Just a Normal Weekend...

Top 5 ways I know I'm settling into my Indian lifestyle:

5. I respond to "Madam"

4. I can speak about 3 and 1/2 words of Hindi (but I'm learning!)

3. I have almost perfected the Indian head nod and have started to do it involuntarily

2. I can cross the street

1. I'm beginning to perceive unusual situations and experiences as normal

Over the weekend I was thinking about what to include in my blogpost this week and I started to get slightly disappointed because I felt like I had nothing exciting to report. I mean, all I really did was hang out with friends from school and go to the gym; I didn't get a chance to sightsee or do anything interesting. It wasn't until I was skyping with my mom and could watch her reaction to the stories I was sharing, however, that I realized how adjusted I've become to Mumbai. Sure, I just hung out with friends on Friday night, but it was to celebrate a major Hindu festival. And, yeah, I went to the gym, but a Bollywood star asked to use the elliptical when I was finished. I find it pretty amazing that after only 6 short weeks in my new city, I have become habituated enough to my surroundings that these things seem normal! And the crazy thing is that I will only continue to adjust to this wacky place. So, here are the highlights from my normal, run of the mill Indian weekend:

Friday Night
First on the agenda for the weekend was meeting a friend of a friend of my parents for dinner at a nearby-ish hotel. My parents' wonderful friend Ranjit has been kind enough to share my contact information with his acquaintances in India, and one of them, Mahendra, was in town for the evening and had planned to have dinner with me. I was so excited to meet a connection to home (albeit a somewhat distant connection, but you take what you can get when you're 8000 miles away from home) that when he suggested a place 2 "neighborhoods" away, I didn't mind. It was near the airport, which was convenient for him, and I was confident I could figure it out. So, address in hand, I headed out to the main road and said "Santa Cruz, domestic airport" to the first rickshaw diver I could flag down. He just shook his head and drove off. Confused but not defeated, I tried again and got the same result. Third time's the charm, though, and I was eventually on my way.

As we approached the turn off to the airport, I told the driver to take a left and go to the Orchid Hotel; he assured me that he understood. I sat back in my seat assuming that I would soon see the lobby of the Orchid, but I should have learned my lesson by this point about making assumptions in India. All of a sudden, I realized in horror that I wasn't going to the Orchid at all; I was going to the airport. I tried to tell myself to stay calm and that I could redirect him back towards the Orchid even though I had absolutely no clue where I was. When we approached the departures gate, however, the driver stopped and said "out." I explained what I needed to have happen but he persisted; "get out." All I wanted to do was scream because here I was stuck at the Mumbai domestic airport all by myself with hardly 100 rupies in my purse - translation: I was seriously up a creek with no paddle. Trying to resist the urge to freak out, I finally called over an airport security guard who was able to translate my situation to the very confused and slightly annoyed riskshaw driver. Exasperated and perspiring slightly from the stress (I prefer to think of it as my "Indian glow"), I eventually made it to my dinner with Mahendra about 15 minutes late.

Once I had made it there in one piece, dinner was wonderful! Mahendra is very kind and has already offered his hospitality when my parents and I visit Delhi in only a few short weeks. It was both comforting and surreal to be able to make a connection to home from so far away.

After dinner, I began the journey back to Bandra. Mahendra, who must have been worried that I would be ripped off if I tried myself, flagged me an air-conditioned cab and worked out a fixed rate with the driver to get me back home. Then, he handed me 150 rupies and instructed me not to pay the driver any more than that (again, I must have "naive, white, American woman: please take advantage of me" written on my forehead or something). I agreed, and we parted ways planning to reunite in Delhi.

As the cab pulled out of the Orchid, I relaxed back in the seat for the first time in hours. I had made it to the hotel by myself, unless you count the very necessary assistance at the airport, and had enjoyed my dinner very much. Just as I was starting to think, "you go, Tyler Hogg;" however, the cab driver pulled over to the side of the road and said, "Madam, I cannot take you to Bandra, but my uncle will take you instead. Sorry no air-conditioning. Don't pay more than 150 rupies" (Note: This was the part of the story where my mother looked as if I had told her I had been abducted by a motorcycle gang as I nonchalantly reported the details of this event. I've been here way too long if this situation is registering anywhere on my "normal" radar). Although I was confused, I honestly didn't think it was that strange that the taxi driver no longer felt like taking me to Bandra. Afterall, it was a long drive and he wasn't trying to get any money off of me for the first part of the trip, so I hopped in his uncle's cab (Mom: "Tyler, tell me you didn't get in that cab! No, you didn't!"). Uncle Cab Driver eventually returned me safely to Bandra, and the ride itself was uneventful with the exception that he did try to cheat me out of 50 rupies. Keyword: try. Ha ha sucker; you can't fool me!

Back in Bandra, the night was still young and I had a pending invitation to a coworker's house to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi. This holiday honors the Hindu god, Ganesh, and it is believed to be the time of year when he reveals himself on earth to his devotees. It is a wildly celebrated holiday that lasts for about 10 days, during which families purchase a statue of Ganesh to put on display in their home (I found it was similar to a Christmas tree). The culmination of this festival is on the 10th day when families travel in a wild parade to the sea and immerse the Ganesh statue into the waters of the Arabian Sea. I guess this means that there is a pretty expansive Ganesh graveyard at the bottom of the Arabian Sea, and I can only imagine what this does to India's already polluted waters! Ganesh Chaturthi is apparently celebrated to the extreme in Mumbai, and the immersion will be this Sunday. I'm predicting a crazy blogpost next Monday!

Eager to learn more about this festival, I decided to take advantage of my coworker's (Sanjana) kind invitation to her home. I arrived to find Sanjana and two other ASB employees along with Sanjana's family, who had traveled from all over the country to be together. As a first time guest in an Indian home, I had no idea what to do, but Sanjana and her family were more than willing to guide Jane, Russell, and I on the protocol. I took off my shoes and sat down to an enormous Indian dinner, and the fact that I had already eaten did not seem to matter. When I would finish my plate (with extreme discomfort), they would pile more food on until I finally realized that a clean plate probably signaled to them that I wanted more. After (my second) dinner, we gathered around Ganesh while the family sang songs and took turns honoring the statue with flowers and a candle. It was hard to know how involved we could be in this ritual, but Sanjana's family welcomed our participation and encouraged us to take photos and ask questions. Once we had all had our turn in front of the statue, all of us - including Sanjana's two-year-old nephew and eighty-year-old grandmother - joined hands and danced around the room. It was so much fun!

At the end of the night I felt exhausted from my week but enriched by my evening with Sanjana and her family. Indian culture is incredibly warm and accommodating, and as I become more used to things around here, it reminds me in a way of the Southern charm I'm used to from home. Even though we were unfamiliar with the celebration, the family welcomed us into Sanjana's home as if we were old friends. And before we left, they gave us a gift bag with fruits and a Ganesh statuette as well as an invitation to participate in their immersion. I'm definitely looking forward to sharing the details of it with you all next week!

Saturday
...actually was a little boring by my India standards. Got up, went to swim practice, tried to go to the gym but it was closed for Ganesh Chaturthi, went downtown with Lynn instead, went out to dinner, blah blah blah.

Sunday
My weekend seems to have been sandwiched with fun, because Sunday was a little more exciting. Once I was able to get my butt out of bed, I kicked off the day with an oblivious star-sighting in Gold's. I was working out on the elliptical and a woman asked me if she could use the machine when I was done. I said, "Sure, just 4 more minutes" and she walked away. Before I could put my iPod earphones back in, David, one of my coworkers and Gold's Gym enthusiast, came running over from the weights section and informed me that the woman I had just spoken to was a famous Bollywood actress. Pretty exciting, huh? This week, sharing ellipticals; next week, on the VIP access list.

Later that evening I had the unique opportunity to see two of my talented coworkers, Katie and Mike, perform with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra. It was a beautiful performance, and I was happy to have been invited along. As I pointed out to Lynn during intermission, attending the performance symbolized my transition from tourist to (temporary) citizen in Mumbai. As a tourist, I would have never thought of or known to have attended the show, much less known two of the performers on stage! The night ended with an entertaining dinner downtown to celebrate Katie and Mike's hard work. We had so much fun that it was hard to stomach the fact that a new work week started bright and early the next day!