Escobar on Lord Krishna's Birthday

We went to the Escobar for our first TGIF yesterday.  Dubbed as one of the "hippest" bars in Mumbai, it is claimed to have the longest bar in India and it's a regular hangout of the Bollywood crowd.  The bar doesn't open until 7.30 pm, but the school reserved it from 4pm for us, and we were treated to free drinks and food all evening.

After that I went out with Karen to watch the festivities for Lord Krishna's birthday.  We walked until we found an intersection with an unbroken pot suspended above it and hung around while several groups set up a human pyramid to try to smash it.  Eventually our patience was rewarded as we saw one group smash the pot and claim the prize.

I got a taxi back to Kohinoor.  This was a first for me because I don't know the way home yet and don't recognize landmarks.  However I was able to direct the taxi driver once he reached the LBS road, so I feel a little more confident now that I can actually get home after a night out!

Human Pyramids

Tomorrow is the Hindu festival of Krishna Janmashtami - Lord Krishna's birthday.  In Maharashtra, the state where Mumbai is, this is a huge celebration.  Here is a description taken from Wikipedia about this festival.  I'll be going along tomorrow to join in with the fun.

Janmaashtami, popularly known in Mumbai and Pune as Dahi Handi, is celebrated with enormous zeal and enthusiasm. The handi is a clay pot filled with buttermilk that is positioned at a convenient height prior to the event. The topmost person on the human pyramid tries to break the handi by hitting it with a blunt object. Mostly nariyal (coconut) is preferred being a sign of purity, truth etc. in Hinduism. When that happens the buttermilk is spilled over the entire group, symbolizing their achievement through unity. Handis are set up around the city, and groups of youngsters, called Govinda Pathaks, travel around in trucks trying to break as many handis as possible during the day.

Many such Govinda Pathaks compete with each other, especially for the handis that dole out hefty rewards. The event, in recent times, has gathered a political flavor, and it is common for political parties and rich community groups to offer prizes amounting to lakhs of rupees.

Opening Day Minus 4

Looking down to the bottom of the atrium as the last of the scaffolding
is taken down

What a lot has been accomplished in the past 3 days.  Today all the internal scaffolding was being removed and the last of the floors, the ground floor, was being laid.  We now have learning spaces being set up, electricity being put in, painting and cleaning being done.  Only a few days left until the opening.

The iCommons area on the 4th Floor

One of the learning spaces on the 3rd Floor

Pictures are hung

The carpenter came round today and started to hang the pictures.  Now the walls are painted and things are going up on them this apartment is feeling more and more like home.

Opening Day Minus 7

Just one week to go and we will have students walking through the front doors of the school.  It seems incredible to think of this as the building still doesn't seem finished, but every day more and more gets done.  Here are a few pictures showing what is is like with a week to go.  No doubt there will be a big contrast with these photos next week.

The scaffolding is gone from the outside, but parts of the inside still
look like this.  This is the Atrium, taken from the 3rd floor.

Furniture is starting to arrive and is being placed in the learning spaces.

Each floor has an iCommons area - with a techie in each.

My first tech meeting took place on these yellow and blue cushions.

Unpacking and getting settled

Our boxes have arrived and about 140 of them have been unpacked, though not much is in its "final" place yet.  I need to do a lot of organizing.  However I've been doing the nice things, choosing colours for the rooms, deciding where to put furniture, hang lamps and eventually put up our pictures.  Our bare apartment is being transformed into something that resembles a home!

Our dining room

Bedroom is looking good.

Rachel has set up her bedroom and here she is with new glasses!

Riding the public bus

Our welcome to ASB involved having a garland (mala) placed round our
necks and a tikka placed on our foreheads for good luck

Our Superintendent told us that we are the only foreigners in this neighbourhood and that's certainly true.  The only Westerners who we have seen here have been those in the ISB community.  As we walk down the street we are often stared at - not in a hostile way but in a curious one.

Today I was running a little late.  Outside my apartment block I saw a bus and someone running for it (so it seemed it was just about to set off).  I've never ridden a public bus here but I got on anyway.  The driver looked at me as if I was VERY foreign (alien, really) and pointed me down the bus where a conductor took my 5 rupee fair.  There wasn't a bus stop for where I wanted to get off, but the bus stopped for me anyway.

I went and had a pedicure today too.  As I was sitting down next to an Indian woman she asked me if I was staying at the Kohinoor hotel.  I told her I was living here now.  Again she was very surprised.

It won't be long though.  This area is going to totally change in the next 6 months or so now that the school has moved in here.  I'm excited that I'm right at the start of it, in the first wave of the change.  That I experience what it is like to live here as an alien being!