Our Hotel in Mumbai
I am typing this as I am sitting in Mumbai traffic on the way to the offices of our partners here. Mumbai traffic makes Delhi look like an open road. The Mumbai metropolitan area has about 20 million people in it. Few of them have cars, however, a small percentage of 20 million is still quite a bit. Travelling to and from the office which is only about 20 miles can take as much as 2 hours. As occurs everywhere in India, traffic rules as we think of them in the US are pretty lose. On a small open stretch of road (at least in our direction, we were traveling about 40 miles an hour, when a group of about 30 motorcycles heading the other direction got tired of waiting for their side to open up, and came at us head on. The funniest part, is that now that we’ve been here for a week, none of us even really noticed or thought twice about it, where as a week ago we would have been clutching each other and praying.
Hillside Slum Housing (sorry bad picture) in Mumbai
We have seen the remains of a couple accidents by now: a truck that ran into the median a truck that flipped over, and there was a horrible story in the newspaper about a motorcyclist that lost control and slipped under the back wheel of a large truck. The news report said the truck driver probably was not even aware that his truck had run this individual over. None the less for a city with so much vehicle and pedestrian traffic all sharing the same road way, in extremely close quarters, it is amazing how few accidents there are. The drivers here should be surgeons as I cannot believe how well they can navigate tiny spaces at high speeds with the vehicles. Last night on the way back to the hotel we did see two cars that, even to the standards here, were driving crazily. This served an interesting comparison to the rest of the driving and underscored that even though to us the driving culture seems anarchic, there is a very strong sense of etiquette when driving, it just happens to be flipped. In the US, it is often considered arrogant and rude to honk. Here if you are approaching a car or an individual, it is arrogant and rude not to honk to let them know you are there. In the US, when you change langes, you signal, and change lanes quickly. Here you generally gradually change, but listen closely for honks from cars indicating they are around. If there is no honking, you continue to change. Your ears are used more to “see” the traffic behind you then rear view mirrors, as its important to keep your eyes on everything in front of you.
Mumbai Buildings
Also-thought I’d mention, a train just went by with the usual commuters hanging out the doors, and one riding on the roof.
Anyway, enough about traffic. So our first evening in Mumbai we had a brush with stardom.
Shah Rukh Khan:
India’s most famous actor Shah Rukh Khan (who receives about as much airtime on local TV as Britney Spears does in the US, although he appears to be much more level headed) happened to be dining in the same restaurant as us, but up on the second floor.
Mumbai Buildings
Tuedsay was spent as a long day in the office working with our partners. Late that night, we had dinner just down the road in Mumbai (which took us over 2 hours to get to the restaurant). The venue was on a terrace at the JW Marriot overlooking the Arabian sea. Unfortunately, Mumbai is experiencing a record cold snap, so it was only in the low 60s and quite breezy. It was great to get a chance nonetheless to mingle and talk to the people that essentially work for our company, but on the other side of the globe. It was striking how similar our interests, and personalities were, but the culture around them was so different. I spent a lot of time talking about and joking about women and relationships, and the highs and lows associated with them. The guy I was talking to me, was a few years younger than me and mentioned he just got engaged. I congratulated him, and then he then went on to say that he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to get married. He really wishes he could fall in love first, but since he’s only met his wife once and never talked to her, that can’t happen. However, their parents have made their decision and he will have to go through with it.
Wow.
I honestly didn’t realize that arranged marriages were still the norm here. I got the sense though that a lot of that may be changing as quickly as the next decade.
Dinner and the camaraderie were excellent. I had many good conversations with many people. I didn’t meet a single person from our partner company that wasn’t friendly and I savored every minute of each conversation. Unfortunately, we had to end it somewhat early, as Kelli and I had to wake up for a 6:40am flight to Chennai the next morning.
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