Babs in Bollywood!!! (well nearly)

here amongst the real stars
see all photos »

Journey to Mumbai

We arrived in Mumbai after our worst journey yet. An overnight bus from Hyderabad. We thought it had airconditioning but when we got onto the bus soon realised that it didn't and that the little fans attqached to the sidews were not working. We were told not to worry, there was effectively airconditioning. "ACon: open window, AC off, close window!" Great stuff. In the blistering blistering heat. Also our 'sleeper bus' was just the usual rustbucket with slightly reclinigng seats. mmmm, lovely. All not too bad but instead of the anticipated 1 hours it took 20 hours so that we were stuck in the bus aaaaaall day long! Phew. Never been so happy to see a shower as when we finally ariived at our hostel in Mumbai! Also because it's Ramadan at the moment and our bus consisted entirely of Muslim men and the two of us we were stopping every two hours through the night so that they could stock up on food for the next day. trains from now on is what was the conculsion of that expereience!!

we actually had a guy stand over a candle stub melting the wax to seal our white cloth packages with!!

And our luuurvely 'wedding' outfits
see all photos »

Mumbai

But once in Mumbai we straight away got a good vibe. It nearly seems European in some respects. Lovely old colonial architecture left over from the BRtish, tree lined avenues, and slightly calmer in a Indian sense of the word 'calm'. And it's by the sea! Which is always nice. I really love it here. But of course it is home to the largest slum in the world and many areas technically not slum are so very poor. On the taxi ride into our area the main road was lined with kilometre after kilometre of ramshackle huts just on the main road, and million of people seemingly living in each one- and on the road most of the time! Washing and going to the toilet and sleeping, all the while the cars just dodge the popel. that's the amazing thing about Inida. Everyone just lets each other live. Hoewver that may be, and tried to get on with life as peacefully as possible. So it seems anyway. And of course poverty is never beautiful, but there were elements of beauty even in those settlements, especially compared to the povery in Tibet. There seemed to be such an upbeat vibe about it, lots of loving and everythign was being washed- people washing themselves, each otehr, their clothes, thier houses, as if there was stil areal sense of pride in appearance. this is quite a marked contrast to Tibet where people are just filthy and seem so hopeless and lifeless in many places. None of the vibrancy and colour and life that marks India so strongly and makes me love it so much...

a real film set- so exciting!
see all photos »

Bollywood

That evening as we were stroling towards Leopolds, a bit of an institution in Mumabi- resto/cafe, we were aprocahed on the street by Kiran, working for Taj films. He asked us to be extras in a Bollywood film the nest day..and we just couldn't resist! We were promised pay for it and all! So early the next morning we gathered with a group of about 15 other wannabees and were taken to a church that in the film was going to be in London! And were the invitees at the wedding. Nearly like being home again! They're gonna have to cut out the palm trees surrounding the church though!! :) So we had our hair and make up done and then had to go and sort out our wardrobe...amn, the things they thought westerners would wear to a wedding were just hilarious! The most disgusting outfits you can imagine! I ended looking a bit like Coco the clown! BUt it was all quite exciting and they actually looked after us really well, we even had our own little runner boy who would go out to the shops and buy us drinks and ciggies for those that wanted. We got loads of food and unlimited water. ANd we got to see the inside deal! There was actually loads of people crowding around on the outside trying to catch a glimpse of the stars- they really were quite famous apparently. the main guy was hilarious, such a diva! Prancing around in his Elvis quiff and big sunnies with a guy running around after him just to take his caot when he wanted it removed and powder his nose! And the funny thing was that most of the dancers were Russian! All blonde, bored Russian girls! WHen I asked on eof the assistants why she said there were three reasons 1) They had a better complexion so less make up was needed (?) 2) they weren't as psoud and didn't have big egos just from being in the chorus but mainly because 3) they weren't virgins and all Indian girls were and so they made better dancers!!! So we got to watch them do their thing- on the roof of the church! That's where all the action was heppening. Well the three seconds of action we got to see anyway. It took hours and hours of filming just to get literally about 3 seconds. That song will haunt me for a long time!! BUt it was fun anyways. Sadly, at about 3 pm, after being there since 8 am, they decided there was goign to be no shooting of our scene that day and we could go home...without pay. Damn it! My window of opportunity was slammed shut. But I think it's best not to have a film debut in a coco the clown outfit anyway!!!

Going through the moves. Over...and over..and over again!
see all photos »

Everyday life...with an Indian twist

Since we were staying in Mumbai for a few days and it had quite a European feel, it was nice to get into 'real life' again and do some things that weren't purely travel related. However, of course it wasn't quite as straightforward or 'normal' as back home!!

The post office was quite an experience! first of all getting there when it was open was a challenge- it took us three attempts- each time carrying our huge ten kilos packages with us! And then the process began with the 'sewing-wallah', a little man that sits in the street at a stall and who sews up your package for you in white cloth. That done we had to take the package inside to have it sent...to do that turns out the package had to be opened again! So stitching gets undone, customs insoects the package, and then it gets restiched again!! After that it has to be sealed- with wax! ANd of course the wax heating pot was broken so we actually had a guy stand over a candle stub melting the wax to seal our white cloth packages with!! And then there were more stages of getting signatures and weighings and all kinds of things. And at each stage of course you had to grease the official's pocket with some 'baksheesh'. What a day!!!

Mr priest!
see all photos »

Going to the cinema is something else I hadn't done since leaving and after our near Bollywood experience we had to go and see an actual Bollywood film. It was hilarious- people got sooo into it! Firs tof all everyone arrived a good 15 minutes late and came in chattering and laughing and no-one seemed to care, and then  throughout the whole film there was shouting and jeering and clapping and whistling at appropriate time! It was a film about a gangster who turns towards Ghandi's philosophies. So every time he succeeded in converting someone with pacifist menas the crowd would go mental! So much fun!