The Monsoon Fades

Work is going along here in India. We did a test shoot with film and digital cameras a week ago so I got my feet wet on the stages of Bollywood. The stage was pretty shabby but what's behind the camera is unimportant anyway. It was OK. We'll survive. Not worse than Morocco or even some days in Australia or Canada. 

There was another Festival last week celebrating the Ultimate Victory of Good over Evil when on the tenth day of the festival the anniversary of Great God Rama defeating the Evil Demon Ravanna is remembered. Fireworks and singing and drumming and dancing on the beach as effigies of Ravanna are burned. The biggest holiday, Diwali is upcoming in a few weeks.

We also celebrated the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2nd, now known worldwide as the International Day of Non-violence. That was a Real Victory of Good over Evil.

There have been strikes off and on from the so-called auto drivers. These are the auto-rickshaws so prevalent on Mumbai's streets. The drivers are mad that the government is cracking down on them for having their meters tampered with to get higher fares, so they went on strike. Now they say all drivers must get electronic meters because they are harder to tamper with. Anyway every time they go on strike the traffic gets better for a bit because all the ricks are gone but then it gets way worse because all the rickshaws are replaced by cars and crowded busses.

Prithvi Theater Coffee Shop

I went out for another walk this weekend. I went into a small grocery store. I am starting to find the more normal places now that I am looking a little harder. I also visited the famous Prithvi Theatre which is just down the street and has a famous coffee shop. It was nice there under their canopy down a little quiet side street. The coffee was pretty good too so I think I will go back there in the future. It's nice to find a comfortable place to go beyond the confines of the hotel.

The hotel is still nice though. The weather has gotten better and after the walk I plopped down by the pool to watch the sun set. As these pictures show, when you look past the first layer (or ignore it) there are some very nice things here.

Sunset over the Arabian Sea 

Chillin' by the pool…