Bombay..third big business , street shopping and Oscar awards...2012-02-28

I woke up this morning to find my sister in law, looking down from her third story flat and ordering fresh vegetables on her mobile phone. I happen to glance outside and saw a vendor sitting along the road selling fresh vegetables and talking on the mobile phone. I just asked ( thought I was joking) if she was talking to the vendor across the street and sure enough she was J  This brings me to the third biggest business in India…mobile phone industry.  Everyone In India from street sweepers and upwards have at least one mobile phone. Most of the mundane transactions ( like buying vegetables, giving laundry for dry cleaning , buying medicines for American relatives ) is done through mobile phone.

We did our traditional Bombay morning walk on the beach and found this Hanumanji made from sand.  Sand sculptures are made on most beaches around the world, but the interesting thing about this Hanumanji was that people were actually offering money and flowers ( way of worshipping).  We walked for an hour till we reached the section of the beach facing poor ( slums) area and started seeing people doing their morning business  along there so turned around.  Just a fact of life in India. Juhu beach ( where my brother lives) is one of the very  rich area dotted with hotels like Marriott , Radisson  and homes of some of the bollywood stars  but the slums are just around the corner where people live in marginal conditions and use the ocean as their toilet.

On the way back , we saw an overloaded vegetable truck stuck on the road. At home, my niece Aditi came over and took us shopping ( this being the last full day in India) . It is hot in Bombay , almost 100 F with 90% humidity. We decided to see a movie in the afternoon. We  went to see “Artist” and I was surprised to see so many people in the theatre. Turns out, after the Oscars, the top movies get  lot of attention in India. Anyways two interesting things about this : 1) The cheapest tickets are towards the front and most expensive in the back. 2) They have intermissions half way through the movie 3) And most important one that I had completely forgotten was that before the movie starts , national anthem is sung and everyone pays respect by standing up. ( not sure how this tradition started but is at least 60 years old)  .

 Aditi's two year old liked to play with Jagdish so we took him to the movie with us and believe it or not he was quite ( slept) through the movie. We got little bolder after his "angelic" behavior and took him shopping in the traditional Indian market.

 In the market we saw girls getting Mehdi done

People eating Chat and other street food and lots and lots of shops and people all over. It felt like India must be very prosperous country. Came back home tired and hungry. Had Indian Pizza and lots of home cooked meal with Sonu ( nephew) and his family. Every one is gone now and sleeping , i must try to sleep too...good night