A bit of Bombay

A small Hughes Hall connection in Bombay. I met M who now lives and works here at the grand Taj Mahal hotel.

We walked past the C.S.T. Rail Station, with all its overhead fans turing, the "Times of India Co.", past second hand book stalls selling copies of pirated copies of J.K. Rowling to Amatrya Sen. I walked past the Mumbai college grounds where I saw people playing football for the first time in India, and finally reached the Arabian Sea.

I was very glad to see an old acquaintance. There is something giddy about meeting your college friend. Maybe it is not just the college connection, but just interpersonal chemistry.

Brokeback Mountain @ the Regal Cinema
Joining a mass of young girls and boys I went to the cinema. After purchasing the cheaper tickets (60 Rps (roughly 1.5USD) as opposed to 150Rps) I went in. As I walk up the stairs into the dark screeing room, I see signs that says, "all articles are subject to search. No one can exist the premises, during the movie, or the intermission." It is one of those moments you realize the state of society, i.e. terrorism which is very much a real threat in this country. The guy sitting next to me and I were saying, how difficult it was to catch the Texan accent.

Hot second-hand books in the streets of Bombay
Under the grand colonial buildings of Mumbai University, are lines of second-hand book stalls, spreading their wares. This I noticed in Paris too, but why is it that these streetside book stalls seem to sell the same books. In the streets of Paris, I saw Le Petit Prince, over and over. And here in the streets of Bombay, there is a strong showing, somehow for George Orwell's 1984 and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Both cultish classics. Then of course are the Harry Potter's the Da Vinci Codes. I bought the "Argumentative Indian" by Amatrya Sen for 60 Rps, after seeing it again and again and again in the book stalls by Mumbai Uni. And yes, I forgot to mentin, always in these streetside book stands are old issues of the National Geographic. The child manning the stands wanted 100 Rps (2 USD+). More than a paperback, so hence, I settled for the beefier paperback. More bang for the buck, you might say.

BGM: pretty much for the whole of the India Journey, Bob Dylan. When I think about home, where my childhood belonging lies, is probably the East coast of the United States.