Salam Bombay

This morning I landed in Bombay to start a 3-month contract at India's largest FMCG company, Godrej. I like to call the city Bombay rather than Mumbai, and this has more to do with the fact that Bombay signifies tolerance of diverse peoples, not embodied by the current regime. Therefore, it is less about reclaiming the name after colonisation. Remember the name was changed about 40 years after the British left.

My flight was awesome, BA Premium economy is very luxurious, with great service and legroom. Arriving in Bombay, as we stood in line to be screened for H1N1, I realised how airports really do bring to light what a weird time we live in, with this and all the ridiculous security measures where it is disallowed to even carry a bottle of water!

I arrived at midnight a car was sent from Godrej to collect me and take me to my guest house. This is in the Godrej Hillside Colony. The Colony, making us sound like worker ants, is north of the city, in a greener part. Since Godrej seem to make almost everything, my room is like the reality TV show - I wash myself with Godrej soap, I lock my room and wardrobe with Godrej's famous locks,watch TV on a Godrej screen, call with a Godrej phone....

There is still the relentless hum of traffic, the buzz of the tuk-tuks and the endless beeping of horns. This to me is what tires me of Bombay. I am glad to have brought ear plugs, which helped me find peace in yoga this evening.

However the Strategic Marketing office I will be working in is an abyss of calm- everything is white and serene, beautifully designed with bubble chairs and white leather chaise-longues next to the latest design books, sunken meeting rooms and a canteen with black slate tables and floor and Buddha watching over us.It will be a pleasure to work there!

It is always a shock to move from the so-called first to the third world. Today I was struck by the amount of jobs there are here. Even when there are machines, there are people to help other people use the machines, be they escalators in a shopping mall or the vending machine in the kitchen at work. In a country of 1.2bn people, though, seemingly superfluous jobs are a must.


I am off to read Shantaram, the book by Gregory David Roberts that every foreigner surely must read if spending some serious time in this incredible city.
He begins: Bombay has "the sweet, sweating smell of hope..the sour, stifled smell of greed...of heartbreak and the struggle to live..."