Eventually, It Had To Happen

The past few days have been full of a few things that have been on hold for a while. For example, as I mentioned a few posts ago, the first Shabbat I met a guy named Tov in Synagogue. We traded numbers when we ran into each other on the street a few days later, and have been meaning to hang out since then (he’s a very persistent texter). On Wednesday night we finally got around to grabbing a bite to eat. He’s a really nice guy, and it’s awesome that he lives literally 30 seconds away. He and his six brothers are here for a year learning computer literacy at the ORT school. They’re from the Bnai Menashe community of Manipur State, on the boarder with Myanmar. It was too much to expect that I wouldn’t get food poisoning in two months here, right? Out to dinner with Tov, we were served water in a glass, and Tov asked (in Hindi that he says is as good as his English, which is pretty good, but not fluent) if it was filtered. They said yes. I’m betting the real answer was no. In Lindsay Verola’s apartment this past year, there was a poster that was a collage of “Bathrooms of the Bars in Boston”. I spent Wednesday more or less compiling my own “Bathrooms of Mumbai” mental collage, touring not just my own hotel and work toilets, but also a local university’s bathroom and even the toilet (read: pit) in the Curry Road train station. I’ve had more fun in my life, but I survived, and I learned a valuable lesson: bottled water is bad for the environment, but good for my stomach. In between toilets two and three, I had my first interview! I was getting a little worried that it would never happen, so I’m glad I finally got the ball rolling. I think I did pretty well with my “indirect probes “ (e.g. “I see…”, “Intersting…”) and my direct questions (e.g. “Can you tell me more?”, “What makes you think that?”). I have a lot more of these to go, so I should get plenty more practice. There’s no one any one interview is going to tell me an answer, (nevermind the fact that I don’t know what the question is yet) so there was nothing groundbreaking about the interview, but it was a good snapshot of a Mumbai citizen. I have newfound appreciation for the trains. In addition to being ridiculously cheap and not being capable of getting lost (The Darjeeling Limited excluded), it has made my life 10X easier over the past few days. First of all, in protest of rising prices, all of the taxis and autorickshaws went on strike, making life very complicated for some people. I got to work on Tuesday at 9:30 (early, by Indian standards), and basically no one else got there until noon because they had to catch 5 buses or something. But the trains still worked. Then, Thursday night, I met up with Zoe, a friend of Emma Goldstein (from Tufts) from High School. I got to feel like such a pro when I taught her how to use the train system. “That number there is how many cars are on the train, that one’s the track, and that’s the station its heading to” and “this color here means it will be an all ladies car, so you wait here, and I’ll go up past the first class cars to the main ones and meet you at Dadar Station. Go!”.
Anyway, I finally feel settled in here, which is kind of nice, but also sort of strange that the traffic, goats, and smells aren't shocking and new anymore. The city is still exciting me, but I feel like I've moved past the "Holy Cow! I'm in Mumbai!" phase of the journey. I'm "a regular" at this internet cafe and the restaurant down the block, although I'm still a novelty for them (I was introduced as Harry Potter (again) to the internet cafe worker's friend).

Impending doom. The moonsoon, three minutes before it started as I left work last week. The rain jacket I brought is working wonderfully though, thanks Mom!
Just to give you a sense of where I spend my time, here's my room. I'm in the door to the bathroom, taking the picture. Not much to look at, nothing posh, but it's cozy and cold when I want it to be.

The wall at the foot of my bed. I just sort of hang my wet laundry and clothes whereever I want- one of the benefits of living alone. The TV isn't very useful. News in Hindi, the GOD channel (the only all-english one available), and a ton of Bollywood music video channels. I've been slowing adding to the collage on the right, mostly maps and letters.

I've always wondered when it become standard practice to smile in photos. I guess it hasn't, everwhere. Either that or Rajeet doesn't like me as much as he pretends to when I get back every day.

Out to dinner with some of the gentlemen last Sunday after the JCC "debate" on the Gaza situation. The debate also included heated exchanged on whether or not Gaza had booming marijuana business and reasons why the beaches of Gaza might be underutilized by tourists.

It was Kavya's birthday, at work! Apparently it wasn't just Akiv being difficult when he smashed cake in Dana's face on her birthday a month ago, since Dipti did the same to Kavya.

Mission Accomplished

Good news! I'm done! I've finished everything I need to do in Mumbai! Yes, you're right: TODAY I SAW AN ELEPHANT!!!! I'm so happy. I was in a car on the way to Stuti's house, being driven by her dad, when we passed it. It had clearly just come from an elementary school carnival, because it had facepaint on, kind of like this dude to the right (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, we drove by too fast for me to get a picture of my own. I was told that the elephant driver was probably taking him around to different shops to get donations of bits of food for the elephant. It was probably one of the most exciting moments of my life, although I'm not sure Stuti's dad or grandfather (also in the car) truly understood how happy I was.

I should probably explain who Stuti is. Ms. Hannah Matthew Gogel, of Tufts University fame, went to a Harvard summer program sometime in high school. Her roommate from the summer was an Indian girl from Mumbai named Stuti. Fast forward a few years and Hannah put us in touch and we met for a meal on Saturday in the Phoenix Mall, then today I went to her dad's office and he drove me up to their apartment in the north-central suburbs, where I'm staying the night. The whole family is really warm and friendly, and it's cool to see people's homes here. I've also been in a few other people's homes (Jonny, Natasha, Bittu Sahgal, etc), and each one has been completely different. Anyway, so I had dinner here, which was delicious, and now I'm just lounging around using the wireless internet.

Speaking of visiting people's houses, for Shabbat this week I again went to the Magen David synagogue right next to my hotel. Afterward, one of the gentlemen there invited me over for dinner, which was very cool. It was only a block from where I stay, at the ORT school where the guys my age from the Bene Minshe (Jews from the north-east of India) are also staying. Sharon, the guy who invited me over, has three adorable little daughters who have way more energy than they know what to do with, and they spent the evening shrieking, climbing over me, shrieking some more, and then yelling a bit. I actually saw the older two again on Sunday at the JCC when I arrived in the middle of the Gan Katan challah baking session. Anyway, it was a really nice, fun evening, and it's always cool to see how different people do Shabbat.

In other news, things are starting to look up research wise. I sent out a bunch of emails today to NGO people working on various environmental issues, and am starting to get a few responses about people I can interview. I also feel like I have enough contacts that I can start trying to talk to everyday people sometime soon as well. Yay for Gabe accomplishing things!

Alright, it's now getting pretty late, and I have to wake up for the commute to work tomorrow, which is a new concept for me, so I'm going to try and resist the power of the internet and get some rest.

Catching Up

I've heard from several reliable sources that my posts so far have been disappointingly scarce on details. I'm very sorry for this transgression, and will do my best to remedy the situation. First of all, here's a post I wrote a few days ago, but haven't had the chance to upload:

1:00 AM on Sunday 13th:

About two hours ago, as I sat in my room reading articles on the qualitative method, I heard several loud bangs. When I went downstairs to ask Rajiv what was going on. Rajiv is always really excited to see me, and starts gesticulating wildly and speaking rapidly in Hindi. I really like that he keeps talking to me as if I could understand a word he's saying; it helps me feel welcome. Anyway, I had noticed that the bangs were fireworks, which Ravij attempted to explain to me..something about India winning a cricket match, a fast bowler, and maybe dinnertime. It was a good conversation. I went back up to my room on the second floor, and almost immediately heard more bangs. This time, it meant the first major thunderstorm, and the start of monsoon season!

In the past few days, I’ve started to settle in more and begun to think about my research. In terms of basic survival in India, I’m feeling pretty good about things. I made my hotel room feel homey; I put up posters and maps, labeled each of the 15 lightswitches in my room, and set up a snack drawer, which consistent of a good mix of American comfort foods (Ritz crackers and Skippy peanut butter (smooth PB, duh)) and Indian snacks (Hippo Masala Chips!) . I’m also starting to get a sense of the neighborhood I live in. Today I found the nearest shopping mall and supermarket! Go consumerism!

On Friday, all the other Americans I’ve been with moved on to explore other cities, leaving me feeling pretty alone. It was really nice to have some time with them to explore the city on our own terms, learn how to direct a taxi, and help translate rapid Hindi and gestures into English. That said, I’m incredibly grateful to have the JYP and a few other connections as people I can turn to for help and, much more frequently, I hope, to relax and have fun with. In the past week, the other Americans and I met up with some of our Indian friends a few times, and it was a lot of fun. We helped (well, mostly watched) Natasha cook lunch, went out on the town for Ofira’s birthday, and hung out with Gabriel for a few hours in the hotel (he woke us up at 9am to say hi. It was unexpected, and we had a little trouble staying awake, but a very nice gesture nonetheless) . I’m excited to keep seeing everyone, both at official JYP meetings on most Sundays, and whenever I have free time.

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Okay, so now for today's quick post. I've already been in this internet cafe for three hours.

After a whopping 36 hours by myself, Alon came back to Mumbai on Sunday morning. For the next few days, we tended to do our own things, but it was nice to have someone to check in with, and we were usually hanging out at night. I also function best when I'm doing something new with someone else, so for a few important experiences ( I may or may not have ridden on the back of a motorcycle on Sunday. They told me to stop shaking. It was fun) , it was really nice to have some American backup.

On Sunday and Monday, I met up with Adir in the northern parts of the city and he took me on a tour of Indian cuisine. I wish I remembered all the names of the stuff I had, but a few highlights were Sev Puri (cracker with lots of stuff (veggies, corn flakes, etc) piled on, so you have to eat it in one bite or it goes everywhere), Pani Puri (basically a small breadbowl with a sweet sauce and a sour sauce inside, which you place in your mouth then crush, creating a flavor explosion Gushers only dreams of), and a series of Bengali dessert truffles. We also did a fair amount of wandering parts of the city, joined at several points by Nilly, Doron, and Ilana.

Another important skill I've learned is how to take the trains! They said it couldn't be done! They said "Don't try it Gabe! I'm Indian and I don't do it!" But I said "No!" and spent a full say learning the different methods of paying, how to figure out which train is going to which stations, and how to survive the trash compacter that is the Mumbai trains at rush hour. Its actually not bad at all most of the day. Its about 8 cents to get across the city, and pretty easy to navigate. Its just rush hour traffic thats difficult. When Alon, Jonny and I took the train on Tuesday evening to go to Bandra to watch the World Cup, Jonny spent the whole time explaining all the things that can go wrong in transit ( I promise I won't stand up on top of the train. Or squeeze between two cars. Or even hang out the door, which is actually fairly common).

Other updates: The monsoon is here. Its mostly a minor inconvenience. I want to take a taxi instead of walk to the train, but all the taxi's are taken since everyone wants a taxi because of the rain, so I end up standing like an idiot in the rain for ten minutes waiting for someone to pick me up. That sort of thing. I get drenched every time I step outside for more than 30 seconds, but everything in my backpack is protected in separate plastic bags, and my top half is dry thanks to a raincoat! I'm just going to have to get used to stepping in puddles of who-knows-what. The rains have gotten in the way some. I was supposed to go to Nilly and Ranita's house for dinner last night, but their station was probably flooded, so we decided to postpone. Similarly, Alon ended up staying at a hotel in Bandra with a friend instead of trying to make it back down to Byculla.

I'm hoping my research gets started soon. Working at Sanctuary Asia magazine is a great in, and I'm learning a lot from being there. Yesterday the staff had a session where one of the top guys at the organization, who is usually too busy to access, spent two hours fielding questions and discussing anything anyone wanted to know about environmental issues, which was awesome. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to have the meetings with people I wanted to have before I got started. Tomorrow morning though, I have a meeting at 9:30 which should be exactly what I'm looking for.

Here are a few pictures of my adventures so far:

The road right outside my hotel. Its one of the central veins of the city, which is really nice for hailing a cab, and for giving directions to get home.

Oshrit and I on the last night of the JDC trip. She's the president of the JYP, as well as a really sweet person. Shout out to Eric for the shirt. We all agreed to wear our Indian clothing, but I'm waiting until later in the summer to get mine, but what are friends for?

Natasha cooking fish at her apartment. It was really, really good. (Yes, skeptics, I ate fish and went back for seconds and even thirds). Her dad owns a fishing business, so it was really good fish. She also showed us down to make daal, and showed us just how much sugar goes into chai (hint: it puts knoerdel to shame).

Ben Brian and Josh magically appeared on Elephanta Island!!!! But seriously folks, the monkey's were really cool. One walked up to a tourist holding a coke bottle, swiftly slapped the bottle out of the guys hand, ran up a tree with it, and proceeded to twist off the cap and drink. I kept my distance after that.

Doron (left), Adir (middle) and I (right) at a northeast Indian (I think) restaurant, where I had some delicious mutton (which they think is goat, here), as well as black daal. This was the 5th or 6th restaurant I'd been to with Adir in the past two days. P.S. Yes, skeptics, I ate mutton. I'm trying to do the whole "adventurous eating" thing, despite the fact that half the country is vegetarian anyway. Don't count on this changing my habits back home though. Kraft Mac and Cheese is forever.

Here we go!

Hello there freinds, family, secret admirerers and more,

As always, I hope you're all doing well! Here in Mumbai, its time to dive in! (not literally, the monsoons don't start until at least Friday). I'll do my best to pack a quick summary of the past 2 weeks into a few minutes. The trip was absolutely incredible. We spent a few days in Mumbai, seeing synogogues and touring a few major sites of the city. The city is compltely crazy. Honking is literally encouraged on the back of most cars, there are cows, cars, people, bikes and more constantly weaving in and out of each other, and there are, of course, people everywhere. The majority of the trip, however, was in the small towns and villages of the Konkan coast. We explored a few places where the Bene Israel Jews have been living for centuries, and got a senseof where the community is coming from. We thenspent 3 amazing days at a resort with memebers of the Jewish Youth Pioneers. These guys and girls were from ages 15 to 25(ish), and were all SO much fun to hang out with. From rock climbing to pool parties, to tons of dance parties, to shabbat services, to just sitting around, everyone was really great to meet.



There are obviously a million more details I could give, but I'll save those for later. Two days ago the trip ended and most people went home. Nine of us stayed in India, and mosty people are in Mumbai for at least a few days before going north to Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. So we've been having a great time going up to Natasha's house (a JYP member) yesterday afternoon for tea, cooking lessons, and relaxing, and today we took a ferry to Elephanta Island, which is covered in monkeyse (but no elephants, if you're wondering), and has some really cool caves with carvings in the walls.



I'm writing this from an internet cafe down the street from my hotel. I took the worst possible route to get here, but in the process did some cool exploring of a really different neighborhood then I've been inbefore. I'll be living here for two months, so I should probablyknow my own backyard. It was denser and crazier than anywhere I've been. So crazy, people didn't even bother staring at me for being white. Woah. But I did find an excellent chocoatier and bakery, so the detour was 100% worth it.



I look forward to keeping in better contact now that I can venture out to internet cafes more frequently. I have a phone too, but after functioning yesterday, it seems to have stopped today...hmmmmm. Anyway, I hope you're all great and planning on emailing me with cool stories. Talk toyousoon!



P.S. hopefully I'llfigureout how to get pictures up here soon, if for no other reason than to keep Zach happy.