MUMBAI (Bombay)

Did I say I was going to slum it! I lied! I love this place! It has a nail salon! No place in Goa does acrylic nails. It had been six weeks!!!! I was missing my thumb and my index finger was super-glued on! I am whole again!

The news has been full of scary things but things seem okay for now! The tsunami did not happen and the swine flu is hopefully under control. Someone insisted we take the “slum tour” but I think that we’ll avoid that one for now! Nicole and I ate lunch at Leopold’s, the restaurant where the terrorists first opened fire during the attacks. Leopold’s has left the bullet holes in the front window and on the pillars, for the tourists and as silent tribute, but we ate in defiance of maniacs. We will not hide in fear! The Oberoi is still semi boarded up with plywood but they are working on repairs. The Gateway to India and the Taj are tomorrow.

We are staying in GB’s flat! It is all white marble floors with teak woodwork and green mango trees outside the windows. It is modern with loads of closets. We have house staff that brings us coffee or chai as soon as we stir! GB had a homemade lemon chiffon cheesecake delivered, which Nicole and I eat for breakfast every morning! (it is light next to NYC cakes so don’t condemn us!) We have a driver to take us wherever we want to go! A neighbor lady sent a huge pot of mutton biryani over for dinner last night, stewed in ghee (clarified butter)! Life is good!

We have been Gallery and Museum hopping, strolled through the zoo (very pathetic), did a little shopping, eating out and basic sightseeing. The most unusual site is gated and walled, so we could not actually see it, but it is on the tallest hill and it is called “The Tower of Silence.” It is the funeral spot for the Parsees (originally from Persia/ Iran). The Hindu’s cremate, the Muslim’s bury and the Parsees go to the tower. It is a huge round tower of three concentric circles. Men are laid in the outside and the next ring is for women and the innermost, around the center pit, is for children. The vultures feast away and all the flesh is gone within two hours. The sun dries the bones and they are then pushed into a big pit in the middle. I saw a replica in the museum so it all makes sense. The 2 problems are 1 - there are few vultures left so they are using solar panels and chemicals to speed up the process and 2 – residents around the site don’t like the random bits of flesh that the vultures drop onto their porches every so often. I thought it was very strange at first and I knew the Newman’s would not approve, but then I remembered that is exactly what the American Indians used to do! Very green!

One evening we went to a restaurant called “Olive” which is located at the horse track! I had been raving to Nicole about a movie I saw on cable, Indie station, called “Before the Rains”. It is a beautiful movie about an Englishman in India trying to build a highway before the monsoon starts. He has an affair with his Indian servant girl but when his wife comes to live with him, he mistreats her. It tells of the many conflicts that result with his Indian head worker. We are sitting around the big round table (with the many beautiful ladies that GB gathers) and a man sits down next to me at the request of GB. He tells us to come to the movies on Friday because it is the India opening of a new movie “Before the Rains.” I told him I believe I had seen it and he snapped “How?” Then he remembered it had been released in the US. He asks, “How is it possible you saw it, but you do not realize you are sitting next to the star of it?” His name is Rahul Bose and he is the Dustin Hoffman of India! So, our picture together will be posted when we get back to Goa! Also in the picture are GB’s beautiful women and his very handsome son!

Of all his harem, GB is most fond of a lovely movie producer, Chopstix (her long, beautiful black hair is always pinned up with chopstix or pencils), and she has been staying at the flat with us, before traveling off to Vietnam. GB took Chopstix, her friend, Nicole and I on a surprise afternoon excursion. He dropped us all off for a reflexology foot massage! It was heaven! He went and did some work and let us shop for a little while. Nicole found a top and dress in Indian cotton that actually fit her on the sales rack! GB also ordered an apple crumble from the cake shop, to replace the cheescake we had finished! The crumble tasted just like my mother’s apple filing. Yum!...... but GB never touches any of it himself!

August 15th was India Independence Day! It is similar to July 4th, when we also got rid of the British! Guess how they celebrate? By not drinking! It’s a “dry day” all over India. Imagine that! We went to the world famous music club and recording studio, ‘Blue Frog’, for a concert. The head performer was Taufig Qureshi, Zaqir Hussein’s brother, the respectively rated 3rd and 1st best drummers in the world. It was classical Indian music, raagas with sitar, but Taufiq played on a modern drum kit, instead of his usual table. They had a drum circle at the end and everyone in the club played different parts on the tables! It was great!

In the pictures you will see several apartments! GB’s all white flat is very elegant, but has no artwork. So he took us to his friends Alisa’s flat to see her painting collection and creative red walls and chandeliers! It is fabulous, the artwork was great (especially an amazing Shakti Burman piece) and the entire outside wall opens up on a wooden deck and a full view of the city.

Nicole has introduced me to so many of her friends. Riyaaz is a brilliant entrepreneur who has opened many trendy coffee shops (one is total 70’s and called ‘Mocha Mojo’), and some very contemporary restaurants. He treated us to one of them, Salt Water Grill, and we loved it so much that we’ve been back three times for their shrimp and coconut soup, asparagus soup with white asparagus foam, and seasoned John Dory fish over sunflower seed risotto. Although it took a while to meet them, Nicole does have some female friends – Laila and Divya (and went to Salt Water). Dilawar, wanted us all to meet him for dinner at a swank club, Aurus, where we hobnobbed with Bollywood, MTv musicians and TV celebs. Dilawar had his two-seater Mercedes SLK, so we had to settle for a drop in another couple’s C Class.

Monday, I convinced Nicole to do a few touristy things, so we went to the Gateway of India and the Taj. It is under renovations to make an all new look. We were not allowed in. That night we returned to the Salt Water Grille with Cyrus (an MTV personality who hosts the funniest show ‘Hole in the Wall’) and I had the John Dory over sunflower seed risotto again! It is one of the best dishes I have ever had – other than Indian food! Elvis was in the house, since he is waiting for his visa to go to Spain, so he joined us. He had played in Bangalore over the weekend and played so hard he sliced his finger, so was musically challenged!

Tuesday evening, a car picked us up and took us to Dilawar’s hotel, the Royal Palms. He booked us a villa with our own private swimming pool. It is beautiful hotel, but starting to show some age. So they have built a new one, the Imperial Palace, on the hill above it. It definitely has an Italian influence. Nicole sat out by the pool drinking wine with Dilawar, while I passed out in the room. In the morning, we ordered room service and then went for Thai massages. They are dry massages, no oil, where they stretch you and bend you and apply some accupressure, get the blood flowing, loosen the joints, and open up your chakras (energy centers). The finishing steam room was more like a boiler room, but we hung in there! We were whisked up to the Imperial Palace for lunch in the Tuscan Room with Dilawar and friend. The steak in a Tuscan gravy was great. As was the tirimisu! The pictures will show the beauty! Not bad for two girls from Pulaski!.... thanks to my daughters good looks, long legs and charming personality! She is a sweetie!

We are still waiting for Nicole’s registration to finish (the Foreign Registration Office is asking for more documentation than was required to get the actual visa), so are staying for a few extra days, until it is done. We’ll go back go Goa as soon as that is finished. Ajay has come to Goa for some work, so I’ll finally get to meet him after all this time. As soon as he got to Goa, he went to visit the kittens, whom he hadn’t ever met. After easily falling in love with them, he learned from the neighbor that the little boy, our little Jacko, who we’ve brought back from death 5 times, had fallen into the well. The old lady found him clinging to the side of the well, meowing up for help, and sent the neighbor boy in to fish him out. He’s only two months old, but only has 3 more lives left….