Mumbai, Chai, and Indian Film (Oh My!)

                   Our first two-year posting
                   in the foreign service is to

     Mumbai, India... 

Mumbai, City of Dreams, 

                                       City that Never Sleeps:

   AKA Bombay (the city formerly known as...)

        AKA Bollywood (Indian Hollywood).

India has been on my bucket list for a while so I am thrilled we were given the opportunity to jump into the life of a Mumbaikar (Mumbai resident) for the next two years.  We plan to make the most of it and plan excursions across India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, time permitting.

Mumbai you say, hmm?  Perhaps you surmise, "Just what will you be doing there with all your free time, eh?"  Well then I am much obliged, good sir!  Let me imagine my near future.... (Bollywood music plays melodically in background as throng of Indian dancers enter stage right.)

Let's see.  I imagine, at a *minimum* that I will become a beloved Bollywood princess, learn Hindustani (Hindi, English, and Marathi combo used by Bollywood ruffians), attend Diwali and Ganesha festivals, visit Hindu temples, trek through monsoon weather, adjust to heat that is Hot-Hot-HOT and check out the amazing vegetarian food, silk saris, copper wares, ancient architecture, and the burgeoning cosmopolitan metropolis intermingling the world's wealthiest with some of the country's poorest.



  Mumbai, like many frenetic cultural melting pots, is a land of juxtapositions.  Mumbai comprises the good life and the tough life; the up and comers rubbing shoulders with the downtrodden and down and outs; immense beauty interspersed with littered landscapes and stolen dreams; ancient structures neighboring freshly built global facades; and modern skyscrapers adjacent to shadowing shanties and hovels.  When Mumbai comes to mind, I think of the paradoxical combinations of Prada bags and puja worship; movies and government ministries; the miraculous and mundane; the powerful and powerless; the dilettante and disenfranchised; the opportunists and the option-less; the lover and the listless; the skilled craftsman and the CEO...

In a city which makes twice the number of movies than Hollywood annually, I imagine the realities of life both intermingle and widely diverge from the glitz of Bollywood dance numbers facilitating the scores of a three-part romance.  The question for Mumbaikars and travelers alike may be, "Where does the fantasy of film end and the realities of life begin?"  Ne'er the twain shall meet... who knows?   
 
Mumbai is located in southwestern India, is a coastal island town, and is known for having busy streets, markets, and events twenty-four hours a day.  Per 100,000 people, there are less than 200 major crimes per year (as of 2007), which puts NYC (over 2,400 per 100K) and DC to shame.  People say that individual females can walk around comfortably around the city at near anytime of day and feel safe and move freely.  How many cities afford such an opportunity?  (You know, while still having stuff to do, people to see, sites to visit?)

There are nearly twenty (20!!!) million people residing in Mumbai and its outskirts alone.  That's 1+1+1+1x 5 million.  (I'm sure by the the end of week one I will be on a first name basis with everyone).  It goes without saying that Mumbai is a happening city.  We are elated to go.  We leave, most likely, sometime in mid-February.  I can't wait for y'all to share on my journey through this lil' here blog.  And, if you're up for it, be inspired for a visit to the land of saris, chai, and Bollywood dreams?