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.