Ganesha Festival

The Hindus in the city have been celebrating the Ganesha Festival so I took a tour to visit the sites. 

Most Ganesha temples around the city are about this size, with small statues of Ganesha and other Hindu gods that people can stop by, say a prayer, leave and offering, or ask for a blessing.

Ganesha is a very popular god in Hinduism as he is the remover of obstacles, the lord of success, and the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth.

Ganesha is the son of the goddess Parvati. She created him one afternoon out of sandalwood and clay and breathed life into him, then set the boy to the task of guarding the door while she took a bath. Shiva, Parvati's husband then came and demanded to enter, but Ganesha, not knowing him refused. Shiva became enraged, Ganesha killed some of his soldiers and Shiva cut off the boy's head. When Parvati saw this, she commanded Shiva to replace his head, and he did so with that of an elephant. 

Each Hindu home, creates a small clay Ganesha in their home and his spirit is invited to reside in it. As he is then the guest of honor, the whole family celebrates and attends to him while he is in their home. After so many days, 1.5, 3, 5, 7, or 10, they take the clay Ganesha to the sea and immerse him in the water, and say farewell to their guest. Localities, on the other hand, hold contests for businesses and political figures to enter their Ganesha and invite the public to view and celebrate. So as you enter the block, there are enormous temporary decorations hanging to make a grand entrance. Along the street, lights are hung and lit up each night of the festival. Fireworks are lit and bands (mostly drumming) or DJ's are hired to blast the latest popular songs.

Faux facades create the illusion of an enormous temple, shoes are removed, and you walk along a red carpet to the Ganesha inside.

Inside, people come to see Ganesha, to say a prayer, leave an offering or ask for a blessing. This Ganesha was enormous. As Ganesha's spirit resides in the statue, he is never left alone. People take turns staying with him, attending to him, and here, placing their offerings on him.

All the large Ganesha statues are accompanied by a smaller one. Prayers are said to the smaller one that resides in the temple always.

All the large Ganesha statues are accompanied by a smaller one. Prayers are said to the smaller one that resides in the temple always.

This Ganesha was my favorite as it is made entirely out of dice and game pieces.

¡Apreta Culo!

Riding to work in a rickshaw this morning, I was reminded of my mother stomping the passenger-side floor of the car on her imaginary brake as I was learning to drive. It didn't do any good.

This morning, over every bump, pothole, sharp corner, and swerve to miss another vehicle - or pedestrian, or animal for that matter - I found myself squeezing my butt cheeks to brace for whatever might happen. Not that it would help.

In fact, it actually just made me roll around the rickshaw more. It would have been better to have just relaxed, and 'sat in the saddle', and as my niece is fond of saying, 'just roll with the punches.'

I chuckled at myself and thought, good life lesson.

Random Thoughts That Go Through My Head Most Days

• Ew, gross.
• Argh, stop honking!
• It's pouring rain outside; I need my boots.
• What a beautiful sunny day. 
• It's so much cooler near the sea. 
• Ugh, it stinks here.
• Oh, there's a cow!
• It's too hot to take a cab. 
• OK, Mr. Rickshaw, move faster and get around this bus spewing whatever at me.
• I don't understand.
• Stupid pigeons!
• What a nice quiet lane.
• Is that a yes or a no?
• Eh, cockroach.
• What is that?!
• Well that doesn't look safe at all.
• Eck, what is that smell?
• That doesn't make any sense.
• These clothes definitely need to be washed the second I get home. 
• OK ... whatever.

More Things Squished in the Road

A crow.

this is just a mouse...squished

A whole dog...flattened. Right out of a cartoon.

I've also seen some live rats and mice. Rats are big. 

Frustration Affirmation

I signed myself up for a Hindi class downtown, near Flora Fountain in Coloba, at 10:30am and thought I'd take the train down. After a bit of research online, I grabbed a rickshaw to the Kurla train station. It's decorated outside with curtains so it doesn't look like a train station which made me suspicious and I questioned the driver who said to 'just go in'. The neighborhood around the train station is busy with shops, vendors, and everything else you can imagine. So I just followed the crowd into the station. 

Kurla, where I live, is a middle to lower class neighborhood, very conservative and very traditional. Several of us newbies have been told by others on various occasions to be careful, to move elsewhere, and that the neighborhood isn't very 'expat friendly.' So I was wearing jeans and a loose T-shirt with a scarf that I tie around my head in the rickshaws so my hair doesn't go crazy. Most people were too busy going where they were going to notice me, although I did get a couple of glances now and then…but nothing like the construction workers with nothing to do on my road. 

Rickshaw Traffic

There isn't much English in the station so I decided I'd take the long line at the ATVM (automated ticket vending mating) over the incredibly long line for the teller. When it was finally my turn, I couldn't get the machine to communicate with me in English. Frustrated, I realized I was late so I left hoping to get a cab. It was crowded and some vendor was pestering me so I jumped in an empty rickshaw and had him take me to a cab…half a block away. I was more irked than frightened, but love that you can always just jump in a rickshaw and tell them to GO!

The cab I grabbed was old, with an old driver, but they tend to know the city better, and he did. I was downtown in no time. We didn't take the Sea Link, we took the fly over and it was a straight shot. I took my class, walked around a bit afterwards, and planned to visit an ATM before taking the train home (I'm too stubborn to give up). 

I walked around by myself and aside from vendors, no one 'bothered' me or even looked at me funny. I will say that I noticed a guy going from one group of foreign girls to another trying to chat them up. Poor for him, I learned how to say 'go away' in my class which took him by surprise. I needed an ATM but after trying three or four with no success, I got fed up and walked into a nice store to window shop and enjoy the air conditioning. 

Got to the CST train station, stood in another ridiculously long line, got my ticket, got on the train, got to Kurla and caught a rickshaw home. Several times in this process I had to stop and ask for directions, ask if I was in the right line, right train, etc. and most people were always friendly – in their Indian friendly way which at times seems unfriendly. They stood too close to me in line and bumped me with their bellies; they made noises – like an obnoxious kissing sound – to get my attention to give me my change that I forgot or point out my stop when I guess I looked distracted; and some little street punks pointed and stared at me – after they'd made fun of beggar and harassed a vendor, so they were just jerks you'd find anywhere. 

I've also been told Kurla isn't expat-friendly, but today was a good day. The women I interacted with were all lovely. The older men were mostly kind and helpful too. And yes, with all the construction it is dirty in my neighborhood, but on my way back from the station to Kohinoor I actually thought, 'Yeah, it's a bit dirty here, but it's MY dirt.' 

 

I've also probably had more run-ins with the apartment society than anyone else who arrived with me, and I'm sure they 'love' me, but I'm still smiling at them and they're still either smiling or smirking at me. I think my neighbors are slowly adjusting to having me here (one thinks I'm a hair dresser!) if the frequency of chit chat in the elevators says anything. 

Some of the newbies are worried that the riots happening across several mid-east countries as a backlash to the anti-Islam movie might erupt here too. Eh, maybe, but I find that if I patron their shops, use their same transportation, and smile at their children, it's easier to fit in and be forgiven when whatever I'm doing in their eyes is wrong. And I'm sure my apartment society has a list for me. :)

And to be honest, I am the foreigner so I AM wrong for not doing it their way or knowing their language or knowing whatever else I'm suppose to know here. That's just part of living overseas...of really living in another country, not just continuing your life in another place. They say you know you're no longer a tourist, or even a 'traveller' (stupid hipster elitist term), when you move to the rhythm of the country, and no longer to your own. 

So right now, as I learn the dance of India, I'm just stepping on toes and getting my toes stepped on too. 

A Trip to the Mall

Just around the corner from my apartment is a wonderfully posh mall called Phoenix Market City.  It is the sister mall of a posh mall downtown in a much posher neighborhood. 

They have all the top stores you'd expect, Zara, Mango, Calvin Klien, Nine West, Body Shop, Lush, Khiel's, Nike, Adidas, and more. They also have some British department stores I'm becoming familiar with too. 

They've got fast food restaurants like KFC, Subway and McDonald's and lots of local chains. They also have an enormous cinema, tiny bowling alley, a haunted house (like the one in Grease!) and an ice and snow adventure land  (it's basically 40 degrees C, they make snow, and you can slide around on ice).

But it's still India, so there are some things that culturally crack me up. For example: 

The Mall Zamboni goes around cleaning the floor.

Fry stand with a cool name...and a mustache!

My absolute FAVORITE! THE MALL TRAIN! It drives all around the malls with kids jumping and screaming while parents wait somewhere else, all the while playing the songs from the Disney Junior channel...'All aboard!'

Indian English...spelled correctly, but not.

At the shoe store, they shout your size up a chimney and your shoes drop down! 

Things You Hear In Mumbai

Just as I accepted my job in Mumbai, YouTube had an explosion of videos along the lines of 'Things ___ Say.'  Some were entertaining, some were annoying, and some were spot on. And since I was coming to Mumbai, I watched this one.

 I didn't understand any of it. I watched it again and again and could only really pick out words here and then. But I got that there's a bit of rivalry between Mumbai and Delhi. I got that there's traffic. I got that it's sometimes hard to catch a rickshaw.

 And now that I've been here seven weeks (so long and so little!), as I watch it again, I get so much more. Rickshaws don't stop for you...and when they do, they don't want to take you where you need to go. Everybody gets called 'boss'. That kissing noise is for getting someone's attentions, like 'yo' in America or 'psst' in Colombia. English and Hindi are mixed constantly. Nobody has a bathtub.

And everyone complains about the traffic.

Monsoon Half Minute

The monsoon season started a bit late this year, and it was light. Everyone was worried we wouldn't get enough rain in the few months of monsoon, typically June- September, to provide enough water for the rest of the year when no rain falls at all.

But the rains have truly kicked in this last week. We've had heavy downpours several times a week, and today it lasted all day. Here's a small shot of it from my balcony, through the pigeon netting, overlooking the village behind me.

That's not static that you hear, it's rain!

FIVE

The number of cockroaches I found this morning. Two in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom.

All were tossed by their antenna into the toilet and flushed. Humph.

A Week of Ups and Downs

I've now been in India a little over five weeks. School is in full swing and I'm falling into the rhythm of life in Mumbai...falling in the sense that there are lots of bumps along the way.

In no particular order, here are some of the highs and lows of this past week:

• New student on Monday who's half Greek/half Norwegian who sought me out. We chatted a bit in Greek as his English is so-so. Made both of us happy to find a connection.
• The Spanish speaking teachers at school were teasing me as one colleague is Ecuadorian, and the two Spanish teachers love to chat with me as they both speak that lovely, formal Spanish from Spain and I speak Paisa!  Sent them this video but couldn't watch the whole thing myself and it kicked in an awful bout of mamitis (homesickness).
• Tried to do some grocery shopping but was turned away because my 'purse didn't have a zipper.' Apparently there's been some shoplifting so the store's solution is to zip every woman's purse shut with a plastic tie, which you then have to wait for someone to come cut open so you can pay in order to leave. Ridiculous.
• Walked home from school one day. Just needed to walk and clear my head after two separate meetings with superiors checking in to see 'how things were going.' Realized I'm much better at handling the culture shock if I don't have to stop and think about how much is actually going on.
• The walk home took about 40 minutes. Out of the BKC area of tall, mirrored glass, wide streets, neighborhood where the school is and into the crowded, dirty, mostly male area of mechanics, chop shops, and tool sheds between BKC and Kohinoor. Decided I needed to walk in the neighborhoods if I wanted to 'own them'. Didn't feel nervous about the area as most of the locals were more taken aback by me than them. Felt good to walk out my thoughts.
• Strolled in the 'slum' behind my apartment complex. It's a slum only in the sense that it's private homes on government land. They roads were paved, although narrow; the houses constructed of brick and cement. Lots of little fruit/vegetable vendors, various shops - iron services, tailors, milk shops, mini-grocers, schools, and small Catholic monuments. That neighborhood led into a Hindi one filled with much of the same, and a giant bamboo structure in preparation of the upcoming Ganesha festival. The 'slum' was quiet and calm. The people seemed relaxed and most women smiled back at me. Comforting to know.
• Tried to go to the theatre. Show started at 4pm, planned to be there by 3:30pm. Left my house at 2:30pm to pick up a friend then go to the theatre. At 2:50pm I got stuck in traffic. At 3:10pm, we were moving again and 'almost there' so my friend called to say she was waiting in front of her building, near the 'Gymkana'. At 3:20pm, she called as I should have been there by now but as I told her what I was passing, the taxi driver's route didn't make sense to her. Keep in mind we're both new to Mumbai. At 3:40pm, the driver says I am at my destination, but can't find my friend anywhere. We decide there are two entrances, so I stand still while she walks around the block. At 3:50pm, she stands still while I walk around the block. Then we try to locate each other by what we see at the gymkana - I see cricket, she sees tennis. Only then do we realize there are TWO gymkana's. We missed the play and decided to go for lunch.
• The taxi I took to meet her for lunch took me to the railroad station, not the restaurant. When I finally meet her, it's 4:30pm, we're both sweaty and miserable. We had french fries for lunch.
• Made a new friend while shopping. Indian woman from New Jersey. Super nice, my age, only been here a year and gets how hard the adjustment can be. 
• Bought a bathroom scale. Apparently I've been eating A LOT of Indian food!