The End of November

Sunset from the deck of the Gadda da Vida

It's the end of my third month in India. Since the monsoon ended the weather has been steady every day. 85-95º F all the time day and night. Most sunsets are nice, at least when I've had the chance to see them which is mostly on Sunday afternoons. The best beer in the place is locally brewed Heineken, in my humble opinion, served with peanuts and other little crunchy snacks, both covered with a pepper curry seasoning. I did manage to mistake a chili pepper for a green bean once. A fair amount of beer was required to counteract that. I was also offered sugar cane juice as an antidote which I guess worked as well as the beer. The bar at the Novatel, called Gadda da Vida (Hello, Iron Butterfly fans everywhere!) is all outdoors now, as seen above in the sunset photo.

Post Monsoon

Monsoon

When the monsoon ended, they took down all the covers over the outdoor areas. I had thought this was construction, but now I see that lots of places are simply covered against the rains and the covers come off when the rain stops. This is true all over town. It has been interesting to watch all these places open up on rooftops all over town and along the sea. I guess it won't rain again until next July.


The more I look at India the more I see it as a crazy mash-up rather than just a place that is disorganized. People don't care about continuity or "how it looks" like we do. They just do what is required to get along and if that means old guys with beards ride scooters with plastic Harley helmets perched on their heads, well that was the way for this fellow to get across town and off he went, dodging the auto-ricks, cars, busses, and yes, elephants with precision that only motorcycle racers have in the USA.



The day after Diwali ended there was a big gathering outside my hotel to celebrate yet another holiday, one primarily celebrated by people from the state of Bihar who have moved to Mumbai. It has become politicized because the government won't recognize it in the state of Maharashtra, so the celebrants gather in huge groups to oppose the policy and have music and religious rituals and speeches both spritual and political. Some celebrities appear. Anyway, they set up this huge lighted runway down the lane next to the hotel and then this massive stage bang up against the hotel retaining wall and just here there were what looked to me like 50,000 people on the beach. They stayed all night as part of the ritual is to go into the sea and stay there until dawn. It was full on. All cleared away the next day.

Here's this week's billboard, featuring the star of the film I'm working on in a double role, which is a bit of a speciality for him. This is a portable sign rolled into one of the big intersections on my way to work. The product is a kind of biscuit (cookie) I think. I'm not sure what the subtext is here…


So, on to December and the first weeks of actually shooting the film!

The Grand Prix of India - Race Day!

Yeah, baby! I made it to the First Grand Prix of India

Again my driver was right on time. I am digging that. I was worried that on Race Day things would be more crowded and they were but because I left early without fail I didn't really have any problems on the way in. I was there long before most people. I had time to wander a bit more and do some last minute shopping. (You can never have too many Ferrari hats apparently.) I didn't realize that The Morning Warmup was no longer a part of F1, so there wasn't a lot to do in the morning. The support races were not really high calibre, mostly tools to show off Indian talent which was not in too much abundance. One thing I did see was that in both of the races while P2 and P3 were battling through the esses leading into the final corner, P4 got a good run and blasted past both of them in Turn 16 to take 2nd! I was wondering if the F1 guys were watching that. (In retrospect, I guess not.)

The weather all three days was pretty steady. Dry and pretty hot. It wasn't really humid like it can be in Mumbai but it was in the 90s most of the time. I was not at all uncomfortable. I'm not sure if the dust in the air filtered the sun, but I was also sunblocked and insect repelled pretty thoroughly all three days and I had no problem with burning or bites. I didn't eat any of the track food as I just didn't want to spoil my weekend by eating the wrong thing. I had breakfast and dinner at the hotel and lunch was Clif Bars™ and protein bars I brought from the US. I made sure I had plenty of water. They wouldn't let me bring fluids into the track so I bought water inside the fences, which was cheap anyway, Rs15/liter, which is US30¢. This is Aquafina so next time you pay US$2.25 for that think about what Evian spells backwards. Anyway that kept me in fine shape in terms of hydration.

The Crowd Favorite: Force India

Michael Schumacher

The race was all that you expect from F1. Amazing speed, colossal sound, lots of excitement from the crowd. There were lots of empty seats around me which had to be no-shows. The seating was about 85% full, I'd say, but the crowd was great! They really came alive for their favorites and showed themselves to have more history with the sport that was immediately apparent. As the US fans surprised F1 by being red-blooded Ferrari fans to rival the original Tifosi, so Indian fans cheered not only Force India, but also Lewis Hamilton who spent some time promoting McLaren in India and especially Michael Schumacher, who is the Man Who Was King when India began paying attention to F1 some years back. Really, Schummi got the biggest cheers of anyone short of Force India and Karthikeyan and Michael's cheers were for his driving not his nationality.  I really got a thrill from that and it re-energized my own affection for Old Spoonface™.

The Lights Come On!

The race was Vettel's from start to finish, but there was some good stuff as Button did his level best to stay with the young German. If Seb had made any mistake, Jenson was right there. It was a really good weekend and a really good drive from Button. He just didn't have the oomph to stay with the Red Bull. There was a good battle between Alonso and Webber for a while. Some good looks and some tight driving and strategy for both. It was good to watch but the pressure of Alonso eventually wore Webber down. Again, Alonso showed something that others don't have, in my opinion.

The Prancing Horse of Scuderia Ferrari
Alonso at the wheel

The Hamilton/Massa contretemps were almost predictable. I was quite surprised to hear later that Massa was penalized for turning in on Hamilton as Lewis tried exactly the maneuver that I described earlier and couldn't make it stick. It's the responsibility of the following car to avoid a collision and I think Johnny Herbert saw a little too much Union Jack on Hamilton's car to make the right call. Hamilton was over optimistic of his chances at Turn 5 and Massa went ahead and took his line. Lewis needed to brake sooner but he wanted the position too badly. I'm sure it's true that Massa took his line too late and with the thought that if he was hit it was Lewis' fault, but it hardly matters who's fault it is when you're sailing through the gravel trap. So while I think Massa's penalty was unfair, I also think he should have been more aware of the situation and done more to avoid a collision. Having said that I will say that I would have done the same and then been mad that I had to make a choice between crashing and giving way to a bully. I don't like guys who force you into that choice. Hamilton should do better. He has the talent to drive better than that. We've seen it. 

Of course Massa then showed his versatility as a driver by knocking the left corner off his car on the same corner where he had knocked the right corner off on Saturday. Nice.

One of the joys of the weekend was watching Schumacher do well. While Webber made a hash of his tires and the strategies needed to overtake Alonso, The Master did it exactly right, forcing his teammate to pit first, blistering the time sheets on old tires while Rosberg was stopped and slow and then screaming out in front after his own stop. Just like old times. His run to a season-best 5th looked brilliant and the crowd really responded to it, myself included. OK, so Massa and Hamilton helped him up there but it was still great to see Michael working nearer the front.

The Chase

As for Vettel, I think we are still learning what this guy can do. He is a really good driver. We knew this when he debuted like Schumacher, impressing in a back marking car at a ridiculously young age, but a few guys have done that and not become dominant for one reason or another. I was thinking back to his win in Monza in the Toro Rosso and really, in the modern era, only Senna ever did anything like that when he almost won Monaco in a Toleman. In retrospect this is a very impressive feat indeed. Now, given the car of choice he is unbeatable, and that's not uncommon either, but he has come through some fire to do it. Running into Weber and suffering morale busting mechanical failures ultimately did not deter him. He won the 2010 Championship because he kept fighting and for most part fighting fair and he wore Weber out and he outdrove everyone else. What's clear to me is that he now knows how to drive like that even when he doesn't have to. That's why he is unbeatable. 

I have been watching him since he won The Championship in Japan and he is getting even stronger with the title in the bag. I think his own personal motivation is still so strong that no-one apart from Alonso can match him. He also has been able to take concepts like "First Grand Prix in India" and make that something he wants to be his and using that to keep his drive at 10/10ths. Whatever is motivating him it is not flagging because the championship is won. I can point to many many Champions of years past that cannot say the same. So I have to say I was impressed to see Vettel drive. I think the quartet of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Button will one day be thought of as we now think of Stewart, Graham Hill, Clark and Brabham or Prost, Mansell, Senna and Piquet. It's great to have so much talent on the track at once.

And it was great to see it in person at The Buddh International Circuit. When it was all over everyone moved to the exits and it was just the same as the USA or Belgium, namely: The Biggest Traffic Jam Ever. In India this is a staggering idea. I sat crammed into a too small seat, stopped dead for 90 minutes before we all got untangled and headed in another more profitable direction. My favorite moment was when I was stuck in some place, hanging my head a bit out the window to get some air and found myself about four inches from someone else's head! He was in another bus completely! He looked at me and said, "What is going through your mind right now?" I said "Patience is a virtue, especially in India." I did find my driver after some tangled phone calls and walking a mile from where the busses all came to stop in a jam at the other end and then we tried to find a way back. I have no idea where we went on the way back. I'd never been to most of the places we travelled through. It took me four hours to return to the hotel. 

Even with that somewhat difficult finish, it was as always, a terrific experience to see F1 live. It is the World Championship. These are the greatest drivers and the greatest cars in the world and quite probably the best racing venues as well. As proud as Sebastian Vettel is to be the winner of the first ever Grand Prix of India, so I am proud to have been a spectator. The first of anything can never happen twice.

The Grand Prix of India - Day Two

Saturday dawned, kind of, hazy and dark. My driver was right on time which kind of amazed me. Today we knew exactly where we going so that was pretty stress-free. I was feeling better after some sleep that's for sure and ready for a day of real racing. I left the SLR behind and carried the HD camera instead. I got to the track somewhat earlier than Friday and so had some time to wander. I took in the mighty grandstand and the new facilities of the JayPee Sports complex, the new head offices of the organization that built the track and got the GP signed and sealed. They own the whole area and are busily building apartments, a cricket stadium and other amenities hoping to attract young affluent Indians to their new Sports City which right now is a very nice race track and whole lot of dirt. A Whole Lot.

The fountain near the Buddh Circuit HQ

Still, the reaction to the Indian GP was universally good. The drivers love the track. It's quite a departure from Tilke's previous creations. Much more interesting, with good overtaking points, meaning more than two, and with multiple options for making a move due to the width of the track and the sequencing of the corners. Much less technical, and with the elevation changes, more interesting for everyone.

Button comes through…

The surface was brilliant and the way the runoffs are painted is spectacular, even more so on TV. The big grandstand is amazing. It's just huge. The stands were very comfortable with plastic seats for everyone. No bleachers. The bathrooms were surprisingly nice, by my new Indian way of perceiving things anyway. Crowd control was good for the most part. The construction was uniquely Indian in that they build this amazing looking grandstand with imposing style and modern lines, and it's actually constructed out of steel beams that look like they were found in a scrap yard somewhere, covered with rust and kind of hammered together. It all seems really solid (I checked) but it's just odd that the execution is somewhat less well conceived than the plan.

Kamui Kobayashi was not shy in Turn 4

When the F1 cars hit the track at 11am we were all pretty excited to see how everyone was going to come at it with a little experience under their belts and some need to put in a last few changes before the qualifying. The hard tires, brought as a safety measure, were pretty useless so the soft tires were an even hotter commodity than usual. The sound of the cars this year is different than years past. The high-pitched scream of the V12s and V10s are gone so it's not quite as ear-splitting as it was a few years back. Either that or my hearing is really going. I was actually quite careful this time and wore ear plugs any time the F1 cars were out. With the plugs in you can actually hear the shift points better as they are not buried by the high frequency harmonics which are making your eardrums essentially non-functional without plugs to mute it. The various forms of ignition overrun they are using to blow gas over the aero package really creates a racket. You've heard the sound when there is a misfire on a sports car and all the fuel is exploding in the exhaust, that Bra-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-p sound, only this is intentional so it's on/off and misfiring every time on purpose, so it's very regular. We really heard it as the the cars came screaming up to us at full rev then braked and dove down the hill to Turn 5, which has a long braking area and so the gas blowby is really extended on the downhill run as the drivers let off to avoid carrying too much speed into the turn at the bottom. I tried to get a feel for how the Renault front-exit exhaust was different from everyone else and didn't really hear much to separate them.

Here's the sound of Mark Webber's Red Bull coming into 4 and heading down to 5 and 6:

My seat was very good. I would have liked to have been a bit higher up though. I had a good view up the main straight, all the way to Turn 3. It was good with binocs. Plus we had the full Turn 4 right in front of us and fairly close pass-by before the cars were obscured by the downhill run. You could really see guys setting up passes from quite far away. 

As usual, there were always these glimmers that maybe Ferrari and quite possibly McLaren would give RBR a run for the pole, but it never really looked like happening. Button drove very well, very consistently, and Alonso again showed that he is one of those drivers who can get more out a bad car than most others would even bother with. While Massa was making a mess of it, trashing his suspension on the curbing, Alonso was cutting times that seemed unreasonably fast for the equipment he had to work with. Maybe that's just my Ferrari hat talking but I am always impressed with his ability to do more than you think he can.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton looked unbalanced all weekend, which has been the story of his year. He just looks to be trying too hard and flailing a bit. He and Schumacher are in the same boat and Button and Rosberg are making it clear that the fast times are in understanding where the car lives. I guess that's what makes Alonso so impressive. He seems to be doing the same thing that Hamilton and Schumacher are doing but he's going way faster than his teammate, not slower. I think it's unfair to say that that is because Massa is driving poorly, even if it's true.

In the end Vettel did his usual job of letting McLaren enjoy a few seconds of glory before relegating them to P2. He was just driving along in his race car on his race track as fast as he can and lo and behold, he's faster than everyone else. Just the way it's going right now. The individual aspects of the tracks are almost a non-issue.

Tire warming hubs!

I spent a lot of time reading the F1 program during breaks and they actually have a lot of good stuff in there and really recent, too. Printed into the glossy bits are full diagrams of the exact changes the teams have brought to the current race. Really detailed stuff about wing-ducting and so on. Very Cool. 

One other thing I began to see as I watched the support races was that guys were trying the inside line at Turn 4 and getting past if they were way faster or surprised the leading driver. (Huh? Who gets surprised there?) Most times though the leading car blocked the inside forcing the overtaking car to the outside. What people were figuring out was that you can carry speed through the outside of the corner and then use it to dive down the hill and get inside at Turn 5. The bad news is, if you don't make it, well, you're going to have trouble. Uh. Oh.

Attendance was about the same for Saturday as Friday, though people on Friday seemed to be random people who got the tickets from someone who couldn't make it and Saturday it was the ticket holders, most of whom showed up just in time for the qualifying session. The crowd was more mixed than any I had seen, certainly at an F1 race, but really anywhere. There were old-timers and kids, men and women, mostly Indians but the ubiquitous white-skinned English who will go anywhere, and take their wives, to see an F1 race.  As everywhere in India the contrasts (by western markers) are a little bewildering. From an Indian man in his 70s, wearing dress pants, a western shirt and an aged Renault F1 hat, to his grandson in jeans and a Force India flag, to the young women in tight fitting waxed jeans and halter tops walking behind a man and a woman in a kurta pajama and sari respectively. It's what some people wear and they wear it everywhere. I wear Levis, they wear pajamas and saris. It's just odd (for me) to see people traipsing through the dust in a sari with sandals and a Red Bull hat. These aren't people who are cluelessly mixing their messages. India is a mixed message. The whole country is the original mash-up. 

Meet the New Boss, the same as the Old Boss

So again, I stayed a little late, caught a bus that was a little too full and spent the eventful ride back to the parking lot standing crammed in the aisle while the driver did his best to impress everyone by driving at blinding speed (for a bus) while weaving through the slower cars and bikes (!!!) and laying on his mind-bendingly loud electronic horn all the way. He seemed to be enjoying himself quite a lot!

I got to the lot with a little more shake in my legs than I had previously had and walked right out of the bus where it had gotten stuck in traffic and was almost run over by… my own driver. I just got in like it was all part of the plan and we were on our way back to the hotel once again. I still don't know how that happened exactly and neither apparently does he.

The Grand Prix of India - Day One

The view from Star Stand 3 East. The track is beyond the armco. Main Stand in the distance on the left.

After a late night arrival in Delhi, I was pretty nervous about Friday morning but I knew that I really had all day to figure it out and that I would need that experience to make Saturday and Sunday go well. Boy was I right about that! 

The driver was there at 730am on schedule. The first good sign. I showed him the map and where I thought we should go. He appeared to understand so off we went. I kind of knew where we should be going and I felt we were headed wrong at one point, but that turned out to be the detour for the taxes and soon we were headed right again. We began to see the signs for the track after a bit and so now the process of figuring out how to get dropped off began. I thought there would be a place for taxis and hired cars to drop us right at the track, but that turned out to be impossible. They only let people with parking passes onto the access roads. No-one had bought these passes because they were expensive and most people planned to take busses. As a result the organizers changed the rules, disallowed any access to the track without a pass and then set up a free shuttle from the distant parking lot to cover people like me. They didn't tell anyone they were doing this, but we eventually figured it out after being turned away three times and then following our noses. You really learn the meaning of faith when your driver, with whom you share no common language, drives around the police barricade onto a dirt track that parallels the freeway, drives in the dirt for 5 miles, cuts through a culvert under the highway and comes out on the other side pretty close to where we need to be, drives over the curb and onto the highway, then off the off ramp and into the desired parking lot. Points are scored. There was a free shuttle bus leaving every 5 minutes. Terrific. I did my best to insure that my driver would be at this same place at 6pm and climbed aboard the nearest bus.

The Main Stand seen from the Bus Lot

It's a long way to the track. It took easily 30 minutes and then we were stuck under a bridge by a clot of busses all trying to get through at once. This is typical. I had a nice chat with a kid from Kolkata who had been an F1 fan for several years, maybe four, which was a good chunk of his life, and was of course really excited to be seeing F1 live. No more so than I though. Like many I met, he was mightily impressed that I had come from California! The bus dumped us out at one point and we got a view of the mighty mounds Hermann Tilke had built to give the track elevation changes. Impressive. They stand about 250 feet off the ground level on both ends of the so-called Main Straight (as opposed to the Pit Straight) and on the south end at the big carousel, giving a big climb from the start line up through turn 2 to turn 3 at the top, then downhill to the middle of  the main straight then back up again to turn 4, over the top, down into the chicanes at 5, 6, 7 then 8 and 9, then uphill again through the carousel (10,11,12) and down through 13,14,15 and 16 back to the start line level. 

Next we had to find the circuit shuttle which was just getting running. That took me around to my seat at the East End just at the end of the Main Straight. I got through security and found my seat. It was about 1020am and although I had just missed the first car on track, which was Karthikeyan, I had not missed much due to a delay caused by the predictable dog on the track. One imagines that this poor animal was deliberately released to echo the one thing most rich westerners now associate with India: the slumdog.

DiResta probing the limits of Turn 4

It was quite cool to watch the drivers trying to figure out just how fast they could come into the corner at the end of the straight. It was the very first moments of seeing the track for everyone so no-one really knew where the limit was. Lots of tire smoke resulted, which was actually why I had chosen the seats I had. I knew that something would happen there both in practice and the race. Most of the top drivers were careful to approach the limit bit by bit. The Usual Suspects did light up the tires though, most notably, Kobayashi, Senna, Massa and DiResta.

Our view of Alonso's long walk on Friday

Bruno Senna gets it all wrong 

Alonso hit the chicanes a little hard and tore up his Ferrari in the morning session. Those curbs would prove costly to The Prancing Horses over the weekend. Right from the start you could tell that whatever experience the guys like Alonso, Button, Hamilton and Schumacher would bring to a new track, it really would be no match for the combination of the Red Bull chassis and the prodigious talent of Herr Vettel. He was all over it from the very start. His car was balanced, his lines true and consistent. He made it look easy the way Prost used to do. He was simply faster and he didn't look fussed to make it happen.

I spend the mid-day touring the track by foot and by bus. When the crowd got heavier the busses got jammed. India-jammed, with people hanging off the sides and crushed into the bus like twelve sardines in a five fish can. Once I  literally got pushed out the door because I refused to hold ground like everyone else was doing when kids and grannies were getting squeezed. So sometimes I walked. I needed the exercise and the atmosphere anyway.

Just outside the F1 Village where Swag is King

Sadly you can't enter the trackside anywhere expect the two "picnic areas" which are seatless spectator areas and even there only with a ticket for that area. Actually these looked to be pretty good spots and were underpopulated all weekend even though they are the least expensive tickets. So there were no other vantage points for me to enjoy or to take pictures other than my actual seat, so I headed back there. After a couple of sessions though, I had pretty much shot everything I could think of so I just watched after that. I did manage to talk my way into the area where the merchandise was being sold. That was odd. Don't they want my money? I thought that was the whole point! I got myself a nice Team Lotus hat and things for everyone who helped me get to Delhi by fronting for tickets, calling drivers services, booking hotels at the last moment, etc. I've long ago learned the lesson to get all your stuff on Friday so you don't have to fight the crowds for the left-over medium sized shirts on Sunday.

Felipe Massa's Ferrari and Sebastian Buemi's Toro Rosso jousting in Turn 4

Session Two was in much better light as the haze had burned off and the times really started falling. I noticed Schumacher taking a different line than everyone else which is really typical of him trying to find a way to go faster. He was wrong this time though and his times were not competitive. After about 20 minutes of this he started following everyone else's pattern of acceleration out of Turn 4 and his speed increased by about 3 tenths a lap. Oh well. Hamilton, Button and the Ferraris were really trying hard all session. The Mercedes looked significantly slower. They just aren't in the same league as the other three. Schummi is overdriving to try and regain his form and that's why Nico is beating him. 

Nico Rosberg's Mercedes

There were some practice and qualifying for the support races but they were not very interesting truthfully, plus I was dying from only four hours of sleep and a whole pile of stress from travel, language-free communication and general disorientation, so I called it a day and set off to see if I could get home to the hotel. I did hang around a little to let the first crush go and take the second series of busses. (Had to guess where they would be but guessed right!) I managed to call my driver successfully and he found an English speaker and we hooked up with very little trouble. After a long drive through Delhi I was back at the hotel where I was unable to connect to the net and put all my extra knowledge into my Fantasy League picks. Rats! Oh well, reality was better than fantasy anyway!

Delhi

I made my first venture beyond Mumbai last weekend: a trip to Delhi for the First Ever Indian Grand Prix Formula One Race. I had hoped to go with a group of my Indian comrades, but things like holidays, film schedules and finances conspired to leave me unexpectedly on my own. So off I went last Thursday, the day after Diwali. 

I flew Kingfisher Air, partly because I was told to avoid Air India and also to support the Force India F1 team which is owned by Vijay Mallya, who also owns the Kingfisher Brewery, Kingfisher Airlines and (among other things) the Mendocino Brewing Company, if you happen to have a taste for Red Tail Ale. I had my boarding pass in hand from online check-in but I still had to go the desk to get it stamped, as I found out after I went through security. It's also essential that you get your carry-on luggage tag stamped by security or they will send you back when you get to the plane. I avoided that.

The flight to Delhi was uneventful except for the views of the cities below with the Diwali fireworks in full force. As I mentioned, they come from everywhere so from the air it's quite a sight. This is a little video from the window as we flew over Jaipur.

Next morning early I had a new driver and we headed for the race track. That's another story, but immediately it was apparent that Delhi has different traffic than Mumbai. In the mornings and late night it actually clears out a bit, which Mumbai never really does. There's a lot more person-powered transport in Delhi as well. Lots of bicycle rickshaws in addition to everything else. 

We had a ways to travel to get to the track so I saw a lot. We went through many markets and industrial areas. I didn't get to see any of the famous tourist spots on this trip, but I did see the new monuments in Noida, which is the area across the river in a state different than the one Delhi proper is in. This is also the area where the race was so every day we had to go six or seven miles out of our way to pay road taxes necessary to drive a Delhi car on Utter Pradesh roads. Likewise there was always a stop coming back into Delhi to pay someone something. All of this happened at random spots that didn't appear to me to have anything to do with road taxes. Just every time we crossed over we had to stop somewhere and the driver went into a building and came out a bit later, told me "Taxes." and on we went.

Noida itself is a little story. It is, as far as I know, the only part of India which is zoned. The name is a modern one, drawn from the original government plan which was called the National Organized Industrial Development Area: NOIDA, now Noida and Greater Noida. They have built these big new parks with statues of all kinds of leaders. I'm not sure what that's all about.

Monuments in Noida

Delhi is much drier and dustier than Mumbai. There was a lot of pollution from all the fireworks, plus all the regular pollution from traffic, dust, etc. Even after the sun had gone pretty high in the sky it was still a red sunset ball because of all the particulate in the air. This effect extended all the way out to the track, some 60 kilometers from the city center. Mornings and evenings were hazy to the point of fogginess. You couldn't see the other end of the track sometimes because of the haze, and none of it was moisture.

The sunrise lasts for hours in Delhi

Most of what I saw of Delhi was life on the roads. People crossing the most insanely busy four lane highways on foot, or just stopping to rest by pulling their car or motorbike off into the narrow median and taking a break. There is no more lane discipline in Delhi than there is in Mumbai, arguably less, and in the evenings traffic was just jammed all across the city. I mean just plain stuck in gridlock everywhere, only imagine the grid not as interlocking blocks but as a badly knotted mass of string where undoing the knot means sharp fingernails and a lot of patience. It's madness really. Only two-wheelers ever get anywhere and they are ubiquitous. I saw the same sight so many times I could barely believe it: a motorbike, driven by a man wearing normal clothes with a helmet and on the back, side-saddle, a woman in a sari (no helmet) with her scarf tied across her face to filter the dust along with a child, often sleeping, between her and the driver and another child, sometimes two,  between the driver and the handlebars, usually huddled together and usually sleeping on each other shoulders. This whole tableau weaves and dodges through traffic, missing other vehicles by inches, just cruising along home. I must have see this same arrangement a dozen times.

It got late coming home some nights and the driver just had to pick his way around the jams. There were these big street markets running at night which seemed very popular. These cities definitely don't shut down because it's dark and no matter how many malls they build, the street markets are where the vast majority people get their food. 

Night Market in Noida/Delhi

So it was a quick look at Delhi, not in depth. Most of my adventures were at the race track. So I am looking to return and get the tour including the monuments, the historical sights related to Gandhi and of course the Taj Mahal, which is apparently quite a long way from Delhi actually. I do look forward to all that.

A Trip to the Doctor

No, nothing serious, just a checkup so that they can issue me some medical insurance. Nonetheless, I was a little nervous about this as I had no idea how the facilities would be and how well I could communicate. It seems to me that the more critical situations become the less English seems to be the language of choice, but it is always there somewhere as a safety net. It's always possible to find someone who speaks both English and Hindi.

This trip happened a few weeks ago, so I was still pretty unsettled in India. My regular driver was out on vacation so it was the first day with the new driver, who of course, spoke no English but had directions of where we were going. I was told I would need a blood test, so I was starving and stressed out as we wandered around a part of Mumbai that was new to me, asking directions and turning around every two or three minutes. We'd pull into a nice building and I'd relax, then we would turn around and pull into a dilapidated building and I'd get nervous. In the end, when we did find the place, I was more nervous than relaxed. My handler was supposed to meet us but he didn't show until later, so I began filling out the obligatory paperwork with all the same information I had put down on every other form I have seen in India. Then they told me I had to go into this open door and get the blood test. I headed that way and was told not very kindly by a different person that I needed to sit down and wait for the room to clear. OK, OK, I'm new here. 

The doctor's office/medical clinic was not very comforting. It was kind of the same as every other semi-clean office, which isn't saying much. By our standards it was closer to the waiting room of a car mechanic than it was to a hospital. Everything that needed to be sterile was sterile, but the rest of the office… well it was clean but not shiny. I had a hard time with the first nurses. I tried to tell them that I needed to lie down for the blood test and they kept saying, "OK, now stick out your arm." and I'd say, "No you don't understand. I need to lie down." and they'd say, "Yes, we understand, now stick out your arm." Ugh. Call in the English Speaker. Terrific, it's the woman who was ordering me around earlier. She somewhat huffily agreed to take me to a room where I could lie down. They tried a novel and effective approach to keeping me from fainting, which was that some guy came in and held my legs in the air while they took the blood. Classical Indian solution: manpower. It's the least expensive and most effective way to solve most problems. So I made it through that, and I knew enough to use the sandals outside the washroom so my socks didn't get wet. (Shoes were left at the door as is Indian custom.) The lab technique is pure 1950s. Everything is tracked (you hope) by competent people who read and write labels accurately. It's all done by hand. I suspect that in the finer hospitals you get more modern treatment, but here, more than in the USA, that costs a lot extra, so people pay for the medical care they can afford by shopping price, which although now coming into vogue, used to be impossible in the US. The idea that you will pay anything to get the best care is not the way people think here.

They then took me into another room crowded with a treadmill from a 1970s gym and an old computer and a bunch of wires hanging everywhere. ECG. They wired me up and did a long ECG monitor. Then I got up, they unwired me, wired me up to a different set of wires and I was asked to, yes, wait some time. While I waited the nurse looked over my records and commented on how young I looked. Aw shucks, I bet she says that to all the long-haired Euros that come through here.  Then she asked me if I was Catholic. What? "You have a Catholic name, yes?" Uh… yeah, I guess I do. "Anglican." I told her. Then I got to sit and wait some time for "The Doctor" to come and run the computer. Looked like the nurse was capable though. She booted it up, checked the system, ran a test and then while I was sitting there, paraded a few more people through the ECG test with just a curtain separating us. The last was a fairly old woman who was looking quite nervously at the treadmill. 

After some time The Doctor showed up. He waved me onto the treadmill, the nurse hooked me up and he hit one button and without even looking up at the monitor or at me, buried his head in his newspaper. He paid no further attention to anyone in the room until I was done and it was the elderly ladies turn. Then he had to look up and hit the button again. He showed no enthusiasm for this work. I think they used me to show the woman what was required on the treadmill. I can't imagine it made her feel any better as I literally took it all in stride. If they ran it as fast for her as they did for me, she was going to be hoofing it! I didn't see that part as after removing the electrodes, (and a lot of chest hair, YOWCH!) I went in to be interviewed. The doctor spent 90% of the time asking me the same questions that were on the form that I filled out earlier and writing it all down on another form. Then he asked about medical history, particularly surgery, of which all I had to tell was my ankle injury.

Then they said, "OK. You're done. Bye."

Several weeks later I was told I was approved for insurance but that my left ankle would be exempted. This was odd since the screw from the sports injury is in my right ankle. It took a long time to sort that out as the insurance company thought I was fighting the exemption when I was just trying to point out that due to a clerical error they were exempting the wrong foot! Several weeks after that I received my insurance card and a bunch of documents which I guess I should read.

In the end, I would say that I was disappointed in the overall state of affairs of medicine in India, but also have a better understanding of what is actually required to practice safe medicine as opposed to what is done simply to make patients more comfortable in a medical environment. In no case however did my experience make me any more reckless with my own personal safety, if you get my meaning.

Diwali

It's the hottest holiday in the world right now. Barack Obama was the first US President to recognize it two years ago at the White House. The Festival of Lights celebrates the triumph of Light over Darkness and the Indian Diaspora is making it one of the biggest celebrations in the world. Today, the 26th of October is officially Diwali. It's another day determined by the lunar calendar so it is a different day every year. People began celebrating on the weekend by shooting off rockets and fireworks as soon as it got dark on Friday and continuing Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night. Last night it went on pretty much continuously with a rocket from somewhere every 10 seconds of so from 830pm to about 11pm. Tonight, on Diwali proper, it started at 8pm and is still going strong at midnight. I'm talking about 4 or 5 audible booms per second for four hours and that's just what I can hear and see from where I am in my hotel, which is more or less random and not particularly near anywhere. The fireworks are private and everyone just buys as much boom as they can afford and starts shooting. If there's a municipal display somewhere it must be in South Mumbai, but really, it's not required. There are fireworks 360 degrees all the time at every distance. If like me, you never get tired of fireworks, come to Mumbai at Diwali. It never stops. The city is now shrouded in smoke and still it goes on and on and on.

Fireworks as seen from my hotel looking across Mumbai's Juhu district

The beach shrouded in smoke from the Diwali fireworks

In the offices and homes, the traditions of Diwali are little candles called diyas symbolizing the coming of light, offerings of food and fireworks, the hanging of lanterns and the creation of rangolis which are colorful sand paintings in traditional forms.

Here's the prep for the making of the rangolis (Photo by Naresh Paliwal)

and here's one of the results

Photo by Ahinsa Panya Patel

It's also a time for traditional dress. It is a custom to wear new clothes on Diwali. Last week I bought clothes for the occasion, nothing too fancy but Indian in style and with some nice stitching. I wore it Tuesday as that was the day that offices celebrate Diwali. I'm happy to say that was big hit with the folks at work. It was fun for me to see all the finery and learn about Diwali and share the day with all the people doing the hard work. Quite fun and lovely. 

The holiday continues through the weekend and as I will be traveling to Delhi tomorrow I may see how they do it up north as well.

Shopping!

I've been a few times to the shops now, not the malls, but other places. We were talking about laser pointers and other such techo-junk the other day and the guys said, "We have to go to Alfa!" so we hopped in the car and headed for a shopping district and the famous Alfa store. This store was like nothing I had ever been in. It had everything but not organized like you would expect in America. It seemed like one of those massive used book stores where it's built into some weird building with corridors and oddly shaped rooms where in one place it's Film and TV and in another The Occult, or Graphic Novels, only this place sold things not books. iPads, shavers, TVs, washing machines, watches, laser pointers, thumb drives, sewing machines, Pringles, jewelry, shampoo, ramen noodles, headphones, hard drives and CDs, among other things. Everything was behind counters. You told the guys what you wanted and they gave you a number and then some runner showed up and took the item down to the front. On your way out you tell them your number and they give you the bill and your stuff after you pay. That's how they control shop-lifting in such a weird space with back doors leading out everywhere. Some stuff like iPads and High-end shampoo is way more expensive than in the USA. Some laser pointers cost about the same, around US$30-50 but you can get green ones that are illegal in the US (You'll burn your eye out!) They also have some that are Rs 170. That's like four dollars! So I bought a few of those. Can't have too many four dollar laser pointers if you're a VFX Supervisor. 

$4 laser pointer! Shiiiiny!

While I was at it I got USB drive for about US$20 and… shampoo! Not the expensive stuff. Dove was Rs 150 a bottle, like US$3. Paul Mitchell was Rs 1600! (That's about US$35!) Crazy differences. Anyway, it's such an odd store. I don't know if any other in Mumbai is like it or it's just this weird one-off. Seems like the latter. I'll probably find out one day.

Last week I was also taken out Diwali shopping. I think I was supposed to buy gold jewelry for Susan on this trip, which is traditional for the Diwali holiday, along with new clothes. I couldn't quite work out the jewelry thing. We went into some shops that were so stacked with glitzy jewelry it was difficult to concentrate on what I was being shown. Anklets are a popular item in India and so a type of jewelry more or less unique to this area. The jewelry sets of necklaces, pendants and earrings are quite amazing, if a little overdone by western standards. Indian fashion remains one of sophisticated complication, but an aesthetic which does not shy away from super-saturated color and an abundance of "shiny," especially for weddings and for days like Diwali.

This shopping venture took place in an area called Santa Cruz. (I did not see any surfers or other alternative types in this area although the clothes in the shops are exactly what they wear in Santa Cruz CA now that I think about it.) This area is a combination of shops that seem more or less like shops we are familiar with, only crammed into corners and alleys so you need a guide to find anything. There are also these indoor markets where it's just one stall after another all piled next to each other like the souks in Morocco or the Victoria Market in Melbourne. There are also stalls all up and down the main street that are just open to the road.

I was  taken to a nice mens' shop where I found some Indian shirts that I can wear to holiday parties and if I feel like dressing Indian casual. I will be sporting one on Tuesday and Wednesday as that's Diwali proper and the day where everyone dresses up in new finery. 

It's a bit interesting to see that all the clothes I wore when I was in high school are really what people in India wear all the time, then and now. I think I was the only one really wearing that stuff in Ada, copies I guess from the pictures I saw of hippies. (Thanks, Mom for making me all those shirts!) With both the jewelry and the clothes, I was constantly seeing the famous paisley pattern. I was told, "Oh yes, the mango pattern is coming back into fashion." So that's what paisley is: mangos.  I guess I will stock up on that stuff while I'm here! I also went into some smaller shops looking for scarves and such. I did get some very nice scarves, so many of you now know what to expect for Christmas as well! 

We had some chai to take the chill out of what had turned out to be a stormy day and a great vegetarian panini from a stand on the street.  Street food is notorious in Mumbai. It's known to be simultaneously the best food in town and the fastest way to get really sick. I thought I'd give it a try after my Indian comrades said it was really great. I wasn't so sure after I ordered this sandwich and then they all begged off! They missed out though. It was delicious. Toasted bread with a kind of cabbage, tomato, pickle, shredded carrot and beets and some other sprouts and beans all mixed in. The sauce was sweet like a sweet mayonnaise. It was very tasty and no ill effects at all. I already have a bit of a reputation as an adventurous eater, but that really sealed it. (What I actually have is a fairly well-developed sense of what is OK and what is not.)

We then sampled a bunch of traditional sweetmeats from the shops along the street. They make some crazy stuff here. Some of it is very very tasty though!

So now I know a little about how to navigate the shops and will have another go soon with some other co-workers who want to take me out. I suspect soon I'll be back to the haggling which I learned to do in Morocco! The Indians were already impressed when I told them I didn't expect to buy anything from a street vendor without walking away at least twice! Just like buying a car in the USA.