Rain rain go away, flood my street another day...

Exams finished yesterday afternoon! Yay! We had our last final, Finance, at Noon and I walked out of Room 504 at 1 pm, not to re-enter until next Monday. Of course, there wasn't much of a break because on my way out I was handed the packet of sylabi (or Teaching, Learning Plan (TLP) as they call them here) and two textbooks with the promise of two more to come. 10 textbooks in one semester is pretty impressive.

I spent the afternoon napping and lounging until yesterday evening when we treked over to the Sheraton for dinner with TL Hill (a professor from Temple). It decided to POUR rain the moment we walked out of the hostel, so luckily we were close enough I was able to run in and put on my trusty rainboots. I had been bold enough to attempt to go out in a nice pair of flats so they wouldn't detract from my outfit... but silly me, of course it would rain. We had a hard time finding a taxi to take us to the Sheraton because of a combination of the rain and the anticipated heavy traffic because of the final days of the Ganesh festival. In fact near the Sheraton is the biggest and most popular Ganesh of all Mumbai, you can stand in line for up to 5 hours just to get a glimpse... needless to say, I will not be waiting in that line.

Traffic was surprisingly light, and our taxi driver (the fifth was the charm and finally agreed to take us) was impressively fast, so we of course arrived early. We decided to explore the Shertaon a little and went up to the 30th Floor to a bar called Point of View. There were a lot of signs saying the lounge was only for Tower Residents or Hotel Guests... but of course we were ushered inside and given a tour of the rooftop terrace that offered a spectacular view of Mumbai at night. Being up there you really got an idea of how incredibly expansive the city is! You can't even imagine... I've never seen a larger city in my life, but I suppose it has to be big to fit its population of 18 million. One of the hotel managers then took us back down to the lobby in the elevator and chatted us up about our experience at the hotel, and we mentioned we had been to brunch the previous weekend, and he hoped we would return. After we met the rest of the group downstairs, he pulled us aside to tell us a "secret" that all the bars would have cover charges tonight because of the important cricket match (think World Series of Baseball, World Cup of Soccer, or SuperBowl of Football), but after the match was over, there would be no cover. So, um thanks for the tip?

We returned to dinner to the same place we had brunch the previous weekend and had a great experience once again, although I didn't like the selection of food as much. I did, however, get some steamed vegetables which had been just what I've been craving since August 1. The restaurant was noisy though, because the India v. Pakistan (for the world championship) cricket match was on. The energy was contagious, and I finally started to understand some of the rules of cricket, thanks to explanation by Bhuvan. But it was incredible how the world stopped to watch the cricket match, on the streets, people were lined up along the windows of stores or restaurants that were playing the match, and the whole restaurant erupted in screams of delight (or despair) during the game. Pretty amazing to be a part of. After dinner, I headed back to the hostel for a relatively early night to bed. And I slept and slept and slept. In fact, I didn't actually acquies to getting out of bed until about 2 this afternoon. I'm sure I will pay for it tonight, but I do not plan on sleeping before catching my flight to Goa. We have to leave the hostel at 2 am for a 5 am flight because we've been told traffic will be horrendous.

So today is the last hoorah for the Ganesh festival. You have to "register" for a time to parade your Ganesh down the street to submerge it in the water. The rough order though is from smallest to biggest... so the Ganesh featured by the Sheraton will leave for the water first, but arrive there last... taking an almost 8 hour tour around Mumbai. I learned yesterday that some Ganeshes are insured for almost 2 million dollars! In fact, the one by King Circle (which I have a few pictures of in my PicasaAlbum) is insured for the most money (70 million rupees... $1.75m) because of its gold hands and trunk. Yesterday a wealthy man in Mumbai donated a necklace to one of the Ganeshes, and the necklace was worth an estimated $40,000. Those Ganeshes sure are decked out. Apparently though, like many holidays in the US, this has become very commercialized, but ironically became commercialized during the British rule. Since the brits couldn' very well cancel a religious holiday the Ganesh festival was allowed to go on, and the Indians used it as an opporunity to meet en masse and plan for dissention.

I am pulling my rainboots back on and heading to Shipavi Park in Dadar momentarily to see if I can't see some Ganeshes being sent off into the Sea. I will be sure to report back later this evening with pictures and tales of my adventure out into the mass of 200,000+ crowd (we know my feelings on crowds). Will report back soon!