Keys to Life…
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 150th 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.
Tags: 1, Travel
mbsloney
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