Backtracking

Oy, so far behind. Things have become substantially busier at work (my boss says substantially all the time) so it's been hard to find time to write. But oh, so much to tell!

So in lieu of a proper entry, the following is a list of snapshots which hopefully I'll further elaborate later on, in no particular order:

1. Starting WAY back: weekend trip in March to Vengurla, which began with laying on the floor of a 2nd class sleeper train car underneath a berth, proceeded as a fantastically romantic dream weekend on a perfect beach, and concluded with a second round of train floor sleeping.

2. Long weekend in Udaipur and Ahmedabad over Passover.

3. Weekend escape to Pune, featuring the final cricket world cup game between Australia and Sri Lanka, which we watched in a Café Coffee Day with its employees until 4 am. Then we got a ride home on the manager's motorcycle.

4. A list of systems that work, and systems that need improvement here. For instance, the chai and coffee wallahs on the interstate trains are brilliant. The bus conductor system is brilliant. The fact that nearly every shop and restaurant delivers is brilliant. The fact that foreign credit cards are not accepted on travel websites needs improvement. The bureaucracy of visa extension needs improvement. The proximity of hands and pelvises inherent in the overstuffing of public transportation vehicles DEFINITELY needs improvement.

5. Musings on urban life and the expat experience. As Dave Matthews said when I was in 9th grade, "it's not where you are but who you're with that really matters." The balance between depending on the kindness of strangers and paranoia over being targeted for advantage-taking.

6. A troubling incident with a rickshaw wallah days after I wrote in here that I no longer felt guilty haggling over the fare, which turned into a small scandal involving numerous construction workers and Mobile Creche teachers.

7. Big event at work, "Saving Mumbai's Public Open Spaces" in which the wrath of microsoft excel has shaved several months off of my life, and made me too busy to work more with Mobile Creches.

8. Weekend escape to Goa, with the remnants of the tourist season. Shopkeepers called out to us in Hebrew, and the ladies trolling the beach to sell henna and jewelry thought we were Israeli.
9. Leaving Bombay in a week! Travel plans, starting in Hampi, to Kerala, across to Varanasi, following the Ganges up to its mouth in the Himalayas.

10. Visa meshugas, leading me to accept defeat and change my return ticket. That's right, folks, I'll be back in the US of A on July 16th.

11. I finally weighed myself, after having a tailor take in my pants by 2.5 inches. I've lost nearly 10 kilos, or almost 25 pounds. And while I'm visibly thinner, it's still damn hard to find pants that fit.

12. My friends Samira and Dan got engaged, and all the girls got mehendi (henna) at Zenzi, a shmancy upscale bar in Bandra. I did both hands and my feet, but sadly it's mostly gone by now.

13. I was in a Bollywood movie, finally. Race, staring Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Anil Kapur, and Akshay Khanna. I was a cop. Seriously (but not like on Halloween those years). I knew it would be a long day and unglamorous, but I had no idea how existentially boring it would be.

14. I'm reading Shantaram, as recommended by so many people. I'm surprisingly into it, despite the ridiculously flowery language and absurd metaphors. "Her thick, black plait of hair was the rope by which a man might climb to heaven."

That should about do it for now. More soon, I hope! And anyone with job and/or apartment leads in SF, do let me know.