The View from the Cheap Seats

I have a new hero, and his name is Ahmed. He is my father’s driver here in Mumbai, and I must thank him for safely driving my father safely every day, and now he’s driving me, too. The traffic here is crazy, to say the least. I spend a lot of time gaping out the window, incredulous that we avoided an accident. As far as vehicles on the road, there are big trucks, SUV’s, regular cars, motorcycles, mopeds/scooters, and auto-rickshaws. And there are a LOT of all of these! There are people walking on the side of the road and down the middle of the road. There are no lines drawn on the road, and my father says when there are lines on the road, they are mostly for appearances’ sake — no one really abides by the lines anyway. The intersections don’t really have traffic lights (I have seen only 1 or 2 intersections with them), and there are no stop signs anywhere. Adding to my own personal confusion is the fact that here in India, they drive on the opposite side of the road. I know that doesn’t faze Ahmed, but it does me! Motorcycles and mopeds will zip between cars and trucks. More than once I was sure someone was going to be smashed between our car and a truck. When Ahmed needs to make a right turn (remember, that’s like our left turn), he will turn from any point in the road. That means there might be 2 or 3 cars are attempting to turn right at the same time. You have to go for it when there is the slightest opening because if you wait for the traffic to clear or for an open enough space to make the turn, you will never make the turn. There is an awful lot of braking and horn honking. Even as I write this (at 12:25 AM), I can hear all the horns from the cars 27 floors below me. Added excitement tonight was the rain. It was a torrential downpour. Streets were flooded. And it was the same exact traffic situation. People were walking in water halfway up their shins. No umbrellas. No rain coats. One man got splashed as a car drove by him through a large puddle. There were people on motorcycles and mopeds in the driving rain and crashing lightning and thunder. At one point, we turned a corner and there was a man lying face down in the middle of the street! he appeared to be trying to get up. We were all like, “What happened? What’s going on?” but Ahmed just told us the man probably had too much to drink and was resting in the road. There were people on the side of the road. Hopefully one of them was able to get this man out of the road because I have no clue how we was NOT going to be run over! Ahmed drives a motorcycle here to the apartment building to pick up my dad and my dad’s car. I was quite concerned about him driving home in the storm on his motorcycle. Dad offered to let him take the car, but Ahmed declined. In his village, there really is no place to park the car. He told my dad he planned to take an auto-rickshaw, which in my opinion is only marginally better. They are covered, but the sides are open, so the passenger is still going to get pretty wet. Plus they are little, and not all of them have lights in the front and/or the back, so they are easy to miss on the crowded, crazy streets. Dad suspected he still may take the motorcycle home.

Sunday, we are going with a tour guide to see more of Mumbai. Brenda keeps chuckling because she says I haven’t seen ANYTHING when it comes to traffic in Mumbai yet. All I know is I am glad my new hero Ahmed will be at the wheel.

How amazing is it when a flight on an airplane is a trip within itself??? I have certainly done my share of flying, and always in coach. But for my trip to India, I got to experience first/business class. My experience started when I arrived at O’Hare and had my own area to check my bags. I was one of three people in line. Then I went to my own security line. Again, I was one of three people. I managed to get from my house to my gate in an hour.

When I boarded the plane, I was thrilled to find a roomy seat and my own armrests! None of that elbow warring for space! I was barely settled in my seat when a flight attendant asked if I’d like a drink before takeoff. I got some nice white wine. I didn’t even have to use a drink voucher for it! I sipped on that all through take off.

I was recently given a hot towel to cleanse my hands. I love hot towels so much! Then I was offered a lunch — salad or mushroom Brie soup, and chicken or cheeseburger. Since I get to do this all again whenever on the plane to Mumbai,I just ordered the soup. I couldn’t resist! Mushrooms! Brie! Yum! While the food was prepared, I was brought a little cup of mixed nits to snack on. I can take or leave nuts, but I decided to nibble on a cashew (no peanuts in my little dish). I discovered the nuts were warm! I couldn’t help myself. I ate them all!

So now I am sitting in my seat with my feet up, watching the rest of a movie I started watching before take off. If this is how my trip starts, I can’t wait to see how the rest of it goes!

Update: I am now on the flight to Mumbai and I just finished dinner on the plane. Our attendant asked me, “Doesn’t everything just taste better when you’re in the air?” By George, I think he’s right!

The appetizer was jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce. These were some big shrimp! Not Blues Brothers shrimp, but they were good sized for sure! That was accompanied by an Indian-spiced beet root cake with chat masala sauce. I’m not sure what all that meant, but it was definitely pretty! Very deep red, like red velvet cake. However, it was a unique flavor and an even more unique texture. The texture reminded me of tres leches cake. It wasn’t bad, but it took some getting used to!

There was also a salad. Pretty standard fare, but it had fresh mozzarella in it, which I adore!

I took a leap of faith in my main course and chose the Indian vegetarian selection, and it was an unqualified success! The saffron basmati rice was fine. I’ve had that before. But what I especially loved was the cottage cheese in creamy tomato butter. Goodness, I could eat that every day of my life! The chickpea dal with white pumpkin was good. I also really liked the bell pepper, onion, and coconut masala. The combination of spicy and sweet was superb! I used the tomato-onion yogurt to cut the heat on the cottage cheese and peppers. To say the meal was divine would be correct! If this is the kind of food I have to eat for the next two weeks, I’m going to do just fine!

After dinner, they came around with assorted cheeses and grapes. As much as I love cheese, I turned it down because I was absolutely stuffed from all the food so far! But I wasn’t so strong when it came to the ice am sundae…. Mine was made with hot fudge, caramel, whipped cream, and a cherry. It was the best ice cream sundae I’ve ever had!

So my trip thus far has been on nothing but airplanes and gorging myself on food. I won’t deny that I felt a twinge of guilt knowing I was actually eating fabulous food on an airplane while the people behind me on the plane were eating a boxed dinner. But I’ve been there before, and this is a special trip, so I’m going to forgo the guilt and just enjoy myself!

Now I’m going to watch Beautiful Creatures, Identity Thief, and/or Life of Pi and fall asleep in my fully reclining seat!