Anish Kothari

I went to Bandra to visit my friend Ravi and see Anish Kapoor's art exhibition at Mehboob Studios. We had lunch at Candies, a huge place with 4 levels of seating and some cool tile art. Then we went to see the art. It was held in this big  at a film studio, which made for a very interesting experience. There were several enormous mirrors that were either concave/convex and a really fascinating one that was broken into small pieces like a puzzle. There was an awesome cannon from which a man would shoot a tub of wax onto a wall every 15 minutes. Here's a video of this in Vienna. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed so I can't show you the rest of what I saw... see it for yourself if you can! We had a drink at the canteen and then went for a walk on Bandra Bandstand and Bandra Fort.

I frequently travel by BEST bus in Mumbai. It's easy, cheap, convienent, and efficient. If I'm going to be stuck in traffic, I find little reason to pay extra to sit in a taxi or auto and watch the meter go up, up, and away. So for Rs. 25, I can purchase an all-day bus pass for travel anywhere in Mumbai. When I have to do extended traveling by bus I purchase this ticket and when I go to Juhu Beach to play ultimate frisbee on weekends, I buy this ticket too, even though I could buy 2 single tickets for Rs.12 each. Here's why:

A couple of months ago, I was going home to the suburbs after eating dinner at my cousin's place in South Mumbai. I was waiting for a bus to the station when a guy about my age stopped in front of me and took off the back cover of his mobile phone. I had no idea what he was doing, so I took a step back. Then he took off his headphones and handed me a bus ticket and told me to take it. I refused at first because I didn't know why he was giving it to me. So I asked him what it was, he explained it that it was an unlimited ticket and walked off before I could thank him. I was grateful because it meant that I wouldn't have to hunt for change or break a Rs. 50 note (I'm perpetually short on small notes and change). Then I boarded a bus to Grant Road station to go home.

On reaching the bus stop near the station, I saw a passenger hand his ticket to a man waiting for a bus . I paused and wondered: is this really happening? Then I followed suit and passed along my ticket to the friend of the man who had just received a ticket. They both looked at each other as if they had won the lottery. The receipient of my ticket smiled and said a very genuine ''thank you''. I smiled back and walked toward the station, scratching my head. I wondered if it was normal for people to do this - I'd certainly never come across anything like this before.

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January brought me to Pune, a new job, and a new place to live at my cousin's house.

I worked long hours, 9:30 am - 7:00 pm with an hour lunch break, 6 days a week. Luckily, I didn't have to commute - my office was literally next door. Unluckily, everyone in the office was Maharastrian so I was put into a Marathi crash course everyday. Everyone spoke to me in Hindi, which wasn't much better as my Hindi wasn't fluent back then.

As for the job, I started off making training videos in English and supervised making Hindi training videos. I helped with writing scripts and editing video. Then I got into HTML/CSS to work on the software user interface, which was pretty interesting. I got to play around with design and was making progress in making the software user-friendly.

I stayed at my cousin's house which was really nice. I slept in their guest bedroom, got to see a lot of movies and eat a lot of very good food. This was where I was introduced to Maharashtrian snacks like sabudana khichdi and vada pav, which are some of my favorite foods now.

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I visited my cousin in Walkeshwar yesterday to see my nieces and nephews, 2 of whom are visiting from Bangkok. I've seen them grow up so I really like spending time with them.

I rented bicycles for them and they rode them around their building. The little boy in the video is my 7-year-old nephew Raj. The other boy Anjal lives in the same building.

After dinner, we played Ghulam Chor (literally Jack Thief), a kids' card game. Remove 1 Jack and deal the cards. The players have to remove all pairs of cards and then take turns pulling 1 card until no pairs remain. The person with the Jack at the end loses. My two nephews, Raj and Sarthak, are the same age and had a lot of fun. My niece Rajvi was busy coloring cups with a highlighter.

I came to India in September 2009 which is where I want to start reviewing 2010, the first full year I've spent in India.

Let me explain. I'm from the United States (Chicagoland). My parents were born in India. I was born in the USA. 25 years later, I came to live in India. I was frustrated by the lifestyle, the economy and was not optimistic about my future in the USA. I wanted to be with family and to experience India's economic growth, I wanted to speak Hindi and I wanted to travel. I wanted to be Indian.

So in the remaining 9 days of the year I want to recount the year, month-by-month. This first post is from my arrival date in September to the beginning of the 2010.

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