Bombay Part Deux

Went to Bombay with Niamh (pronounced "Neeve" for those who don't read Irish Gaelic), who's visiting from Dublin. Kind of fell into Bombay at the last minute, since it was the cheapest, easiest place to go, and it was awesome.

On Saturday we did everything I did the first weekend, except in about 5 hours (not being sick sure helps). I was an expert at this point, and was even able to negotiate at Colaba with my new favorite technique "No Firangi Prices, I want Indian Prices"- which worked pretty well. I also got to see the enigmatic giant shoe at hanging gardens that appears on most Bombay post cards. Niamh and I got along really well and had tons of stuff to talk about since she also majored in Music. She also had very interesting expat perspectives, because she grew up as an expat in Saudi Arabia.

One of Shyam's friends from the Google Bombay organized an evening out for us, which was definitely better than falling asleep at 9 watching 'National Treasure' like I did last time. Shyam's friend, Kiran, and his friend, Amit, met us at free cocktail hour at the Grand Central Sheraton, and took us to the Sportsman club (no sports required). We lounged and ate Indian Chinese food until the entire place closed at 11 (we got the clue when they turned the lights off...).

Afterwards we drove around and gave our leftovers to homeless people who sleep on the beach during low tide. They have to move all of their stuff every day during high tide, and then move it back every night to sleep among the largest rats I've ever seen - almost as big as the 3 ft squirrels.

Around midnight we went to the Mumbai office and Kiran showed us around. They had a wiffle cricket set so we played a while and then headed off to Enigma, one of the poshest clubs in Bombay, to witness the renowned Bombay nightlife.

We met one of Kiran's friends, Deep, and had a surprisingly great time. Niamh and I were really more interested in going just to see what it was like, and then make it an early night, but the bollywood music made it really fun to dance (even while sober!). We danced until the club closed at 3am, singing along to Dhoom 2 and Salaam e Ishq.

On the way home from the club they convinced me to sing, and we drove around the empty streets of Bombay, past the sidewalks of homeless people sleeping and taxi drivers sleeping on their hoods, singing. I sang Delilah's aria, Niamh sang us an Irish folk song, and Kiran sang us a Telugu love song, and at 4am on the silent streets of Bombay, 4 strangers from 3 continents who had known each other for less than 24 hours shared one of those unreal moments that make up the most vivid images of life. At that moment English was superseded by music as the universal language.