. But, unlike Jaipur, it didn't make me want to sit completely static in a dark, air-conditioned room). The drive from the airport to our hotel was fascinating because we go to go through the countryside - people everywhere, vibrant colors, carts full of vegetables, and camels...


After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the dock where a small boat was waiting to take us out to our hotel, The Taj Lake Palace. The hotel, gleaming white, sits in the middle of the lake and is quite striking. It's the focal point of the entire city, and really does have a magical quality to it. When we pulled up to the hotel dock, there were a few people waiting to greet us, including a man with a huge handle bar mustache holding an umbrella - an over the top (yet also sorta fun) touch.

The inside of the hotel was stunning...huge stone bowls full of floating gardenias, ornate chandeliers, arch ways leading to courtyards full of lush foliage and trickling fountains. Beautiful. Our room was phenomenal, mainly due to this little seating area that jutted out into the lake. As you can see from the pictures below, our windows gave us a 180 degree view of the lake and the City Palace across the way. The little seating area was so pleasant that we decided to have a bottle of champagne and hang out for a bit before we went to breakfast...which lead to a drunk breakfast and more champagne (only this time, mixed with fresh watermelon juice...delicious!) It was about this time that we realized that it probably wasn't the best idea to put away a bottle and a half of champagne before heading out into 115 degree heat, but by that time it was too late, so we grabbed a few bottles of water and took the boat back to the mainland.

Udaipur is totally what I expected all of India to be like. The streets are small, narrow, and mostly dirt. There are a zillion little shops sandwiched next to each other selling beautiful fabric, Hindu god statues, vases, books, haircuts, massages, and all sorts of other fun things. It seemed cleaner than Mumbai somehow. I mean, still dirty, but the dirtiness was more...organic.


We wove our way through streets, donkeys, and autorickshaws, until we eventually came upon a Hindi temple. The temple was impressively carved with a lot of people milling about and worshipping. One of the highlights of the trip for me was an encounter I had with an old woman. She was seated, sort of tucked away in a corner behind a pillar. As I was exploring, I almost ran into her. She looked at me and gave me this huge, warm smile and offered me what she was about to eat (for lack of a better description, it looked like a soft taco). I declined and she offered once more before pulling it back to her, smiling, and saying something to me in Hindi. I really can't accurately describe the encounter...but you know how you can meet someone and without even talking with them, you know you have a deep connection? We knew each other somehow. And it was beautiful.
More wandering, a really lame museum, an elephant or two...

and we decided to head back to the hotel for some swimming, a massage, a game of chess, and a nap...
After showering, we went back into town to the Jagat Niwas Palace hotel (the place from my poster!) The restaurant had these really cool little alcoves that each had amazing views of the lake. It was sort of sprinkling - just enough to be refreshing, but not too much to be annoying. We ordered some wine and then attempted to order some dinner...only they were out of anything tandoori...uh, you see, their tandoori machine wasn't working...oh, and they were out of the continental menu too...um, and the grill menu, no grill items tonight. So, we were left with the Chinese menu, anything fried, and soup. I went for a parantha and Andy ordered the chicken soup...only they were out of the chicken soup...in fact, they only had one of the ten soups available...French Onion. So, we decided to finish our bottle of wine and head back to the restaurant at the hotel, which turned out to be a great call because the food was amazing. We topped the night off in a loungy area of the hotel, smoking a hooka (Pookie, I still have yet to learn how to smoke a hooka as fabulously as you do).


The next day we slept in and then went for a late breakfast: mint tea, the best mango I've ever eaten...ever, bircher muesli, a banana smoothie and egg white omelets. Some great conversation with Andy: he and his fiance are getting married in September, travel stories, John Wayne, Peoria, dining room tables, et cetera. We sort of debated what to do, couldn't make up our minds, and eventually decided on the City Palace across the way. The City Palace is the largest palace in Rajasthan and a museum. It turned out to be a GREAT decision...mirrored rooms, ancient carvings, and stunning views of Udaipur.


One more quick swim, shower, and we were on our way to the airport. The trip was absolutely fantastic, and I was pretty sad for it to end. Andy is heading back to LA this Thursday, but will return in two weeks. We're planning a triumvirate of trips in July (including the one you've probably all been waiting for)...more details to follow.

Lighting Strikes...Maybe Once, Maybe Twice.

Last night Ellen and I had dinner with my supervisor, Anish, and his wife. They told us a great story of their courtship (lots of parental disapproval and religion clashes) and their marriage is clearly one of love. His wife, Apoovra, is lovely - we immediately hit it off and they've invited me over to their home next weekend for a home cooked meal that is supposed to be spicier than anything I've ever had before. (To which I responded, "bring it on," though completely and joyously terrified.)

We had dinner at a placed called Khyber, which is an upscale take on North Indian cuisine. The decor was very sleek with long reddish-orange drapes hanging from vaulted ceilings and a shiny, silver strip with beautifully etched, back-lit designs that ran down the entire center of the restaurant.

Ellen and I decided that this night was the perfect one to break away from the classic (Chicken Tikka Masala) and let Anish and Apoovra do the ordering for us...and learned a valuable lesson: When in India, let the Indians do the ordering. Mughlai Chicken, an Indian take on calamari, and some new breads are now added to my list of favorites. Oh, and I've never been one for Indian desserts, but Kulfi, Indian ice cream, which is topped with a vermicelli rose water...is mind-blowingly delicious.

Today was Ellen's last day at the office. I'm sort of sad about it, but really happy that I got to spend so many weeks with her. It was great to have her here for the bulk of my entrance into India. We're meeting some friends out tonight for one last drink in Mumbai before she takes off at 3 in the morning.

I'm writing this entry with all of the lights off in my room because outside is the most amazing, almost un-realistic lighting storm I've ever seen in my life. The type of lightning bolts that literally make you stop what you're doing and reflect on how powerful nature is.

One Month.

I'd like to write more on this milestone, but am literally exhausted. I just got home from work and the bed is campaigning to be the most popular piece of furniture in my room right now.

Five months to go...

Oh Oh Oh!

So here's the plan, go download the song "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai (Euro Mix)" from the "Gangster: A Love Story" soundtrack on iTunes ("She fell in love with him...the day she betrayed him." is the movie's genius tagline) and then whenever I'm describing a dance club in Mumbai, you can play this song and feel like you're with me at the club. This is the song I've referred to in many previous posts as "The Oh Oh Oh Song." Seriously, you'll love it...go download.

Short, But Sweet.

This weekend was a short one (we worked Saturday), but a good one. Last night we had drinks at Shana's (who lives about a 2 rupee autorickshaw ride away from our hotel) and she served GUACAMOLE. I've never been so excited to see avocados before in my life. After sushi, that's probably the second thing I miss most.

Today I mostly relaxed, read (just finished THE INVISIBLES, currently WHITE TEETH.), got a facial (a whopping $35 here), hung out by the pool with Traci (she [sadly] leaves tonight), went to the gym (if they play the mix CD that has "Who Let The Dogs Out" at full blast one more time, I think I might cry), bought a Bobby Darin album on iTunes, and then went to dinner with Ellen, Traci, Rocky, Ali, Gaurev, and Sabina at a place called Basilico...now one of my favorite restaurants in Mumbai. Shrimp and olive skewers, sweet potato soup, lamb periperi, mint iced tea, and a plethora of desserts, my favorite being the gooey chocolate cake. Oh, and they give you an umbrella with your check to celebrate the beginning of monsoon season.

I also bought a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread for sandwiches this week. Mmmmm.

Happy Father's Day Pop!

Realism.

When I was younger, I went to see The Secret Garden with my family. In the play, the main character moves from India to England after her parents die. In one scene, she describes her experience in India as such: "I was always ill and tired, and it was too hot." This couldn't be a more accurate description (without the attitude, of course). After almost four weeks here, I would say that I have been sick about 75% of the time. The first time I got sick was really painful - my whole body ached and I felt horrible. Since then, it's sort of just been this constant stomach sickness that doesn't really go away. Sometimes its really bad, sometimes its not so bad. But, it's something that you deal with on a day to day basis and it becomes a part of your everyday life.

Ellen, Traci and I have all had the same experience with it. We were sort of laughing about it today and agreed that it would be nice to have one 24 hour time period where none of us are sick. We all meet up in the mornings and check up with each other:

Traci & Steve: How you feelin' Ellen?
Ellen: Pretty good.
Ellen & Traci: How about you, Steve?
Steve: Not bad.
Steve and Ellen: Traci?
Traci: ...Not good, guys.
Steve and Ellen: Oh, for Pete's sake.

The next morning, the same thing happens again, only it will be me or Ellen who is sick, or both of us. However, although this probably sounds terribly miserable to everyone reading this, its really not that bad. Once you get through the first bout with it, you just sort of deal with it. It's part of the experience. Unless you plan on eating just plain rice and yoghurt your whole time in India (which would be worse than the sickness), you're going to have to suck it up and deal with it.

(How realistic is my blog? I'm not just about the pretty pictures and colorful descriptions - rather, talking about hard-hitting issues and such. I'm sort of the Tom Brokaw of blogging I'd say).

I almost forgot...

On our way into work this morning, there was this crazy naked guy dancing in the center divide. Ellen and I drove by and chuckled. "That's hilarious," I said. "Yep, only a matter of time before the cops come to haul him away!" said Ellen...

Only he was still there when Traci came into work two hours later...still dancing away. Just your average morning commute in Mumbai!

Lesson I

So I realized that I have yet to answer the question that was on everyone's mind before I left...why was the city's name changed from Bombay to Mumbai? Well, I did a bit of research online and then checked it out with the guys at work to make sure that it was accurate. Here's what I found out...

In the 16th century, the Portuguese named the area Bom Bahia, meaning "Good Bay." However, after the British gained possession, the name was anglicised to Bombay. Finally, in 1997, due to the fact that the city had long been called Mumbai by two of the local languages, Marathi and Gujarati, Parliament officially changed the name.

This trend (of re-naming cities that had been named by the British) is very common in India. For example, Calcutta is now called Kolkata and Madras is now Chennai.

This re-naming trend also extends to, amongst other things, train stations. For example, the main train station in Mumbai is called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, but used to be called Victoria Terminus. Try saying that...seriously............exactly. So, whenever I refer to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, I try to take the easy way out and call it Victoria Terminus, thinking that everyone will understand that I can't pronounce it by it's real name and give me a break. Not so. So, now I just call it, "that pretty train station in town." (I've included a picture for reference.)


Back to Mumbai. The name Mumbai is derived from Mumba, the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi, and Aai or "mother" in Marathi. Did you know that Mumbai and it's neighboring suburbs form the fourth most populous metropolitan area after Tokyo, Mexico City, and New York? Who knew.

Finally, here's how you pronounce Mumbai: Start with "mum" as in "mum's the word" and then follow it up with "bai" as in "bye." In terms of where you place the emphasis, they're fairly equal with just a touch more given to the "mum." So, it's not MUMbai, or mumBAI. It's mumbai.

That's it for today kids, make sure you read chapter 10 before class tomorrow and remember to study for our quiz on Monday.

Plans.

For anyone who was ever in my office at DreamWorks, remember this?

Well, this is where I'm going the weekend after next - Udaipur. Andy (the guy from LA who is staying at my hotel for the next few months) and I are heading up early Saturday morning and coming back late Sunday night. A little IMDB trivia for you all: We're staying at the same hotel that Octopussy was filmed at. I can't wait.

Food I

I was thinking today about how my life differs in India from LA and one of the major differences is food. Food in general. What I eat here. How I eat here. What I can eat here. Etcetera, etcetera...

First and foremost, its really hard to eat Indian food for multiple days a week, much less multiple times a day. Here's why...SAUCE. While most Indian sauces are incredibly delicious, they are also very heavy, which make you feel like you've swallowed a fairly large Ganesh statue afterwards. So, while I would love to be truly authentic while I'm here, I also need to function. So, I have to come up with alternative meals - which presents more issues...

Protein is really difficult to get in your diet out here. First, fish. Usually, in LA, you insist on your fish being "fresh." Well here, if you're told that your fish was freshly caught, you look out to the Arabian Sea...and pass. Seriously, it's gross. Second, chicken. One of the guys here from Disney only eats white meat chicken. It's pretty entertaining to watch him try to communicate this to every single restaurant we go to. Basically, white meat is hard to find, bones are easy to find, and I guess as long as I don't get the bird flu, I'll be happy.

Due to the aforementioned issues, I've had to get sort of creative with my protein intake. I eat a lot of peanut butter, lentils, paneer, etc. Also, the hotel food is pretty fantastic and very comparable to what you'd have in the States. My favorite is the Cider Seared Chicken. It's one of their "healthy" dishes and while they technically only serve it on the room service menu, I can usually get them to serve it to me in the restaurant too.

Finally, vanilla ice cream. I'm not sure what it is about their vanilla ice cream here, but it is good to the point of unbelievability. I'm serious. It's amazing.

Well, that's it for now. Please do me a favor...go have sushi tonight and toast a glass of sake to me. What I wouldn't give for a spicy tuna roll right now... :)

Covering my 'pur bases.

I'm working on my next trip. This is going to be a good one. Details to come...

Wow, it's been awhile since I've written. Sorry about that folks. I'll get right down to it...

On Friday night, Ellen, Traci and I went out with Rocky and Ali, some friends of one of the principals of Prana. We started at Olive, which is this very trendy, LA-ish type restaurant/bar with $26 martinis, a Bollywood crowd, and a DJ spinning great uptempo music.

I'd classify Ali as a party catalyst, with intensely contagious energy. He also ramps up in levels. So, after a few martinis and Ali reaching level three (out of five), we left Olive to go to Enigma, one of the big clubs in town. Enigma, though similar to Insomnia, is less about socializing, and more about dancing. People were dancing all over the place, not just the dancefloor. The DJ played a lot more Hindi music than at Insomnia, and I now have my official "song of India". I'm not sure what it's called, but its the song I talked about earlier where everyone yells "oh oh oh oh" at the top of their lungs with their hands in the air. It's awesome. Everyone gets so hyped up when this song comes on. Apparently, its from some Bollywood film. We stayed at Enigma until it closed at 3:30am and then everyone came back to our hotel for chicken tikka masala pizza.

Saturday was spent recovering, working out, and hanging by the pool. Last night, we had a similar night hanging out with Rocky and some other people. We swore that we were just going to dinner, but somehow (no one knows exactly how it happened), we all ended up back at Enigma until 3:30am again. Some pics...



The cool thing about this weekend is that I'm really starting to see the real Mumbai. By real, I mean the non-tourist side of the city. While local Mumbaikers still partonize the same clubs as the tourists, you have a totally different experience when you go with locals (including hanging out in different parts of clubs that tourists don't have access to). It was really great to start to see another side of the city that can only be accessed by actually living here, and not just with a quick visit.

I've also been surprised to see how similar Mumbai works to LA in the night life scene. There are guest lists, VIP rooms, and free drinks. I guess I wasn't expecting that, though probably should have since Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India. I don't really have much to say on the subject, it's just more of an observation that I thought might be of interest.

In other news, I switched rooms so that I could have a new view. My new room looks straight down the beach, and has a really interesting view of the high rise buildings in Bandra (the neighborhood that my hotel is in). It's sweet. I moved my desk and chairs around so that whenever I sit down to work on the computer or read, I'm looking down the beach. I included a picture below.



Lastly, Ellen and I have decided that the gym is the best place to meet people in the hotel. Just now, I was working out and met a guy who is from LA, arrived three weeks ago, and will be here until September for work. How crazy is that! Plus, his place back in LA is a few blocks away from where I used to live on Flores. It will be fun to have an LA friend who is here for the long haul as well. Tonight we're going to watch the World Cup at one of the restaurants in the hotel. Which, by the way, is all decked out with different countries flags and every meal that you order from their "World Cup Menu" comes with a free Budweiser. Yum!

Large Ice Blended Mocha Ultimate, Extra Shot, Half The Powder...

So I've decided that I'm not going to drink coffee while I'm out here. It's just not very good. And, frankly, if I can't have Coffee Bean, I might as well be drinking brown water. I'm having really bad headaches and don't have a lot of energy - some of you have been through this with me before. I get through it (and put all sixteen grandchildren in the Advil family through college).

I went to the local market, Patel's, after work tonight. It's so cute, with its mini baskets, mini carts, mini aisles and ginormous prices. I bought a loaf of whole wheat bread (yes, real whole wheat, not "brown bread"), two cans of V8 juice, a box of muesli, a bar of dark chocolate, and NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER! I seriously couldn't believe they had a natural peanut butter there. (Granted, it was the only jar in the store, but lucky me got it!)

Goodnight.

Sunrise in Mumbai.

This morning I decided to get up at 5am to visit the Hanging Gardens. It's not mandatory that you visit the gardens at sunrise, but I thought it would be a great time of day to see them. I left my hotel when it was still dark and arrived at the gardens just as the sky was turning to a light gray. So, to be honest, I'm still a bit perplexed why they call them the Hanging Gardens. Their alternate name, "Sir Pherozshah Mehta Gardens," is much more appropriate. Mainly, because it does not claim that anything is "hanging." The area, while beautiful, was just a small park with lots of colorful flower bushes, animal-shaped topiaries, penguin-shaped trash cans, and tons of power-walkers. I could definitely see why you would want to make this your power-walking garden of choice if you lived nearby, but aside from that, it was sort of blah.

Luckily, the Kamala Nehru Park was just next door. This park was much more overgrown and run-down, but with gorgeous views of the city and Chowpatty Beach. The first picture is from the Hanging Gardens, the second is the view from Kamala Nehru Park...



However, my favorite find of the morning was this...



Christina Janelle: Apparently, buildings shaped like BOOTS are much easier to find in Mumbai rather than in Amarillo, Texas.

After passing a dead rat on the street, I decided it was time to leave. So, my cab driver (the same one from my Amazing Race episode), took me to Haji Ali Dargah, the "city's most important Muslim shrine." When we first got to the Haj, my cab driver told me, "No, no - dangerous." I asked him if I wasn't allowed and his response was "dangerous." So, I re-read my flaming pink "Best Of Mumbai" guide (Thanks Pecky and Michelle!) to double check to see if there was any reason why I shouldn't attend this site. According to Lonely Planet, this place was very safe for tourists to visit. But then I started to wonder if maybe some sort of political unrest had happened the night before and the Muslims were mad at the US and were going to take it out on some poor, little white-boy tourist. I decided I was going to brave it and, of course, it was fine. My cab driver was referring to how you get out to the shrine: a long, narrow, half-mile pathway that is completely covered in water at high-tide and uncrossable. Once high-tide hits, the shrine shuts their gates and if you are out there when it happens, you just have to wait the few hours until it subsides. However, at the time I was there, it was very low-tide and very safe. The shrine was indeed beautiful (you are not allowed to take pictures) and I had a great conversation with two guys trying to sell me pictures of random people. I'm not sure if the locals were surprised to see me out there at this time of day (dawn is not really typical tourist visiting hours), but I felt very scrutinized...more so than I have at any time since I've been here. It was sort of weird, but then I started thinking about when people come to the US and are wearing traditional, "strange" (to Americans) clothing and everyone stares at them. I guess its sort of the same thing. So, I just tried to be very respectful and after a few minutes of walking around, made my way back to the car and headed back to hotel for breakfast and a three hour nap.

On a side note, I finally unpacked this morning and got quite a chuckle at some of the things that I packed. The notion of wearing a sweater or anything that provides warmth is literally lol worthy. Even now, in the "cool" monsoon season, it is stiflingly hot. I probably could have made it out here with one suitcase. Ah well, I'm learning.

And last, but not least...HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY POOKIE!!!

At long last...Prana

It was a very conscious decision to wait until now to talk about Prana. Basically, I'’ve been overwhelmed. After three years in National Promotions at DreamWorks, I feel pretty confident in saying that I had it down. I knew everyone, I knew how to get things done, I knew the system. And here, I know nothing. The osmotic knowledge that I gained while doing the custom animated TV spots for Over The Hedge was about as superficial as a Lindsey Buckingham song. I'’d barely touched the surface. (And Lindsey's music barely touches Stevie's...yes, even her klonopin-laden Street Angel album.)

Essentially, every meeting I attend, every conversation I have, every email I read, I am frantically trying to figure out what words, phrases, and terminology mean (oh, and sometimes Prana uses different words than DreamWorks for things that I do know). Secondly, business culture in India is VERY different than the US. Things are just done...differently. You speak to people differently, you interact differently, and sometimes things that you take for granted in the US are not taken for granted here. You have to retrace your steps a lot and make sure that everyone is on the same page. It's sort of hard to explain, but basically, you have to put much more effort and thought into communicating.

Before I get much further, I want to be clear that I love it at Prana. All of the things that can be a bit frustrating about Prana (in comparison to the oiled up machine that is DreamWorks) are also the things that make me so thankful to be working for this company. It's a very young company with a relatively flat corporate structure - which means that I get to see and do so much. Everywhere I turn, I am confronted with a different area of computer animation. If I'm talking or learning about modeling, I can walk down the hall to the modeling department. If I'm curious about how a rig is made, I ask the guy sitting next to me at lunch. I don't really have to seek out "how computer animation is done," because it's happening right in front of me. I am given the freedom to explore and experience as much as my heart desires.

However, the intensity of this week, paired with the fact that I've been sick since last Tuesday has been really difficult. I've been overwhelmed and I didn'’t really want to write about this integral part of my experience until I had settled in.

I'm not done...

The people of India are absolutely beautiful. I can'’t even begin to describe how kind, warm, and friendly people are here. For example, last weekend in Jaipur, Ellen and I were trying to figure out what this mistletoe-ish thing was hanging from a doorway. It was basically a shriveled lemon and a bunch of green chili peppers on a string. (Quick side-note: Dean, remember when you were writing a letter to Father Tom and spelled Chile like the restaurant, Chili's? Hilarious). Anyways, I happened to be thinking about it today (oh yeah, we work every other Saturday), so I decided to ask the guy next to me, Amit (one of my favorites) what the deal was with it. Turns out, it's a good luck charm. We spent the next ten minutes talking about good luck charms, the Evil Eye, good and bad spirits, auspicious days, arranged marriages, and weddings. It was awesome. Afterwards, I realized how much I have to learn from each and every one of these people that I work with, and vice versa.

More to come on Prana...

I have not even been here for two weeks and yet I feel like I've been here for a month (in a good way). It reminds me of when I first got to college. So much happened in one day that when you went to bed at night, things that had happened that morning felt like they happened last week. I have so much to learn here...and I am so excited.

Wanderlust.

I had dinner with Alex at Ming Yang tonight. We discussed whether people can be moved by metaphors, or merely project their own beliefs onto that metaphor. My fortune cookie read: ":) You are a traveler at heart there will be many journeys. :)"

I've received quite a few requests for an entry on Prana and my experience thus far. It's coming, I promise.

Not a drop of rain today. (I stayed dry.) :)