Mumbai Continued: Parsi Food, Chai Tea & Bread and Butter. Art Galleries.

It's 5:30 AM. Eric was just telling me about his experience as a fellow Wall Street Journal journalist in the region when Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered. They had collaborated on stories and he had been staying in Daniel's guest house. I definitely have to read A Mighty Heart, Mariane Pearl's account of the tragedy.

This morning was not particularly productive as my friends here slept through most of it while I wandered his apartment in a daze, cursing Hypnos (god of sleep) for his sadistic decision to torment me so.

We ended up going for lunch at Britania, a great Parsi restaurant, and walking around Kala Ghoda, Mumbai's premier art district. We visited a few galleries and then went into Yazdani Bakery for chai tea and bread with butter. Eric and Zainab also took me through Watson's Hotel, which was built in England in the 1860's. It opened in Mumbai as an exclusive whites-only hotel, which eventually inspired the founding of the incredible TAJ group of hotels by Jamsetji Tata. Watson's was the swankiest hotel in Mumbai for much of the early 20th century but eventually lost favor and was finally sold in 1960. The hotel was closed and tiny offices were haphazardly built within. Eric describes it as a great example of how lease law in India can turn magnificent buildings into blights as landlords cannot evict tenants or raise rents and so have no incentive to conduct even minimal maintenance. The building is a shambles - and is largely occupied by lawyers (see pic from lobby), which attests to its utter failure to remain a productive and decent component of modern society.

Land use issues are a common and seemingly ubiquitous theme in urban India. Not only do landlords get stuck with tenants paying almost no rent, but squatters will move into almost any building that is not guarded 24/7. Because squatters are numerous and vote (as opposed to the wealthy who tend to vote much less), politicians make unrealistic promises to them to get elected. The result is a protected class of people who are keeping large portions of cities from being properly developed as politicians and squatters perpetuate a symbiotic, but ultimately very destructive, democratically entrenched downward spiral into decay and blight.

Following our walk in Kala Ghoda we returned to Eric's place for a desperately needed nap (I had slept 2 hours the night before and was exhausted). Eric woke me at 10:00 PM so that we might continue our intensive tour of Mumbai's nightlife. We ended up at Dome on the roof of the Intercontinental Hotel - modern hotel and a beautiful view from the roof. When that closed, we headed to Henry Tham's. And when that closed we headed home.

It is now 10:00 AM on Feb 24. I'll be seeing Karin today! Once again I slept from just before 6:00 AM until around 8:00 AM and was painfully unable to sleep anymore.

This afternoon I will be heading to Delhi on Kingfisher Airlines. My source tells me that Vijay Mallya, the Chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, is the Indian version of Richard Branson. Apparently he runs a very good airline.

This evening Karin and I will be able to answer the question posed in the very first post on this website. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to that mystery and to our upcoming Rajasthan adventure.