I flew out of Atlanta 24 hours ago. Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room, the Bismillah Hotel (BH), in Mumbai. It's 2:30AM local time, which is around 5PM in Atlanta.
The flights were good. Had coach from Atlanta to Amsterdam, but had an awoke seat, so it wasn't too bad. Got bumped to Business Class Elite from Amsterdam to Mumbai. Let me tell you, if I could afford it, I'd travel Business Elite all the time! Delta definitely took great care of me the whole trip. Thanks again RS for the buddy pass! I owe you bro!
When I landed in Mumbai, Customs & Immigration was a breeze. Thanks FSD & Unatti for getting me all the info I needed for my Visa. As soon as I exited the airport, I was looking for my cousin. Not sure if Kaamil is my cousin, but that's now his title. Kaamil is the son of my mom's dad's sister's son. I also met Gulbanoo Aunty who is my mom's dad's sister's daughter. Her brother, Zahkir, is Kaamil's father. Mumtaz is their sister. There's also Assif, Noushad, Yasmin, and 2 other family members I met tonight. It's late & I don't remember their names. Kaamil set me up at BH. He figured I'd want my own space to sleep and get settled, at least for the first night. I'm not sure if they don't want me to stay at their place or if I would be in the way or what. I just accepted it and we'll figure it out tomorrow.
From the airport, we went to Kaamil's place, met all of his family, then went to Gulbanoo Aunty's place to eat and meet everyone else. To say places are small here is an understatement. I knew I was spoiled back home with my condo and the house I grew up in, but WOW! Space is at such a premium because of the sheer number of people. Heck, at 2:30AM, there were people hanging out in the streets and traffic on the roads.
Living here is interesting. In America, we have live, work, play concepts. Here, they have live, pray concepts. By that I mean, a lot of the Ismailies live in a gated or limited access community towers and the Jamat Khana (prayer hall) is the focus. The apartments were built around the JKs. Kaamil's has promised to take me to the major centers tomorrow and I'll snap some pictures on my handy dandy new Flip that my awesome staff at Sutra got for me.
The food here is already amazing. I have dietary restrictions because of my colitis so gharam masala & mercha are out. This proved to be a huge challenge for Gulbanoo Aunty and company in preparing my dinner for tonight. But, I must say, they nailed it. The chicken curry with fresh roti and sweetened mango juice was fantastic! There was also some penda, which is a sweet dish, that they had brought from their recent trip to Gujarat. It was amazing!
Speaking of roads, driving here is an adventure! Since India was a British colony, everyone drives on the left side of the road and the drivers side is the right side of the car. Very different. It's funny how you theoretically know something, but don't really know it until you experience it. Honking, hooting, blowing the horn is a way of life. Driving at night with no lights on or flashing your brights takes some getting used to. We did cross a huge suspension bridge that connects South Mumbai to Central Mumbai. There are actually signs on the bridge telling people to stay in their lane and not to honk the horn.
From reading about India, I was expecting to smell it first... Like right when I got off the plane. It's a different smell. Maybe because of the rain (monsoon has already started) it didn't smell that bad. The humidity took about 10 minutes to get used to after spending 16 hours in a plane that had ample AC, but it's fine now. We'll see if that's what I'm saying tomorrow. There's a sweet, cloying smell in the BH. I'm getting used to it.
There's so much more that's just running through my head, but I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow seems like it's going to be filled and I definitely need the rest. My bed for tonight is a 2 inch mattress on a raised cot sized wooden plank. I like hard beds, but this will be interesting.
Oh yeah, everyone here is very energy conscious. I'm not sure if it's because they don't want to pay or if electricity is a premium and they don't want to waste it. My hotel room, when I looked at it had all the lights, AC, and ceiling fan all turned off. But, by the time I had signed in and they had documented me, it was nice and cool in here. At the airport, when I was waiting for my bags, I noticed it was a bit dim. The lights above our baggage carousel (or belt as they are known here) didn't come on until the carousel started. And when it stopped, the lights went out.
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