The 757 touched down at 9.45 Thursday eve. It took 1.5 hours to get bags from the sardine full plane, including the one I put on in West Palm Beach and had doubts about ever seeing again. Good job United!
The next morning I shrugged off the jet lag ,made a stand up appearance before the 15 interns, researchers, fellows and directors at Gateway House, and wound up Friday night drinking way too much wine with old European friend Nicolas Krul, his Bombay wife Meher, Gateway founder Manjeet Kripalani and friends at a golf club in the heart of Bombay. ,
The next day we checked out the apartment Erin and I will have near the office and drew up a long list of fixes–then got mugged in the afternoon and went to dinner with another large group–this time at the Bombay Cricket Club. On Sunday I took a chill.
The mugging near the Taj Hotel was supposed to be rare to “unheard of” But what better mark–anAmerican in a sea blue fishing shirt crossing the street with a shopping bag in one hand and an IPhone in the other ready to take a picture. Four teens surrounded us begging, suddenly two grabbed my knees and as I pushed forward to break their grip a third heisted the wallet from my back pocket while the fourth pushed Manjeet to the street as she yelled “thief” in Hindi and grabbed the wallet as thestartled kid fumbled it. She she said she was ok. Then she stood with blood flowing from lacerated knees.
Bottom line. Wallet was recovered. Left knee 6 stitches. I now carry the wallet in the front pocket, Times Square style, and nobody lets begging kids get near them. The police guessed the setup was for clueless foreign types like me and that hearing someone shout thief in Hindi scared them.
The rest of the weekend was uneventful except that Newt won and the Giants won. Even so, the run of U.S. news already looks familiar and uninteresting. Stocks up. Stocks down. Celebs screwing around. More inaccurate political comment than any nation can absorb.
India like China are about the raw big picture–India 4 times the size of the U.S. with bad guys from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Nepal on the borders. Our think tank is about them and other foreign affairs. Street crime, a squiggle, only serves as a useful reminder that you’re not on the Florida beaches or charming Bell Island anymore.
Lots more later….
