Language, Food and Other Random Thoughts

End of day three and there is just so much to write about. I hope you all are enjoying the read! I thought I’d touch on a few other details of “living” in Mumbai.

The main languages here are English and Hindi. Everyone speaks English except maybe the help; Ramu’s English (the cook) is very broken and we’ve had a few incidents over our miscommunication. Today I asked him if could warm up the leftovers from lunch and poor guy started making me a meal from scratch. Oops.

As for the English, the thick British/Indian accent is lovely to listen to and easy to pick up. Don’t be alarmed if I come home with an accent! Some phrases and words are fun; I love calling a water heater a “geezer” and my favorite phrase so far is when someone “has met with an accident.” Yasmin’s friends speak mostly English with some expressions in Hindi. I grew up speaking and listening to Kutchi, a pretty obscure dialect from a region near Gujarat that no one speaks here, but some words and phrases are similar so I can understand some things. Like “pani” (water) and “garam” (hot). I’d love to pick up more Hindi; perhaps I’ll start watching some Bollywood films at home!

We visited a play this evening that stared Yasmin’s brother in law Zafar. Zafar had actually visited us in Irvine when he was traveling with another show and happened to be with us for Thankgiving 2006 so it was a pleasure to finally see him in action. What an excellent actor he is! The theatre was intimate but not too different from a regional size theatre here in the states. The show, “Chaos Theory”, was in English with a lot of Indian references and euphemisms. It was touching and hilarious and incredibly well acted. I was impressed!

Many of you are aware of my recent dietary changes (gluten free, dairy free, fish eating vegetarian) and are probably wondering what in the world am I eating! Well I’ll be happy to report the food so far has been great. Being vegetarian in India is like being a surfer in Laguna Beach (ok couldn't resist the analogy). Yasmin’s cook has made great veggie curries and daal (lentils) with rice and naan. The food doesn’t seem to bother me too much here since I think it’s far less processed and fresher. I am very careful to drink (and brush teeth) with bottle water only and no ice. So far this part has been a piece of cake but once I get on the road and start really moving through some more rural parts of India I believe this will change.

Today Yasmin threw an “Eid” party (100 people!) at her home which involved the traditional “thal” meal. I mentioned this a few days back and this time I got pictures (umm, yeah, so the humidity is NOT good for curly hair)! Since the meal was mostly meat she also catered for the 30 plus vegetarians. Hindus and Muslims are all very friendly here and I am starting to figure out who is what based on names and how they eat. Many people have found it odd that I, a Muslim, am vegetarian and even more strange that it’s a new thing for me. But alas, I am sticking to it. As much as I missed out on the main meal, the veggie stuff was amazing!

My future plans for Mumbai include an upcoming weekend of more dinners, parties and FINALLY some shopping! Then early next week I will move in with my father at his hotel to see downtown Mumbai and sightsee. Then we are off to a destination unknown for a few days (yes we are playing it by “the” ear as they say here!) and then to meet Azeem in Dehli by the 12th. Our estimated date of meeting Zaleeya is around Oct 20th. Her passport should be ready in a few days...

Stay tuned!