Realities of Mumbai

Here's what a lousy day in Mumbai looks like:

Sitting STOPPED in traffic a rickshaw drives his 'vehicle' into my car and gets his jalopy jammed into my fender. He then proceeds to 'gun it' to get unstuck and rips the rubber interior fender while pulling the exterior out of position. I honk…he speeds off. This is why other drivers slap them at every opportunity. I'm eagerly awaiting mine.

Then sat for 45 minutes in the 'authorized' Apple service center here in Mumbai. Not because they were busy. There were only two people waiting when I arrived. And not because they took certain service issues before others.   They don't…they simply ask you to sign the 'book' and then call names from it. But after the two people waiting before me were called, and then others came in after, were called and then left - even as I began to 'hover' around the desk to get someone's attention - I finally asked if they were reading the names in any particular order. After much discussion, their answer was they simply 'didn't see me.' I guess I'm so white I blend into the wall!

And finally, the stove/oven I purchased which was to be delivered yesterday, arrived today. They left it in the kitchen in the box. It took awhile to cut the box away, then lift the oven and pull the bottom cardboard/styrofoam/etc out from underneath only to discover that not only would I have to assemble the small bits, apparently I also needed to WIRE THE PLUG which was not attached. This, and I then get to connect it to a gas cylinder which I can get only after presenting myself in person. ugh

What's New

In India, you see something new every day. That's what everyone says, and it's true.

Not just new shops or new people or new signs, but new happenings and situations. Like the day I saw a man washing a rooster. Every day, your mind is blown away by something new.


Today I realized, however, that for everyone else in India, I am one of those new things they see every day.

And just as my reaction varies to the new things I see - from awe to disgust to bewilderment and more - I've started to catalog the reactions I receive from others when they see me. 

Happy smiles from children who run up and say, 'Hello!'

Wrinkled noses and a disapproving, 'tsk tsk tsk' from a neighbor lady as I walked from the elevator to my car in a floor-lengthed dress to go out for the evening.

Frazzled waiters for whom neither of us can understand each others' English.

Screaming, arm-waving police officers 'directing' traffic whose eyes meet mine and suddenly wave their arms more vehemently for reasons unknown to me.

Dirty, scrawny, uneducated migrant workers far from their families and villages, living in machine 'shops' (huts) with little to eat, where they slave away for a meager wage, who see me on the street and lick their chops or stick out their tongues at me.

Fellow drivers stuck in traffic trying to squeeze this way or that, who smile and shrug and make some illegal maneuver in front of you anyway knowing you, too, will be doing the same eventurally. 

These reactions are what create culture shock for foreigners in any new country. We always talk about what we feel as the foreigners surrounded by locals. It often elicits intense emotions - ideally we fall in love with a place and its culture, but at times we also find ourselves in a constant battle with our surroundings. 

Yet stepping back and watching locals react to me somehow removes the emotion and it becomes an exercise in understanding. Not simply understanding what they think of me, or of foreigners in their country, but on a much deeper level it opens a window to a greater understanding of my own self-awareness.