Headed to Singapore

Well, that was a quick six days in India. Hopefully next time I can spend more time here. Despite the short trip, I'm glad I came out here with my mom and also glad I spent some time hanging out with my in-laws. It always feels a little bit like a different world here, but in a fun and eye-opening way, every single time.

Now I am headed to Singapore where I will meet up with my college buddy. Read her book if you want to read a nice memoir about modern China and the impact of meals. Audra is going to take me on some kind of wild eating tour. She assured me that I will burn the calories walking in the 95-degree Fahrenheit heat, so I'm counting on that to keep things in check. Stay tuned. Flying out tonight.

From market to market

The next day, my mother-in-law and I decided we'd like to check out some shopping. Not a lot, but just to kind of get out of the house. The mornings are really nice and cool, but by midday, it gets pretty hot outside, even now. We decided we'd venture out in the morning and get ourselves back a few hours later.

I am not much of a shopper in terms of volume, but I like to look around at stores and styles out of curiosity. I also enjoy the grocery store experience in any country. What was and always has been interesting about the last few times I've been here is the fact that there is essentially a farmers market downstairs outside this flat, and then, if you want, you can hop into an auto-rickshaw and end up at a serious high-end mall. It is. super. duper. weird.

My coconut water. Yum! Yum! Yum! Organic.

My mother-in-law about to guzzle her fresh coconut water.

Fresh fish being sold by the road. 

Downstairs where we catch the auto-rickshaw.

More farmers market

Ok, so this is all very quaint. Now, let's head to the mall via auto-rickshaw.

Always a wild ride. Some drivers are more daring than others. This ride cost us about a dollar. 

 When we get to the mall, first of all, we have to pass our bags through security screening and be checked for weapons. This is pretty normal here.

After we enter the mall, guess what I see? A corporate presence. Now, I'm wondering what happens to the village tea seller back at the farmers' market. The prices in this mall are ridiculous mostly but I ended up buying a couple of things that were reasonable. The whole experience just made me wonder who exactly buys stuff in this mall and who's buying stuff back in the mom and pop shops by the road. The other thing is this: all the advertising material in these malls depicts non-Indians enjoying the good things in life. It is a little disturbing that way because most of the people buying things look pretty Indian to me. Hm. Well. Whatever. The train has left the station on the whole imperialism thing when it comes to India.

Starbucks Coffee

Mumbai approach and arrival

The day before yesterday I flew over to Mumbai, a 2.5-hour flight from Kolkata. Although it was an evening flight, I enjoyed watching the lightscape over the country (window seat). I am kind of now wishing I'd taken a day flight because we flew over places my parents used to talk about a lot, but it's ok. It might have been hard to see anything with the layers of winter fog and pollution anyway. I was able to see some lights.

Above the Hoogly River

My phone kept picking up location for a while

I spent a lot of the flight writing one of those previous posts (Jumbled Days posts). By the time I was done, it was almost time to land. 

The air traffic was pretty heavy coming into Mumbai (seems to be the norm), putting us into a short holding pattern. To pass the time, I took some photos or tried at least. Again, fog and air pollution make it hard to get good shots but at least I got a few. Mumbai is Neel's hometown, and so we typically come here and spend most of our time here or traveling around.

Approach to Mumbai

Final approach

Relentless Mumbai traffic

Anyone who has been to Indian urban centers knows that traffic is a drag. It is worse than LA or anything fathomable in the United States. When you come here, you just have to adjust your expectations. It is entirely different. The amount of time it takes to get somewhere-not-that-far is outrageous and irrational. As Neel had told me in one of our first visits here (two blogs ago), when you land in India, you check your rational brain in at the immigration counter. 

My in-laws had been anxiously awaiting my arrival for a few days. They are really great people. I don't think I'd seen them for a few years now, so they were super excited to receive me at the airport. They do not drive, so what you do is you hire a driver. Sort of like Uber or Lyft, but it's done through referral and known people. This is something I haven't really ever brought up in these blogs. Trust is a very valuable commodity here. Like all good businesses, a trusted referral is like gold. 

I finally got out of the plane and terminal, and out in front of the receiving area alongside many others. This airport is also completely different than it was in, say, 2005. It is truly amazing how quickly India has gotten its act together on the airports, at least. Or maybe that's not quick. Hard to say. When I think about it, the San Francisco airport built its international terminal back in the 90's maybe within 3 years. I guess that after having India sort of stagnated in the 70's and 80's, things are catching up quickly after the markets opened up in the 90's. 

The parking garage (yes, Chaitee, there is a parking garage) was orderly. There were a lot of motorcycles parked. Probably hard to see. It was notable. Trust me. 

Oh, traffic. So my flight landed around 8:55 PM. We got into the hired car, maybe 9:30 PM. We got back to Thane (pronounced Thaanay), Neel's original stomping grounds, around 10:30 PM. An hour to travel 15 miles. I'm looking at the map now, and if I were to go to the airport right now, it would take us 54 mins. For 15 miles. So that means we were going about 15 mph and if I go now, it would be 16 mph🤣🤣. Riding a bike could be faster, but only if there were appropriate roads. And therein lies the problem.

We arrived in Thane, caught up a little bit, and then I zonked out around 12:30 or 1 AM.