Monsooning Mumbai

Greetings from the hot and humid subcontinent. I arrived yesterday afternoon, and yes, could smell Mumbai from the second the airplane doors opened. It was quite a startling scene to see shanty towns built up to the barbed-wire fence around the airoprt. I've learned Mumbai is very much like that though, extreme poverty with some middle class havens and a few islands of the megarich. As in Cairo, the tech companies like the one I visited today, are all located well outside the city because office space is cheaper. The Infotech park I visited was quite a sight to behold with 8 towers, all on top of rail complex, so workers could easily get to and from the office. Someone asked if I was going to take the train back to the city, and I considered it briefly before he said "let me show you first." So... trains in Mumbai don't have doors. According to my kind host (a 23 yr old software developer), that is a luxury the government only splurged on in the capital, New Delhi. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he spoke with wonderment of a metro with doors. Oh the luxuries we take for granted.

Besides a great meeting with V2, a software outsourcing firm, I've been wandering around the area I'm staying, called Peddar Rd. It's one of the posh areas of town, just a few blocks down from the tower which will soon be the world's most expensive private residence http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mukesh_Ambanis_home_worlds_costliest/articleshow/3002586.cms

My hosts are the lovely Dr. and Mrs. Misra, who are the parents of one of my mother's neighbors. They have been so generous and have made the transition to India so much easier than if I had been staying in a hotel/hostel by myself. I'm probably eating more healthy food now than I have at any point in the past month.

Tomorrow I have two meetings and then the weekend to explore Mumbai. If the monsoon hasn't cancelled the boats to Elephant Island, I'm planning to go out there and see the famous caves. Other than that, I'm at the whim of my Lonely Planet guide that Nellie so kindly gave me.

Pictures to come this weekend.

Day 25/82
Distance from New York JFK: 7807 miles
Current mood: content, but drowsy, potentially from the Malarone?
Current music: the not-so-soft, but unbelievably wonderful, drone of my A/C
Only here moment: Passing thousands of billboards and posters advertising two things. First, mutual funds. Everywhere you look, they are advertising mutual funds with slogans of like "get your piece of Indian's infrastructure boom". The minimum investment requirement is quite low, so it certainly gives the middle class a chance to invest in their country's growth. Let's hope they do better than AIG. And the second, advertisements for English lessons. They are EVERYWHERE. And for software training. If you don't think there are hundreds of thousands of people gunning for "your" job, then you are terribly mistaken. They still have a long way to go, but it's going to be an incredible shift to watch.

Last thing, a sign for an English language academy called SpeakEasy that read "Learn English, improve your personality". I thought of a few people who could certainly use their services.