In Amchi Mumbai

The long sojourn to UK is finally over and now back in thai naadu. The unique fragrance (if I can call it) of Mumbai reaches you even before you actually get off the aircraft. I am now suspicious of Jet Airways air conditioning. This on-demand movie business as part of in-flight entertainment has made a huge difference in long distance flying experience. To the delight of few ultra-nationalists who usually don't read my blogs, I have to say that I chose to watch two Bollywood movies and they actually turned out to be good. They were Iqbal and Theen Deewaren, both made by Nagesh Kukanoor. I liked the first one obviously because it is also about cricket. Is there a new genre developing? First Lagaan and now Iqbal. How successful were these films in the market? No gyrating, no songs... did it work?

On the whole I would have to say that I liked the London area a lot and even UK in general. Till now I have maintained that for an immigrant the US is the best destination (I am assuming here that immigrants are usually from poor black/brown countries and their destination is rich white countries like US, Western Europe, Australia, NZ). I think I change my opinion here. Of course you can't make any decent money by living in the UK but you can have one good life. It is far more multi-cultural in a truer sense than the melting pot. I now understand why. Even in their schools they have topics like festivals in India. Overall the folks seem much more knowledgeable and I would have to say genuinely interested in other cultures. Strangely (I don't about systemic statistics) I also noticed a lot more inter-racial couples. Not just between white and Asian, which also happen in the US, but between white and black, which I find it very rare in the US. Race would become meaningless if this happens more. I don't think it is just geography, many here have of course travelled at least to Spain and Italy (for the sun) but looks like there is a basic lack of curiosity in the US. I have known several folks there who have not gone beyond their states. May be all their curiosities have been quenched in the local WalMart (by the way the local WalMart in the UK is not doing very well since people here seem to prefer quality and not so entranced by price, according to The Economist).

I would have turned into a full blown anglophile if I had not read the two books I had borrowed from their very well run library system. The first one was Sowing the wind by John Keay and the second one The great hedge of India by Roy Moxham. Keay gives a detailed account of the Middle East (we would prefer to call it Central Asia) meddling by the colonial powers. The chaos they created and continue to do so is unimaginable. Moxham’s book is supposed to be a search for a ridiculous hedge (yeah a row of plants) that was to spread miles and miles in the sub continent which would act as a customs line. The custom duty that the colonial administration was trying to collect is the infamous salt tax. But Moxham gives a detailed account of amount of money that was pilloried and taken back to Great Britain and it is just enormous. May be these fantastic facilities (the London tube was built a century ago) might have been possible only through the surplus extracted from a colony. At one time Robert Clive who fought for East India Company had accumulated so much loot that he was one of the wealthiest in Britain. Fine culture develops after tummy is full and when you search history the tummy always seems to get full through exploitation of others....

With that rather cheerful note I am now preparing myself to explore the culinary specalities offered by Mumbai. Bhelpuri and pav bhaji near VT (i still cannot get myself to say CST) is definitely on the menu. I would have sworn by bade mia if ate meat but I dont (I need a separate post on that). Sindudurg near dadar area for kokum khadi and paper thin polis, Yokos for sizzlers in Santa Cruz. If I am really enthusiastic I might even take the first train to Karjat have some vada pavs there and then head back. I would have had no doubts it if was monsoon season but the October heat is a bit of a put off for such adventures. Any other recommendations?