My visit to India (भारत गणराज्य) in February of 2012 || pictures available on Picasa
In early February, after years of working with our various delivery center teams in India, I had the opportunity to visit Mumbai and spend time with my team there. In typical fashion, I’d like to provide a travelogue of the trip from my perspective: the mundane activities, the surprising realizations, and unforgettable experiences. Despite my general research in advance of the trip but also having travelled only in the “Western” world, there were many things that surprised me or at least augmented whatever I might have imagined in my mind. I’ll try to highlight those below.
Before even leaving, this trip required more than the usual preparations. Aside from becoming completely fluent in Hindi, I had to get a business visa for entry into the country (everyone needs a visa of some kind) and take specific health precautions (including researching higher risk food decisions and getting the Hepatitis A vaccine).
As much as I was dreading the 15½ flight from Newark to Mumbai, it really wasn’t too bad. A first [obvious] realization was seeing our flight path which took me over Moscow and many parts of Russian, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Arabian Sea before arriving in Mumbai. We arrived in Mumbai around 10pm IST in time to watch the slowly depleting volume of suitcases on our arrival belt. As it dwindled and I battled with despondency, I realized my bag had in fact not left the US. It arrived in the middle of the night the following day and in retrospect, this turned out to be a minor inconvenience, at worst. Before I continue with my surely biased account, let’s get some quick facts about India out of the way:
- Population: 1,203,710,000 -- 17% of the world's population, 2nd largest in the world
- Mumbai Population: 20.5 million
- Official Language: Hindi, English
- Capital: New Delhi
- India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization; and the world's largest democracy.
- India never invaded any country in her last 1,000 years of history.
- There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world
- India is one of the few countries in the world that gained independence without violence.
- India is the largest English speaking nation in the world and has the largest number of Post Offices in the world
- The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people
As we made our way through customs and witnessed the blatant bribing of a customs official, countless drivers vying for our business, and an airport of people all much, much darker than I, I knew this was a different place – and I was thrilled to be there. Next, and let’s highlight this one, was the traffic. I’ve been to New York, Paris, Rome; I’ve witnessed traffic jams, I’ve seen erratic driving. And I have never seen traffic behaviors like this. Unfortunately it was difficult to capture on camera but the congestion, mob mentality, free-for-all style, and all manner of vehicular diversity never went unnoticed. It is truly central to the over-populated, pollution-plagued city of Mumbai. But there’s also a notable parallel or reflection of Indian sociology here: a clearly immensely populated country, there is profound religious and ethnic diversity and peaceful coexistence, there is constant focus on mobility -- always forward moving, always driving towards a dream, often without deterrence from the obstacles along the way. So I’m not complaining about the traffic; it was surprising but also quite noteworthy for this reason.
We arrived at the Renaissance Mumbai in Powai and I slept surprising well (highly recommend melatonin supplement and Tylenol PM). The following morning, Vinay took me around to a mall to buy some essentials and do general shopping. By “took me around” I mean that he told our driver where to go. Driving was not an option for a foreigner such as myself -- not with the road infrastructure and traffic. So we had a driver for the week who took us all over the place.
I then “took the car” to meet up with Komal and Anusha for some sightseeing. These two were just amazing. Having spent significant time together in Austin, guiding them through a few things and, at times, pushing them to eat more and more American food, they were more than happy to return the favor in their country. We went for lunch at Samrat and I had thalis, channa masala, and various other breads and sides. My first real Indian food experience! (I no longer can count Devon St. in Chicago, Queen St. in Toronto, or Brick Lane in London in that category).
From there, we drove around and saw the mosque Haji Ali, and did some shopping on Causeway street. As you might expect, this involved bargaining but it was above and beyond what I was expecting or had seen in other countries. Here’s how it worked: I picked out what I wanted and then Komal and Anusha went to work, commencing a back-and-forth of at least 5 heated minutes, all in Hindi of course, resulting in a fairly typical 70% reduction in rupees.
From there to South Mumbai which is the “Manhattan” of Mumbai (there are no doubt Indians cringing at that analogy): the commercial and financial hub, curved coastal area, tall buildings, and money. Money: both in reckless abundance, and in pitiful scarcity. The value of money, the juxtaposition of extreme poverty and slum living with all other castes and classes of people, the extreme contrast of a unified, dream-seeking population against such disparate wealth situations was shocking.
I knew that India was a “developing nation” (according to the IMF). I had to remind myself every day that this was a developing nation: that the construction, living conditions, sanitation, infrastructure, social mobility, and technology are not to be compared with a developed nation. It’s an entirely different standard. This was evident in South Mumbai but magnified in my trip back to Komal’s house. It was Eid-e-Milad, the Muslim population was celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed, with prayers, enthusiasm, and massive procession. I got stuck in Dharavi for about an hour, inching through one of the largest slums in the world, amid bumper-to-bumper, side mirror-to-side mirror traffic and hundreds of thousands of Muslim men and women anxiously pushing their way through on foot. I won’t lie, for a Westerner brand new to this part of the world, this was unnerving. But like so many things, it works. I arrived and they arrived: peaceful coexistence.
Monday I enjoyed a delicious, mostly American, breakfast in the hotel before our driver came to take us to Navi Mumbai (New Mumbai) which is where the office is located. In fact, it’s where many offices and delivery centres are situated for all the major consulting and services companies, US, global, and Indian.
This affirmed another key revelation about life in India: security. I expected a security presence that was visibly deterring in nature, similar to what you see in some of the European capitals (yes, guns). Rather it was more procedure driven, with screening and precaution at every turn (the first machine gun I saw wasn’t until the airport on the way home). Examples: pulling off the main road to our hotel, the car would undergo a brief inspection by about 7 men. The trunk [boot] was inspected, the hood [bonnet] was opened, angled mirrors were employed to glimpse under the car, and one officer would have a quick glance inside before allowing us to enter the military compound hotel grounds. Before entering the lobby was an all-too-familiar screening station with metal detectors and a bag x-ray. These were also at museums, malls, movie theaters, and other public places. Before even entering the Accenture office grounds we were required to submit to ID checks and provide serial numbers from our laptops (for compliance with India’s strict exportation laws).
Seeing the commute to work, the network of overcrowded trains, large (most aging) buses, and the sheer amount of time it takes for our teams to locate themselves was eye opening. It was one of the many facets of life that I came to understand and appreciate. Another was the cafeteria experience. Since the office is quite set off from easy access to restaurants, the primary option is to visit the subsidized canteen for breakfast and lunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the lunches I ate with the whole team: all gathered around one or two large tables, they let loose a bit (not as much as at the team outing!), casually eating from whatever food options were within easy reach. Food was communal, eating was relaxed and familiar. Most Indian meals are eaten with just the hands (and as I learned Tuesday, usually the right hand). There were no napkins or silverware but there was help: breads and various crisps were usually used to pick up the food, and once done, we drop off the trays back to the kitchen and use one of the 10 sinks available to clean the hands.
Tuesday night I again went off with Komal and Anusha to the R City Mall for some shopping. I purchased some kurtas and scarves along with various souvenir-type items. For Wednesday lunch, I did manage to escape the office park with Vinay, Deep, Ajay, Meenakshi, and Aditya for a buffet lunch at Sardar Sarovar Portico.
Thursday was another foray into world of Indian social life. We had a team event planned in Powai at the Rude Lounge: a venue near the lake with food options, open bar, and dance floor. I was a little apprehensive about the outing. Pick two situations where I’m out of place (1. the only white guy in any Indian establishment, and 2. any club) and combine them. Much to my surprise it was an amazing night and we were all out until 1am. I was encouraged [forced] to learn several Bollywood moves (thanks Rashmi and Shishty!) and move among the laser lights, fog, and impressive music mixes featuring Hindi-influenced songs, many American in origin.
A slower song signaled the end of the dancing at midnight at which point the dinner buffet was prepared. We also had celebratory cakes (which again, mostly eaten by hand -- and usually someone else’s hand I learned!). More pictures available at the Picasa link.
Rather than keep our driver waiting, we traveled back to the hotel via Auto Rickshaw. These delightful, pervasive creations are a staple in many southeast Asian cities, especially places where overcrowding and pollution warrant its 90 miles per gallon efficiency. As I videoed most of the trip back, it was humorous to think of these on US roads. It was a fun, open-air ride and a great way to wind down the night.
On Friday before departing for the day, I was presented with two gifts from the team. The statuette of an Indian woman and an artful peacock representation (the national bird of India) will be great additions to our home. For dinner I went with some team members to the Salt Water Café for wine and a veg sandwich before going back to the hotel to begin the packing process.
Saturday morning (my last day) I met Rashmi and her friend Sneha at Leopold’s Café for breakfast. This is an old pastry café and restaurant on Calaba Causeway and one of the sites of the 2008 terrorist attacks Nov 26th (one pane of bullet-riddled glass was left in place as a poignant reminder). After eating a very disappointing egg sandwich (it was mushed up hardboiled eggs on toast), we departed for South Bombay again. I got to amble around and experience the area on foot this time. We walked along the Arabian Sea, the Gateway of India, and the Taj Hotel (the second location of the coordinated 2008 attack).
We toured through K.K. Hebbar’s exhibit in the National Gallery of Modern Art and then went to the Regal Cinemas for a Bollywood film. I was moderately chastised for picking the romantic comedy Ek main aur ekk tu (click for preview) over the blockbuster Agnee Path but it was much more light hearted and easier to understand (after all, I didn’t quite get around to learning Hindi so I needed all the help I could get).
Rashmi’s guidance and patience these last several hours were most helpful to having a full and enjoyable last day in Mumbai!
In order to play nice with other major world capitals, many flights depart Bombay between midnight and 4am local time. Mine was 3:15am. Although I got over the initial jet lag extremely quickly (by Tuesday morning!), there’s nothing like a middle of the night flight, connecting in Frankfurt, for a total travel time of 23 hours of travel to get you all screwed up again. The flight home was not fun. Screaming children, sick children, and seats that barely rival the leg room on a regional jet -- but at least my luggage arrived.
In all it was a memorable, productive, and meaningful trip to Incredible India -- one that I hope to repeat some day. I’ll leave you with this inciting montage I created in iMovie:
