Random Thoughts of Mumbai

I’ve left Mumbai now and am about to embark on my first day in Jaipur, however I still have thoughts and experiences left to share. In no particular random order:

TIFFINWALA (aka Dubawalla): My father bragged about this for days and we planned to go see this phenomenon at work in downtown Mumbai. Many of the local suburb families make food for the husbands/ wives who work downtown. This food is placed in a tall series of tin cans called tiffins (like Tupperware) and then placed in a cloth bag. This food is collected by a collector in the morning and sent on an unimaginable journey by train, then bike or push cart to the recipient downtown. Imagine 500,000 tiffins delivered on time, at their exact desired location, with no computer assistance! And this service costs less than 300 rupees a month ($8). At around 12pm each day you can watch the tiffins unloaded from the train station and then distributed to the motorbike/pushcart delivers. My father has likened this to the "fedex" of food delivery service.

Unfortunately, the day we planned to watch this at work, happened to be a holiday! Silly Americans forgetting that there are MANY holidays in October in India as the Hindus have a 9 day festival at the beginning of the month (Navrati) and then Diwali, the festival of lights on Oct 28th. Anyhow I was sad to have missed this, but thought it was worth the mention. Oh and I did include a pic of out hotel decorated with flowers for the end of Navrati festival.

CRICKET: This games is HUGE here and I finally got to see some playing. My father was the captain of his high school team so he's quite versed in the sport and he has been attempting to teach me the rules. Currently there is a Indian/Australian "test match" going on which is quite important and on a lot of the news stations. Australia is the best team currently, therefore the Indian team loyalty is in full force. I've included a great action pic of some locals playing in the big field in downtown Mumbai.

SERVICE: I’m not sure why Indians can’t seem to get it right in the states, but the service here to far in India has been excellent! I believe it’s the “upper class/ lower class” divide that makes the workers in the hotels and restaurants incredibly gracious and helpful. In the hotels, each employee you pass in the hall greets you with hello or Namaste and jumps at any request or opportunity to open your door. I’ve included a pic of our afternoon fruit service at our hotel in Mumbai.

AIR TRAVEL: I must admit to having been a bit nervous getting into our car heading to the airport for our flight to Jaipur. How ridiculous this seems now as the experience was better than in the states! Again the upper class here seem to have it made as the airport was shiny, clean, air conditioned and offered excellent customer service. The airplane was brand spanking new, had great leg room, offered DELICIOUS Indian food and left and landed EXACTLY on time. In fact from the time we landed to the time we were in our car, it took 15 minutes (fast baggage claim!).

Anyhow I’m in Jaipur now and have a host of new experiences to share but you’ll just have to wait for the next blog entry.