"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."

Two things happened today that reminds me I am no longer in Kansas, or anywhere in the US for that matter:
1. All the rickshaw & taxi drivers in Mumbai went on strike today
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aBe7OMRlEq9Y

Thousands of people rely on rickshaws to get to work and from one place to another, so this'll be interesting to see how people manage. When I was walking to the market this afternoon, I couldn't believe how quiet it was on the streets. There was still the mild honking of cars and the crazy Mumbai drivers out on the roads, but there was almost this calm in the air. Usually, wherever there is a space on the road, a rickshaw will take it up. But since rickshaws and taxis weren't out on the roads today, there was so much space. It made the narrow roads that I usually walk on so wide today.

2. I went to the doctor's today because of the cold that I've been having, and she thinks I could possibly have dengue fever or leptospirosis....two things that you would never hear being diagnosed in the US. I'm going back tomorrow for 2000 rupees ($50 US dollars) worth of tests. So we'll see then what the diagnosis is. While I was in the waiting room to see the doctor today, I was just looking around the room and noticed a sign of all the prices for health care plans. What?! I couldn't believe my eyes! You would never have seen how much a cancer detection is (only $50!) or how much a healthy woman check-up plan is ($20). And get this, no fine print. I was just waiting to see some sort of asterisk or fine print at the very bottom saying that this is what the prices start at or something, but I never did. Out of all the countries, I would never have thought India to be one to list the prices and give them to you upfront. The US should learn from India.

On the other hand though, there are some things India can learn from the US as well....like waiting your turn. When I got to the waiting room, the nurse told me that I would go in to see the doctor after 2 patients. Okay, I thought, not bad. But you never knew when the next patient was called in because there were always people creeping into the doctor's office and sneaking ahead of everyone else in line. Then a nurse started calling numbers (where I was constantly reminded of the waiting lines at the DMV) and I then realized that I was never given a number. Apparently one of the nurses never gave the doctor my chart so I was never placed on the list of patients and in the line. Grrr. So fast forward another half hour and I finally made it into the doctor's office.

Not being in "Kansas" has opened my eyes to so many things. I was always the person to plan everything out. And I'm still that person, but now another part of me is one that accepts a change in that plan. I know that if I wouldn't be able to accept a change in my day or plan that I would never make it through this semester. So even though some moments have caused me to lose my patience or grind my teeth, I have become a better person because of it. Mumbai, thank you for that.

A sighting of Indian's Simon Cowell

As the last of the monsoon rain comes pouring down on the streets of Mumbai, and as I realize how many pages of my history book I still have to read, I figured it would be the perfect time to update my blog.

The wonderful thing about India is that you never know what you’re going to be doing in an hour, a day or even in the next few minutes. Sometimes this unstructured life is not a good thing. But for the purpose of this journal entry, let’s say that it’s a wonderful thing for the moment.

At my internship today, the woman who volunteers to teach some of the older children at the nursery offered to take me to a Durga Puja festival. I knew that there was a lot of dancing with sticks involved, but that was about it. On TV, I’ve seen some of the dancing that goes on, and it is beautiful to watch. Everyone dresses up in these elaborate costumes and dresses that are made for this Hindu holiday. And with any Hindu holiday, there is bound to be idols that are meant to be worshipped. But you can only read so many guidebooks and so many newspaper articles about it, before you just want to see it for yourself. So that’s what I did.

So after my internship, the woman (who I’m blanking on her name right now) and I went to one of the Durga Puja festivals that was near the orphanage. And of course the one day that I don’t bring my camera with me, I need it. I took some pictures with my cell phone, but long story short, I can’t get pictures from my cell to the computer right now. But anyway, the Durga Puja holiday/festival….When I walked into the temple/shrine that they had set up for the holiday, my eyes went right to the beautifully painted clay idols. One thing that I will never get tired of in India is the beautiful colors that are always around. These idols, and there were about 5 of them, were painted gold, pink, orange…just gorgeous! And they were so intricate in their details. The goddess Durga, the main idol, had ten arms coming from her body, and each arm was holding a weapon of sorts.

After taking some pictures of all the idols, we made our way through the crowd and to the food. The Durga Puja holiday came from the Eastern side of India, particularly the Bengali/Calcutta side. So of course the food that they had there was food from Calcutta. We ended up just getting some chicken fried rice, but it was still pretty good. The sweets though were wicked yummy. Both of the sweets that I tried were made out of milk and sugar, and had a sponge cake kind of consistency. Just as we were finishing our sweets, this guy came up and asked me if I liked the festival. Me thinking it was a random Indian attempting to talk to an American, just brushed him off and said that it was great. Then the woman told me that he was a nationally known singer who had produced songs for a lot of Bollywood movies….what?!?! Here I was, looking stupid as ever, that I ran into a celebrity but just brushed him off.

Singer Abhijeet

Ooo and did I mention that he’s a judge on Indian Idol (the Indian version of American Idol)? Later, the woman that I went with told me that he is the one that organized this entire festival here. As he saw us eating our sweets, he asked us why we’re eating over here when there’s a huge buffet of food from Calcutta (that was free by the way). So he brought us to the buffet, pulled us past the line of a whole bunch of people and made sure we were given what we wanted. They gave us some rice, broccoli mush/stew, fried & battered leaves or eggplant (I couldn’t tell) and another type of sweet from Calcutta. I tried my very best to eat it all, but I was stuffed even from eating the chicken fried rice from earlier!

After that whole experience, I headed back to my apartment. Which is the perfect time for me to mention that on the way from the train station to my apartment, the rickshaw that I took was blasting Hindi music & American pop music....weird! I've never been in a rickshaw before that had music blasting like that. All I could do at that moment was think about the tv show, Cash Cab, and how cool it would be to have a Cash Rickshaw show here :) Anywho, so hen I got back, I put up my feet, had some tea and of course, took a little nap. When I woke up, the woman that I'm staying with, Blanche, and her friend had come back from their house shopping around Bandra. Blanche's friend is looking for houses/apartments in Mumbai, but yet it's so difficult to find a good place that's not a couple million dollars. After waking up, I wandered into the living room and had a nice conversation with them that opened my eyes to the housing market in Mumbai. From this, I learned that Mumbai is the 4th most expensive city in the entire world to live in (after NYC, London and Tokyo) and that you can't get any decent size apartment for less than 4 crores (1 crore=$250,000 US Dollars, so 4 crores is $1 milllllion dollars). It's crazy!

After talking for a little bit more, Blanche thought it was a good idea for all three of us to go to the exhibition that's in town (an arts & crafts fair with different vendors from all over India). Even though I'd already been, it sounded like a good idea to finish off the afternoon. So we made the trek to the exhibition grounds via rickshaw and started browsing all the different vendors. In the end, I managed to get out of there only having spent 800 rupees ($20 US dollars). I got some Indian jewelry, some fabric to make into a kurta (long Indian shirt) and some really cool black pants that had this gold embroidery and jewels on it.

And that ladies and gentlemen concludes my day :)