A Year.

After much thought...discussions with friends...advice from mentors...and long walks along the Arabian Sea, I've decided to stay in India for a full year.

It was an incredibly hard decision...one of the most difficult I've ever had to make. But now that I've gone through the whole process, I am indescribably excited. I've begun to realize how much I was not going to get to do in six months...that now I will be able to do. As opposed to my first six months of traveling, which has focused on the popular tourist destinations (Delhi, Agra, Udaipur, Jaipur, etc.), my last six months will focus on the lesser known, off-the-beaten-path destinations...the ones that most people don't get to do on the average trip to India. I've also decided to learn Hindi (in addition to bobbling my head from left to right when I say "yes" instead of nodding up and down).

The decision was largely based on my situation with Prana. By staying until May, I will be able to see the current project through to the end. (As an update, I'm loving it. I've gotten to be close with the crew and love what I'm doing. Each day is exciting, if not intense. I'm still learning new things each day and look forward to a solid year of that.)

I'll still come home in November, but after the annual Stevember birthday trip to Puerto Vallarta, I will return to Mumbai. A trip home for Christmas and then one in February before my final return to the States in May '07.

And with this decision, I look out my window and start to view this place as "home"... a place which just three months ago seemed so completely foreign to me.

Almost A Local...

Yesterday I got a taste of the beautiful weather that is coming to India in November and December. Bright, blue skies, brilliant sunshine, and a cool offshore breeze from the Arabian Sea. I went for a run along Bandstand (the boardwalk that runs in front of my hotel) and then lifted in the gym before heading out to run some errands and grab dinner.

I stopped by the DVD store first, the bank, and then wanted to grab some food from my favorite Thai restaurant in Bandra, Thai Ban. The cab driver, however, did not know where it was and we wound up getting a little lost. I directed him so that I knew I was at least in the general vicinity and then got out to walk. I stopped a guy on the street and asked him if he knew where the restaurant was, or if he knew where Gold's Gym was (which is right across the street). He was on his way to Gold's, so we walked together. From Bombay, he works in IT and does quite a bit of traveling. We chatted about this and that, and then I asked him his name. It was Chaitanya. So, here's the cool thing about that...the way that I remember people's names when I first meet them is to associate them with someone else I know by the same name. Well, when I first came to India, that didn't work so well. Unfortunately, I didn't know any Soumyadip's, Jignesh's, or Akanksha's back in the US. Well, when Chaitanya told me his name, I was very excited because I already knew a Chaitanya! So, remembering his name was a snap.

However, my favorite part of our walk through town was when we were crossing the street and a cab came flying out of nowhere, hurtling towards me as fast as the little clunker could go. I calmly held out my hand (signaling him to stop), and he screetched to a halt a few inches from where I was crossing. Chaitanya burst out laughing and said, "You know!" One of the little tricks I've learned here is that you can't meekly cross the street, hoping that a cab will stop for you...because they won't. You have to defiantly hold out your hand, letting the cab know who's boss. I know, it doesn't make much sense because basically, if the scenario were to play out, I'd lose...but somehow it works.

It made me feel like a real Mumbaiker.

Much love to my family who are all in NYC right now, getting my little sister settled into college. (Hopefully, they didn't buy her any pink toothbrushes.) Good luck, Pookie.

...and some big announcements coming this week...

Sitar, Sitar

Tonight Ellen, David (one of the Disney guys) and I went down to Colaba for a sitar concert. The maestro was pretty young and reminded me of Joaquin Phoenix. His dad, who sat in the front row, was very vocal about the performance. At one point, we walked up to the stage and said something to his son. The audience was really into it and often gasped at the intense moments of the songs. My favorite part was this HUGE, bright advertisement that was draped on the wall behind the sitar player. It was basically a giant billboard advertising the sponsor of the event. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called Trishna's, which was themed like a boat (?) Delicious lobster, king crab, and prawns (Indian style, of course). A fun, cultural evening in Mumbai.

And for some reason, I felt compelled to play Rumours when I got home...

"I think I just depreciated that chair by at least $100 - just by sitting in it." -Andy, after sitting in a US$20,000 chair.

"You must have a hard time keeping those things in stock. They must fly off the shelves like hot cakes." -Seth, referring to the aforementioned chair.


For Andy's Going Away Weekend, I wouldn't have expected anything less than gratuitous laughing, drinking, dancing, and unrestrained revelry. The weekend started out quietly enough with the Friday night arrival of our favorite CNN correspondent and Delhi-ite, Seth Doane! Andy took the night to rest-up while Seth and I had dinner at Seijou - a really cool, modern Asian restaurant with fantastic seafood, LA-ish ambiance, and bathrooms shaped like eggs (of course they are).

The next morning, Andy, Seth, Ellen and I piled into a car and headed to the other Taj hotel in Mumbai, the Taj Mahal. This Taj is about an hour away from where our Taj is in Bandra, but more in the heart of the tourist district (our rooms looked out over the Gateway of India, the biggest tourist attraction in the city). This is also the hotel which houses my favorite club in Mumbai, Insomnia. We arrived at about 1pm and ate a late lunch of caprese salads and iced tea before doing some shopping near the hotel. The weather was beautiful this weekend, so we hung out by the pool for a few hours before getting ready for dinner. Lots of champagne later, we were showered and ready for dinner at Indigo where we were joined by Vinod and Maria (Andy's boss and his wife), Arish (one of the principles of Prana) and his friend for dinner. As the night progressed, more of Andy's friends arrived until we decided that it was time for dancing at Insomnia. We arrived at the perfect time (just as the club was starting to pick up) and established ourselves as the best dancers in the club before any of the riff raff showed up. Stage dancing, tequila shots (some of which we drank, some of which spilled...I am still beside myself), and dancing snaps. I was reminded why this is my favorite club in India - too, too much fun. We ended the night with grilled cheese and tomato soup at the hotel coffee shop.


This morning, we all breakfasted and recapped the previous night's debauchery. Then Seth and I went for a long walk along the ocean before a quick dip at the pool and check out. A quick, yet excruciatingly delicious lunch at Indigo's gourmet store/mini-restaurant and then a traffic-less ride back to our Taj in Bandra. Seth rushed to the airport and I rushed to my couch.

I'm sad to loose my travel buddy, but so excited that he is a few weeks away from the happiest day of his life...

Congratulations and good luck, buddy! Mumbai won't be the same without you.

3 Months

...and 3 to go...

Pune ("Poo-nah," not "Peewn")

For my junior year at Notre Dame, my friend Christy and I took a cross country road trip from San Diego to South Bend. As we neared Amarillo, Texas, we talked excitedly about eating dinner at "the restaurant shaped like a boot" that we had heard so much about. (And by "heard so much about," I mean "my dad told me that there was a restaurant shaped like a boot in Amarillo, Texas.") Though we should have figured that something was amiss when the Motel 6 front desk clerk gave us a puzzled expression after we asked about the restaurant shaped like a boot - it wasn't until we got to there that we discovered that the restaurant is not, in fact, shaped like a boot, but has a picture of a boot on it's sign. Nevertheless, we had great time at dinner and the night was just as memorable as had it of occurred in a restaurant shaped like a boot.

My trip to Pune was sort of like my trip to Amarillo, Texas.

When planning my trip to the Osho Meditation Resort, I had a backup plan to check out and stay at one of the regular hotels in town and see the sights of Pune in case I didn't like Osho. Well, that's exactly what happened.

I'm going to describe all of the little things that sort of annoyed/confused/creeped me out about the experience before I tell the main reason that I checked out and went to a regular hotel in town.

I arrived at the resort on Sunday morning and was pleasantly surprised by the entrance. Sleek, modern silver paneling with trickling wall fountains, a Buddha statue, and other meditative type things adorned the waiting area. I told them that I would be staying at the hotel, but they said that I had to do the registration process first. The registration process was supposed to take about 15 minutes. When I arrived at the resort, I was so excited and charged up with anticipation. However, 15 minutes turned into 25 minutes, which turned into 35 minutes. I was pretty hungry and starting to get a bit annoyed. At which point I thought - THIS IS A TEST! They're testing me to see if I freak out when I have to wait longer than the foretold time. To which I thought, "Ooh - good one Osho. You almost had me!" So I took a deep breath and chilled out. 35 minutes turned to 45, which turned to an hour. Finally, I found out that it wasn't a test, and that they had lost my registration form somewhere. They profusely apologized, finished signing me in and then sent me off with a bell hop to take me to the hotel. The hotel, while sleek and modern, was very cold. I decided that I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the hotel room anyways, so it wasn't a big deal. I also found out that I was supposed to have come directly to the hotel, where they would have taken care of my registration process. They gave me my maroon robe (which everyone has to wear in the daytime, white robes at night) and told me that all I needed was my robe and my meditation pass. So, I set off to get meditating.

Due to the delay of registration, I missed the dancing as meditation class, which made me really sad. Fortunately, there was a "sitting still" meditation class which was to start in about ten minutes. The hotel is in a remote part of the compound, so I had to walk a ways to get to the where the class was held. I arrived and noticed that everyone was taking off their shoes and putting on white socks. Well, I didn't bring any white socks, so I asked where I could buy some. The lady told me that I could buy them at the information desk, but that the information desk was closed for the next two hours (I'm guessing one hour for the information desk workers to eat lunch, one hour to meditate?). I'd have to wait...and I couldn't join the class unless I had white socks. I was pretty bummed, but decided that this would be a good opportunity to explore the "multi-acre Zen garden"!

Now, here is where I don't want to give the wrong impression - the Zen garden was nice. Nice foliage. Nice Buddha statues placed in flower beds. Nice, nice, nice. But, to be honest, there was not a single place in the Zen garden where I would have wanted to meditate. I was expecting dozens of little hidden nooks where you could wile away the hours, developing inner peace while trickling rivers cleansed your mental turmoil. Not so. A few benches placed along the paths, Buddha statue here, Buddha statue there, small little pond. That's it. The more I explored, the more I realized that I wouldn't be meditating outside, I'd be meditating inside these drab, black buildings...wearing socks. So, I re-read my map.

I figured that there had to be some hidden part of the compound I'd missed. And there was! WAY on the other side of the the compound (about a mile and a half from the hotel), was a place called Teerth Gardens. It was part of the meditation resort, but sort of not because you had to walk so far to get there. So, I trucked it out there in my maroon robe and started along the path. And it was also nice. But, the more I walked, the more muddy it got. So, I thought, "Ooh, I'll be so zen and take off my sandals...become one with the mud." So, I walked along like that for a bit, mud squishing through my toes...super naturey, super gross. Eventually, I came to a part of the path that was VERY muddy. I stopped. Still, muddy water was everywhere - about 6" to a foot deep. The mosquitos gathered together in the air to spell out the word "Malaria" and I decided that I was over the mud walk. So, I turned around. But then I thought, how am I going to wash my feet off? Well, I found a little clearing that led to the side of the river and started to walk down...when I saw a sign that said "Beware Of Snakes!" I turned around, walked back to my hotel, washed off my feet, and checked out.

None of these things on their own (or combined for that matter) made me want to check out. The main reason why I checked out was the vibe that I got. For those of you who know me well, I am all about my gut. And my gut just didn't feel right. Perhaps it was the whole, everyone wearing the same thing thing. Or perhaps it was the "if you don't attend the evening meeting, you have to be in your hotel room with the door locked" thing. Regardless, it just didn't feel right to me. So, I left. It was quite the kafuffle though. They freaked (in a non-scary way). They really tried to make me stay, but by that point, I was really ready to leave. So I packed it up and took a taxi over to the Le Meridien.

So begins Part 2 of my Pune weekend...

The Le Meridien, as all Starwood Hotels are, was beautiful. Because I'm a Starwood Gold member (Hey, Timmy!), they upgraded me to their club level. So I had a super sweet room and access to high tea, the cocktail hour, and breakfast. Very nice. I went to the gym, swam in the rooftop pool, and then showered before heading down to the cocktail hour. I met a really nice guy from Australia who is involved in engineering something or other, so we chatted for awhile about everything but engineering before I headed into town for dinner at a place called Bombay Brasserie. Good food, horrible ambiance (it sorted of reminded me of a Coco's or something...and it was recommended as one of the nicest restaurants in town). As it was a Sunday, the club scene was supposed to be dead, so I went to bed early.

I woke up fairy early as well, ate breakfast, and started my exploration of Pune. The first place I went was Shaniwar Wada, a royal residence that burned down a long, long time ago. However, the ruins are all overgrown with greenery now, so it's really quite a site. As I walked along the stubble of walls, it was so fun to try to imagine what used to be what. For example, there was a huge shaft that went 40 yards into the ground or so, and was connected to a smaller, more shallow hole. Though there were little signs everywhere that were meant to be informative, they would often display such interesting factoids as "During the Peshwai era, there was much greed and corruption."...and not a word about the giant hole! Here are some pictures...


Next, I went to The Parvati Temple, by far, the highlight of my trip to Pune. The temple houses a shrine to Peshwa Bajirao (not exactly sure who he is, but I'm sure he was involved in greed and corruption of some sort), as well as various Hindu gods. The temple is atop a hill that overlooks the entire city. To get to the temple, you have to walk up 108 steps - only, these aren't regular steps. They are more like long, sloping "levels." It's sort of like the steep side of Runyon Canyon times three (in terms of duration, not degree). Now, I'm in pretty good shape these days, but this was one tough climb. The rewards was worth it though: the view was spectacular, the shrines were colorful and joyous, and the air was the most pure thing my lungs have been filled with since I arrived in India. Some snaps...


Next I wanted to see The University of Pune. Though Lonely Planet didn't mention it, the magazine in my hotel room touted it as "magnificent." It took forever to get there, and just as we did, it started to rain really hard. The University was very spread out, and the main building was sort of lackluster. (Maybe I was hoping for a giant dome with Ganesh on top, plated in gold...who knows.) Back to the hotel for lunch and a massage and then it was time to go to the airport (As the sights of Pune can be done in a day, I decided to come home early).

I actually had a really great time on the trip - though it wasn't the trip that I thought I was going to have. I'm discovering that one of the best parts of traveling is making it up as you go along, and being flexible enough to completely change your plans so that you have a good time no matter what happens along the way.

And there was lots of blue sky.

Growing.

I woke this morning to a tiny patch of blue sky peeking through the relentless monsoon cloud cover. I sat by my window like a little flower, soaking it up.

Another long week, but I'm off for the next three days (India is celebrating it's Independence Day on Tuesday). I've decided to visit a little city called Pune for the weekend. I'm staying at a "meditation resort." The resort has a multi-acre zen garden, conducts meditation classes (including one on dancing as a form of meditation), and serves all organic food. I'm really looking forward to it.

India is on high terror alert for the next five days as the US warned India of an impending attack, likely to occur in Mumbai or Delhi before or on Independence Day. They specifically noted airports and hotels as likely targets. Which is lucky for me because I'm rarely in either.

I had a great week at work this week. It's been a long time since my brain has really felt challenged. It made me miss school a bit...when your brain is constantly absorbing and growing.

I received an email from my mom yesterday and it made me so happy. Hi Mom!

I shaved my head for the last time tonight. (A collective sigh of relief sounds from India to the United States).

Time for bed. I'm hoping there's some blue sky in Pune.

Eek!

It's been way too long since my last entry. Work has been crazy. Ellen came back today (hooray!). And I went to a ring ceremony on Saturday night. Here are some snaps...


I leave for Pune on Sunday.

This Morning.

I really debated telling the following story on my blog all day. However, after much contemplation, I decided that it's an important and integral part of my India experience as a whole. So here goes...

There are three ways that I get to work. The first, and most common, is with my friend Shana who has a car and driver. The second is in a taxi cab. The third is in an autorikshaw - which is an open air, "buggy"-type vehicle. They sort of remind me of the Haunted Mansion cars at Disneyland and are much cooler than a cab when it's hot (the whole "no door" thing really helps). However, they are also incredibly unsafe with no doors or seatbelts - and if it rains, you're screwed. Not surprisingly, they are incredibly cheap and the most popular mode of transporation in Mumbai. For the past few days, I've been taking cabs into work because of ominous looking skies. This morning, however, the sun was shining and the clouds looked pretty mild, so I decided to take my chances in an autorikshaw. (Shana and I had some miscommunication and before I realized that she was on her way to pick me up from the hotel, I had already left.)

So, my autorik driver and I were cruising along the freeway when it started to rain. I sort of smiled, pulled my bag close to my chest, and huddled my iPod in between my bag and my body (I was listening to remix of "Candlebright" by Stevie Nicks). Certain autoriks are faster than others, and this was one of the faster ones. As we crested a hill and began to descend, the autorik started to hydroplane. I held onto the railing and waited for it to stop...only it didn't. We kept hydroplaning and then gradually started to turn to the right. As we were turning, the entire autorik started to tilt over. Eventually, we spun completely around, so that we were facing oncoming traffic. Two cars about twenty yards behind us tried to break, but one couldn't stop fast enough and smashed into our front-left side, spinning us back to our left. This caused us to slam into the other car that had been heading towards us, but was now behind us, which flung us around again such that we came to a stop facing in the correct direction on the freeway. I sat in the autorik for a few minutes, shaking, looking at all of the debris on the freeway (while the kindly morning commuters of Mumbai honked impatiently). I called Shana and asked her to pick me up on her way to work ("I'm in the autorikshaw that's not moving in the middle of the freeway - you can't miss me.") I then got out of the rik and walked to the side of the freeway where I stood shaking for a few minutes while I waited for Shana.

I wish that I could have taken a picture of this scene to show you. This one particular stretch of freeway is very busy with huge billboards advertising radio stations, Bacardi, housing developments, a clothing store called "Millionaire", and various other things. This is also the stretch of freeway where people who work on the roads sleep at night in little tarp huts. So here I am in my purple dress shirt, standing at the side of the road amongst these little huts, tar, and trash. It starts to rain and I go to put up my umbrella, but it's so windy that the umbrella is useless. At this point, I felt so many different emotions - part of me wanted to laugh hysterically, part of me wanted to cry, and part of me felt very sorry for myself. And then I realized that the autorikshaw driver (who I'd pretty much forgotten about), was screwed. His rik was dead - parts strewn about all over the freeway. This left him with no way to make money for the rest of the day (at a time when he probably needed it most to get his rik fixed). This realization jolted me out of feeling sorry for myself. I went over to him and gave him quite a bit of money...and told him to drive carefully. I'm not going to elaborate on this particular moment much - I'm sure you can imagine the intensity and significance of it.

Needless to say, I'm okay. It was scary, I was scared, but I'm okay.

Mom and Dad, I'm not going to take autorikshaws anymore.

Another day in India...

Goodnight Everyone.