June 18, 2006
The weekend in Mumbai has been wonderful. I have felt more connected to people than I have since arriving here, in terms of feeling like we are making friends and connecting with people outside of formal work, research and church related vicinities. This is a huge blessing. As a newcomer, it has been a challenge to feel connected to any one community when I only spend portions of my week in each. It is hard not to feel like a transient visitor everywhere, with no roots anywhere, which can be isolating.
Since we won't be in the same city on my birthday this week, Rock and I celebrated this weekend. We did a bit of site-seeing Saturday, including going to one of Mumbai's museums, where we learned much about India, its history, and Hinduism.
In the evening, one of Rock's colleagues from the ICICI invited us to go out to dinner with his wife, child, and wife's sister. They were very gracious and it was a very pleasant experience. We walked along the beach on the Arabian Sea at about 8 or 9 PM. It was full of people and families with young children. In Mumbai, whole families stay up late. We probably didn't eat dinner until about 10 PM, which is also typical in Mumbai. The restaurant we went to was also full of families and was as busy as a popular U.S. restaurant would be on a Friday night at 6 or 7 PM. We really enjoyed eating with this family because they suggested several delicious dishes to us and helped us know what things go together and how to eat them. Usually we just blindly choose something we hope we'll like and guess at what it goes with. Three of my favorites were Pav Bhaji (a type of buttered bread with this amazing sauce), Masala Dosa (a big role of paper rice that was eaten with a special type of potato dish), and Onion Uttapa (sort of like an Indian tostada, with Indian spices and no meat or cheese).
Rock's colleague's family presented us with a gift, a beautiful figurine of one of the more popular Hindu gods, Gamesh. Gamesh (we had just learned in the museum earlier that day) has an elephant's head and is the Hindu god of new beginnings and the remover of obstacles. I thought that was a fitting metaphor.
Today, we were planning on attending church at the local Mormon congregation from 11 AM to 12:30 PM (the time posted on the Internet) until we found out at about 10:45 that it is actually not in Mumbai, but in New Mumbai, which would have taken us about 1.5 hours to reach. Given that the services only lasted an hour and a half, we quickly realized that we would be lucky to make it just as everyone else was leaving, so we had our own private church meeting for the first time since we have been to India. (Chennai has two Mormon congregations. I'll write more about that another time.)
Another of Rock's ICICI colleagues invited us to a family birthday celebration this afternoon. It was quite interesting. When we arrived, Rock was invited to sit in the living room with all of the men, and I was ushered to one of the bedrooms where the women were watching a guy entertain the kids with music and dancing. Rock says that the men didn't talk a whole lot. The women didn't talk a whole lot either, but that was because they were watching the kids and helping them with the games. It was great fun to watch the kids have a good time. It was a lovely gathering. The food was delicious, and I really had a great time just watching everyone enjoy one another's company and being a part of that in a small way. Watching all of the children play together also brought to my mind several fond memories of various holiday and birthday celebrations growing up. I really appreciate that my parents put effort into making such occasions memorable. They definitely succeeded.
The weekend in Mumbai has been wonderful. I have felt more connected to people than I have since arriving here, in terms of feeling like we are making friends and connecting with people outside of formal work, research and church related vicinities. This is a huge blessing. As a newcomer, it has been a challenge to feel connected to any one community when I only spend portions of my week in each. It is hard not to feel like a transient visitor everywhere, with no roots anywhere, which can be isolating.
Since we won't be in the same city on my birthday this week, Rock and I celebrated this weekend. We did a bit of site-seeing Saturday, including going to one of Mumbai's museums, where we learned much about India, its history, and Hinduism.
In the evening, one of Rock's colleagues from the ICICI invited us to go out to dinner with his wife, child, and wife's sister. They were very gracious and it was a very pleasant experience. We walked along the beach on the Arabian Sea at about 8 or 9 PM. It was full of people and families with young children. In Mumbai, whole families stay up late. We probably didn't eat dinner until about 10 PM, which is also typical in Mumbai. The restaurant we went to was also full of families and was as busy as a popular U.S. restaurant would be on a Friday night at 6 or 7 PM. We really enjoyed eating with this family because they suggested several delicious dishes to us and helped us know what things go together and how to eat them. Usually we just blindly choose something we hope we'll like and guess at what it goes with. Three of my favorites were Pav Bhaji (a type of buttered bread with this amazing sauce), Masala Dosa (a big role of paper rice that was eaten with a special type of potato dish), and Onion Uttapa (sort of like an Indian tostada, with Indian spices and no meat or cheese).
Rock's colleague's family presented us with a gift, a beautiful figurine of one of the more popular Hindu gods, Gamesh. Gamesh (we had just learned in the museum earlier that day) has an elephant's head and is the Hindu god of new beginnings and the remover of obstacles. I thought that was a fitting metaphor.
Today, we were planning on attending church at the local Mormon congregation from 11 AM to 12:30 PM (the time posted on the Internet) until we found out at about 10:45 that it is actually not in Mumbai, but in New Mumbai, which would have taken us about 1.5 hours to reach. Given that the services only lasted an hour and a half, we quickly realized that we would be lucky to make it just as everyone else was leaving, so we had our own private church meeting for the first time since we have been to India. (Chennai has two Mormon congregations. I'll write more about that another time.)
Another of Rock's ICICI colleagues invited us to a family birthday celebration this afternoon. It was quite interesting. When we arrived, Rock was invited to sit in the living room with all of the men, and I was ushered to one of the bedrooms where the women were watching a guy entertain the kids with music and dancing. Rock says that the men didn't talk a whole lot. The women didn't talk a whole lot either, but that was because they were watching the kids and helping them with the games. It was great fun to watch the kids have a good time. It was a lovely gathering. The food was delicious, and I really had a great time just watching everyone enjoy one another's company and being a part of that in a small way. Watching all of the children play together also brought to my mind several fond memories of various holiday and birthday celebrations growing up. I really appreciate that my parents put effort into making such occasions memorable. They definitely succeeded.
posted by Jen at 6:14 AM
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