American In India

Mumbai Taxis

LovemyDaughter — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:34:37 GMT

If you are new in Mumbai, you have no alternative but to have car and driver to take you around. Public transportation is the pits!!! While I have not taken a bus or a train in Mumbai, just a cursory glance at either of them would make me squirm. I am sure it is an acceptable form of transport to many, but if I have relocated to Mumbai from the first world, I do expect some basic material comforts!!

Initially, I started off by renting a taxi. The taxi in Mumbai comes in two varieties: a regular taxi and an air-conditioned taxi. Being that Mumbai is extremely hot and humid, I thought it was best to stick to an air conditioned taxi. But they charge significantly more and there is no guarantee that the driver will actually turn on the air conditioner. My guess is that the air conditioner is often not working.

So I ditched the air conditioned taxi and started taking the regular taxi. The air conditioned taxi is generally an Indigo, a locally made car. Indigo is a good car, a little noisy but who cares because the outside noise over powers the engine noise!! The non-air conditioned car is generally a Premier Padmini which is a knock off of the 1950's (I think) Fiat. I believe that anywhere else in the world, a Premier Padimini would have been melted down for its scrap value but in Mumbai, they are the taxi of choice.

Premier Padmini has no bucket seats. There are two benches and driver for some strange reason sits almost attached to the door (may be reflecting an earlier era were entire extended families huddled into a single car). Traveling in Premier Padmini is a little scary since I am not always convinced that there is a brake in working condition. The cars are no longer in production and thus, all of them look exceedingly old. The interior generally smells and badly at that. Just for guidelines, think of a New York city cabbie (un showered with no deo!!). Mumbai cabbie is after all, New York city cabbie's poor cousin. So put together a old disheveled car with an upholstery from the 1970's and cabbie who has probably not showered and has not heard of deodorants!!! That's what you get when you hail a cab in Mumbai.

All taxis in Mumbai are supposed to be metered and you pay based on the metered rate. Now if you look like a sucker and act like one, you will be made a sucker!!! So before you sit in a taxi, make sure you act knowledgeable. Do not start a conversation with the cabbies. If you think you are being taken for a ride (believe me they do take you out on long rides even when your destination is a few steps away!!), stop the cabbie when you see a cop and ask the cop for help. Cops hate cabbies and are generally on your side against a cabbie.

Do not tip!! If you are loaded give generously to CRY or some such charity.

Renting in Mumbai

LovemyDaughter — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:26:06 GMT

As anybody who has moved to a new city can tell, the first thing one tries to do is to get a handle on the rental market in the city. Mumbai is no different than New York in many aspects as far as renting a place goes. For expats there are two main options depending on where they work. If one works in South Mumbai, then the areas around Colaba, Walkeshwar, Altamount Road, Peddar Road, Breach Candy, Worli Sea Face, Prabhadevi and may be upto Lower Parel will work. If one works in Bandra Kurla complex or further north, then there is only one choice, Bandra. Now this is the problem is!! Bandra and its poor cousin Khar are supposedly upscale areas.

Somebody had told me once that South Mumbai was like the Upper East Side and Bandra was like the Upper West Side of New York City. I work near the international airport which is in the north of the city. So I decided to live in Bandra which is about 12 kilometers from my office. I love the upper west side and thus, was looking forward to finding a place in Bandra.

My first visit to Bandra was enough of an eye opener that any comparison to the upper west side was at best probably concocted in the mind of an over imaginative Bandra property owner of which there are many. Bandra is no upper west side!!! There arent many apartments that do not over look a slum. The sea smells of sewage!! And there is construction going on every where!!! The roads are hideously narrow with cars parked on both sides.

As I was mentally recalibrating expectations of Bandra, my friendly realtor said that if my budget was higher I could get a non-smelly, non slum facing apartment with a sea view. He wanted me to spend around $5000 to $8000 per month for a non-smelly, non slum facing apartment with a sea view. Here I am a single guy looking for a 2 bedroom apartment and I was willing to shell out $2500 per month on rent which I thought was already to high. I said what the hell, and told the realtor let's go looking for a palace!!!

The first 'palace' he took me to was a fourth floor apartment supposedly owned by a B-grade bollywood actor. Now it was a decent apartment and if you stretched your neck out, you could see the sea a bit.Â The catch was that the bathroom was open. The main bathroom that is attached to the bedroom had walls of transparent glass.Â I am definitively not an exhibitionist nor do I have any kinky tendencies unfortunately, so having anybody watch me poop or pee is not my idea of fun!!! So out went the actor's sex pad as my oasis in noisy, smelly environs of upscale Mumbai.

After many such hits and misses, my realtor got fed up with me. He politely but definitely insulted me by saying that I am too low end for him and that I should be looking at Lokhandwala at my budget. Now Lokhandwala is an upcoming suburb further north of Bandra. People in Bandra think of Lokhandwala folks as their poor cousins. But if one looks at it objectively, Lokhandwala is where all the food and entertainment options are. Barring a few restaurants, Bandra is low on food and entertainment quotient. And Bandra folks are mostly old folks.Â But before you think I am completely anti-Bandra, I must say Bandra has a few delightful places. Olive is a restaurant where the food is exquisite. I even like DaVinci and Out of the Blue. The over-priced pani-puri at Elcos is a must have. Also, if you need a good hotel near the airport but not next to the airport, the Taj Land's End is a fabulous hotel. The views from the hotel (well, depending on the room you get) are spectacular and so are the many restaurants in the hotel. So before your corporate travel geeks put you at the Hyatt, get them to book you at this hotel.

So I am off to looking at apartments in Juhu. Juhu is the next major suburb after Bandra/Khar. More on this on my next blog.

Accidental American in India

LovemyDaughter — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:46:28 GMT

Here I am in India, not by choice but by a quirk of fate. This blog is my story of why I am in India, where I was before coming here, why I love it now and the quirky nature of Indians!!!

Read on ......