Mumbai Guy

Just returned from a few days in Mumbai. What a mind-expanding experience! I was there to speak for an IBM conference for middleware vendors and customers.

1. The contrast in living conditions for the very rich and the very poor is eye-opening—and I didn’t see the absolute extremes of either.

2. I’ve never seen such vivid colors in all aspects of dress, decor, etc.—even the money is pretty.

3. “Traffic safety” is an oxymoron. Luggage isn’t tied down on roof racks. People ride on top of trucks. I saw a family of four on a motorcycle. Having said this, I saw no accidents.

4. Speaking of traffic, it can take two hours to travel fifteen kilometers there. If you have a choice, try to arrive on Saturday or Sunday. Speaking of arrival, I’ve never been to an airport that’s jam packed at 2:00 am.

5. Computer connectivity is very good. Furthermore, I was amazed that my Verizon phone worked without a hitch. EVDO did not work, but it was only because of the lack of a roaming agreement.

6. The food was fabulous. For example, I’ve had many a set-up day, pre-show, backstage meal, but nothing as good as what was at IBM’s conference the day before it opened. There was even a curry chef who would make curry to spec.

7. I loved Indian pricing strategy: for example, 10 rupees for residents and 300 rupees for tourists at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum.

8. I also appreciated the Indian carpet-sales strategy: “Come in and have a seat; I will get you some tea; let me show you a few carpets; we can fold these up so small that they will fit in your suitcase (and they really could have); these are made in Kashmir; everything is washable; they will not wear out; I’ll give you a special price...”

9. IBM India has 43,000 employees. The conference was very well run and attended. It felt like a TIE event in Silicon Valley except that the food at TIE events isn’t as good because TIE inexplicably usually serves American cuisine like rubberized chicken.

10. The place that most impressed me was Dhobi Ghat. This is an area where laundry workers wash and dry clothes. I can’t quite explain why it had such a profound effect on me. It was just surrealistic: bright colors in dark washing pens and flogging stones.

11. India has its own version of Amazon.com. At two intersections, kids came up to the car to sell us paperback versions of current business books. We bought a copy of The World Is Flat for $3. Not sure if I should be happy or depressed, but The Art of the Start was not available.

If you’d like to see pictures from my trip, click here.

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Comments

[jim Forbes]

G
uy, i realy loved this post.Most excellent comments and flicks. From the size of the big as pipes in one of your flicks, i suspect they're primary potable water and and return feeds.
So was the street food as good as it is in Singapore?

dude,
Jim Forbes

[Brajeshwar]

After reading the whole post, I've to add this more comments

1. Yes, that is something we like about our Mumbai, the rich and the poor co-exist and share equal rights at most levels. This may not be that true in the extreme curves but those are the extremes and let us ignore that.

2. Yes, India is a colorful country. It infact hard for me to get used to the US Dollar when I first saw it with its unicolor currency! (Refer - http://www.flickr.com/photos/brajeshwar/229258729/)

3. Well, an American who works with us (Bill) says that is is like Jazz, the rhythm at which we drive together. It is not just you but you have to know how your peer drivers are driving. And yes, we are very good with driving inch-to-inch, almost touching bumper to bumper even at good speed.

4. Lol! I've learnt not to drive around the International Airport route after 10:30 p.m. (though that is near to my home) as that is the start of the time when most international flights takes off and can be real sight and frustration even for people trying to just pass across the route.

5. Well, we even jump right over to G3 bandwagon.

6. No Comments on foods; they are mostly spicy highly masala-ed at all times.

7. Geeee, I never knew that but cool way of earning money and give importance to local people at the same time.

8. Never knew of this either.

9. I'm still thinking if I took the right choice when I gladly rejected the offer from IBM Bangalore (INDIA).

10. Never been to that place but seen it million times in the Indian Bollywood Cinemas.

11. Lol, this is the one where I got "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life" when it was banned, no longer available at the book stores.

[Brajeshwar]

oh, I usually attend most of IBM's conference and this one when I could not attend, I had to missed you! Bad luck for me.

[Living in Italy]

Re. the books, these are not necessarily pirated copies. Books are a lot cheaper in India, in part because they use very cheap paper. When my husband was a college student in Italy, some enterprising students imported Indian prints of their textbooks - much cheaper than buying those printed in Italy! But, 20 years on, the paper is sadly deteriorated.

best regards, Deirdré Straughan

[John Dodds]

Re the fascinating picture show: maybe there's some subtle gender semiotics in the use of different apostrophes and they are indicative of males possessiveness being different from the female. Then again it could just be a mistake.

[Living in Italy]

Re., especially, point 1, you might like to read this: http://www.beginningwithi.com/italy/living/ivsi.html

I lived in India from 1977-81 and 85-86, and have visited many times since 1996. It's very exciting to see what's happening there now.

[Kempton]

Guy,

Thanks for sharing your mind-expanding experience to Mumbai. Great read.

With respect to "The Art of the Start" in Mumbai. I suppose you can always be depressed that you are happy it is not available. (smile)

An economist that I respect a lot, he often replies to feedback and comments by the readers of illegal versions of his copyrighted articles and books. For him, I think he actually is quite "proud".

Be happy,
Kempton