Talk To A Woman

Too much train travel can fragment thoughts.

1. The best thing I’ve heard all trip was from an Indiamiker in Puri. He said: “When threatened, talk to a local woman”. You have no idea how right he is until you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: i.e. a drunk man in the upper berth who won’t leave you alone, and his two henchmen below you. A young woman not only rescued me but arranged my berth swap, shared a taxi, and found me my dingy little cupboard room in an unmarked hotel in a Colaba back alley at five in the morning, one I would have never found on my own.
2. I am paying too much for a shithole of a hotel.
3. Of course that just means I’m in Mumbai now. I prefer to call it Bombay, as do many of the locals. Bombay is a city very close to my heart. Although I’ve never lived here, and did not spend a long time here, Bombay is the city where you go to get your dreams made, whatever it may be. If I had not come to Bombay last July, I would not have my foot through the door in my childhood dream and now, profession-to-be.
4. I am hating men at the moment. I despise the ones who show you pictures of their wife and kids in one instance, then transform into total sleazebags the next moment. Just because you’re a foreign woman, it seems, being a total sleazebag is supposed to be okay (they have a special form of sleaze reserved for the foreigners, another form for the locals). I’ve met way too many of them — on every trip. (i.e. One man asked how much it costs to take his family to Bangkok for his wedding anniversary; the next moment he asked how much a prostitute would cost in Bangkok, and where he should leave his wife while “enjoying”. How would I know?! Today’s was no different. Yesterday’s was worse.) I utterly despise people like that who have no respect whatsoever for the institution of marriage.
5. I wish men in India would just leave me alone. At this point I am contemplating the “sorry me Japan no English” move. It’s that bad right now.
6. Spent the last 5 days in Hyderabad with some schoolmates who are interning there. Stayed in the “eco-friendly campus” of a certain big name tech firm. What that meant in practice: it was more like a 5 days’ exchange programme, we lived in a hostel so bloody far from Hyderabad or Secunderabad and all I got to see was a hostel room, my school friends, and other international interns. At least I got to see my friends.
7. Ate a life-changing meal at Baghdadi Restaurant, behind the Taj Mahal Hotel (where Liz Hurley got married). Wonderful chicken shimla and a fluffy, beautiful roti. It would have been better if the Delhite fellow sharing my table was less of a sleazebag and I didn’t lose my appetite because of it.
8. Looking forward to a weekend trip to Alibag with some Mumbaikars, and Konkani food to lift my spirits.
9. Sometimes I hate being a woman. It is one of those times.
10. My Nepali friend says “On a scale of 1 to 10 for reliability… Royal Nepal Airlines isn’t even on the scale.” So I fly Thai Airways in a few weeks from Kathmandu to Bangkok. I’m excited about the prospect of having newspapers and drinks served to me in a flight; it’s been a long time.

possibly related