Photo safari in Bombay

Mumbai might not be the prettiest, cleanest, most lovely or the richest city seen with a conventional set of eyes. But after living here for almost a year - I know where to look to see the beauty of this vibrant city. I have learned how to look into the trains and see the ocean of colours that can't do anything but make you smile, stand in the doorway of the same train and watch how the most amazing picturesque scenes float by - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - And where most people (even me in the beginnig) would just see all the garbage, pollution, dirt and poverty, i now look past all that and see a lovely beautiful city filled with warm, open and always friendly Mumbaikars (the people of Mumbai).

I wanted to capture my view. And share my Mumbai with everyone, so i took my Nikon with me and started shooting...


Marking of the 2nd class ladies compartment on the Western Railway in Mumbai.


Passengers in the ladies compartment waiting to get off the train at Andheri.


Elphinstone Road, a South bombay stop on the Western railway.


Slum-area at Mahim Junction seen from the train tracks.


Old women sitting in the 2nd class ladies compartment in an afternoon Churchgate-Borivali train


Mango stand on MG road in Goregaon


Two ladies crossing the street in the MG road - SV road crossing in Goregaon.


Street food. Pani Puri stand outside inorbit mall.


Rickshaw-meter.


Me having a (much needed) cold coffee in Colaba after a long day!

I would like to start off by saying sorry. It has been more than a month since my last blogpost, and its really a shame because I have experienced so much in the last 4 weeks! But a couple of days ago I read somewhere that the more you experience and enjoy the less time you have to post stuff on your blog and Facebook (cant stop Facebook though - Im kinda addicted!). So just take it as a great sign - no news is good news - as the old danish saying goes.



And I can (for once) actually say that during january I was very busy! Every afternoon all us inbounds of district 3140 would meet at the Rotary Service Centre in Juhu for dance practice before the big district conference. We were performing 3 dances; maharashtran Koli dance, the Bamboo dance from Nagaland and a Bollywood dance to the song Jor ka Jathka - I was a part of the two traditional performances (the two first). We worked long and hard, and getting through all the practices was quite the roller coaster ride, but we got through it, and the outcome was fantastic!

The DISCON went smooth, the costumes were amazing and on top of it all, we were offered to come dance on television - a show called Dhina Dhin Dha on the channel Doordarshan. We also had a very fun day at the studios shooting the show, and we all very much enjoyed getting our makeup done and our saris pinned up by pro's!

In january another big thing happened for me - I had a visit from Denmark! My parent and my younger brother had come to visit me and see the city which i have grown such a liking to... On their first day here I took them by local trains, and it was so exciting to see how they reacted to everything exactly like i used to do in my first couple of weeks here. It was a bit stressful being a local tour guide showing them around in the morning, then rushing to Juhu in the afternoon for my daily dance practise and taking them for countless dinners every evening (club president, all host families, host counsellor, district counsellor and so on...) but I really enjoyed having them around! And when we jumped on an airplane headed to Goa all was forgotten and the ultimate state of relaxation took over again. I really loved having them here, and I must admit that saying goodbye at the airport was difficult, but it was worth it!




Cows on a goan beach











My hostmom was so great! She took us to the Pagoda and even went with us to the Crawford market because my parents was loving the indian food and wanted to bring home spices.




Then in february I, along with 5 oher exchangestudents, went to a corporate ryla organised by Rotaryclub of Deonar. It was held at Alibaug beach. It was a great experience, and very well organised. We had to drive for 3 hours in a bus to get there and I must admit that I was kinda bummed out when I found out that it was only 12 minutes by ferry from gateway of India...The food wasn't exactly the best I've had during my stay, so I got through mainly by chapati's, chai and my favourite biscuit Parle-G... I was the COO of my group (kinda like deputy ceo or something like that) and I won the award for best coo and on top of that I was the runner up - one vote from winning - the title of miss popular of the ryla-camp! It was a good experience, infinately better than the first ryla I attended!


Me and my group presenting our marketing pitch at the Ryla

Happy New year!

Hey everybody, Happy New Year!

I had a great time along with most of the other exchange students. Our New years bash was thrown by the Sweet Keerthana (from the rotex) who was nice enough to have us all over! We had a blast and danced all night... There was no fireworks - not at all like in Denmark. I guess this year is just all about trying new things and having different experiences that I could not have dreamed of when at home!

But the celebration of new years also means that I have only 5 months left of my beloved exchange :( Cant even dream of packing my bags anytime soon... I feel really great in my current host family and I really wish I could just stay here for the rest of the time (they are my 3rd), but I dont know whether or not that is possible.

I feel like I have been living in Mumbai for my whole life - I've become so accustomed to the food, I listen to the Bollywood music that in the beginning just seemed annoying to my danish ears, but that i now enjoy very much (Sheila Ki Jawani, Anjaana Anjaani, Tujhe Bhula Diya, Badnaam Munny and all those) I actually enjoy the crowded trains (hate to admit that I very much enjoy getting to push those -very- pushy ladies! If they push I push!), I cant Imagine not getting up in the morning and going to Santa Cruz for my yogalessons and stopping for coconutwater or a guava on the way back to the stations afterwards. I love having a day at home just wearing my extremely comfortable Salvar Kameez all day and having a Mango lassi in the afternoon (everything is better with Mango!!!!!!!!!!!!). Taking a rickshaw to go to the station even though its just 2-300 meters away just because its only Rs.11 (ca. 1,4 kroner). I cannot Image how it is going to be to live in a city that will not be completely on hold for a day or two just because of one of the million annual festivals :)The people, the food, the surroundings, the home, the families, the clothes, the way of life - I enjoy every minute of it!

That was my little ode to my life as an exchange student in Mumbai... Ill go now, dinner time! ... more food! yum!

Kutch nahi dekha, kuch nahi dekha.

I came home from Kutch just a couple of days ago. Another amazing trip with rotary and the other exchangestudents. As the title sayd (in hindi) kutch nahi dekha, kuch nahi dekha - if you havent seen kutch, you havent seen anything (their motto). And after our visit to the area i really think that it is true!

We were there for only 4 days and in so little time we managed to see everything from deserts to beaches and mountains. Mandirs (temples), palaces and carnivals. And we even met the Chief minister of Gujarat and we were in the local newspaper.

The same evening as we arrived we went to downtown-Bhuj to see the opening of the Rann Utsav (known as the kutchfestival). It wasa first a bunch of speeches by important people (the CM of Gujarat too) and then, when the sun had set, a carnival/parade began.




Though it was rather long, it was still fun, we managed to push our way into the parade and went dancing in front of the cm along with an ethnic dancegroup (the one with the lion-mask)! Some of the exchangestudents even got themselves onto one of the floats/carts/whatever its called! All in all a great evening.










Our second day there was very busy and we did a million things, and i could write page after page about it, ill just stick to a few highlights and try to get most of it in there.








First we went to this market/bazaar place where we did a bit of shopping, there was also a lot of nicely decorated camels and we spent a lot of time clicking photos with those... Then after a while there was some traditional "wrestling" and that was very amusing - the two guys would stand in front of each other holding on to each others pant or belts (?) and try to throw the opponent down on the sand...
































Then we quickly moved on to the next place we had to visit - a temple on a mountain. The bus took us up a little more than halfway, and then we had to walk for a while, but that was only nice! It was an amazing experience because of the fantastic view from up there! We could see the geographic border between India and Pakistan. And we had a clear view of what it is that makes kutch so special - all the different types of landscapes











And then(...) drove to the desert and drove on camel-carts out to the "white-desert" a phenomena that only exists in Kutch. It occurs when the sea level falls at the end of the monsoon season and a huge area of sand is laid to dry in the hot Indian sun. then all the salt from the ocean crystallizes and creates a white cover on the desert sand. We went out there in the evening time, and while we were watching a cultural show (a dance performance illustrating the Ramayana)the sun set and the temperature dropped - I dont exactly know how low, but to us, practically, mumbaikars it sure felt freezing. The combination of a huge area coveres by a perfect white blanket and the low temperatures almost made me feel like home (its snowing in Denmark i hear) and Riina (Finland) and I both started singing christmas songs in our native languages - A lot of Indians stared and some even pointed at us ;D but it was fun, and probably the most christmas-like evening I've had this year...









Here we also met with the chief minister, but unluckily my camera ran out of battery :(





The third day we started out by going to this Palace that is actually still in use :D It was fun walking aroung inside and there was a bunch of stuffed animals (tigers leopards and such) and a lot of really old furniture and a lot of photos hanging around... On the terrace (or rooftop as the rest of the world, except for India, would call it) again we had an almost magical view of the woods and Mandvi beach. The beautiful surroundings set by the old palace (which btw has been used as settings for several Bollywood movies)laid the base for what was to turn into hundreds and hundreds of photos on my camera...



After seeing the palace Chetan bought a round of coconut water for everyone, and we just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, the lovely weather and the natural cold drink under the trees outside the palace...




In the afternoon/evening we went to Mandvi and everyone had a lovely camel ride on the (very clean!!!) beach... It was very bumpy, and when the camel started running Ale(Mixico) and I (we were sharing a camel) were screaming like crazy people along with Beatriz and Leticia (both from Brasil) who were running next to us on their own camel... Ont the beach there were also an exhibition of sandsculptures, some more succesfull than others, and just before the sun was setting 3 people decided to go for this ride where you were strapped into a parachute and dragged by a car along the beach, it looked very fun, but I was too scared to do it :S


















After that we went out for the local roadside speciality - kutchi dabeli which is basically a pav with a very spicy potato/masala mix put inside... a Gujarati veg-burger , or something like that...

Then we went home to the Yoga ashram in which we were staying, had dinner and had fun plying games and singing songs around the campfire until late at night.

Status

162 days spent in India so far.

201 days to go.

5 trips out of Mumbai(Safala, Lonavala, RYLA, South tour and Bordi + Kutch and Pune coming up).

3 hostfamilies.

52 hindi letters - 10 vowels, 2 modifiers (?) and 40 consonants i had to learn by heart.

Uncountable numbers of mango juice.

Insane amounts of hours spent in Mumbai's local trains...

1 big fat indian wedding - soon to be two :D

5 major religious festivals celebrated (Ganpati, Janmashtami, Nav raatri, Diwali and Rakhsha bandhan)

14 letters and packages from home (friends and family together)

5 letters sent back home + 6 packages

waaaayyy too many rupees spent

7 times did I bake danish pastries - alt fra Kringle og brunsviger til hinbaersnitter og kanelsnegle altid vellykket og vellidt - Selvfoelgelig!

4 yogaclasses per week! lately they have been done along with Janina (USA) <3

15 other exchangestudent-friends + many many many indians!

4 danish dinners cooked (f.eks. lammefrikadeller med remoulade og kartoffelsalat eller vegetarlasagne med raakost, groen salat, og floede kartofler)

very few times have I been up before 7.30 in the past 5 1/2 months :P

1 run after I stepped unto the scale the first month and realised I had put on two kg's in 30 days.

3 kg's gained since my arrival (a number I'm rather proud of! for other inbounds it has been as high as 10 !!! )

16 degrees is the coldest i have experienced in the past 5 1/2 months

100000000 ... new dishes tasted (or at least that is how it feels)

1 birthday with 3 birthday cakes and tiramisu-cake in my face and my hair (det lignede til forveksling at nogen havde knaekket sig direkte i frisuren :S )!

3 saris!

7 indian outfits, punjabi suits, salwar kameez or whatever you choose to call it.

3746 photos

and

infinite numbers of priceless experiences that i wouldnt have missed for the world! I love India, I love Mumbai and I love life as an exchangestudent!

The end of this tour is getting closer and closer, and tomorrow is the day we board the 30 hr train back to Mumbai. We went to Kanyakumari(the most southern point of India) and back to Kerala again, the AirCondition in the bus was defect so it was a rather hot experience going through Tamil Nadu and to Allepey in Kerala, but we made it!

We went on a boatcruise on the backwaters and all of a sudden someone comes up with the great idea to jump into the water and 13 of the 16 exchangestudent hurry over to one side of the little bat, almost casing it to tip over, and jump in the cool water in all our clothes. The air was around 29-32 degrees and the water wasnt much cooler. While we were swimming an old indian guy sails by in something that looks a bit like a canoo and several people try to climb onto the poor mans boat, until he yells at the travelguides to get us all away, of course we did, and he even seemed happy when i gave him the 30 rupees(ca. 3,5 kroner) i accidentally had forgotten to take out of my pocket before diving into the water. It was fun, but while we were swimming the sun had set, so it was a little cold on the boatdeck in soaking wet jeans, but i guess thats our own faults :/ hehe

I really enjoyed this trip, and can feel how all the exchangestudents are so much closer after this, but now I'm looking forward to going home to Mumbai and have some of my hostmoms good cooking (Im getting a bit bored with the hotel-buffets...)

Take care
Maria

A weekend in the countryside!

This weekend I went with my host mom and Janina to a small village in Safala. It is the most beautiful place 2 hours north of Mumbai. We were visiting some friends of my hostparents, they are originally from that village but now they live in Mumbai and own a bungalow there.

Day one:

While driving up there friday before noon, it was very hot! Both janina and I were wearing the most comfortable punjabi suits (Salwar-Kameez) so it didnt really matter. We talked all the way up there and had a great time. Half way there we made a halt at a dairy. We got the most amazing mango-lassi’s to drink, and we totally recharged for the remaining hour in the car...

Upon our arrival we were served the first of the many meals of the day. The moment we were done eating we went upstairs to change in to our festive clothes. (Janina and I looked fabulous in our sarees!) And we were off to serve food for the village! See, the family we were hosted by are in to a lot of socialwork for their village, and they had funded a giant food give-away, serving dinner for over 1000 villagers during a religious procession. So we helped hand out the meals for the locals! It was incredibly hot standing there in the sunny afternoon, but it was totally worth it! When we were about to leave, some villagers and the uncle who owns the bungalow we lived in came over and gave us a wool-shawl and a coconut each! We thanked them in hindi (Dhanyawaad/Shukhria)! :)

After serving the village we had gotten an invitation to go to a small farm half an hours driving away... When we came driving up the dirt road in the middle of the indian jungle, we came to a point where we couldnt drive any further. So we got out and walked in our fancy sarees and festive wear for the rest of the way, it wasnt that far, and since it was in the afternoon so the temperature was actually quite pleasant! When we came there we sat down on the porch of a small farmers house built in cow-dunk and sticks! We had energizing fresh coconutwater and ate an amazingly well prepared smoked fish-curry off freshly picked banana leaves! It was great!

I got a tour af the farm with one of the aunties. There were a bunch of banana-, mango-, sitaphal/custard apple- and guavatrees also coconut palmtrees, jasmin flowers, rice fields and the most amazing flower, an ethnic looking white lily, and it had the sweetest most enchanting smell I have ever experienced!!! We plucked some sitaphals and ate them while walking the fields and my host mom brought home a big bag of jasmin flowers that we were to use the next day!

When we came home we were to have dinner, but I wa soooo full from all the earlier meals that I only just tasted before I went to bed after an amazing, beautiful and very tiring day!

Day two:
We woke up at early (7 o’clock) and sat in the kitched drinking chai all morning while we were tying all the jasminflowers from yesterday onto strings that we could tie in our hair or offer to the god in the temple.

After lunch we all got in the car and drove through the sketchiest little jungle roads untill we arrived at the temple. We went inside, did prayers, got prasad (a couple of white sugar-balls some raisins and peanuts that you get in return for your worship) and then we went outside and fed the fish in the temple pond.

Then we walked down a small path and arrived at the beach (or as they spelled it in hindi: Beej)... The arabian sea was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life! We rode the most beautiful small horsewagon (actually it was pulled by donkeys) and enjoyed the beauty of nature! The sun was slowly setting and it was arund 6 o’clock. A camel was walking on the beach, Janina and I got a ride on this huge fantastic animal, feeling the rythm of its steps while wathing the sun go down over the indian ocean, the camel was named ‘beautiful’ in hindi and that was excactly what this day was, Beautiful!

Me and Janina really wanted to go all the way out to where the actual water was (the tide was low, so there was over 100 metres of sand we had to walk to get to the ocean). Auntie saw that the sun was about to set, and told us that we had 5 minutes and not more! So we pulled up our salwars and ran as fast as we could out to the beautiful ocean. The black sand mixed with the seawater drenched our pants, but nothing could ruin the magical moment when we reached the edge of the arabian sea! We just stood there for a moment next to eachother, enjoying the silence and seeing nothing but water and sand ! A guy came over and took a photo of us and our amazed and happy faces, and then we went to a small jugle resort to have an overwhelmingly great meal of chicken tikka kebabs, grilled kingprawns almost the size of my palm, fish curry and fried bombay duck (a fish only available in mumbai, with very small eatable bones and a fantastic taste!) before we went home to the bungalow!

But the day was not over yet! Tonight was the 2nd night of the nauraatri festival (it means ‘nine nights’) and you are supposed to dance every evening for 9 nights in a row! Earlier today a woman had come to our house to teach us some Garda (the traditional dance that everyone does when dancing on the streets) so we were all prepped and ready after changing out of our muddy suits!

So first we just went outside the gate and danced with the neighbours, then we got in the car and drove to a bunch of different places, one even bigger than the other! we danced all night, had a blast and when we came home, we went straight to sleep out of pure exhaustion from this amazing day!

This morning we drove home, and I was(and I am still) extremely tired. So after dropping Janina at the station I went straight home, had my lunch and a nap :)

I didnt take too many photos since I have thought a lot about how I dont want to experience everything through the lens of my camera, the ones I did snap will be uploaded once I am done editing and sorting them out (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week)

A quarter of my exchange is done!

Everyone at home has now been asking for a new post for quite a whilenow. Im sorry for the long gaps between my updates but I must point out that before Im able to write amazing posts about all my new experiences, I actually have to experince them!

So much has happened since last time I made a blog-post, and I wont write about everything, because that would bore both me and my readers to death before i finish.
3 months has passed, and a quarter of my stay is now completed... Yesterday I got a mail informing me about my returnticket - I am leaving on the 7th of july, after 362 days in incredible India! I felt so surreal to be reminded that at one point this year will come to an end, I still remember the thrill of reading a mail wherein I was referred to as an Inbound instead of an outbound!

October has now come, and with it came overwhelming temperatures(yesterday we reached 39∘and today its even hotter!)... Its vital that I remember to bring my waterbottle everywhere I go, and I try to have fresh coconutwater on a daily basis.

A couple of days ago Janina, my good american friend, slept over at my place. We had spent the entire day shopping for fabric and dressmaterials, and my hostmom had taken us to this big wholesale place where we could get some amazing materials for our indian outfits - cause thats another thing I have to tell all of you! I am going to start wearing traditional indian clothes (salwar kameez and stuff like that) every monday, wednesday and friday(because those are the days I have my kathaklessons, and for the danceclasses one must wear traditional indian. It’s really a royal pain to be carrying all the clothes around all day until the lessons and indian clothes are soooo comfortable, so the easiest thing is just to wear it on a daily basis!)!

2 Days ago Rotex Bombay arranged a country celebration, 4 countries were subjects of the day and Denmark were one of them. Since 11 o’clock in the morning I had been at Aanchals place (indian girl who had gone on exchange to Denmark 5 years ago) and we had been baking a danish pastry called Kringle! It turned out perfect, and I totallyburned my tongue when I tried to eat a small piece the moment it had come out of the oven. It was good that we had baked the pastry, because that was just about all that we had to showcase for all the other in- and rebounds, Christian had brought a retro style football jersey from ‘88 and we played Nephew on the stereo!

And yesterday, Janina and I went to Oneza’s place and we baked pastry all day again! This time we tried to make Hindbærsnitter (?raspberry chops?) and again everything turned out great!

A lot more has happened in the last couple of weeks, but this is all I am giving you for now... I hope everything is going great back in little Denmark.

So long
Maria

Just a bit of pics from the last week:




Mehendi(henna-tatoo) on my hands





A rakhi shop, Bought one for my host bro and little Vincent at home!





I cooked a danish meal, frikadeller with remoulade and a cold potatosalad...




I have started drawing mehendi designs, I also paint it with the henna-cone!

News

So a short update:
Yesterday I took the train to Bandra to meet up with some in-, out- and rebounds. It was really nice to finally meet someone besides Christian and Neha... We went walking on Carter road and shot a bunch of pics with the indian and the danish flag (I dont have them, but once theyre on facebook they will somehow find their way to the blog :)) Then we went to mcDonalds for lunch (just needed somethin non-veg and non-indian)...

Then when I got home I had to go to the rotary meeting. My 3rd host mom came and told me that she'll pick me up monday around noon, and then Ill live with them for 8-10 days because thay cannot host me at the end of the year. A rotarian came over and invited me to come and see the YMCA-boyshome and vocational training - So ill probably go there in the upcoming week, I think it will be really interesting to see the work that is done for the street children...

Today is the inbound orientation, it will be great to meet all the inbounds (all14) in Mumbai !

-Maria

Im busy!

Hi everybody whos reading my blog... Its been a while since my last post, but im just going to make a quick update.
Wednesday i was at lunch with my third host family, the Chaudari family, and rushed home for my kathak-lesson (fell very big and clumpsy, and im afraid Ill hit the fan with my hands, if I stretch them over my head!)... Thursday was pretty nice, the sun was shining (!finally!) Janhavi and I went to see eclipse (I have senn it in DK, but she really wanted to go). In the evening we went to dinner at my second host family, the Inamdars. They have a huge apartment, pretty new building and very modern decorated. Really liked talking to their daughter and niece(but she's going back to US in a week).

Today we went to the southside pretty early, and started out by going to the college to get some more papars for the FRRO registration (bureaucrazy !) ... Then we went to grab some lunch at Subway with Stuti, Alisha and Charmi(some of Janhavi's college friends)... After that Thea, a rebound who had gone to France, picked us up, we went for a coffee, and talked for a while :) Thats to be done again!

All for now
Maria

One big binge!

I'll just start off by answering one question which i get all the time: I am extremely grateful that I (yet) have not experienced any 'stomach problems' caused by the indian spices!.. And its certainly not because I don't eat them: just last saturday I forgot to search my food for remaining chilies, and accidentally chewed half a small green chili (that doesn't make it any better, cause when it comes to chilies, the smaller and greener, the spicy'er!) and what did I then do? I drank almost a liter of iced water, and when that didn't help, I (on advice from Dadi) started eating the pastries we had baked the previous day, that finally helped, but I felt a slight but constant burn on my tongue for the next two days! ... What did that teach me? Danish pastry rocks! -even in India !

Well to get back to the main topic, my bingeing, I went to a dinner at my counsellors on sunday. My last host-family and a couple from rotary had also come, and all in all we were 14 people (one were an infant, but what the hell)... I think they must have been cooking for 20 hours or something like that, first we had massive amounts of starters, some deep fried vegetables wit green chutney, shallow fried fish, raw vegetables with dip, idli and I think that was about it... The main course consisted of a giant pot of vegetarian pasta, one kind of indian curry, two kinds of thai-curry (one veg and one non-veg), rice and homemade garlic-breads... For dessert we had this indian thing (i don't remember the name, but it was a deep fried dough dipped in sirup) had they put a but of raspberry jam inside, and rolled them in sugar instead, could i easily have been convinced that they were a small edition of what we in Denmark call "Berlinere"