Slowing down

When traveling with my parents we took a package tour that woke us up every morning at 6:30am grabbed our luggage, checked out of hotels, boarded a van with our guide, spent two hours at a famous location and then drove to another city. As a result I have now seen the highlights of India. Now that I am staying with my friend, time has considerably slown down. We get late lunches at 3pm, dinner at 10pm. We sit around in rooms talking to each other for hours and enjoy light delicious home cooked meals. We stroll through gardens and take a look at knots in the trees and the intricate carvings of crumbling tombs. 

My friend Shivani from graduate school is an extremely smart and sociable person. When we met at Chicago, she would be one of the regulars at my dinner parties and she in turn would drag me out to go dancing (quite willingly) Once arriving at her place, I meet up with another classmate from school--an Israeli student, Tal and her mother. Tal and I nod in understanding now as we visit Shivani's home that is covered in artwork and some of the most interesting collection of books. We meet Shivani's mother, a half west indian/canadian who is an artist, writer, musician and Phd linguist in french, spanish, english and hindi. We meet her father who is a professor of biomedical physics at India Institute of Technology (India's MIT) and a public policy wonk who is currently working on changing the lanes in India to block off certain lanes for busses and emergency vehicles to improve traffic safety. I am introduced to her uncle who is head of the federal reserve bank in India, the entire family is extremely high powered, very well educated and very interesting. We are taken to lunch at the ICI center where government officials, diplomats and key intellectuals meet up--apparantly Shivani has spent her entire childhood going to lectures and listening in on her parents conversations at ICI. 

No wonder she's so smart. 

Upon hearing more about life in Delhi vs Mumbai it becomes clear to me that Delhi truly is Washington DC versus Mumbai being Manhattan. As we prepare for school to start up again Shivani had some trouble at the bank, unable to transfer her funds. After five or six different queues, locations, 3 hours and one explosion later; she ends up calling her uncle who calls the deputy of the reserve bank who calls the head of all the branches to settle the matter. This morning a head of her branch showed up personally to bring and collect her paperwork to her house. Delhi is about family connections-of which Shivani is incredibly lucky. Mumbai is where people go to make it big and it doesn't matter who you know or are. In those aspects I think back to NYC and what draws them there--different city same mentality. Apparantly thousands descend upon Mumbai with dreams of making it big and even if its not official-to many Indians when you hear that you are goin to Mumbai expectations rise-this person might be the next great thing. 

I think my background is now somwhere in between Shivani's life and that of the Mumbai strivers. WIth three sisters and three degrees myself I'm not entirely unconnected--but my family did not always the family connections to help us get ahead. I look at Shivani's parents and wonder how different the lives of my neice and nephew will be in coming years.