Reliving High School through Bombay

0:23, 16 February 2007

Tonight the plan was to go see Happy Feet at an Imax in town- because of course, if Mumbai is to be a world-class city, it needs an imax theatre in a multiplex, apparently built on reclaimed land/salt flats in the middle of nowhere, pretty hard to get to. We show up and it turns out another film was having its premiere there that evening, with all sorts of lights and music and big elephant statues. I did catch a glimpse of Amitabh Bachchan, one of Bollywood’s biggest stars- he was talking on his cellphone. Batya and Erin tried valiantly to get us in, but it didn’t work, so we went back to Kings Circle for dinner at Café Mysore, allegedly the oldest south Indian restaurant in Bombay.

I had idli for the first time since I’ve been here, some special version where instead of being cooked as separate patties, it was cooked inside of a jackfruit leaf (but no jackfruit, sadly) in which the stem wove through the leaf to hold it all together- rather genius. It’s a consistency like solidified cream of wheat, except it’s from fermented rice flour, and it’s eaten with chutneys (or chutnies?) and sambar (kinda a soupy gravy with some veg chunks). Also tried bhaji puri and dahi puri for the first time. So good! The sign outside said it was Indian junk food, but this seems pretty elaborate- the bhaji puri is puffed fried dough pockets about the size of my palm one tears and eats with bhaji- curried vegetables, and also raw chopped red onion. Dahi puri is small, tablespoon sized puffs filled with I couldn’t figure out what, and covered with sweet yogurt and little crisp balls that are basically baby Kix. Remember kix? Totally yummy.

Then we had “Just Chill” ice cream, which is somewhere in between Tasti D-Lite and soft serve, actually pretty good. There was a little girl wearing an adorable red halter dress with kinda off proportions, so the chest was very low and the straps were on her breasts. I remarked to Erin that that’s the most cleavage I’ve seen in India. Cleavage is really concealed here! I’ve been surprised to see as many bare shoulders and short skirts as I have (mostly skirts on tv), but yeah, not really any boobs.

Erin and I talked about wearing Indian versus Western clothes. As someone pointed out to me, if I was Indian, I would wear the western clothes I have as an actual westerner, that would be the appropriate socioeconomic and cultural status. But as a westerner living here, I want to wear Indian clothes- but for whom? Would I stand out less? Work is kind of irrelevant b/c it’s such a small group, and I almost feel like I’d be mocking them wearing it? (avoiding getting on the 2^nd class car with Benita yesterday made me feel really guilty afterwards… I was worried when she texted me this morning that she was pissed about it, but things seemed fine at work. I’ll just have to be sure that doesn’t happen again like that.) Erin said something about her westernized version of local clothes- I should work that out- kurta and jeans, kinda.

Thinking about it more- in the states seeing a non-westerner in their native dress makes them stand out entirely as foreign. Seeing a non-westerner in western clothes just makes them look like an American person of color—which is to say, we’re used to seeing foreigners in western clothes. So here do I blend in more in local clothes? Or is it more appropriate for me to be in my own native clothes? There isn’t a reciprocal relationship, because here I’m dressing the way they want to dress, but at home everyone wants to dress like the locals. Very interesting dynamic.

I’m developing a theory that being white in India (at least what I’ve seen of it so far) is a lot like being popular in high school.

1. People look (stare) at you all the time.
2. They are curious about you and want to know everything about you.
3. Being around you is a top goal because it improves their own social standing.
4. Although you’re constantly watched, you act like you don’t care at all, mostly ignoring it (or brazenly staring back b/c you know its thrilling for them).
5. However- you do care, in fact you are likely completely preoccupied with how much people are looking at you and constantly watching you.
6. (Matt’s contribution) And on the flipside, being watched but ignoring it all the time kinda turns you into an asshole.
7. You can get away with nearly whatever you want, and people will go out of their way to make things happen for you.
8. People will reduce fulfilling their own needs in order to meet yours.

Took the bus for the first time tonight, with Matt. The bus was fun- I was the only woman. Metal, rickety, bumpy, big jumps over bumps on the road. #32 goes to right down the street from Erin and Batya’s place- so much quicker and more direct than taking the train, I’ll definitely have to figure out doing that again. There’s the driver, and a conductor in the back, where you board. Matt was exactly right in his description that he jabs his clicker thing at you, and then you tell him where you want to get off, and he tells you how much it is- this was 5 rupees. It’s actually a smart system, although I imagine it would be really hard on a packed bus- since the conductor knows where everyone is getting off, he rings the bell thing letting the driver know when to stop. Clever.