Mumbai!

My last week in Ahmadabad is a blur of activity as I begin to make firm plans to live in Mumbai. Tulsi has begun an internship with Times of India so will be staying in Ahmadabad at least until mid January. I’ll be on my own which is both exciting and frightening at once. I don’t have too much time to worry because there are preparations to make and still more weddings to attend. Friday night Tulsi and I board a bus for Mumbai.

Before I know it we are whirling around the city looking for a place to stay. Since I’m not sure if Tulsi will join me in a month or so, I want something I can get out of mid-jan and doesn’t require me outfitting a full apartment. Paying guest (PG) arrangements are common here and the way to find them is through a broker. So we meet 3 different guys of varying levels of sketchiness, taking dizzying rickshaw rides around Bandra, the area near my office, to visit elderly aunties with rooms to let. On Sunday, I decide on a place walking distance from the office where I will work. My new home is a room shared with 2 other girls in the (fairly luxurious by Indian standards) flat of a woman, her son and her niece. By that night I am all moved in to my new home and saying goodbye to Tulsi before she takes the train back to Ahmadabad.

I go into the office on Monday unsure of what to expect. I find a casual atmosphere and friendly, goofy team of 3 Americans and 2 Indians working on an exciting approach to changing the world: shape young people who care about their communities and are willing to take action to make change. It took me about a week to be assigned any real work but it feels good to be busy again and its nice to have a routine. I get to the office around 9:30am walking 15 minutes past tall apartment buildings, a hospital, catholic schools, and shops stuffed with food and cigarettes, bags of snacks and Rs20 sachets of anti-hairfall shampoo and neem facewash hanging under red Vodafone signs.

The Youth Venture team, of which I am now a part, shares the office with Ashoka’s regional staff of 3 cheery Indian ladies. Upstairs is “the hub” an office space run by Unltd, another social entrepreneurship organization. Its always full of interesting national and international personalities and holds learning lunches and screenings of TED talks. The YV teams hangs out with hub regulars, going to dinner almost every night. I join them a few times but also meet with Tulsi’s cousin Shivang and Naina, a friend of his I met when we were first in Mumbai. Some days I just go home after leaving the office around 7 or 8pm and make some Maggie (ramen noodles) and chat with my roomies before sleeping.

On Saturday Chitra, a school friend of Tulsi’s who I met at a wedding and who lives in Mumbai, takes me with her to visit her auntie in Churchgate. I am submerged back into Guajarati as we snack and chat. Later we go to Colaba where there are street stalls to browse full of sandals, bags, western clothes, kurtis, scarves, and colorful jewelry. On the train home and sitting in a rickshaw in traffic, I am impatient to arrive at the party for YV Venturers (the youth we help to run projects in their communities). When I finally arrive I join them for games and several speeches about how amazing their accomplishments are. They are pretty inspiring: a 16 year old putting 80 slum dwelers back in school, a 20 year old who teaches life skills to girls living in institutions.

Sunday I meet up with Shivang and a big group on his friends who are lively and super inclusive. We eat at a nice little restaurant in Bandra where the Italian food that tastes surprisingly un-indian. After 3 hours of animated conversation they drop me home where I finish out a lazy evening by going for south Indian food with my roommate and walking home. There are a few details left to iron out here in Mumbai but I am well on my way to striking in roots.