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Published: February 5th 2008
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Commuter Train
kim and another lady There are two pages, so scroll and hit next.
The two names for this city are totally interchangeable, it was originally named mumbai, but the british renamed it bombay. officially they have changed the name back to the original, but none of this is really important, its just funny b/c you go from one name to the next in a sentence. whatever its called it was like a slice of pie getting off the 30 hr train from kolkata (formerly calcutta....you know the story now) to this hybrid city of west meets east, new york meets india. you can obtain all the comforts and indulgents from home, they even have an english bay type beach area. our budget reflected this metropolitan upgrade, but we made up for it by working for a paycheck. yes we actually had money going into our wallets for once instead of the constant outflow. how did we obtain this money you ask? bollywood baby.
from the first few steps we took down the streets of colaba ( area in bombay ) we were approached to be extras in a movie. why not, right!? for those of you who have no idea what we are
referring to, bombay is where all the bollywood movies are made, their answer to hollywood. the entire nation is majorly into it too. the music people buy are soundtracks to the latest bollywood movie, so everyone knows all the words and dance moves to match. its not an uncommon thing for people to break out into synchronized dance sequences at house partys and clubs if " the " song comes on. the movies are colorful, melodramatic ( i stress this ), singing, dancing, and major close ups the actors overacting facial expressions. its almost always a heroic love story musical, with a coy lead actress and a strapping male, oh and no kissing allowed on screen, so the way they dance around this issue is hilarious. the movie we were extras in is called "high five", we have no idea what its about, although there is a golden retreiver in the movie who gets paid ridiculously. our scene was an office scene, so we dressed up in blazers and dress shirts and sat at computer desks and walked around in the background. i actually got a line right off the bat, i said " hi " to the lead actress
me and paris
our first taxi ride in india together as she walks by, wowzers hey ! it was boring but fun at the same time. we were totally oblivious to the fact that the leads aeysha takia and the male lead were pretty famous. after the shoot we went to an indian wedding, not for our benefit ( although we were super happy to get the oppurtunity) but for the image of the family holding the wedding. i guess just the presence of foreigners is prestigious. its so hard for me to understand, i mean everyone there was dressed to their best, and we stroll in in our street clothes kinda frazzled. weird. the food was so abundant and soooooooooooo good! we had alot of fun.
it was mahatma ghandis 60th anniversary of his death on the 30th of january, so they had a national holiday and also spread his ashes out in the sea. we visited a ghandi museum which was really amazing. it was called mani bhavan. he lived, worked, and learned spinning ( to make his own clothes ) and met with congress from years of 1917 - 1934. he was even arrested there in 1934. it was a place where he lived and conversed
near chowpatty beach
christina and some random school boys with his collegues, moulded the nation in the image of his cherished ideals of truth and non-violence and inspired his followers and devotees who went forth from here in the world charged with a sense of service and sacrifice. Mani Bhavan, once the residence of Ghandiji, is now a source of inspiration for freedom and peace loving men and women all over the world. two things i find mother teresa and ghandi have in common is their ability to LIVE IT. to eat, sleep and breathe the truths they believe in and nothing compromises it. its a hard thing to do, and not many people are capable of this, especially when it their focus is so completely unselfish to the point of suffering. even in the face of his assasin, ghandi believed in his non-violence philosophy, that he put his hands together and bowed. ghandi was assansinated january 30th 1948, the same year mother teresa, some 9 months later stepped on the streets of calcutta for the first time. ghandi also disliked the idea of foreign cloth being sold in his nation, so he was a major advocate for villagers and people alike making their own clothes by learning how
christina and cricket
we walked onto a field and asked if we could play to spin their own fabric. it also helped build indias own economy ( which was another focus of his, to not lean on foreign support ) this is something that mother teresa carried on after his death. all of the nun uniforms, which were transformed into saries ( white with blue border ) were spun and hand made by lepors in the lepor colony. still to this day.
the rest of the 2 weeks spent here mostly consisted of going to bollywood cinemas and walking around sightseeing. We went on a commuter train a couple of times which was a hilarious event. bobby can tell you all about it. commuter trains are the local trains ( tourists take taxis ) and are completely overcrowded. there are seperate cars for men and women, so kim went into the womens, and i went to the next car to get in the mens car, but it was more crowded than a concert. there were guys hanging out the door and holding on to whatever they could. i didn't think i would get in, but these guys grabbed me and pulled me right in and helped me find a handhold. i was hanging
halfway out the train chest to chest with all these strangers with one hand on a handhold i was sharing with some other guy. at every stop they knew who had to get on and off, so the crowd sort of heaved and hoed to accomodate everyone. it was a suprisingly smooth system everyone had worked out. and of course they were all staring at me, the gora, full on the whole time.
so now we are leaving india behind. this country is so vast, we could spend another 6 months here and see completely different sides to this place. another time i guess. but on the other hand we are totally ready to leave. i think we are becoming a little too desensitised and alot too bitter. two good ways to sum up our experiance here ;
"when you first get to india you think its chaos, you stay for a while and you think wait, its actually organized chaos, then you stay a little longer and you realize, no its actually just chaos " - some random traveller
" india-where the impossible is possible, and the possible is impossible" - kim
Egypt here we
aysha takia and me
famous bollywood actress, and me..... come!!
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