The Bombay that I have never seen..

Flight schedules and planning errors left me with a day in Mumbai. I have had very mixed feelings for Mumbai, I feel the bias could be because of not having spent enough time there. Intrinsically I feel the place should be a natural fit but I never get that feeling when I visit. So I was looking to re-examining that impression when I go back this time. Things were slow but thats the India effect. The suburb, Versova, that I stayed (with Priya's Movie Director cousin) seemed quite pleasant. However the closer that I got into the city the more it seemed to get busier and the more my olfactory senses burst with sensation - they tell me it gets better with time. I went to the Jehangir Art Gallery to get my first initiation into art. The art gallery itself was quite depressing given that its said to be the best but it was quite heart warming to see the kind of people visiting it. Jatin Das (Nandita Das' father) had an exhibition. Very monochromatic but his large canvases were interesting however pricey.. Went to India gate, I am sure I have been there in the past but I had no recollection of the impressive  structure. Impressive but knowing that my fellow brethren genius' was little at work when it was built and comissioned (brute strength not counting). The Taj Mahal hotel seems to have lost some of its past glory and shine. Went to Leopold's, of the Shantaram fame, and guzzled a few cold ones and gorged on fish tikka masala. Trekked around the old fort area, though things seemed to shut early (7:30 ish in the evening), there seemed to vibrancy seeping through closed doors which I dared not go through. Priya's rants about B'bay are always seasoned with gastronomic tales about Trishna and Mahesh Lunch Home. Not to be outdone when it comes to food, I walked all over KalaGouda to find Trishna and I was not disappointed. The fish hyderabadi and tiger prawns in green chilli sauce were exquisite!! Burped my way back to Vinil's place.  So to sum it up, not my favourite indian city yet but I think I could move to Bombay...

All India Tour

Spent a cold blustery week in Munich and glad to be in the warmth of the motherland. The week's time in Munich was gobbled up in time spent trying to fix a crashed computer (gave up in the end, Plex where art thou?) booking tickets and buying all the chocolate that Munich can sell to take to India. I swear will not do that again... Our All India Itinerary is ready and its as follows Land Mumbai - 17th Dec Mumbai - Belgaum - 18th Dec Belgaum - Cochin - 20th Dec Cochin - Mysore - 29th Dec Mysore - Pune - 1st Jan Pune - Mumbai - 3rd Jan Mumbai - Rajasthan - 6th Jan Rajasthan - Goa - 12th Jan Goa - Calcutta - 15th Jan Calcutta - Mumbai - 20th Jan Yes, this is a vacation plan and not the travel itinerary of a product launch team. Sounds hectic, its does not bug me but not so sure about the wifey. If there is one thing I enjoy doing in India, its travelling! Ixigo came in really handy booking all the flight tickets, the site really works well. Need to get a local number, will post it on the site once I get it. More soon, need to get some sleep to catch an early morning flight in the morning....

Nigerian Part 2

Fresh off the African express, we are back in Munich. I am 2 shades darker, 5 kilos heavier, have a better golf handicap and I am currently suffering from protein overdose. Priya also similairly suffers from the same vacation maladies. A few more observations about Kaduna. The 2 wheeled demons have taken over the roads, all of them chinese made and the heavy polluters to boot. I did not spot a single non-chinese made motorcycle though this thriftiness was not evident with the cars. I also noticed that women are more conservastively dressed, perhaps residual effects from the introduction of Sharia (not sure if its still in force). Alms begging does not seem to have increased, seems to be the same as 10 years ago. Most of the roads are in good condition, lots of money still being spent on infrastrucure. The erstwhile Peugeot 504, horse of the african roads, is still on the roads but seems to have been replaced with Peugeot 406. My dad 504 was still there, the car turned 26 last month. The small car concepts seems to have picked up even though while I was not cool to drive a small car. Many more affluent looking cars on the road, Mercedes and Hondas seem to be the popular choice. Most of the cars in Africa, including Nigeria, are the cars that are used cars from Europe because they have exceeded their useful life. They are shipped across the seas, driven through the desserts, sold in Benin Republic and distributed to other African countries. So it was common to see a lot of pickup with german inscriptions on them. All the major textile mills in Kaduna have shut down, textiles used to be the biggest industry in Northern Nigeria as recent as the 90's. Similairly many other factories have also closed down though a few seem to be doing well particularly those in plastics and beer. The biggest issues facing industry is the lack of electricity and water. All factories and business establishments run on generators and some don't seem to have received any water for more than 3 years. The service industry is in better shape but without the service infrastructure it will be tough for it to survive long term. However the biggest failure is probably in the education system and civil services. In the 70's and 80's Nigerian graduates were better trained than most graduates worldwide ones however that has erudition has slowly vapourised. The civil servants sometimes don't get paid for months at end, if they are transferred then they have pay for the move themselves this includes the Police. Grand sum total, not much has changed in the last 5 years, poverty is still prevalent and disprotionate wealth distribution is also sadly obvious. Corruption still seems to be biggest problem, lots of noise being made about fixing it but this would not have been the first time. Siemens has been banned from doing business in Nigeria as a penalty for the corruption scandal involving the Nigerian ministers. The latest addition to the Nigerian diction is 'Siemenize'. When some palms need to be greased, then this verbage can be appropriately used. For example, 'Let us Siemenize the minister to make sure that we can win the contract'. I will try to go back more often, my parents were very happy to have us there. Need to go back more often. The India itinerary is finally ready, very exciting. Will share in the next post