Mumbai 2

Two more funny stories from India – now that I'm leaving today – I'm able to see a little more humor in some of these situations.

The first night, when I was unpacking the 7 PC's I'd picked up in France to bring with me to India, I pulled one of the towers out of the box to find that a piece of tape had left a sticky mess on the side of it. Knowing how concerned the client was about the appearance of these machines, I quickly got to work on getting it off. I wasn't sure how bad it was, so I first asked for some warm water and a rag. The hotel guys and my contact here (ready to be so "helpful") immediately jumped on the tower and started rubbing it with napkins. That just made it worse because the stickyness then just became white and stood out more. I said "Stop!" No – please – we need some warm water and a towel. If you have some rubbing alcohol, that would be even better." Someone came back with some kind of spray can and started to spray on the tower. "Stop!" I said. No. Please get what I asked for. Warm water, a rag, and rubbing alcohol if you have it." They finally came back with some warm water and a rag and some soap, which at this point didn't work. Realizing that the rubbing alcohol was perhaps too strange of a request in India – I realized that any kind of alcohol would probably do the trick. So I said – "How about some liquor – can someone please bring some liquour?" Repeat the first three steps of bringing different things that I didn't ask for – the spot has gotten MUCH worse and I've completely lost my patience. "STOP!!" I said. "NOW PLEASE! SOMEONE GO GET ME SOME LIQUOR!" Thinking about this scenario out of context this morning made me chuckle. It's also pretty indicative of how frustrating it's been to be a woman asking men to do things this week. There's been a an attitude of "I know a better way" – that has made getting anything done very difficult – as I alluded to in my other email. Just thought I'd share something that ended up being funny now that I think about it after the fact.

They finally brought some whiskey, by the way, and it worked like a charm J


The other funny story is just funny if you know me. The second night I was here I laid in bed the entire night – unable to get any sleep because of the jet lag. I was so sleepy the next day that I requested several diet cokes from the hotel waitstaff. Diet coke is another odd request here in India – I haven't been able to find it anywhere in any restaurants and when I was here before in Bangalore, they didn't have it there either. So was pretty happy the several times that these guys turned up with it during the day.

Well later on that night – once we were finishing up for the day – something else happened that made me upset and basically representing my contact not doing what I asked. I was super mad when I was packing up my things to go to my room – told my contact how upset I was with him and stormed out. The funny part comes when I'm waiting for the elevator and one of the hotel waitstaff – wanting to be helpful – came up to me as I was waiting. It was obvious that I was upset, and he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, "diet coke, ma'am?"

Anyway - those two things just made me laugh - so I thought I'd share. I miss you guys and can't wait to see you soon