Muslims gone mad outside the hotel

Short update. Last weekend we got to see lots of stuff in Mumbai and we took many photos. But I'll only make a short update for now. Actually the most fascinating thing happend just outside the hotel Sunday night. Apparently there is some Muslim party going on, and Muslims know how to party! I made a short video using my phone; Muslims dancing, Muslims playing drums, all followed by cows of course.

Muslims gone mad:

We try to take some beautiful self portraits here as well, but it can be quite difficult, especially when your girlfriend doesn't know the difference between a video and a photo.

Me trying to smile:

Frankie is getting mehendi

From the kala ghoda art festival

Shove comes to Push

Yesterdays front-page of Mumbai Times was memorable. Last week there was some problems at the Borivli train station, people were protesting as they meant people from the Virar (earlier station) blocked the doors when arriving at the Borivli station.

The problem the Railway police came up with; 15 "pusher" policemen will now push travellers into to the train at the Borivli station.

Railway police seems to think that Mumbai trains are not crowded enough:

I made another driving video today. But the light was dim, so the quality is not great. The video is on a "short-cut" over this hilltop that the driver takes every evening. I'm still not sure if it's really a short-cut. Anyway we drive by some interesting areas, where you can literally look into people's houses and shops:

Mumbai life early evening:

Loco-Motion

Today I had to ask for permission to go home early. I had been kept awake almost all night by this air-conditioner in my bedroom. So by lunchtime I could not longer keep my eyes open. After a long siesta at the hotel I felt much better. Anyway on my way home I tried out the telephones camera, while cruising home with my driver which seems to like Little Eva on other old American pop heros

Holding still is quite difficult on the bumpy roads of Mumbai. But here you go; Come on baby, do the Loco-Motion:

New apartment

Today I changed my room at the hotel, into the newly renovated executive suite. I cost 2000 rupees more per night. But the room holds much higher standards, now I got my own kitchen, dining table, living room, massage shower, etc.

Before moving into the new room I had to pay my bill for my first weeks at the hotel, this was a bill of 153 000 rupees. The highest bill I've ever paid I think. Anyway I quite satisfied by the room and I've taken some pictures of it:

Fancy lightning:

The view from the living room:A shower with alot of buttons:

A cheer in the bedroome:

A bed in the bedroom:

The desk:

The livingroom:

The kitchen:

The dining table:

Dead man and Swastika decorated truck

Today a constructor worker fell down from this ten floors high building next to our offices. He died. So the police came by to have some routine check. But by lunch time everyone was back to work.

High office building on the opposite side of our offices

There are many beautiful old Tata trucks in India. And one of them was parked outside our offices this afternoon. Of many different decorations it had a Swastika cross made by Christmas jugglery just underneath an eagle emblem. It would be nice driving this truck through Berlin. A Swastika cross and eagles often makes a Europeanthink of other things than a Tata truck

Tata truck

News from Maha-Amba

So, I what has happened since last time? Not much really. Work, sleep and work, and I got a new cell phone with an Indian number. That's about it.

One half of the open space office on the 3rd floor of Cap Gemini Airoli this morning:

Anyway the days go by really fast and I'm enjoying the progress we're doing on the project. And nights go by while really fast as well, unless maybe this one night. It all started with a fashion show out in the gardens of the hotel. They had a big speaker setup and were playing really loud music while people were walking down the catwalk just over midnight. So I couldn't get to bed early as even in the 7th store the music was quite intriguing.

Then at 4am in the morning a group of stray dogs came by the area and started barking for about a half an hour, again it was difficult to sleep. Around 5am they started worshiping Allah by prayer songs at the Mosque nearby, the guy sings quite well, but this still stole some of my precious time of sleep this night. At 6am my neighbour woke up to take his morning shower, normally this is not a problem, but this person had a thing for harking while showering and this went on for about 40 minutes. When I finally fell to sleep again, I got waken up by the room service at 7am, only to be delivered 2 bottles of water and today's newspaper (which did not ask for). Anyhow the poor service guy had to take the blame for the whole night as I wasn't really in a happy mood that morning. (I haven't seen this guy since)

Today I decided that I'll try to learn at least on Hindu word or phrase a day. So by the end of my stay in Mumbai I'll have a vocabulary of about 100 words. Someone once told me that the vocabulary used on a normal day by a pub loving working-class Englishman is down to 100-200 words. So with 100 words I should at least be able to buy me some drinks using Hindu language.

I started playing with my phone on my home today. And I found this application that lets you create simple comic-strips. I tried it and made a great comic using only two Hindu words I know:

And one last thing, today somebody at the hotel placed this book on my desk. It looked rather disconnected:

And one from the swimmingpool:

Ok. That's all.