Mumbai, India

Just to set the scene, I'm in Qatar. It's 6:30am Qatar time, 9:00am Indian time, 4:30am Tunis time. I don't really know if I'm coming or going. I just took one flight and I know it's three more, until I get a cuddle with my Mummy and I run a marathon. I just ate a pain au chocolat and the TVs are showing horrendous footage from Syria. I'm trying not to watch it, because it's really upsetting, but everyone's eyes are glued.

But I just went to India, and it was Amazing.

My job has taken me to a few unexpected place so far this year, and India is certainly one of them. I won't bore you the details, but the days were long and packed full of meetings, sadly there was no chance for running around town, having adventures and making memories. However, I was still there, so I'll still try to tell you about it.

Are you being Served?

Coming from Tunisia, it was one-hell of a contrast. Indian culture is so polite, so humble, so proud, and very, very friendly. Service is something that you notice immediately in India, and the level of care and attention to detail is all so genuine. I arrived to Mumbai at 4:00am, exhausted and worried that I had a full day of meetings starting at 10am. I was met at the airport and driven back to the hotel and on the way, the driver asked: are you hungry, Madam? we could call ahead with the car phone and order your room service? I couldn't even think of food at that un-godly hour, but I appreciated the senitiment. Then at the hotel, I was taken straight to my (beautiful, shining) room and allowed to sign all the check in forms from there... infact, the lady pretty much tucked me in!

That's what it's like. Namastes everywhere, wonderful service and spectacular food. When I lived in the UK, I have the privilege to waitress with Indian Waiters who had trained at one of the services colleges here. They told me lots of stories about the classes they undertook, from elocution to practical exams in table laying and silver service. There's almost a French "career level" pride to the service industry.

We had some lovely dinners as part of my work trip, but one of the highlights was the service of a sorbet pallet-cleanser in the upturned lid of a teapot filled with liquid ice. So up my street.

 

Another evening, after 12 hours of meetings, I was skyping with the fam, when I decided to order room service. Usually I would rather get out of an evening, but I was so exhausted and my room was so pretty, that I didn't mind spending the night in. I just ordered some carbonara and a lemon tart and this whole princess-trolley of dreams arrived!

 

Hinduism

I don't know if you noticed, but I completely love religions. Not just my own, all of them. I am just fascinated by different belief systems, traditions, customs and the mechanism of faith which drives regular people to do sometime bizarre, sometimes wonderful things. Hinduism is no exception and is actually a religion that I studied extensively at school.

Hindus believe that there are lots of Gods, lots and lots. Like Roman and Greek mythology, the Gods have different responsibilities and are interlinked by complicated personal relationships too.

Idol in the office

The cow is holy. Very holy, sacred actually. India is the only country in the world in which the McDonalds does not sell hamburgers. Fact.

While I was there, there was a very special Hindu festival, the birthday of Lord Krishna, and the people of Mumbai celebrated in a very unique way.

Dahi Handi: गोकुळाष्टमी

Thursday was Dahi Handi, the day where the birthday of Lord Krishna (the eight carnation of Lord Vishnu) was celebrated in Mumbai. Since Krishna loved trouble and mischeif, the way this day is celebrated is by different communities coming together and hanging a cly pot up really high in the middle of their street. The pot is filled with sour yogurt, and flowers. They then invite competing teams to climb up and break it. The winning team is awarded a cash prize, put up by the community. But it's not all that simple. The pots are up really high, the community throw water and try to put the contestants off. Oh and the pots are right in the middle of the street, so you literally have to make a human pyramid to get to 'em.

Sounds like fun? It was brilliant.

So all day Govinda Pathaks, which is what the teams are called, travel around the city on the back of lorries and make attempts at the 2,000 clay pots that are swinging in the sky, ripe for the taking. It was quite a sight.

Here's a picture of a team in strategy talks - they commonly wearing matching t-shirts, sometimes sponsors by a sports club or a politician

Pot spotters - this is a serious business. There were pots yesterday that were worth US$2 mil. No jokes. But most were around $2000, shared between a team of about 50.

 The little children form the top of the pyramid, all barefoot.

Sorry, this is so rubbish - this is the best picture I got all day. Y'know, we had to work and all. And my peals of excitement weren't quite matched by my colleagues, so I couldn't get the driver to stop everytime we saw a good formation.

Hopefully this poster will help, it's advertising a good pot, and it has a nice picture of Krishna on it.

Health and safety was considered extremely important. See how that child is wearing a helmet, and...err... a lifejacket...

I really need the toilet, so I'm gonna have to wrap it up there, here are some quick other pictures from India. I have a year long visa, so it's likely that they'll send me again.

Otherwise, I'm on my way back to the UK... see you at the finish line ;)