Shopping in Bombay

Surprise Anniversary Cake in Room 

Coconut Street Vendor

New Flower Decoration in Room on Floor

Bathtub with Heart Balloons

Trishna: Squid Koliwadi, Pomfret Hyderabadi Style

Trishna: Shelled Crab with Butter, Pepper Garlic Sauce

Trisha: Pulao

Trishna: 

Taj: Cognac and Chocolate in Club Room

Sunrise over the Arabian Sea viewed from our suite

We realized a few days ago, what a pleasant vacation this has been. We didn’t have to run around all the time. We have already seen a lot of the sights in Mumbai. We could just relax and enjoy the never-ending pleasures of the Taj.

We wanted to bring back some gifts for friends, so we dedicated the day to shopping. Colaba, the area that the Taj is located has lots of stores. We walked the streets popping in checking them out. We eventually found everything we were looking for. The temperature varies greatly in Mumbai. During mid-day the temperature rises to 95 degrees with high humidty. About 4pm it dramatically drops off becoming very pleasant. Mumbai is building an Metro system that will run underground into this historic area. I can’t wait for it to be completed. Being India, I might have to wait!

Cathy had her #metoo moment. Traditionally I have great fun negotiating purchases. Cricket is not the national sport of India, bargaining is! I enjoy the game of bargaining although I know in the end I will not will at the game. Since it is our anniversary, and since there is a wonderful jewelry store in the Taj, we had to check it out. Cathy saw a piece that appealed to her. We asked the price. We thanked them and left. I said to Cathy “I can get it for a particular price, if we returned and I bargained for it”. While I was in the Spa, she went back to the store and negotiated without me and purchased the jewelry. She has a acquired a new skill!

I finally had a chance to go to my favorite barber: Truefitt & Hill, they are the Bombay branch of this famous London barbershop.

My beard is now trimmed. Later I visited the Spa while Cathy had her hair washed.

We had drinks with Richard in the Club Room then taxied to Trisha, our favorite Mumbai fish restaurant. It never changes, the food was exactly what I remembered from our many previous dinners there. A fantastic dinner, with a bottle of wine was only $ 100.00.

After dinner we walked through the neighborhood Kala Ghoda (Black Horse) neighborhood surrounding Trishna. We wondered down the back lanes. There is a vibrant night seen of hawkers and people shopping or just talking out on the street. We felt totally safe. We are amazed that these old buildings, many built during the Raj, are being upgraded to cool flats and stores. There is a vibrancy here as the neighborhood is revitalizing.

We returned to the Taj after our stroll for Cognac and Chocolate at the Club Room. It is a wonderful way to end the night. Cathy was ready for bed, I went outside by the pool to join Richard and a Siddhartha Das, a friend of Richard from Delhi for conversation about art and India. Siddhartha designs art installations and public spaces. His father who is an artist, is creating an amazing art park in Odisha, the state formerly known as Orissa. 

Bombay

Waiters at Rambagh Palace, bringing gifts 

Flying to Bombay

Our suite filled with Anniversary Balloons

Living Room overlooking the Arabian Sea

Anniversary Floral Arrangement

Drinks outside with Richard 

Pomfret

We had our final breakfast at the Rambagh. At the end of the breakfast the waiter asked us to shift to a different table. We didn’t exactly know why. It was very cute. The entire waitstaff came out and wanted to have a picture with us. They presented us with gifts of matching hats and a beautiful Bon Voyage Cake. The hotel doesn’t have much turnover of staff, over the years they get to know your preferences. For example the bartender, who has been there 32 years, knows how I like my Martini made. He also knows we preferred non-spicy cashews.

The front desk, as we were checking out also presented us with some gifts. We met Vijay for our final ride this year with him: to the airport. I had played some music for Vijay by Krishna Das and Nusrat Ali Khan, from my iPhone as were driving through Rajasthan.

As a final gift I tried to send him some Albums via iTunes. Turns out for some reason you can’t gift from an American iTunes account to an Indian iTunes Account. I was on the computer electronically chatting with Apple Support how to get the music to him. They finally said no way.

I came up with the alternative solution. I went to the bookshop in the Rambagh and asked the owner if he an iPhone. He did. I then asked him to buy and send 3 albums to Vijay. I paid him in rupees for the cost of the music. Vijay would get his music. However, receiving the music on Vijay’s iPhone was complicated. In desperate rush as we were driving to the airport I fiddled with his iPhone and was able to download the first album. Vijay downloaded the other two.

At the airport fondly said good bye to Vijay. He is like a brother to us. The flight to Bombay was uneventful. We were met by a Taj Representative at the airport who guided us to our waiting car for the ride into the city.

At the Taj we were given a beautiful suite. The Taj knows we spend our anniversary at their hotel every year, so they had filled the suite with heart shaped balloons and beautiful floral arrangements. We relaxed and then met Richard by the pool for drinks. He had flown down from Jaipur the previous day. Cathy and I had dinner at the exceptional Indian Restaurant at the Taj: Masala Kraft. We ordered a regional specialty as an appetizer: Tandoori prepared Pomfret. We can’t get that fish in California. It was delicious! The rest of the dinner was also excellent.

After dinner we retired to the Club room for our traditional Cognac and chocolate, before heading up to room. Welcome to Bombay!

Jaipur Literary Festival Day 5

Chicken Butter Masala, Spinach and Corn, Rice 

Floral Arrangement on the Floor in our Suite

Today was the fifth and last day of the Jaipur Literary Festival. We are exhausted from all of panels we attended. We have a large stack of books we bought and are shipping home. These books aren’t available yet on Amazon. For those books available on Amazon we have ordered them and they will be awaiting us upon our arrival.

The first session that I attended was entitled: "Trumped How did this Happen?" The speaker was Matt Frei. I was not familiar with him, I am now. He is a BBC presenter and author of Only in America. He has interviewed Trump and has many stories to tell. There is way that the British can enthrall you as they tell a tale. He is a great speaker. Bottom line, he thinks that if the Democrats can’t figure out how to get a competitive candidate Trump could actually win re-election. He feels the ultimate question is: Will the Presidency change Trump, or will Trump change the Presidency? He says the first question is answered, the Presidency won’t change Trump. The second question will Trump change the Presidency is an open question.

The next session was called "Breaking Free The Novel and Gender". Two authors read and discussed their books. Anosh Irani discussed his book: The Parcel. Cathy and I both read it last year. It is a harrowing story about Hijras-- the name people call intersex and transgender people-- in South Asia. It follows one hijra who becomes involved in trafficking a very young girl being sold into sexual slavery. Sounds grim but is an excellent book. The other author’s book is about a gay Indian coming out. He had a great line -"when a gay Indian comes out to his parents it puts his whole family in the closet, because they discuss it with anyone outside of the family for fear of being shamed". Only after the session did I realize the author, Sandip Roy, is a person who voice I recognized because he is often featured on NPR's Morning Edition with reports from Calcutta, where he now lives.

The next session was on the tragedy of the Rohingya People. I knew almost nothing about this current tragedy but I was aware that it was happening. The Rohingya are Muslims that live in Myanmar, although the country does not recognize them as citizens. The Myanmar military has savagely raped, killed and brutalized these people forcing them to flee to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a very poor country, but has accepted their Muslim brothers and sisters. The Rohingya live in squalid conditions in a giant camps. We are talking about maybe 1,000,000 people. They have nothing and are traumatized by the violence that was used against them. The UN is trying to feed them. Bangladesh wants them to return to Myanmar, but who would want to go back? The problem is apparently intractable. No one knows how this tragedy will end. All of the panelists were equally despondent.

The next session was about Islamic Enlightenment. The speaker was Christopher de Bellaigue author of: The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times. Besides having a fabulous name, Christopher is one of the Oxford educated scholars that just amazes one with the depth of his knowledge. Beyond English he is fluent in Hindi, Turkish and Farsi. His thesis is that many in the west believe that Islam needs an Enlightenment to become modern. He believes for the last several hundred years it has be going through an Enlightenment period that ended after World War 1. It was amazing to hear him rattle off names and dates. If this subject interests you, this is the book to read.

The last session of the day that we attended was by Maya Jassinoff on her book about Conrad. She is a professor at Harvard who has written many award-winning history books. She believes in seeing what she writes about. For this book on Conrad: The Dawn Watch, Maya actually spent time at sea on cargo ships to experience what Conrad experienced at sea before he switched to writing. She makes the case that he was the first author to really capture the essence of Colonialism and its effects upon the people that were subjugated. I am sure we won’t be reading her book (or Conrad) but the lecture was interesting.

The Jaipur Literary Festival 2018 is over. We returned to our hotel for a final dinner and to pack. Tomorrow we fly to Mumbai. It is exhilarating to be around so many scholars and readers and be exposed to so many ideas and viewpoints. We have been living in an anti-Donald Trump bubble in LA. I expected the same here. It wasn’t like that at all, he was barely mentioned, just a few toss away lines here and there. They were always negative. He is succeeding in withdrawing America from leadership in the world. People are much more interested in the rise of China. They feel American exceptionalism is over.