This weekend was amazing! First of all, I moved up in the world of transport – for the time being! Shloka has her own car (with a driver or course) here so that is how we travel! We went to an upper party of Mumbai to visit one of her friends from Les Roches School in Switzerland. His family owns a franchise of café/hookah shops in Bombay that are very popular. We met him there and I tried my first hookah – I’ll pass next time.
We then took the one hour trip back to Shloka’s home in Juhu – a very posh neighborhood in Bombay, very different from where I stay. Her family owned the entire building and have many servants in the house (which is normal – I could not get used to it, I felt like I was in a restaurant the entire time). When we entered all the servants rose and bowed for us. SO BIZARRE. Her home is mostly made of marble with some wood, it was gorgeous to say the least.
Shloka brought me upstairs to meet her grandparents, who were barely 4’11 and 5’2, needless to say they thought I was a giant. They really liked that I was American! So much so that they gave me a special Punjabi drink: buttermilk infused with roses. I wanted to vomit, but to be polite I drank it quickly and said it was delicious. By the time we got back to Shloka’s room, there were snacks and water waiting for us!
We got ready to go out, and I learned how much make-up Indian girls wear A LOT. So much eye liner to make their eyes look larger. Shloka helped me with mine, but I didn’t really like it (it was too much) but thanked her. We went to a club called “Hype” with a friend of Shloka’s from Dubai – her name is Shubby and if I thought Shloka was loaded, Shubby is a queen. Her family is from West Africa and make a ton of money they moved to Dubai. She dropped 500 rupees like it was nobody’s business. It was awesome though, like going out with Bombay’s super elite. Table service waiting for us in the club and totally skipping any line and not paying for ANYTHING – it was crazy. They played a mixture of Hindi and American music, it was fun.
Hype was fun, but so crowded. The cops quickly came and broke it up around 2:30 AM and I was so happy because I was so tired. When we woke up the next day (in air conditioning!) breakfast was waiting of fresh peeled and sliced fruit. Shloka also has 5 dogs! Two are guard dogs (Great Danes) and the other three are pets.
We then picked up Shloka’s friend Shubby and went to get lunch of butter chicken, cheese naan, butter naan, and chicken kabobs! Shubby wanted to then have her driver take us to get, what she said, to be the best brownies in the world at a store called Brownie Point. We found it and they were SO GOOD, I bought extra to bring home to Shloka’s family. We then decided to see “Inception” – and it cost about $3 USD to see a movie! And you have to choose your seat like an airplane! The seats were huge and recline fully. Before we went in, there was a promotion to dress up in 60’s outfits, so we did, everyone loved that an American was doing it hahah. The popcorn comes in three flavors: cheese, salt, or caramel (I choose caramel)! Before a movie is shown in India, everyone must rise and ring the national anthem.
That night I met Shloka’s parents, who are very nice, and her mother is a successful hotelier in Mumbai, owning three hotels of her own. They all thought I was crazy to be living in such conditions like what I have been given.
They motivated me to finally fully stand up to the Leela and demand new housing. What they showed me was better, but still way below American standards. I believe that Kovalam is the way to go. I did, however, meet with the Food and Beverage Director and he was wonderful! He worked in the US for 4 years and was such an insight on my experiences here.
He has been the first person to acknowledge how difficult it has been in India for me. He said, when he went to the US he was pleasantly SHOCKED by everything, while for me it is quite the opposite. HE explained that on his first day in the US he was in a taxi from the airport and saw a woman pick up her dogs poop in a blue plastic bag – he was disgusted. Now, he then asked me if I had seen anything on the streets that had grossed me out, and I knew exactly what he meant. If you are a man and walking do the street in Mumbai and nature calls (1 or 2) you can just go – and I’ve seen it many, many times. It is just such a difference here, so unhealthy, disgusting, and unsanitary.
He then continued on to explain to me about the slums and how they are run like in “Slumdog Millionaire” there is one head slumdog and around 150-300 children follow him. They might not do such terrible things to the children, but the movie is not far from the truth. I will have to put up some photos of the street tomorrow…miss you all so much!
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