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Published: August 14th 2010
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Downtown Mumbai from the seafront
I missed the sign nearby that said no photos are allowed unless you have a permit. If you don't have a permit you will be prosecuted. Thank God is all I can say Day 7
We don’t have to be in the office until 10 a.m. but what do I care its 7 a.m. and I just woke up…. WHOA I got 6 hours of sleep last night. Its Friday the 13th so God only knows what craziness will happen over here today. We head down for breakfast my last meal with Chow before he fly's up to New Delhi to spend time with his family. Yes I skipped the work out today; give me a break. The portions here are small and I’ve been climbing steps and walking the entire time so I’m not feeling guilty. After a good meal we head into the office for final meetings and two Q&A sessions for me with the teams.
The leadership team greets us and we share some good laughs about last night. I’m complemented on my dancing skills which I only pulled out 25% of my abilities so I’m pleased with the compliment. After some reviews, emails, and meetings Chow departs and for the first time it’s just me until I leave tomorrow. This team has become family so his absence is not that noticeable. Chow has been a great travel partner on this trip and I'm sure he'll have a great time with his family before returning back stateside. I should be uncomfortable at this point being so far from home but this has been the most hospitable and welcoming personal experience I’ve had to date. I facilitate a final Q&A with the BRV team which is slotted for 30 minutes but almost runs 2 hours long. Great interactive discussion setting expectations and we accomplish every task and answer each question. I say my goodbyes to everyone which is actually the low point of my trip. I’ve grown very much from this experience this week and the team promises to FB request me so we can stay in contact. Now it’s off for some sightseeing with Swarnima and Deepali and the rest of the leadership team I’ll see tomorrow for a full day of activities before I go home.
We head back to Bandra but this time closer to the sea. I haven’t seen this many westerners since I left Germany. We are visiting Mount Mary Church which is a historic Roman Catholic Church right near the Arabian Sea. It’s very historic inside and we climb more steps than I can count just to get to the church. The climb is worth it just for the photo opportunity. It’s more quiet and peaceful in this area of town and lots of wealth as the buildings are right on the seafront. We head down the road to the sea so we can take more photos. The waves are really choppy and its low tide because you can see the black rocks in the sea everywhere and people are sitting out there just relaxing and taking in the breeze. We try to go up to this overlook area so I can take some great scenic photos but armed police make us leave before we even hit the first step. As soon as I saw the rifle I knew they meant business universally a gun talks so I quickly obeyed and kept moving the other way. We hop back in the car and explore the surrounding neighborhoods off Carter Road trying to kill some time before dinner.
We manage to buy some things and I get great suggestions on gift ideas for the family back home. We grab dinner at this cool Italian restaurant called Out of the Blue. The atmosphere is nice and they have fondue and other pasta dishes. They play nice jazz music here and it’s a pretty popular place. Good conversation and dessert follow and we wrap it up and head back to the city. I’m back at the hotel and it’s my last night here. I’ve got some mixed feelings about leaving but I’m really happy to be going home and seeing everyone. I’m going to just chill tonight it’s been a long day. Agenda for tomorrow is more shopping, McDonalds for a Maharaja Mac( the India version of a Big Mac w/ chicken instead of beef)and we’re going to see the move Inception in the largest IMAX dome theater in Asia. Goodnight
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