I follow a lot of blogs, especially travel blogs. It seems like my 'blogging friends' are doing their own stories of the Mumbai attacks, so here is my connection.
I was on the treadmill last week staring blankly at the TVs like usual. Walking and watching the normal trash on E! and ESPN. I looked further towards the right to the last TV. CNN rotated clips of India. It's strange to be pulled into breaking news because you recognize the places in the clips before you read the scrolling headlines. I recognized the style: buildings, cars, and graffiti. It was India. It was Mumbai. It was the hotel I stayed in for three weeks from Diwali through Thanksgiving last year. The Taj hotel wasn't my favorite hotel, but it is widely known and worth a visit for history's sake. They showed an empty VT (the Grand Central Station of Mumbai, if you will) with blood pooled on the floor. I remember climbing the stairs into the station and walking across the tiled floor, being pushed and bumped into from every angle as I looked around.
My most recent trip to Mumbai was over the summer during the time of the bombings in Bangalore, which were a much smaller scale than the Mumbai attacks. Even at that time, I wasn't concerned about my safety, although it seemed as if everyone else was. Pulling in and out of 'western' hotels involved guards running mirrors under the car and searches through the trunk. The only point I was slightly worried about dying in an attack was at the airport departing Mumbai. A suspicious package was left near the check-in area I needed to be at. The bomb squad roped the area off and was deciding when and how to remove the package. Had it been a bomb, I had nothing but a velvet rope between me and it. I’m not sure how traveling has made me fearless – dental work without Novocain in Bangalore, eating ‘black’ tofu (you don’t want to know), riding on the top of a Landrover through dunes only holding onto the luggage rack for safety… I guess I’d rather live a little dangerously than miss something along the way. Funny, I haven’t incorporated as much fearlessness in my everyday life!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My original plan was to spend Thanksgiving parked on the couch in front of the TV catching up on all of the junk I miss while at work. I was home for a visit at the end of October and already have tickets to go home for the Christmas holiday, so a visit in November seemed like a lot. (A lot of time at home, a lot of $$...) Well, I ran into a friend the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and my plans changed. I was invited to spend the day with friends in the UWS. So, that is what I did. I hung out with former coworkers and their kids. It was actually neat to see. I feel like quite a transplant in NY. I am under the impression that I don't live in NY, I just stay here. So, hanging out in apartment that a family has had for over 20 years is pretty remarkable for me. I asked all sorts of questions about the neighborhood and building was like when they first moved in. All in all, a nice day.
Southbury where it always comes down to 'Automatic Weapons' or 'Chinatown'.
Apples to Apples. Always ends up ridiculous. Need I say more?
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