Maximum City

Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram is probably my favorite book of all time, and had no small part in my decision to visit Bombay.

The book is literally 900+ pages and is jammed with his very full life in Bombay. And now I understand why, as i could sit here for hours describing my last 3 days here and not do it justice. Bombay is The Maximum City, everything at extremes, everything in your face, in all it's beauty and depraved ugliness.

So quite fitting that the highlight and the darkness were one in the same. I visited sacred ground, a Hindi temple where they burn the bodies of the dead. It was adjacent to the train that was terrorist bombed last year, killing 400+ and many of the ashes remained on site. I actually saw the ghats still burning from the previous night, as well as the graves of baby ashes, literally dozens of little baby graves, and even a little baby skull.

It was heartbreaking and I was overwhelmed, such that my guide and the keeper took me for almost all the coin I had in my pocket, which was not that much, but about 3x more than i expected. They totally rolled me. "Welcome to Bombay!"

Yeah, living in Cali has made me so soft, and I definitely have a giant M painted on my forehead for Mark. I love it though, three minutes on the street and I had a giant bongo drum. I'm actually very excited to Bongo.

Besides walking around as the human ATM, I spent the majority of my time in what may be the greatest bar ever -Leopold's (also made famous by Shantaram). It was there last night, that I appeared on this supposedly huge TV show in Asia -Mondo Magic. Check your local AsiaTV listings. I think they may have me falling out of my chair.

Also, I have a very good friend there, Mahesh, who served me 3 nights in a row, and looked out for me like a brother. I met a Brit, 2 Aussies, a Philly girl, the manager for French Laundry, the crew of Mondo Magic, as well as the usual criminal element. Also, Mahesh is delivering a message for me to Mr. Roberts. Please ask for Mr. Mahesh if you go, he is class A.

getting on a flight to Goa. Shanti baba.

obattihey,
yt