A Day in Bombay

So today I just set off into the city of 17+ million and decided to get lost. Just wander around and see where the flow takes me.

The city can be both peaceful and chaotic. Down near the water in Colaba it can actually be quiet--Indians in white shirts with ties walking in silence while cars drive without honking their horns--compared to the rest of the country this is actually surreal.

Breakfast I order the "American breakfast" at Cafe Mondegar. It includes a good chunk of beef steak, two pieces of bacon, a large slice of ham, three sausages, half of a chicken breast, carrots, string beans, mushrooms, cauliflower and to top it all off--a fried egg on top. There was literally nothing left on my plate when I finished. It cost under seven dollars.

I made my way North several kilometers and find myself in some intense bazaars. I purchased a set of headphones for three dollars as my other two pairs have broken. I strolled on through under the freeway and into the market place.

I saw a woman lying on the side of the street wearing a burka covering everything other than her leg, which had been affected by elephantiasis. I've only seen that on TV and the internet. It's quite disturbing in person but I didn't stop to gawk at it for obvious reasons. Her leg as well as other parts of her body, were swollen nearly ten times normal size and they had a rippling molten look to them. Life is pure suffering for some people. Its weird when you're on the other side of the spectrum looking in.

The bazaars are colorful and the thing that really stood out to me were the smells--beadie cigarettes, incense, fruit, gasoline, sweat, exhaust fumes, chai, coconut and sugar cane juice all mixed into one aroma that composes the essence of Mumbai. India is a land of extremes. I've found myself going, "India, I love you" and then ten seconds later I find myself going, "fuck this place"...I've literally done that exactly word for word in that precise time frame to....When I realized how quickly I had emotionally swung I couldn't help but laugh...You love even the hell of it all...

I wondered the bazaars for several hours listening to my ipod, side stepping traffic, snapping a photo here and there, and stopping for a quick dessert to my platter of meat at an old time place that reminded me of large brunch cafes in New York City.

I head back and cross through Mumbai's Oval Maiden, a large central park downtown that hosts multiple cricket matches at a time. I snap a few photos and decide to see a bollywood film. I figure, I'm in Mumbai, the heart of bollywood--how can I not see a bollywood film? Also, I'm wiped out from walking and not being hit by cars, men pushing ten foot wooden carts, or dudes carrying sandbags atop their heads--a/c movie theater sounds nice. I can sit in darkness. No one will bother me.

However, to Mumbai's credit, no one does bother me. The atmosphere of the place is so on the go and there are enough westerner's here that no one gives a shit that I'm not Indian. This is a nice change of pace--especially coming from Ahmedabad where I might as well have been Michael Jackson--who they perpetually compare me to.

I see this film that has something to do with America and Obama but its all about India or some crazy shit so I figure it would be a good one to check out...Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoUayAxNzh0

Its a comedy. I laughed at one or two parts--I noticed how the characters shifted their emotional projection due to a change in circumstances and it was actually pretty funny...This badass dude turns into this light hearted con man at one part and I found myself laughing...They spoke a little english in the film but I could figure out what was going on mostly just from watching

I have no fucking clue what Obama's role in the film was though. They kept mentioning him and had pictures of him but it made no sense to me why they were bringing him up...

Two things stood out to me about my Indian move theater experience:

The first was that they have no hesitation in answering their cellphones and having a fully audible conversation despite being surrounded by other people during any part of the movie...I found this funny since I couldn't understand what the hell they were saying in the movie anyway. I imagine if I was actually trying to listen I might be pissed off.

The second was that they sing the national anthem before the movie starts. I almost burst out laughing when this occurred and the screen asked us to "please rise"...The audience doesn't sing, but they play a short clip of Indian people singing on the screen and we all stand and place our hands on our hearts...If there's one thing I truly hate its the national anthem. Its the absolute epitome of brainwashing and propaganda.

"Oh excuse me sir, can't you see the large plastic screen is telling us to stand up? Please don't sit down thus jeopardizing our country's ability to socially condition us into conformity and militant nationalism by revealing that people actually have freedom to chose!"

"Can't you see that you're retarded?"

(that conversation did not happen by the way..)

I thought it was funny in India...but when in America my thoughts on it are this:

Some douche bag in control of the audio/video room plays a song and for some reason everyone--on cue--stops what they're doing, doesn't talk, stands up straight, takes off their hat, and stares like deer in the headlights...why?...oh right, because someone is playing music...and not just any music but music that pertains to the pseudo-importance of some imaginary lines that exist nowhere but on paper and in the enslaved minds of the general public...great, just what I needed to do, honor borders and boundaries that create a false sense of identity, resulting in death and destruction...

"Well, shit, I needed to kill that man, he was an Iraqi and I'm an American!

goddamnit!"

...no...You're both human beings and you're missing the point entirely.

On further analysis, whats so unpatriotic about wearing a hat? George Carlin first mentioned the inanity of this practice. Hats should be taken off for the flag...Explain that the logic in that to me...Soldiers wear helmets, maybe we should all put helmets on whenever they play the national anthem--or in India, you could put a turban on...I saw a truck full of soldiers drive by today and they were all wearing turbans...Thats not normal though. I didn't understand that since all soldiers I've seen other than them wore helmets...So maybe you can put a turban on a helmet or vice versa just to be safe...Carlin summed all this up as such, "At what point does all of this stuff just break down and become just a lot of stupid shit that somebody made up? They fucking made it up, folks! It's make-believe!"

But really, the national anthem just brings out the flag burner in me full throttle...However, in India, its a different story...Hell I'll stand up even though in America I usually take this opportunity to spit on the ground or at least make a conscious effort to think about all the humanitarian efforts made by this wonderful country such as:

1. 1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq of Iran. U.S. installs Shah as dictator.
2. 1954: U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala. 200,000 civilians killed.
3. 1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem.
4. 1963-1975: American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia.
5. September 11, 1973: U.S. stages coup in Chile. Democratically-elected President Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed. 5,000 Chileans murdered.
6. 1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed.
7. 1980s: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion.
8. 1981: Reagan administration trains and funds the Contras. 30,000 Nicaraguans die.
9. 1982: U.S. provides billions of dollars in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.
10. 1983: The White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis.
11. 1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as President of Panama) disobeys orders from Washington. U.S. invades Panama and removes Noriega. 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties.
12. 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from U.S.
13. 1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait.
14. 1998: Clinton bombs possible weapons factory in Sudan. Factory turns out to be making aspirin.
15. 1991 to present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions.
16. 2000-2001: U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in aid.
17. Sept. 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people.

(copied and pasted from Bowling for Columbine's wikipedia page)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imOU9SK_q0I

You ever watch Eisenhower's famous farewell address where he warns of the coming military industrial complex? If not, look that one up as well. America, a country that supports itself by murdering brown people in the name of geopolitical power. Sure, I'll support that as long as I can still get my big macs and 2 mile/gallon SUVs with a surround system DVD player and chrome 22s--cause', like I fuckin' need that bro...sigh...

However, I don't hate America. I just hate all the bullshit, ignorance, and evil attached to it. That includes nationalism, capitalism, manifest destiny imperialism, and a lot more shit that I don't feel like listing out.

In short, the political violence and socioeconomics of America really disgust me. Disgust is a good word to describe the feeling when I read the news but its not really enough...I get this like repulsive, burning feeling inside my chest like maggots are hatching from puss filled pours in my lungs when I see the nationalistic fervor of America. I had a teacher in 8th grade wear an American flag tie the day after Bush declared war on Iraq in 2003...He told us this was the reason when asked...

Dropping bombs on people? You honestly support that? Can you imagine what that must be like to have your home fucking shelled by military aircraft? What kind of sick fucked up world do we live in where that sort of behavior is encouraged let alone acceptable? Like really think about that...If you punch someone in the face on the street you get charge with assault and can face jail time. But George Bush orders the bombing of an entire country, resulting in the death of 100,000 innocent civilians and hey man lets give this guy a fucking standing ovation...Well, as Joseph Stalin said, one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic....

Also, just for the record, using violence to end violence doesn't make any sense and it isn't logically possible. What's that one quote, "bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity"...

I feel conflicted in all this, however. I'm not out there doing anything and making a difference. I'm a student traveling half for hedonism and the other for "learning". I feel like I'm just taking a vacation at times and the perpetual denial of endless hordes of beggars doesn't exactly bring me to a greater state of purity...

So, in short, I just wish for people to think for themselves in order to sift out the bullshit, bringing about a world that doesn't function on violent and selfish impulses like it has been up until this point.

I'm going on a tour of the infamous Mumbai slums tomorrow so that should be uplifting after thinking about all this.

The world is my expense
The cost of my desire
Jesus blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
So raise your fists
And march around
Just don't take what you need
I'll jail and bury those committed
And smother the rest in greed
Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or I'll drag you to your grave
I'm deep inside your children
They'll betray you in my name

Hey, hey
Sleep now in the fire

Hey, hey
Sleep now in the fire

The lie is my expense
The scope of my desire
The party blessed me with its future
And I protect it with fire
I am the Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist
The fields overseer
The agent of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
Sleep now in the fire

Hey, hey
Sleep now in the fire

Hey, hey
Sleep now in the fire

For it's the end of history
It's caged and frozen still
There is no other pill to take
So swallow the one
That made you ill
The Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria
The noose and the rapist
The fields overseer
The agent of orange
The priests of Hiroshima
The cost of my desire
To Sleep now in the fire

-sleep now in the fire/RATM