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Published: August 14th 2010
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Partying in Bandra
Mumbai you showed me a great time tonight! Day 6
I’m up to about 5 hours of sleep now and nearly getting adjusted to India time. Last night was memorable and I've got some great pics to share when I get home. We stop for breakfast at a neighboring restaurant before heading back to Mumbai. It’s raining and the elevation we’re at in the mountains of Nashik makes it look like the clouds are touching the road. Everyone appears recovered from the wine we consumed after a few grilled cheese sandwiches India style we head out and make it back to Mumbai almost 3 hours later.
The company here must have buildings all over the city because we head to another facility they have to meet more people and have lunch with the team. Again we’re greeted with a sign welcoming us to this location and at this point I’m refreshed and it’s around noon so this is when I’m at my peak performance energy wise. Each one of their locations is never on the first floor I’ve discovered on this trip so even though I skipped the workout today, I’m getting my cardio climbing all these steps. I think they should rename Mumbai to “Stairway to Heaven” As much stair climbing as I’ve done this week I can’t help but feel me and Jesus are homies right now LOL . Today’s lunch consists of: you guessed it a whole bunch of Indian food. Again it was really good I’ve been amazed at the amount of different dishes I’ve been able to try and typically if it contained chicken I’ve had no problems at all with the taste. Most of it has been spicy but that works just fine for me. I did have to try the dessert which was from my memory milk balls that were processed and flavored. I don’t remember what they were called but the liquid tasted like captain crunch cereal in a bowl of milk. I really want to sip it all up but I keep worrying in the back of my mind if I’m going to catch typhoid or something else the doctor tried to warn me about before I left. I resist the urge and we head back to the familiar office location in the city where training has occurred all week.
Today’s agenda calls for more training, catching up on office emails and having high tea around 4 p.m. local time with both teams I’ve been working with this week. After checking in with the team who I consider my India family at this point we head upstairs to the covered roof top for more food, high tea, and a lively game of Pictionary. Now keep in mind the rooftop is covered with tarp obviously due to this being the rainy season so combine a covered roof in the humidity with no central air and yes I was sweating like a ____ ___ _____ you fill in the blank. We start the game and I’m already sweating like I’m James Brown just finishing a 3 hour concert in the dessert and we split into 2 teams. Now back home I cannot stand Pictionary but that’s because we usually play Guesstures and it’s more fun in my opinion. I've got to live for the moment so I'm fine with this game. I am team captain and one of the editors named Romy is the other. I allow my team to run the show as they’re all competitive in nature and I’m sure we’ll win. The category is American movies so I’m feeling fairly confident. The team votes me up to give them the clues and Romy’s team gives me the movie “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” Now I’m undergoing heat stroke practically and I cannot believe I have to act this out but I’ve heard of the movie before at least. It takes what seems like 20 minutes to act out the Parnassus part and I’m probably not going to do well at this. Romy’s team easily beat us on that one but somehow we manage to win the game overall. We have chocolate cake, more native food and head back to the hotel to shower and change for a night out on the town.
Chow and I drive to another part of Mumbai called Bandra West that I’ve never seen before (very easy when you’re in a city of over 16 million people) The rest of the crew is in another car behind us. This area is nicer and home to several Bollywood actors I’m told so I guess at any minute we could see someone famous then I can only imagine the reaction on the street. We get to a dance club called the Hawaiian Shack and its 3 stories. The first level is retro, second is hip-hop, and third level is bollywood music. This time the Quality team gets to hang out with me outside of the office for the first time and we all have great conversations. This is a dynamic group of young people and I’m very impressed and learn a lot about customs and growing up and being a young 25 year old in India.
Now to the music so this city clearly has a fixation with The Eagles because if I hear Hotel California one more time I’m going to throw myself off the roof. It’s a good song but every place we’ve been to at night has played this song and of course you sing along to it. I look up and see a DJ so immediately I get a pen/paper and write out my requests. Next up is old school up-tempo r&b Motown style, Black Eyed Peas, Santana…. You know something familiar from back home. The crew puts some requests in as well and the drinks get served. So back home the goal of the DJ is to get people up and moving and feeling good. The music usually builds over time in tempo to encourage people to dance and feel good. Over here they go from fast to slow so it’s hard to get your groove going and yes I was on the dance floor most of the night. Liquid courage will do wonders for the soul when you’re like me. So we go from the Jackson 5 which is cool to Michael Jackson’s “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” to “It’s Raining Men”…. Now this is where I have to take a pause for the cause… When that song came on I had my WTF moment and found a seat quick but they LOVE that song over here. Everyone kept dancing and I polished off my drink till a better song came on. Next up was the man Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas with Smooth. This got everybody up and we almost had the Soul Train line going. The quality team had to leave by this point it was around 11 p.m. and they all commute so some of them had a 2 hour train ride home so we say goodbye and back to dancing. I head upstairs to the 2nd floor as I’m feeling my mojo at this point. Not even 5 minutes later I’m back downstairs. Chris Brown and MC Hammer is not my idea of hip hop so thanks but no thanks. We keep dancing and have a great night this retro music is primarily classic rock and some others but I like it. It’s familiar and sounds good and we are having too much fun to care what music is being played at this point.
After awhile I realize it’s almost midnight and in India that’s hours past my bed time. I slowly nod off in the corner but it’s time to go eat dinner. We head to a nice place and grab a good meal. I sleep the whole car ride back to the hotel and get ready for another day tomorrow. Tonight was a good night and even though it’s 1 a.m. we don’t have to come in until 10 a.m. so plenty of time to sleep in. Goodnight from Mumbai the party capital of India. I guess I'll load some more pics but it's going to be a day at least i'm tired.
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