"Beware of computer programmers that carry screwdrivers."

Post by: Beth

It is quite difficult to believe, but Raja and I have just gotten the internet installed in our home! The move into our apartment has been an eventful one, mainly due to the length of time it takes to start and complete projects associated with a move. I cannot tell you how many times we have heard it will be done "tomorrow," followed by the exact same words the next day, and the next, and the next. I was really starting to believe we would never get our new couch, lights installed, internet connection established, etc etc... We were quite patient to start with, but over time, it's become apparent that only two things work effectively here when it comes to having home projects completed by various workers: 1) yelling and 2) bribing. We aren't necessarily proud of either tactic, but have been reduced to using both on occasion. I've also learned here that when a project is actually started, to not question why it's being done this strange way, or why they're using this method to complete that task... Things are just done completely differently here, and questioning it does no good, as the workers just shake their head and say "Nay" when you ask them if it can be done a more "traditional" method.

For example, our internet connection was established today, but in a way I've never quite witnessed. We've been trying to get these people to come for 2 weeks now, so as soon as 3 non-English speaking Indian men with wires and cords rapped on our door, we welcomed them with joy and open arms. It wasn't long until two of the men disappeared, and one of the men perched himself on the ledge outside our window. We watched curiously as he hauled out an incredibly long cable and dropped about 75 feet of it towards the ground, where one of the disappearing men was now waiting. We're not sure how the next part happened, but when we could see the cable again, it's revealed to us that its about 300 feet long, and is now stringing from our window ledge, all the way across the street, to the rooftop of another building where disappearing man #2 now sits in the sun. I tore my eyes away from this production, and whispered to Raja "What if it rains??" He too was looking puzzled, so began questioning the man in Hindi if there wasn't some way we could just, you know, have the internet cable running only to a base in our own apartment, or even our own building, as opposed to stringing it 300 feet across the street to the roof of another building. "Nay," came the response, with a vigorous shake of the head. It turns out that our building is so new they haven't even built in the internet capabilities yet, so instead of tackling that project now, Raja's bribing and yelling prompted the workers to simply steal the internet from another building.

At this stage in the game, Raja and I have taken to just shrugging at each other and uttering the phrase "Well.. we'll just see how it goes, I guess.." back and forth. And I have to say, for this internet gig, so far so good. It's surprisingly fast, seems to be working exactly as it should, and is allowing me the privelege of this blog post, so you'll hear no complaints from me!

The pictures give a view of what went down in our house today... We tried to at least be discreet and not snap pictures relentlessly while laughing out loud, so this is the best we could get as far as photos. ;)

The arrow is pointing to the cable that's stringing all the way across the street.

And the building in the rectangular box is where the cable finally stops... just a hop, skip, and jump across the street!

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

Post by: Beth (Who am I kidding? This is a joke. Raja doesn't even READ the blog anymore.)

So I woke up this morning and decided to take some pictures of the view from our window in our bedroom. Bombay is situated on the Arabian Sea, and apartments that have a view of the bay (Mahim Bay) are laid out in an interesting way ... sort of long and narrow, with 2 out of the 4 sides constructed almost entirely of windows. In ours, the bedrooms and living area are on the water side, so each of those rooms have one wall that is essentially just a huge window. The goal of this construction-style is to have a panoramic city and water view that is as uninterrupted as possible. If you walk into our front door and straight down the hallway, looking right, the only breaks in the long stretch of city line and water are the walls that separate one room from another. This is beautiful and really what sold us on this apartment, but the disadvantage comes in the morning when the sun (is there anything brighter than the morning sun in India? seriously??) comes in through the huge windows. This is an easy fix with heavy curtains, but with all the work still being done in here, we don't have very heavy curtains yet. Still, it's a VERY small price to pay to be able to wake up and look out our windows and see an amazing view of Bombay.





The view is great and we're high up enough to where we can hear the sounds of the city, but can't see the roads and traffic and masses of people. It's great to be able to relax in the morning in our home before we submerge ourselves in the dusty streets, cacophony, and confusion. There are points in time where we'll be in a restaurant or a shop, or even in our home, and I literally forget I'm in India. (I've taken to judging restaurants' atmospheric quality by whether or not I feel like I'm in India during the entire meal. If you lived here, you'd understand.. Everything is so vastly different that if I manage to be surprised by the madness when I step back out on the streets, that place of establishment gets 5 stars in my book of ratings.) This actually happens a couple of times a week, but I've also learned that if I search for reminders that I'm still in this country, I can usually find them. The perfect example provided itself this morning as I'm taking (what I find to be) picturesque views of the city and water line. So peaceful.. almost awe-inspiring... and then I look down to one of the outdoor patio areas and am quickly reminded "Oh yep.. I'm in India. Definitely." The cause of the reminder?- One of the construction workers that is working on our apartment building is taking a shower on the patio, with the use of a hose and some soap he brought from somewhere. (I will say that it's not uncommon for people to sleep and bathe outside in this city.. After all, if you remember the pictures of homes from my earlier blog post, many homes don't have air conditioning or power. It's not very practical to take an actual shower in a home that has a dirt floor, and it's much more comfortable to sleep outside where the breeze from the water can find you. So anytime you drive down the streets after midnight or so, it's not uncommon to see sleepers lining the sidewalks, and in the mornings, many residents don small clothing items and shower outside.) Things like this stop seeming strange after a while and I hardly take notice anymore. But most of you readers would probably find it as curious as I did in the beginning here, so I wanted to post some photos I captured from our window. (By the way.. this man DOES have shorts on. They're a tan color, so hard to see in the photo, but they ARE there, I promise. I never would have taken photos otherwise!!)

This is right after I spied him with my little eyes.... I saw this man undressing on the patio and was very confused. I tried to urge Raja over to the window so he could help figure it out (maybe it's a man thing??) but he was busy trying to get the internet to work. I figured "Fine.. if my alarmed cry of 'This man is getting naked on the patio!!' doesn't seem to concern him, must investigate further on my own." I hurriedly scrambled to find the camera, because thought to myself that a man undressing in broad daylight may be leading to some Indian activity that is picture-worthy.

By this point, I'd realized that he was just taking a shower. Was less eventful than originally thought, so was disappointedly putting camera away.. hopes of authentic Indian activity in which one must be mostly undressed have dissipated in a puff. Then remembered that most of you may never have been spies of Indian men showering outside, so started clicking away with camera. (Raja still seems unconcerned that I am taking pictures of could-be-naked man.)



Once shower complete, said man dried off with thin cloth-like towel he brought along. Quite efficient at this, he is actually.


Is now almost dressed and ready for work day. Entire shower took only 3 or 4 minutes.
Picked this moment to halt my voyeurism, and casually sauntered back to bed.. Offered Raja camera to view photos, but still seemed uninterested in the could-be-naked guy from the patio.

In the meantime, will keep eyes peeled for any authentic Indian activities requiring partial undress.

"Home is where we tie one end of the thread of life."

Post by: Beth
*Note: these pictures seemed to upload a little bit blurry for some reason.. possibly due to slow internet connection. I'm going ahead with the post, but will fix these pictures ASAP.

Sorry for our prolonged absence … We have been moving into our apartment this past week so we haven’t had internet access during the move. Never fear, though.. I have still been diligently taking pictures and have some new ones to share! :)

As I’ve said before, there are lots of vast differences between the places I’ve lived before and India. Specific to Mumbai (since I can’t speak for the rest of India on this one), the homes are incredibly different and some are like nothing I’ve ever seen in the U.S. As is par for the course in India so far, there’s a broad spectrum covered, with plenty of extremes on either side.

Driving through different areas, some apartment buildings are very nice on the outside and look like any apartment building you can find in any large city in the U.S. They’re tall, architecturally-complex buildings with pretty facades, roof decks, and rows of large balconies. In contrast, and sometimes lining the same streets as the tall luxury apartment buildings, are the small huts and shacks that serve as homes to so many residents here. These are the ones that are different from any home I’ve seen before. Many of these homes don’t have a front door… the “lucky” residents may have a tarp that covers the hole that serves as the entrance. The roofs are usually “made” of crinkled aluminum sheets that are just laid down on top of the rows of shacks. Driving on the highway gives an interesting perspective to these types of houses: The bright sun glints off all of this silver metal, making it hard for your eyes to adjust. Once they do, you can see how large these areas are… Some of the villages have thousands of homes constructed in this way, and trash and debris are piled on top of some of the roofs to keep the aluminum pieces from getting caught in the wind and blowing away. (It sounds silly, but upon seeing these tiny, shaky homes, my first question to Raja was: “They don’t get hurricanes here off the bay, do they?” Luckily, the answer was “Nope.” I can’t imagine what a bad storm or hurricane does to these homes… It’d be a sad sight during monsoon season, I’m afraid, and I hope they have some type of system in place to avoid flooding in these low-lying homes.) It’s a strange picture to see, and further confirms the contrast of life situations here: The tiny shacks piled together with garbage holding the roofs down, and behind it, a huge gleaming apartment building soaring above the fray.

The pictures I’ve taken of different homes in the area show the huge gap between the societal classes here. Raja and I were just talking yesterday about how easy so many of us have it compared to so many of the people here, and it's easy to take so many things for granted. Until you see things like this, it's almost impossible to imagine so many people live without electricity, plumbing, and a house that has 4 solid walls. Despite that, many people in these villages seem genuinely happy. Children skip down the streets laughing, fathers teach their little children to ride bikes, moms rock their babies and chat with other moms, and teenagers play enthusiastic games of cricket in the streets and fields. It's overwhelming and at the same time, humbling, to peek into their lives and homes.