Wanderlust Heaven!

As you can surmise, work is already interfering with my previously unfettered lifestyle – to the extent that it’s hard to file the slog in a timely manner.  I’m cramming it in on a Sunday, and suspect that may be the usual practice from now on.  Be patient, and stick with me, dear readers…

Checked out of the Suba Palace Hotel, probably for the last time.  I was looking to move into my flat on Wednesday, and had a business trip to the state of Chhattisgarh starting Monday afternoon.  Was going there with three colleagues, and was looking forward to getting out of Mumbai/Delhi and seeing rural-ish India.

Got up at 6 a.m. to pack up – was happy this might be the final time I’d have to pack all my stuff for a while.  Sat down to blast out a few emails, then my mobile rang – it was the driver, come to take me to the airport – 40 minutes early.  Ugh.  These morons are always either late, or very early – they just can’t get it right.  I took my time, finished up the emails, got dressed, and got my bags brought down to the luggage room.  No time for breakfast…and the hotel computer was down, for a few minutes, making my annoying morning all the more hectic.  Classic.  Don’t come here if you can’t deal with surprises (90% of them unhappy surprises).  Or if you lack patience…or a sense of humor…

The trip north was superb.  We  stayed in ‘Hotel Babylon,’ which was far better than expected (a somewhat rare occurrence in India), and the following day, spent in the field with about 100 rural women, was unusual and rewarding – one of the best days of work I’ve ever experienced.  We were doing some product testing and market research with them, and I had introduced a new technique which wound up working really well – we got some incredible data and should be able to build some good IP around it.  I’m always a bit insecure about my situation these days – I’m a “boomerang” employee (left, then returned), which is fine in and of itself, but I’m in a new group, and the economy stinks (India’s less badly-hit, as yet), so I tend to feel on somewhat shaky ground these days.  I need a few more hits and then I’ll feel better.

Got back to Mumbai Wednesday midday.  Unbelievable traffic from airport into the city – Mumbai gets going late, rush hour isn’t till 9 or even later.  Easy to get around at 8 a.m., which is good for me.  But this time I was stuck in rush hour traffic for 90 minutes, and I was in a crappy little cab, sweating away.  Got to the office, just in time to sit down with my real estate agent/shyster and our head executive assistance to go over my housing contract.  Not much fun – we got through it but I was worried we’d hit a snag.  I planned to move in that night, and for a while it didn’t look good, but we managed to deal with all the contractual bullshit and then the agent went and got my keys from landlord Mr. G, my new favorite Mumbaiker.

All this, and it was the start of Passover, I wanted to go to services and the seder that night.  Timing was looking very tight, I needed bedclothes and was planning to race to Bombay Dyeing to get some, then Mr. G said he’d send “his man” over to clean the place and provide bedsheets, pillowcases, and a duvet.  Ch-ching.  Saved me a trip, and the stuff he sent over was quite nice.  Taking care of the foreigner.  Just when India’s about to drive you mad, someone intervenes and saves you.

Got to Knesseth Eliyahu Synagogue with time to spare.  The usual Orthodox situation – lots of ancient Jews wandering around, muttering, picking their noses, inquiring about each other’s financial situations (a high degree of schadenfreude prevailed).  The president of the shul got on the bima (pulpit) and said a few words – seemed there was some tension between the synagogue and Chabad, the Orthodox/Mosaich group whose local rabbi was killed in the December terror attacks here.  Chabad is known for its seders and other dinner services, and often draws people away from the synagogue’s.  Oh well.  I’d already told Rabbi Chezzi, the Californian Chabad Rabbi, that I’d go to their gig and that was that.  He showed up towards the end of the service at the synagogue – the congregants didn’t exactly greet him warmly.  You’d think that after what happened in December everyone would come together, but no – we Jews are as bad as the Northern Irish…

The seder at the new/temp Chabad House (the old one was destroyed in the attacks) was decent.  About 40 people, intriguing mix of expats, a few Indian Jews, and a few randoms who were difficult to classify.  And about 5 Chabad rabbis who provided interminable detail about Jewish history throughout the seder meal – we didn’t really eat till 11 p.m.  I’m religion lite, and prefer my seders to last 2-3 hours max.  Didn’t escape till well after midnight.  I did enjoy the company of Rabbi Chezzi, whose new-age Californian Jewish demeanor and sense of humor was much appreciated – other Chabad folks can be a bit heavy and preachy.

Religious duties accomplished, I caught a taxi back to my flat.  Extraordinary moment for me – my first night in my own flat in over three years.  Felt a bit weird not to have an elevator boy, or a bellhop, or other hangers-on.  Slept pretty well – was exhausted from the field trip and the seder.

Noticed the new chairs that Mr. G. bought, to accompany the new glass kitchen table, are wobbly.  Indian manufacturing – I’ll never bitch about Chinese products again (well, those you ingest are worth avoiding, I suppose – e.g. melamine milk).  I’m still not sure the Indians are able to manufacture a pen that won’t explode or a lighter that lasts for more than a week.

Views from my flat towards the bay…

Didn’t linger long in my new flat – early next morning, off to the airport to fly to Hyderabad.  Another heinous little cab, nice and hot, and I had a long phone call with a colleague.  Now and then I’d move the phone from my ear and wipe it on my handkerchief.  Might need to switch to another model, like a Blackberry, and spring for a headset.  I hate changes like these but it probably makes sense…still, one thing at a time.

Had a good meeting in Hyderabad, in the coffee shop of one of the Taj Hotels.  Was joined by two colleagues, we were pitching a project on education and school choice to a PE fund.  I’m pretty sure she wants to hire us, but needs to find more money.  We encouraged her to do that…didn’t want to negotiate against ourselves at this point, but given the times we might need to come back with a more modest proposal.  All part of the game, you know.

Had a second, late afternoon meeting, but that got cancelled, allowing us to race to the airport and catch a much earlier flight.  Felt nice to return early, and to be able to spend a bit of time in my new flat.  Haven’t had many reasonable evenings lately, reasonable being getting out of the office before 9 p.m.

In Hyderabad we watched a plane take off with the full moon in the background.  Really wish I had my camera around for that, it was breathtaking.  Moments like those are like injecting adrenaline straight into your brain, or heart…

My new flat is a stone’s throw from where I lived in ’92.  The Meherabad Building is just down the street, and it feels good to be back in Breach Candy/Kemp’s Corner after all these years.  And I was happy to be done with the flat-hunting process.  Now I just need to accessorize a bit and can put it all behind me.  Need to get a good iPod dock/speaker system.  Might get a Bose, or JBL – any ideas?

Walked around my ‘hood a bit.  Mumbai does not have that many great places in any given area – there’s one bottle shop, a hotel with bar and resto, another bar some ways off, a dry cleaner down the road, and a chemist/pharmacist…but it’s not kitted out like NYC, London, or Tokyo, it can be a real pain to get simple things.  Most people (with some $) have people who go get things, or have things delivered, but I’m low overhead and DIY, so I suspect it’ll take some time and change of mentality to get there.

Had dinner at the Shalimar Hotel’s Gulmarg resto, upstairs.  The Shalimar is going to be hugely helpful to me, it’s right across the street, quite tasteful, and has this resto, a decent little bar with snacks, and web access (you need to buy a card, but hey).  I don’t yet have Internet in my flat, and suspect that may take a month to set up.  Fun.

Gulmarg has great kebabs, I had my favorite murgh (chicken) reshmi special, then went to the Ghetto Pub for a couple beers.  Felt almost like a holiday – actually, the following day was technically a holiday (Good Friday), not that I’d be taking it off, mind you.

Worked all day, then welcomed friend Dave to town.  He and I met in Varanasi a while back, I was waiting for a train and he was hanging around – we met in a café with wireless, we were both cranking on our respective laptops and enjoyed each others’ company.  Dave’s been getting his journalism degree in Bangalore, and is interviewing with Rolling Stone and some other mags here in Mumbai.  He needed a place to crash, I offered my couch.  Quite a boozy night – started at the pub in the Shalimar (which has a vaguely Las Vegas feel), then over to Leopold’s upstairs bar, where barman Deepak set us up nicely with bar seats and a beer tower.  Wobbled out of there a couple hours later, and settled into the seedy backroom at Golkar, a place where many fear to tread.  Stayed there till closing, discussing life and traveling.  Dave’s really been around – I suspect our paths have technically crossed many times, we just never knew it.

Somehow got a few beers on the way home – our taxi driver took us to some backwater where they sold us warmish Kingfishers.  Dave’s idea, 100% – he’s younger and still had his sea-legs, I was drained and would have been happy crashing.  Got back to my flat and didn’t last too long – woke up many hours later with a headache and doorbell ringing, the maid from across the hall was offering to clean my place, but I was still groggy and Dave was still out on the couch.  Then the phone rang – telemarketer, in Hindi.  Enough to make one swear off drinking forever – almost.  It was 11 a.m. by now, Dave had to go and catch a flight back to Bangalore.  Fun little stretch of time, good catching up with Dave and trading travel war stories.

There’s a nice little bakery, Birdie’s, right near my flat.  I often grab a chicken tikka sandwich from there – I rely heavily on my local ecosystem, hence I prefer to live in the thick of things.  Birdy’s and Shalimar Hotel are likely to provide half my meals till I get enough time to branch one.  So it goes…

You technically need a license even to consume alcohol in your own home.  Needless to say, yet another unenforced law in India.

Spent a few hours in the office, preparing for a pitch.  Took it easy that night, was still a bit off from my heavy night with Dave.  Went for a couple Kingfishers at the Shalimar pub, had some snacks there, and then retreated to my flat to read and listen to podcasts.  Hadn’t listened to a single podcast since getting to India, and I now had about 30 to crank through.  Amazing the things that back up on you when you’re spending most of your waking hours in the office.

Sunday, walked around, did some laundry, looked at some blog photos,  read a bit, then back to the office.  Mostly catching up on loose ends, not too grueling.  Had a phone call with the States, then went to the Bombay Gymkhana Club, one of my favorites, for the birthday party of friend Rajan’s wife Kalli.  Most of Rajan’s gang was there, I knew most of them from the old days and from recent trips.  Jatin ensured that I was well watered and fed – waddled out of there around midnight, as full as I’ve been on a Sunday in some time.  The Gym is pretty busy every night of the week, probably a dangerous place for me to bother joining…

I like walking around Breach Candy…it brings me back to my carefree, clueless days of being 24 years old and wide-eyed.  Now I’m much more calm, and cynical – but I still am drawn to (mis)adventures and days of unpredictability, and here I am, oh Lord.  New joke I just thought up:  how many expats does it take to change a lightbulb?  One – if they have a servant who knows where to find an actual bulb.  Most of us (well, probably just me) would just sit in the dark and complain.

Flew to Delhi on Monday for an important meeting the next day.  Had dinner with a couple colleagues at Indochine, a swish Asian joint where we sat outside, by ourselves – the place was empty.  But the food was very good, and I was happy to get away from heavy Indian food and instead go for some (heavy) noodles and meats.  Then we decamped to the Eva Guesthouse, a private home converted into a medium-grade guesthouse – about US$75 a night, not bad for Delhi, quite comfortable.

Had a full day of meetings Tuesday – they went pretty well.  What we’re trying to do might fundamentally change the way we do business…I can only say that much for the time being.

Back in Mumbai, had lunch on Wednesday with old Hong Kong colleague Gauri, who now works for the Asia Society here.  Met at Brittania, the old place run by the ancient Parsi guy with Coke bottle glasses.  Gauri and I traded lots of gossip, she’s very cool and I’m glad she’s in Mumbai.  My social network is much better than I anticipated a few weeks ago.

Had a call with a senior colleague in the States…he wanted to check in and see how I’m doing.  I’m on a contract for now, and he wanted to see if I was taking to this new stuff or not.  I said I was, and that despite the learning curve being somewhat humbling, it was also energizing and I wanted to stick around.  That was about the gist of it – we’ll see how things go.  The overall industry is not doing great and it’s hard to say how things will go over the next year.  Hold on tight.

A colleague told me about a good park in which to run, not far from me, on the coast.  It was just past the crappy little park I’d been running in, so tried to find it.  It wasn’t too tricky – just walked through a parking lot (where guys were offering pony rides to kids – classic India), and then down a path.  It opened up onto Amarson’s Park, or something like that – a 250 meter square park with both soft and hard tracks.  Lots of people walking (waddling), no one else running – but not crowded and the sea breezes were godsends.  Ran and then walked for about an hour – felt wonderful.  Then walked back towards my flat, with a spring in my step and the feeling that everything was starting to come together.

When I got close to my flat, I felt in my little Velcro pocket for my flat key – nada.  Hmmm.  Felt around some more, still nothing.  One of my worst nightmares come true – I’d always worried this would happen whenever I went for a run, but the key’s never fallen out and it would be difficult to imagine this happening – the pocket’s quite secure.  Then I found a tiny hole in the pocket – not sure if my running did it, or if it was just the usual wear and tear (literally)…anyway, the key was gone.  Busted back to the park, looked around for 30 minutes but no luck – hadn’t expected to find it, but a bit of due diligence was required.  Walked up the hill to my landlord’s chi-chi building, the Grand Paredi – his “man” had the backup key and it was only around 9:30 p.m., not too too late to call up and ask for the key.

That plan bore fruit – Mr. G wasn’t even home, I didn’t wake anyone, and the key appeared shortly.  Whew.  Wasn’t looking forward to having to deal with a locksmith.  Got into my flat and vowed to make replacement keys the next day…I’d planned to do this, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.  Felt like a bozo – one week in the new flat and I’d already lost my key.  But Mr. G. was cool about it, he was happy the backup had been at his place and not far off.  Usually you don’t want your landlord anywhere near you, but this is a very different situation.

I’ve traveled all around the world, and only lost two things – one white sock (the laundry in Chiang Mai actually lost it), and one of those plastic covers for the iPod synch/charging cord (which is largely decorative).  Now, I’d gone and lost my flat key.  Brilliant.

Got my mail from home.  Read in my b-school magazine that an old prof had died.  Very sad.  Read a Sports Illustrated – one of the letters to the editor came from a fellow in Sunapee, NH (where my family had a vacation home for many years) complaining about athletes on steroids.  Funny to be in Mumbai, India reading a letter from someone in Sunapee.

Got the data back from our field trip to Chhattisgarh.  It came back clean, and enlightening – the technique I proposed worked nicely, and we got some excellent insights out of it.  Now we need to package and sell this stuff – will get on that right away.  These days revenues are king, queen and country…

This weekend I had another trip, to the city of Hubli, in Karnataka state.  I was on a judging panel for an entrepreneurship competition down there.  About 25 entrepreneurs presented their biz plans to us, and we chose the top 10 – the eventual top 5 will get grants of US$10K, a fair sum of money for these parts.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from the weekend, and went in with some dread – Saturday morning work.  But it was a great time – a colleague went down there with me, and the other judges were fun and switched-on – there were people from Bain Capital, Yes Bank, Acumen Fund, CII, etc.  Formed some bonds and also enjoyed the actual judging – there were some decent plans in there, including one where the entrepreneur is taking a sort of coconut leaf, treating it, and using it as a food plate.  The Indian Railways uses 10 MILLION plates and cups every day, most are plastic/Styrofoam, and 90% are tossed out the window.  You may recall my own experience with this some time ago…anyway, these products  are superb and we picked him as the top bet in our judging group.  Of course, getting the Indian Railway contract is no small matter, and his production can’t match their needs, but he can always try to get 2-3 lines and see how it goes.  I don’t mind spending a Saturday reviewing plans like these and wrapping my head around them…

Both Friday and Saturday nights were boozy affairs, our hotel was about the only game in town and that was alright.  My colleague (a male) turned out to be oddly knowledgeable about 80s chick flicks (16 Candles, etc.) and everyone had a good nostalgic laugh about those days.  I won’t be able to return for the final judging round, in early May, as I’ll be in the States, and am a bit sad about that.  It’s nice to form bonds and keep renewing them – I’d love to see the other judges again soon (many are in Mumbai, so that will happen) and the local entrepreneurs are a cool little gang as well.  An NGO called TechnoServe put the whole thing together, in conjunction with the Deshpande Foundation (based in Hubli), and the weekend was memorable.  Things like these make me (usually) glad to be working in a field like this one…

That’s about it for this 2-week period.  This is my 150^th slog posting – hard to believe I’ve been at this for nearly 3 years.  You are a most patient lot.  And since I still have you here, allow me to marvel for a minute at my recent shift in circumstances.  I’m by no means saying I’m on entirely firm ground as yet, but in the space of a couple months things have changed massively for me, in a most intriguing way.  I’m back at my old firm, in a very new space – I’m still in Asia, but in some ways on another planet, and coming back to work hasn’t really been as hard as I’d imagined.  I’ve taken my lumps, and have more to bear, but overall it’s been a damn good transition.  And that’s all I’m saying for now.  Over and out.

I emailed some of my former clients in Tokyo and Sydney and told them I was back at work – got some nice replies.  I was happy I’d kept in touch with people while I was on the road…for me, one of the most gratifying aspects of being a consultant is becoming friendly with several clients.  I wouldn’t have seen that coming years ago, it’s a bit different than the usual workplace friendships – the consulting-client relationship can be intense, and this can lead to strong bonds after some time.

Read a Yahoo News headline that was just classic:  “Big squishy blobs may fill key tracks in evolutionary timeline.”  Hard to argue with that, huh?

Stayed pretty busy at work.  Met with a local PE firm to discuss a few ideas…I’m learning a hell of a lot on the fly here, another characteristic of consulting.  As with my previous stint, I’m getting all the responsibility I can handle, and probably a bit more, so I need to keep pushing till I reach a state of equilibrium.  That may take a few more months, but I’ll get there, or at least I’ll be able to fake it…

Had a good meal at Delhi Darbar, a chain with a resto in Colaba.  Despite my best intentions to shift my diet to mostly vegetarian, I opted for the tandoori mixed platter, which was terrific…lamb reshmi kebab, chicken tandoor, and a few other morsels.  The issue with Indian food is that you can barely walk away from the table…unlike in East Asia, where the food’s relatively light and you don’t feel about to explode.  And the more time I spend here, the more I recognize that Indian bodies are a lot like ours; they’re prone to have big bellies and thighs, and the place is already diabetes central.  That will only get worse over time…

Flew up to Delhi to meet with my project leader there.  Was hoping to get in early enough to have dinner with b-school buddy Hasmeeth, but the flight was a bit late and it wouldn’t work.  Delhi is spread out and the driving distances are vast…plus they’re working on a few key roads and at certain times they’re nearly impassable.  So we took yet another flyer…it’ll work one of these days.

Had dinner instead at a place right across from my hotel, the Svelte Personal Suites.  Can’t get over that name.  The resto was Spice Market, had a full meal centered on a Bengali fish curry that was very nice.  But I keep telling myself to eat like a poor Indian laborer instead – veg thali and roti.  Yeah, yeah…

Met the project leader for breakfast at the Sheraton – hadn’t had a 5-star breakfast buffet in some time.  The issue with these things, in a business setting, is that I’m self-conscious eating a lot while trying to have a discussion.  So the breakfast costs around US$25 or so, and I probably consume the equivalent of US$5-8.  I’d rather meet at a diner and have it out over a bagel or something like that…I think in India it would be in a dhaba (canteen) and a cup of chai.

Met with the project leader all morning, and made good progress.  We’re working on a fairly technical, implementation-focused project – not my usual gig and hers neither, but we’re trying to expand the scope a bit and make it more strategic.  We’ll see how that goes when we meet the client in a week or so.

Raced back to the airport – wanted to catch a conference in Mumbai that night on alternative energy.  My car didn’t show, but I grabbed a taxi and made it with time to spare.  Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport is pretty slow during the day – it mostly gets going during the wee hours.

The conference, at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai, was alright.  It was co-sponsored by the Asia Society and Credit Suisse, so there were some blowhard intros given before the speaker, Tulsi Tanthi of Suzlon, got on.  Suzlon is India’s biggest solar/wind power company, maybe the only real one, and Tanthi is a pioneer in the field.  Their stock was absolutely skyrocketing until last year – a familiar enough story.  After the sho w they had drinks and snacks, and I ran into a bunch of people I had met over the past month…and I also ran into an old colleague from our HKG office, Gauri, who used to head HR for us in Asia, and who left around 2001 or so.  Hadn’t seen her since then, but we recognized each other – in fact, Angeline and Purwa, two of her colleagues at Asia Society, had become new friends of mine and they had told her that I was in town.  Small world…Mumbai has 18 million people but it seems there are just a few hundred of us who go to these things.

The next day I took my team out to lunch at Vong Wong, a fairly pricey Thai place.  Hadn’t been there before, didn’t even know about it.  Good food and a fun change of pace from gorging in the office kitchen, our usual lunchtime deal.  I do find myself missing the ease of going out for lunch near our old Tokyo office, or near the HKG office.  Eating in the office is a drag, plain and simple.  We work hard and I think it’s a healthy thing to escape for an hour.  Will work on that once I hammer out a few other things.

Have been inching towards closing the deal on my new flat, and moving in.  The agent sent me a draft contract, which turned out to be pretty one-sided (not in my favor), an annoying turn of events given that I’m the one paying the agent.  I handed this draft over to the HR Director of my firm, as they’re signing the lease, fronting the money, and then withdrawing it from my paychecks – a good way to deal with this.  The HR Director and the agent are doing some edits and I hope by early this week it’s done, registered, and I can move in on Wednesday.  It’s been a month in the Suba Palace Hotel and I want a change of scenery, and lifestyle.  The solution is in view…

Had dinner the other night at Leopold’s upstairs bar, where I’m sometimes to be found.  I’ve become friendly with Deepak the barman, a delightful fellow who grins ear-to-ear 80% of the time – not in the cloying way that the two San Diegans did on the Sinai overnight dive trip a few months back, but in a truly joyous way that I find infectious.  He may have some form of brain damage, but I tend to think he has an uncluttered life and that he’s damn happy to have a job at Leopold’s.

I was in the mood for some fried rice, I asked him to recommend one of the dishes, and went for that.  A huge plate came out 10 minutes later, fried rice with chicken, topped with a heavy red spicy sauce.  The combination of rice and sauce in my stomach didn’t sit well – I was stuffed after eating 10% of the plate, and only saw gastric tragedy if I pressed on.  I got a doggy bag, told Deepak it was delicious (something of a lie, but hey), and walked outside.  Not 6 steps later I came upon a crippled boy who reached out his hand – I hope he likes spicy fried rice with chicken, because I gave him a kilo of the stuff.

Am working on setting up a call involving myself, the project leader in Delhi, and a colleague of ours in Washington, D.C.  The call needs to happen middle to late this coming week – right around the start of Passover.  Not ordinarily an issue, but we’re all Jewish, leading us to wonder how the hell 3 Jews all came together to work on a project in India.  Reminds me of the “Jewish Ghetto” corner of the HKG office…and the time all 3 of the Jewish consultants in our Asia region were in the Tokyo office.  We do look out for each other, at least out here…

As I get deeper into my new job and life here in Mumbai, I’m more and more aware of the contrast with the other offer I had, to work on pharma projects in Shanghai/East Asia.  I thought I had a good sense of the contrast coming in…but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I made a serious choice to do something significantly more challenging in almost every way.  Living in Mumbai vs. in Shanghai…working on social impact assignments vs. the old, familiar pharma stuff…having a new team vs. a group of largely familiar faces…and so on.  If I can pull it off, the psychic rewards will almost certainly be vastly superior – but the climb won’t be easy.  Did I mention there are often goats grazing on rubbish right outside my office building?  I thought I knew what I was getting into…but despite all my experience changing geos and jobs, I probably underestimated the challenge here.  So now I’ve got to step up and deliver.  Fingers crossed.

Friday was a mellow day…caught up on some emails, did some reading, was looking forward to the most relaxing weekend in a month.  Hadn’t heard from a couple prospective clients so pinged them around 1 p.m…then things got interesting.  Both replied within a few minutes, both were positive about working with us – but they wanted to meet again, discuss various matters, talk about cost, etc.  Good news, for sure, but I spend the rest of the time lining up the next set of meetings, getting the content ready, etc.  Won’t have much time this coming week as I have a biz trip to a remote part of the country, then when I’m back I need to move to my new flat (we’ll see about that), and will try to cram in Passover services on Wednesday night.  Everything always happens at once.  So by the time Friday evening rolled around, I was exhausted.  Crawled out of the office at 8 p.m., went to Geoffrey’s Pub in Marine Plaza Hotel for a couple beers, then hit the sack before midnight.  I was supposed to meet a friend of a friend, but he had to postpone, and I was glad about that.  You know you’re getting old/working hard when you’re happy to have a beer or two and not talk to anyone…

Got up early Saturday morning and went straight to the office – all the mayhem on Friday afternoon meant that I now had to take care of a few things that hadn’t gotten done.  Stuck around for about 4 hours, did the key stuff, then escaped and went to seafood place Apoorva for lunch.  I’ve been meaning to check out this place for years, b-school friend Rajan has always recommended it but I’ve never had a chance.  I liked it immediately – the downstairs section is informal, no tablecloths or fancy waiters.  Sat down and got a beer, then some Hyderabadi fish tikka.  A fellow across the way asked me where I was from…very personable guy, we wound up chatting for an hour.  He goes there nearly every day.  Indians aren’t shy people, for the most part, at least not Mumbaikers.  My fish came and it was excellent – I now have a very solid alternative to Mahesh Lunch Home.  The fellow, who turned out to be a Muslim businessman in the financial sector, gave me his card and wants to invite me to his home for dinner.  These sorts of interactions don’t happen everywhere…I’m not always in the mood to be chatty and make friends in 5 minutes, but I usually try to stay open to these sorts of possibilities…they can lead to some bizarre adventures and that’s my raison d’etre.

After lunch I walked around the Fort area for a while, visited a clothing/furnishings store called FabIndia, a real success story here.  Nice stuff – didn’t buy anything, but will be back.  Then hit Rhythm House, a good music shop – they didn’t have the latest Prem Joshua live album, but I later got it on iTunes…an increasingly familiar story.

Wanted to visit a store called Bombay Dye, known for its bedding stuff, but couldn’t find it.  Need to get some bedsheets, etc. before I move in.  Another thing to squeeze in this week…

That night we had a work get-together at our HR Director’s flat.  Our MD was presenting our low-cost housing work to some contacts, about 30 people attended and it went well.  Kind of funny, though – there we were in a posh flat in South Mumbai, talking about low-cost housing units retailing for under US$8,000.

Friends Rajan and Kalli were supposed to attend but couldn’t make it – we took a raincheck for coffee the next day.  After the prez we were all milling around, having some wine, and I was introduced to a woman running for the Lok Sabha (lower Parliament house) in the upcoming elections.  Her name’s Meera Sanyal and I was impressed – well-educated banker, articulate, funny, worldly – by all accounts, the polar opposite of the hack now occupying that seat.

Meant to leave around 10 p.m. or so and go to the Ghetto Bar uptown, but the HR Director and her very cool hubbie convinced me to stay for another glass of wine…then another…etc.  The HR Director’s sort of taken me under her wing…first with the housing contract, and now in a more general social sense.  I’m fine with that – it’s probably good for me to let someone else help me out now and again.  I wound up staying till well past midnight, having dinner there with them, and finishing every drop of wine in the flat.  Then I went to my hotel, watched “Milk,” which was terrific, and finally crashed around 3 a.m.

Had a nice little hangover today.  Met Rajan at Oxford Bookstore for coffee, hung out and explained the history of the Old Testament to him for a while.  Got a call from Rabbi Hezy at Chabad House Mumbai, looks like I’ll attend Passover services Wednesday night at Knesset Eliyahu synagogue, then do a seder with the Chabad gang after that.  Can’t remember the last time I went to a seder.

Got an email from Bryan in NYC – he just ran into a classmate, Mike D., at a party there.  I think Mike D. and I emailed a while back, somehow he’d gotten word of this slog and had become a regular reader.  Mike, this entry’s for you, man.  See you at our 20^th reunion in May, and please spread the word.  And I need to do the same for my gang.

Had lunch at Café Churchill in Colaba – they do a pretty solid lamb club sandwich (better than it sounds).  Walked back to my hotel to escape the heat – a red Ferrari whizzed by.  A Ferrari in India – they used to only have Ambassadors and Marutis, now the place is wide open.  As it should be.  You might lose a bit of oldtime charm, but the world awaits.  Speaking of which, I need to go for a run, my waistline spilleth over.  See you next week…over and out.