happy birthday to me... from toronto?!

Uhhh, yes. Because I apparently can't manage to stay still for more than a week, I am now in Toronto. On a whim I booked a plane ticket and flew here... somewhat irresponsible, but definitely fun. I did manage to line up a job interview for when I get back (at a Second Cup! Yay!) so that makes me feel a bit better about hurling myself even further into debt by randomly purchasing plane tickets. I swear, after this trip is over I will stop having fun and concern myself only with finances.

Anyway... today is my birthday! 24 on the 24th, so that makes it like, special or something. I probably won't do anything overly special, because you know, I'm poor, but I am going for dinner with Alex and Kim (who are also letting me stay at their place again, they are awesome) in the evening. They are taking me for poutine, mmm. Unfortunately before all that, I need to go locate and then visit a doctor. Something is wrong with my left ankle... it got a bit sore my last week in India but I kind of disregarded it. It doesn't hurt to walk on or anything, just when you push on it or stretch the muscle behind it. But it's been getting more and more swollen. Which still doesn't hurt, but I realized last night that you almost can't even see my left ankle anymore because the swelling is so much. I showed Alex and Kim and they both insisted I see a doctor. I don't think it's a huge deal, but they were pretty vehement about it, being that I've just come from a foreign country and maybe some kind of giant poisonous creature bit me. That would be... unfortunate, so I am hoping I just sprained something without noticing. 

On a different note, whenever it's my birthday, I get all lame and feel like reflecting on the past year, and then get depressed because I feel like I've accomplished nothing. Which is never really the case. So, for my own reassurance, I have accomplished the following things while being 23: graduated University, had the best summer of my life thus far, successfully ran a 10km race, discovered Bollywood, learned a new alphabet and make decent progress learning Hindi, wrote a 40 page screenplay treatment (even though it won't be used, still an accomplishment for me to have finished), got another tattoo, travelled to Montreal and Toronto (multiple times), New York City, London, Dubai, backpacked Bangladesh and India, met a Nobel Peace Prize winner, met the biggest movie star in India, got to be in 2 major films (I know being an extra is not seriously an accomplishment, but let's pretend), met a million new people, and made a bunch of genuine, really good friends that I will keep for a long time and can't even imagine not knowing. So I would say that 23 was a massive success. Actually, having just written it out, I think this has probably been the best year of my life thus far. Which is good, since the next 3 years at least are going to be devoted to paying off the horrific debts I've built up while having such a good time. 

Enough of that.

Yesterday I went to see Race (the latest Hindi blockbuster, of course) with my friend Shikha. It was complete crap but in the best way possible. Ridiculous plot, pointless action scenes, overly attractive and scantily-clad characters who burst into song and dance every 25-30 minutes, and a ludicrous climax in which the two lead characters decide to settle their differences with a car race. Basically everything you could hope for from Bollywood. (It was, however, a bit short on romance, and a lot short on the usual Indian family values/morals, but hey.) It was also super fun to see Shikha again! :)

On Tuesday, it's my plan to take the overnight bus to Ottawa to visit, so I should be there all Wednesday and Thursday. I want to visit everyone! In only 2 days... ahhhh!! No idea how I'll manage that. Please melt your 15 feet of snow before I get there though, I can't handle that. Euhhh.

reverse culture shock

Aaaaand... I'm back in Canada. Halifax. It's... weird. But it's okay. I thought I'd be really upset when I had to leave India, but I was surprisingly okay with it. I am 100% sure that I am going back to India at some point in the not-too-too-distant future, so it didn't break my heart like I thought it might. I have so much left to see there. It will warrant multiple trips.

It is incredibly weird coming back to the winter though. And I've been experiencing culture shock in reverse, which I didn't anticipate. My flight home included a connection in New Jersey... when I got off the plane and people were wearing winter coats, it felt weird. When I got off the plane in Halifax and it was cold, it freaked me out. Since then I've just been wandering around thinking "Oh my god... Canada is so... empty. Where are all the people? Where is all the garbage?" Clean air feels weird. Drinking tap water feels wrong. I am so aware walking down the street that NOBODY is staring at me. I feel weird not being sexually harassed every 5 minutes.

My friend Lyndsay, who just came back from Brazil, was experiencing the same thing. She said, "Canada is like a big bubble of cleanliness and safety." And it's true. It's like being cut off from the real world. Everything is nice and happy over here. I appreciate Canada like I never have before. Except the cold. Oh my god. I am such a wimp.

My last day in India I took a boat out to Elephanta Island, which is like an hour's ride from Mumbai. There are some caves with big Hindu statue/carving things, and you can climb up a massive hill for a really pretty view of the island and the water, which I did. It was hot. It was gorgeous. It was full of monkeys. While I was up there, I was sitting down under a tree writing some postcards, and a couple of guys started to talk to me. I kind of blew them off, like I usually do. They sat a short distance away from me. After maybe 15 minutes, one of them came up to me, and said they had a gift - and then he gave me a picture of myself that the other guy had sketched while I was sitting there. I thought they were going to ask me for money, but they didn't. The guy was just an artist (he gave me his card with his website and everything) and had sketched me and gave me the pic. It was really cool. Nice to have a positive experience with strangers before I left. Although I followed that up with a bad but typical experience involving me yelling at a jerky taxi driver on the way to the airport, haha. I swear, next time I am in India I will be fluent in Hindi so my yelling will be more effective.

Anyway, now I am home and all is well. I celebrated my first day back in Canada by eating two massive bags of Doritos and watching 4 consecutive episodes of America's Next Top Model. I have spent the last few days driving my Mom and brother insane playing Hindi film soundtracks at high volumes. (Anyone who knew me at Second Cup can sympathize.) I don't really know what I am going to do with my life now... though it is looking extremely likely that I'll be moving to Korea within the next few months to start teaching English, since my debts are caving in on me and I don't have any other option.

I'll keep the blog alive, of course, but it'll likely be a bit less frequent and not as exciting until I actually get going somewhere again. Ohh, but I will post some more travel photos soon! I have yet to upload anything yet, I am being pretty lazy about that, but I will. I am sorry to everyone I have failed to keep in e-mail contact with over the last few months. I will try to get caught up on that too.

Oh and in other news, my former travel buddy Micah is still alive, or at least he was three days ago when I phoned him. He was in Goa, at a beach party. I am very jealous that I did not make it to Goa. Next time, for sure. Micah and I have resolved to go back and do South India sometime in the near-ish future... whenever that might be... who knows. Korea is not THAT far from India... hmmmm...

last night in india...

So this is it, really... tomorrow night I fly home. I have really mixed feelings about the whole thing. I am ready to leave in some ways and really not ready in other ways. I love India. Even though sometimes I want to strangle people here. So yeah, mixed feelings. It is going to suck going back into winter though - it's 30 degrees or higher every day here! I can't believe how much snow there is in Ottawa right now. I am pretty happy to be missing that. Nova Scotia doesn't have snow at the moment (knock on wood) so I'm hoping it stays that way.

I have been feeling annoyed at Bombay the last couple of days. Normally when you are travelling and you get this feeling, it means you've overstayed the area by about a day and ought to move on. But, I am stuck with my flight going out tomorrow - not enough time to go anywhere else - so just a bit tired of this place. I think I'm done here! It's weird. In a week here I've managed to meet like, a million people, to the point where I almost have a social life. Everywhere I go, I run into people I know!! In the street, in restaurants, on film sets... it's so weird. Although it's nice to have people to go for dinner or drinks with. The other day I met a girl in the Music/DVD shop who was from Germany (we bonded over being the only two white people attacking the Hindi DVD section), and we went for dinner. Turns out she's a University lecturer/PhD student/journalist who writes for a major German newspaper, and a month or two ago she interviewed Shah Rukh Khan! Soooo cool. It's fun having all these random friends. However, it's a pain in the ass in other ways... like the creepy scouts who still materialize out of thin air everywhere and want to go for drinks. I've started taking odd routes home to try and avoid them. But my hotel is so central it's impossible. THEY FIND ME.

A few things here have been making me mental though. One big one is HOVERING. My god... the hovering. If you go into a store... like a clothing store or pharmacy or whatever, the sales people will come and stand right next to you and just watch you shop. It's so unbelievably annoying! Like, I turn to walk down an aisle and I'm blocked by the salesperson who is watching me intently. And the second I pick something up, they take it out of my hands and say "You want to buy this?" And I just want to scream at them to back up like 3 feet so I can just browse! Most of the time I end up just leaving, because I can't shop with someone on my elbow constantly. I know they do it to be helpful, it's their job... restaurant staff are often the same way, hovering while you eat (that's even worse) but aughhh!! Back off!! The culture here is geared towards service... but it's over the top. Every single store has a doorman. McDonald's has a doorman. It's too much.

Also, Bombay for some weird reason is crawling with men selling giant balloons. I don't know who would want a giant balloon, but someone must because they are all over the place so they must be doing business. These men just stand in the streets and when you walk by they wave their balloon in your face (it's maybe 4 feet long, 1.5 feet wide at the top) and yell "Yes madam, you like big balloon?!" What the hell am I going to do with a giant balloon??? When I ask them that, they give me a blank stare and move on to the next tourist. They have no good answer.

The other question I want answered: at what point did a bunch of Western tourists come to India and hand out pens and chocolate to street kids and school kids? I mean, I understand when the poor kids are asking for money... but lately I've been bombarded with kids begging me for "one chocolate, one chocolate!" or "school pen, one school pen!" Obviously, I am not carrying a stash of chocolate and pens with me, and I don't imagine anyone else is either, so where did this start? A group of six barefooted children attached themselves to me at the train station yesterday demanding chocolate. I had to physically remove them as they were clinging to my clothes and arms. It was 30 degrees out, WHY would I have chocolate? The kids are crazy here. I don't give any money to these kids cuz it's not the solution. Occasionally during this trip I've given money to women, mostly in Bangladesh. But I don't give it to kids cuz I know they don't get much use from it, they have to pass it on to someone else. And you don't want to encourage the begging system. But it's unnerving when they attach themselves to you, or grab you and won't let go, or try to open your purse. And when you don't give them anything, sometimes they'll be really rude, or hit you and then run away. Which is irritating, but I can't be too irritated really, because mostly it's just sad. It's hard to know how to feel about it.

Anyway. Since I last updated, plenty has happened. After the 3 consecutive Bollywood days, I hid from the scouts and took 2 days off. I wandered around Bombay, saw the waterfront, went to the cinema a few times, etc. I saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (longest running Indian film ever) in the theatre where it's been playing every day for 13 years since it first opened. (Julia - that's the one we watched on the train!) It was pretty awesome, since I'd seen it 3 times before and knew all the songs and what was going on without subtitles. Everyone in the theatre was cheering and clapping and whistling at all the good parts.

After two days of tourism and being film set free, I got jumped on by a new scout, a woman this time, who asked me to do another film. At first I said no, but then she said Hrithik Roshan (the sexy villain from Dhoom 2!!!) was in it, so I relented. But this was a bad idea because I ended up being double booked. My friend Shikha's cousin lives in town and works in Bollywood, and she had gotten me in touch with him and I was supposed to meet him the same afternoon as the shoot to go visit Film City again. So Monday morning I went to the film set anyway, which turned out not to be a film but actually a vodka ad. You know how retarded ads for alcohol are when you see them on TV... imagine shooting one. Everyone in retarded clubbing outfits pretending to be dancing at a posh bar with overdone models. 5 of the 7 foreign extras ran away from the shoot before noon, because it was so lame. Also the woman coordinating the extras was a psycho and kept yelling at all of us. (In my case, probably warranted, because I kept running away from shooting and wandering the set where I wasn't meant to be, taking photographs.) So anyway, I needed to leave at about 1:30 to make my meeting in the afternoon. Hrithik Roshan arrived on set at about 1:30. Aughhhh.

I managed to see him. I managed to speak to him, most briefly. I said a quick hello, I'm a fan, can I take a photo - the usual. He was being rushed onto set to see the rehearsal, but he stopped and said "Yes of course, right now I have to go get something, then get ready for the shoot, but we can take the photo after when I am looking as good. Okay? You'll be around for awhile?" To which I nodded, even though I would not be around for awhile, and he was whisked away. (What he wanted to look "as good" as, I haven't got a clue. He looked pretty good already in my opinion.) And then I was heartbroken because I had to leave and it'd be hours before I could manage a photo, and even then it would have been tricky with crazy extras lady herding us around set and screaming. So, I consoled myself briefly by sneaking up to the set where he was practicing moves with the dancers and filmed a video on my camera of him sort of dancing. I am kinda bummed though, I didn't get a photo with him, and also I didn't get to watch his proper dancing for the commercial! It would have been pretty awesome. But the shoot itself was pretty crappy, and the other extras didn't get back till like, 11 at night. 16 hour day, at 500 rupees? That's something like 70 cents an hour? Ouch. Oh well.

I ended up having to rush to make my meeting, and in the end did not get to meet Shikha's cousin, but instead met a guy who worked for her cousin, who took me to Film City. Originally he was supposed to give me a tour but he kind of ditched me there, which is a long story I don't want to get into (but no fault of Shikha's cousin's, I must add), so I ended up left alone in the middle of Film City. Which I guess is sort of cool since visitors aren't allowed in there and I was roaming around alone where I wasn't supposed to be. This might have been fun except there was nobody around of interest to me, no shooting going on. (Well, one shoot with Govinda, but ugh... who cares?) I was kind of bummed I was missing Hrithik Roshan's dance moves at this point, but whatever. He talked to me, at least, even though I don't have photographic evidence of it. I have photos OF Hrithik, just not WITH him. Will post when I get home in a few days. Side note: He's extremely polite, and not snobby in the slightest. Actually, none of the Bollywood stars I encountered were snobby - everyone has been extremely polite and friendly. Well, Amitabh was a bit scary, but that's acceptable considering his level of awesomeness.

Anyway, on my way home from Film City I decided to locate Aamir Khan's office. He wasn't there, obviously, but I left a note for him with his receptionist. I'm such a dorky fan, I know. I'm not normally the type to be chasing down celebrities, but it's been fun for a week. In any case, I'm finished with it now. I've been offered to do like, 3 more films, one of them even with a song and dance number, and another in which I'd allegedly be playing an air hostess on a plane with Abhishek Bachchan, but I have turned everything down. (Actually, the Abhishek one was on the 13th, the day after I leave - would be hard to say no otherwise!) It's been really fun seeing all the sets, and taking photos and seeing stars. The behind-the-scenes look at Bollywood has been amazing. But, it's exhausting and I feel like I'm done with it. I am ready to go home, lie on my couch, and just watch the movies, instead of being part of them, haha. Who knew I'd get sick of it so fast?

One of the scouts was getting pissed at me today cuz I didn't show up for a shoot he wanted me to go to. He was accusing me of going to a different shoot instead. I was so annoyed, it's none of his business what I do. Dirty skeezebag. OH!! On that topic, tonight I happened to run into Nicole, the girl from Carleton that I met the other day and went for a drink with. She went to a shoot the other night with skeezebag (slimy ponytail dude I have mentioned many times) and while he was "watching" her bag during the filming, her camera and gold necklaces got stolen. SO SKETCHY. I am glad I missed that one. And yet, that experience hasn't deterred Nicole from the scouts... when I saw her tonight she was with this scout named Imran, who is the least sketchy of the group but still asks me to go for drinks constantly. Nicole had taken him up on the drink offer, and they were on their way somewhere. I chatted with them a bit, me and Nicole standing and Imran sitting in a chair, and the whole time, Nicole kept smiling and flirting with him, and playing with his hair! What the hell! I just wanted to slap her and scream "NO!! Don't do it!! He's a dirty scout!!!" He was just sitting there, loving the attention, his bushy chest hair popping out of his partially unbuttoned shirt. Good lord, it was gross. I was secretly angry with her because she's propogating the stereotype that western women respond to sleazy advances. Euhhh.

Anyway, in summary, I am done with Bombay/Mumbai for now. Someday I will come back. I could stay forever and have film work every day (there are multiple shoots every single day that need extras, you actually could come here and easily find work 7 days a week) but somehow it doesn't seem worth it. I'll go home, I suppose. Though I am not sure how I am going to get home with all the gifts I've bought here... nothing fits in my bag anymore, oops.

Oh, one more random story... I have developed my own method of haggling which has been working really well. There is so much competition between street vendors because they are all selling the same things, so I basically just decide before I start how much I am gonna spend on an item, then go to it. I will go to a street vendor, look at the stuff, and inquire as to the price. Generally they double or triple it on first offer, and you bargain them down a bit. But the thing is, they know that we don't know the real price or how to bargain, and they know we'll automatically suggest to pay half the original price, then meet somewhere in the middle. That's the standard transaction. But like I said, cuz they know this, they'll raise the original price higher knowing that the bargained price will be where they want it to be. However, I don't play that way. I just ask the price, and then when they quote me something ridiculous, I just say "Oh no, that's too much" and walk away. And then they get upset because that's not how the game works, I am supposed to offer a price and we're supposed to argue. So they chase me and ask me how much I am willing to pay for it. And then I give them my pre-decided price. And they look horrified and claim that they're making no profit and I'm killing them, or something. So I shrug and walk on, and they keep chasing me and trying to negotiate, and I stay firm with my original price. And then eventually they just want to make the sale so badly that they give me my demanded price, all the while moaning about losing profit. Obviously they're not, or they wouldn't sell it. Occasionally I have to walk away without the stuff, and buy it elsewhere. (They all sell the same stuff.) But it's worked for me most of the time. I can't believe what other tourists must pay for some of this stuff, considering the prices they ask for at times. They're very clever.

Anyway, I am going to get a drink and write some postcards which I have been neglecting so I can mail them before I leave for Canada. Oooops.

AMITABH BACHCHAN!!!!!

As the above photo indicates, I MET AMITABH BACHCHAN!!!!! For the Bollywood-unfamiliar, he is the biggest film star in the entire history of Indian cinema. He was a massive stud in the 70s, and now more often than not he just plays a grumpy but sexy old man (he's somewhere in his 60s) but still fills movie theatres because he's the biggest star ever. Seriously, check his IMDB page. So to get anywhere near him is pretty amazing. I have spent the last 3 days working in Bollywood and I have so many stories to tell. I will split this up into 3 parts (Mr. Bachchan is Day 2!)

Day 1 - I ended up filming for a TV show called "Kis Desh Mein Hai Mera Dil". This came about because the scout who claimed I was shooting for a film the night before had no idea what he was talking about, and the bus that picked up myself and a pile of other extras the next morning took us to the TV shoot. There was no film. It was lame. Apparently it's a big TV show because it's produced by a lady named Ekta Kapoor who is like, the big name in TV here, but whatever. We spent the majority of the day laying around in the heat, occasionally pretending to be a cheering crowd at a soccer game. All in all, it wasn't much of an experience. They weren't very nice, the food was minimal and crappy, and the whole thing was beyond boring - it was like a 14 hour day, too! However, I met cool people - a Canadian girl who used to go to Carleton, actually, and a funny Spanish girl. And a handful of other backpackers.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of the day was when myself and 3 of the other girls got selected to play cheerleaders. This involved all of us putting on skimpy cheerleading outfits and supposedly performing some choreographed routine. It didn't quite work out. Myself, the Spanish girl, and an Australian spent all day running around the set in tiny skirts and getting stared at by gross men. This Belgian girl flat-out refused to wear the outfit, so we were down to three cheerleaders. It was all ok though, actually, because it was really hot out and being in a tiny skirt was better than my jeans. Eventually, late in the day, they called us cheerleaders over to do a scene. Unfortunately, by this time (it was around 5pm, we'd been there 10 hours already) the Australian girl had quit and we were down to 2. They managed to find 3 other girls that were willing to put the outfits on, but 2 of them, Russian girls, refused to show their stomachs and wore tank tops underneath. This pissed off the director, who got one of his people to try and talk the girls into it so we could all look the same.

Here's where trouble started... the Russian girls were refusing to do it. The sun was starting to go down and they were losing light on the outdoor set, causing stress. This guy kept arguing with the girls that the rest of us were wearing the outfits and we all had to look the same so they had to take off their tank tops. They still refused. They argued that the Indian cheerleaders had their stomachs covered, so why couldn't they do it? The guy said it was to show the difference between how Indian girls dress vs. western girls. HA HA HA. They think we're all hoochies. We all started laughing because NOBODY would really wear an outfit this hideous ever. (Incidentally, the opposing soccer team was "Canada" which was highly amusing since all the extras had Canada flags painted on their faces, but lame since they thought Canadian girls were hoochie.) At this point, the guy was pissing me off with his attempts to pressure them, and I spoke up and said something along the lines of, "Listen, they aren't comfortable with that. You can't pressure them to do it. So you either have to find someone else who will wear the outfits, or work around it." I don't think they appreciated that.

Not 5 minutes later, a woman (who I think may actually have been Ekta Kapoor, but I would have to see a recent photo of her to confirm that) walks up to me and tells me I can't be a cheerleader anymore, because, and I quote, "we want girls who are thin." Ouuuuuch. How many times since I've been in India have people called me fat now?! I am losing count. It's lame because Indian movie heroines are generally not thin either! You'd think a country that's generally curvy would be a bit nicer about this stuff. But no. Anyway, I didn't take it too personally, since fair enough, I don't look like a stereotypical skinny cheerleader, which is what they want. I wandered off and told the story to the Belgians and the Australians who were nearby - the Australian guy went apeshit, which was hilarious, and said they were all racist with their stereotypes, and he started swearing.

At this point I wandered off to the trailer to change back to my normal clothes. After I change, there is a knock on the door and in comes the guy from the field who was pressuring those girls. He wants to know why I left, and tells me to change back. (He knows I was told to leave and why, he is just playing dumb.) I got a bit snarky.

Guy: Please come back on set, we need you.
Me: Oh, you realized there was nobody thinner to do it?
Guy: That was just a misunderstanding! We need girls like you.
Me: Nope, I'm not wanted.
Guy: I know what we want, and we want you. You have a beautiful face, great expressions. You're very spirited.
Me: (with sarcasm) Oh you're good. Have you been in this business a long time? Because you know exactly what to say!

At which point the dude continues to beg, and I enjoy the fact that I'm being a total diva having a fit in the trailer, until the other girls come back and announce the cheerleader bit has been cancelled for the day since the other ones still wouldn't take their tank tops off. It was all pretty hilarious. I am not going to make it far in the entertainment business though with my attitude though, haha. But seriously, you can't call someone fat and then tell them to put the outfit back on and prance around in front of a camera. Bad call. (I do have photos of the outfit which are pretty funny, but I didn't want to take away from the glory of Mr. Bachchan by including them in this post.)

We didn't get back from the shoot until late, at which point I went for dinner and drinks with the Canadian girl. Originally, I was supposed to do another shoot that night, for a song and dance number, but the stupid TV show ran late and I missed it, which pissed me off tremendously. However, not being on the dance shoot worked in my favor - outside the cafe we went to for dinner, we ran into a scout - the slightly less sketchy one, and right while I was standing there he got a call from someone who needed 2 extras for a film shooting at Film City (big Bollywood studios!!)... A FILM WITH AMITABH BACHCHAN. I was like "I'LL DO IT!!!!!" It was entirely a case of being in the exact right place at the right time.

Day 2 - Early in the morning, I get on the bus again with a new crowd of extras, which takes us to the stupid TV show set again. On a gross side note, the really sketchy scout was there on the bus (the slimy guy from my first day here) and he kept touching my arm alot and trying to get close to me, saying stuff like "Hey... I like you..." I nearly puked. From the TV set though, they sent me to the Amitabh Bachchan shoot. This involved me getting on the back of a motorcycle alone with a strange man. Which, under normal circumstances I would not do, but the magic words "Film City" and "Amitabh Bachchan" caused common sense to fly out the window. As we were flying down the road at ludicrous speeds, me helmetless again and clinging to this random dude for dear life, I kept thinking "Dear god why didn't I buy travel insurance?" But we got there safely.

It was SO cool being at Film City. It's like a bunch of studios inside this massively huge and pretty wilderness area, with trees and almost mountains and stuff. I spent most of the day hanging out inside a sweet air-conditioned trailer getting my hair done and eating good food. No sign of Mr. Bachchan at all. At the very end of the day, me and this one other English guy named Tom got taken on set for our scene. We were bookstore patrons, and we had to walk into this bookstore run by Amitabh Bachchan. I just walk in and browse, and Tom says a line!!! (I was so freaking jealous that he has dialogue with Amitabh Bachchan - he didn't know who he was so couldn't grasp how cool it all was, haha.) Actually we filmed our part after Amitabh was done, so I never filmed with him directly, but it'll be cut together into the same scene. I watched him film his part though and he's amazing. He is such a megastar though that the whole shoot seems like it's controlled by him. He told the crew to hurry up so he could go home, haha... he seemed pretty grumpy. When he was done, he was walking out and walked right past me. I was scared since he was grumpy, but I stopped him and said "Excuse me sir" and then told him I was a fan and asked if I could take a photo with him. He asked where I was from and how I knew him, haha. And then he posed for a photo with me. It was all over in less than 2 minutes, but it was awesome. AWESOME.

The whole experience was SO cool. This was a big budget Bollywood film, way better than that dumb TV show. The only downside to the day was that it was about 40 degrees out but the film took place in the mountains so they made me wear a parka. Which was ok in the AC trailer but a bit toasty outside, haha. On the way out, we passed a set where Abhishek Bachchan (son of Amitabh, star of Dhoom 2, among other things) was filming. Abhishek was in a trailer and I was outside, begging to be able to say hello to him, but they wouldn't let me in. Apparently he was in a meeting with the director and producers. Bah. Then we had to leave Film City and go home. :(

Photos: Set construction for Amitabh Bachchan film, and Abhishek's set (allegedly that's his car!)


Day 3 - It was my intention to not do any Bollywood stuff today, and sightsee instead. I slept in till nearly 11am, then wandered out, not even showered yet, to get breakfast, and got jumped on by yet another scout wanting me to go to a shoot RIGHT then. At first I turned it down but then he begged me, and since the day was half over already and I'd only have to be on set a half-day, I relented. It turned out to be another actual Bollywood film, a comedy with Kunal Khemu (a hot guy who is a fairly big deal here, but not an actor I am familiar with) and Soha Ali Khan! Soha Ali Khan was in Rang De Basanti, one of my favorite Hindi films ever, so I got pretty excited. (Also - JULIA!! Soha Ali Khan is the younger sister of Saif Ali Khan!!!) This was smaller budget than the Film City shoot, not as big a deal, so the set was pretty relaxed... I kind of wandered around somewhat at my leisure taking pictures of stuff on set. (I actually snuck in beside the cameraman at one point and filmed one of the takes on my camera!) In between takes, Soha Ali Khan sat down next to me, and so I got to talk to her! We chatted about Rang De Basanti, and she was pretty interested in the fact that I'd taken a Bollywood film course. Then I got a photo, yay. And later on I was in a scene with her. It's in a restaurant, I'm sitting at a bar in the background while her and Kunal are at a table. It turned out to be a really cool day. I also ended up chatting with the executive producer of the film about random stuff, including Aamir Khan, and he gave me the address of Aamir Khan's office. So I can hunt him down and try to meet him, haha. We'll see how I do with that.

Photos: Me with Soha Ali Khan, and Soha and Kunal filming a scene!


Okay, internet cafe is closing - tomorrow I actually intend to sight-see, but this could change if the offer to meet anymore Bollywood stars comes up... oh, incidentally, the Amitabh Bachchan film was called "Shoebite" and the one today was called "Dhoondte Rahe Jaoge". I hope they release to theatres in Canada, haha.

mumbai - networking bollywood?

I am finally in Mumbai! Glamorous home to Bollywood. I am peeing my pants with excitement. I haven't met any celebrities yet, but I'm keeping my hopes up. I got here yesterday afternoon, looking pretty nasty after 2 consecutive nights on trains with no shower in between. I arrived at Bandra station in north Mumbai, which is like, 10km from where I am staying in the south so I had to attempt to navigate the local trains to get to my hotel. This was somewhat terrifying, since the train station was in the middle of a huge ghetto. Bandra is a ritzy neighbourhood too, stars live there! But not around the train station, I'm guessing. I could have taken a taxi but I'm cheap. I made it in the end and didn't even get groped (Mumbai's local trains are known for being cramped and groping of ladies occurs) because I stayed in the ladies-only compartment. Haha.

Anyway, I've been wasting no time in my attempts at getting famous. The first thing I did (after showering) was have dinner at this cafe where I heard they often scout for Bollywood extras. I was not scouted during dinner, so I asked one of the guys working there if he knew anything about it. He gave me a phone contact, and I ended up talking to some dude who said there was a shoot on the day after tomorrow and to call him back about it. Promising... except I asked what the film was, and I thought he said "Race" which doesn't make any sense because that film releases in 2 weeks so they couldn't possibly still be filming anything. So maybe I misheard. Or maybe he's a sketchbag. Who knows. I'll have to call back and see. The restaurant dude was nice though - I asked him if his Bollywood contact was a good guy and he said "Well, I don't trust him, but you can judge for yourself." Greeeeeat. Restaurant guy asks for my autograph every time I go in there now though, since I'm going to be a star, obviously. He's funny.

Regardless, I didn't even need to put that much effort into trying to get into a film - I've been scouted about 4 times now just walking down the street!! I am amassing business cards! Firstly, last night this guy stopped me about working as an extra in a TV serial (i.e. Indian soap opera type thing, probably). I said sure, I'd do it, since I figured it'd put me in contact with the right people. So I agreed to meet the next morning (today) for the shoot. I wish I could properly describe this scout guy - he is everything you would imagine a Bollywood scout to be. He is a slimy little weasel of a guy, with greasy hair slicked back in a ponytail, a shady smile, a shirt with stars on it (like the shape, not celebrities). After scouting me, he then asked me out for a drink. I declined politely, and then I wandered off to a coffee shop. I ended up getting into a chat with a semi-creepy dude at the coffee shop, but the discussion was harmless and relatively interesting so I wasn't concerned. But then all of a sudden, mid-conversation, sketchy Bollywood scout appears in the coffee shop and tells me his boss is outside and wants to meet me. HOW he found me in the coffee shop I don't know. He claims he just walked by and saw me... unlikely, but whatever. So anyway, I go outside, and his boss isn't there, he says he just wanted to get me away from the guy I was talking to in the coffee shop, because he says he knows him and he's a big sketchbag and I shouldn't be talking to him. At which point I just started laughing because I'd only been in Mumbai a few hours and it was all so ridiculous I didn't know how else to respond. But then his boss phoned, so I talk to the boss on the phone (the boss is the one who arranges all the extra work, after the scout finds people I guess) and the boss says that they're all going out to this bar for drinks and I should come. Which I decline, obviously. And then he tries to be all charming on the phone and talk me into it, saying that two other western girls were coming. And then I said straight out I wasn't interested, so that ended that.

So this morning I show up at the meeting place for the alleged shoot today. The other people haven't shown up though so me and sketchy scout walk to their hotel to pick them up. (He wanted to take a taxi but I refused to get into a taxi alone with him so we had to walk, haha.) Anyway, at the hotel I met his boss. What his boss was doing at the hotel where the western girls were staying is beyond me. He was creepy too, I should mention. After a bit of disorientation, it turns out the supposed TV serial shoot has been postponed to the afternoon. So I go about my business, shopping and snacking and seeing Mumbai. Later in the morning, I run into sketchy scout dude again, who says his boss wants me to do a TV commercial for a mobile phone company, which is a character role and pays big money (like 3$ an hour versus 1$ an hour, woohoo! I'm not doing this for the money, clearly). So I spoke to the boss again on the phone, we'll see what happens with all that. After that I phoned them in the afternoon, only to hear that the TV shoot's been moved to tomorrow. Lame. A few hours later, I run into sketchy scout in the street again (HE IS EVERYWHERE. HE MATERIALIZES OUT OF THIN AIR CONSTANTLY. It's so disturbing. We're like good buddies now, we've unfortunately met about 40 times since yesterday), who informs me of a film happening tomorrow which he's scouting people for, but he can't scout me because it's a different boss and I'm already doing the TV serial. I said no way, forget the serial, I want to do the film. So he writes my name down for the film thing. And then he follows me down the street asking me if I want to go for a drink. And then he says he wants to take me to a disco. I politely decline, as usual.

A bit later, I am scouted by ANOTHER guy on the street. (Actually I was scouted by a second dude before this but he works for the same guy as the first one so not important.) This guy tells me about the same film in the morning, except he is like a million times more legit sounding. I asked a bunch of questions and he answered them. They have 2 films and a TV serial in the works tomorrow. Allegedly one of the films has John Abraham (big Bollywood hottie) in it, although he is not expected to be on set tomorrow. I expressed a preference to work in the John Abraham film anyway. Soooooo exciting if that works out. I told him I wanted to see Film City and meet some celebrities and whatnot, and he said he'd see what was happening. He said he was going to Film City on the 10th and I could go with him if I wanted to. Haha, we'll see. So, SUPPOSEDLY I am going to working in a film tomorrow. Oooooh I hope it works out.

Bad news though, I have asked both the legit-seeming scout and "the boss" about the possibility of working on Ghajini, Aamir Khan's current film, but both told me that there aren't any western people required for that film. Awwwww. My dreams of starring opposite Aamir Khan have been temporarily shattered. I'm still gonna try to meet him though.

In other news, I took a nice boat tour of Mumbai's harbour. Also, I finished A Brief History of Time, and while I still don't understand quantum mechanics I have a better general idea of it than I did before. I have now moved on to reading The English Patient. I phoned Micah last night to see what he's gotten himself up to and if he's coming to Mumbai at some point. It turns out he's made a bunch of Israeli friends in Pushkar and they've gone on a camel safari. He was in the middle of the desert last night when we spoke. Now they're on their way to Rishikesh, which is a big spiritual hotspot for India - basically where hippie backpackers go to get stoned and do yoga. It's kind of funny that we're having such different experiences. He's gone with the hippies and I'm navigating Bollywood sleaze. India is a crazy place. You meet so many random people. Tonight in a cafe I met this 60-something year old woman, who is a flight attendant for Delta on a stopover between flights. She's been a flight attendant for 41 years, and has been all over the world, and gave me good tips to get over my fear of flying. We ended up chatting for almost 2 hours.

Now I need to sleep. I will report to this blog immediately if I manage to obtain photos of myself with Bollywood celebrities.

jaisalmer cont'd...

The above photo was taken in the middle of the desert about 45km outside Jaisalmer. I don't know what to say about it... good advice, I guess? India is weird, haha.

I am currently in Jodhpur again, stopping over for a few hours on my way through to Mumbai. I just left Jaisalmer! What a strange place... the hotel owner was telling me that Jaisalmer (along with Varanasi, and two other places I forget) is one of the places in India that foreigners apparently come to with the specific intention of hooking up with locals. That might explain why men there were sleazier than usual. Everywhere I went, guys were saying hello, grinning at me, trying to chat, saying things like "Hi sexy", etc. I mean, you get that everywhere but Jaisalmer was excessive. Hotel guy says this is for 2 reasons: firstly, they all watch alot of western porn and think that's what western women are like, and secondly, because there are a ridiculous number of women (mostly older, middle aged) who come to Jaisalmer and stay with "friends" in the town... I didn't believe him at first, but it made sense after a few days. Men kept asking me "Do you have a friend in India?" It took me like 2 days to clue in to what that implied. I kept saying "Sure, I have lots of friends" which was the wrong answer since it made me sound like a whore. Oops. When I was going for a camel ride, the camel owner approached me, leaned in really close, asked the "Do you have a friend in India?" question, and when I said no, he smiled this creepy smile and said "You like Indian men?" What a creep. The guy that takes the cake though is the one who rode past me on a motorcycle and called out "You want a ride?! I fuck you!" Which marks the first time I've been unable to stop myself from giving someone the finger in India. I have no idea if that gesture even means the same thing here, haha. Oh well. It's not just women who go there though. The man in the hotel next to me was an extremely flamboyant gay man from the Netherlands who has (according to hotel guy) six boyfriends in Jaisalmer, so he visits several times a year. He was... a character, to say the least. Anyway, to deter these potential "friends" I've concocted a story for men who do talk to me - I've been married for 3 years, my husband is travelling with me but he's back at the hotel lying down with some stomach troubles. It usually gets them to back off.

There is one big plus to being a girl on my own - queue-jumping! They have separate line-ups everywhere for men and women, and the women's line is always empty, which means I go right to the front and get served ahead of the men's lineup. This comes in handy at movie theatres, train stations, etc. In Jaisalmer, there was only one reservation counter and the lineup to get a train ticket was over two hours long. But, being a solo woman, I waltzed in to the front of the line, and was in and out in 10 minutes. One man in the lineup, another tourist, was very vocal about how unfair this was. I felt kind of bad for him, because it does sort of suck to be a guy in line, but women get so much crap in other ways. Let us have this small compensation. I mean, sure he might have to wait in line awhile longer, but he doesn't have to worry about stuff like this:

So funny... I know it's a religious thing, but still. Amusing from my western viewpoint. Also amusing - I rode a camel! Not very far, only about 5km. I wanted to go out to the sand dunes to watch the sunset, and the trip involves a brief camel ride so I went with it. It was pretty fun, even though my butt hurt the next day. My camel's name was Rocket. He was very handsome. I dropped my sunglasses somewhere in the dunes though. I realized I dropped them within 2 minutes but they were gone when I went back (I was walking around at this point, not on the camel) so I am thinking someone swiped them. There were about a million people on the dunes, actually. This certain part of the desert is so touristy that there is nothing remotely remote about it. There were still children running around trying to sell me things. Fun experience regardless.





Last day in Jaisalmer I just wandered around. I bumped into the Australians again, that makes it 4 times now. It's getting eerie. We were even on the same train last night. I also think I saw the people we took the boat ride with in Varanasi. So random. Last night was both good and bad... bad because I got into a fight with a shopkeeper. He was showing me some scarves but was refusing to bargain on the price, saying it was fixed. Which is untrue, none of these things are fixed price. One time in Jaipur a man told me something was "fixed price" and I walked out of the shop, asked someone on the street what they thought I should pay, and it turned out the alleged "fixed price" was about 4 times the real price. So, I always leave if they won't bargain, in the interest of shopping around to figure out what it should cost. But this guy got SO mad that I didn't buy anything, he said I didn't know what I wanted, and I shouldn't be wasting people's time going into shops and not buying things. It was such a load of crap. Shopkeepers are crazy here... sometimes they chase you yelling things like "Madam! Please buy something!" This guy was a huge jerk though. I told him I'm not obligated to buy anything, I'll look at whatever I want to, and in this case I'll take my business elsewhere and then I left. Then I was disgruntled, so I went to get some cake, and I was sitting in the cafe reading my book, when a nice man sat down with me and saw my book. He had read it already and we had a great chat about Stephen Hawking, and other books, and Bollywood. So I left Jaisalmer undisgruntled, in the end. :) It was nice to have a conversation with someone who didn't try to proposition me. (Even the jerky shopkeeper asked if I had a special friend in India, ugh.)

Other random encounters in Jaisalmer: A funny old man befriended me on the train, telling me stories about how camels are dangerous in December because that's mating season and they are looking for female camels and get angry and bite people's heads out of frustration. I also met a bunch of cool people near Jaisalmer's lake. An old man named Babu Singh who had a cool arm tattoo, crazy hair, and used to be a beggar until he worked his way up to selling souvenirs and putting on puppet shows for tourists near the lake. He also takes care of this blind lady who he pushes around in a little cart everywhere. And I met this guy named Ravi who is the town history teacher, who was actually really nice and remarkably attractive. He invited me to his house for tea, which I declined because common sense says going to men's houses is a terrible idea, even though he was cute and non-threatening. This was probably a good idea, because after he left, two different guys in the street asked me if I was Ravi's "friend" and if I was going to his house. And we all know what "friend" means here.

In any case, I survived Jaisalmer without making any friends (except for Rocket the camel). Mumbai tomorrow, to seek my fame and fortune in Bollywood. This time next week I should be starring in several films, and engaged to Shah Rukh Khan.