PART ONE **FEATURING: KLM Ticket Agent and the Banana Wala**

I’m spending the next six or so weeks here in Mumbai with my lovely aunt Mangala interning with her company, Unilever India, in the packaging department for laundry.

Before I get to India itself, let me recount my experiences in limbo, otherwise known as Holland.
So, Morgan and Mike come to pick me up at my house the morning of my departure. Before I leave, Morgan reminds me to take a deep breath and make sure I have everything. So I do. And I do. I make my way to the airport and check my bags all the way through to Mumbai. The flight from Chicago to Amsterdam is tough for me, as I've been coming down with something and it finally hits me at full force. But, I get myself to the Schipol airport, where a doctor in First Aid tells me I have no fever. In the waiting lounge, I pull out my papers to make sure I have everything for the coming flight. Lo and behold! I have an expired Italian visa, but no Indian visa. (The back story is that I have two passports, one of which is expired but contains my valid Indian visa. At the door in Saint Louis, I had pulled out both passports and decided that the old one only contained my Italian visa, so really it was unnecessary to bring it along. I had left it in the drawer and taken my deep breath, oblivious to the blunder that would later test the fiber of my will.)

Okay, so I call my mom. Who calls my aunt. Who says there is no way they will let me into the country. Apparently all that matters is the physical document. (No e-record of the number?!) I say to my mom, “I am so sick…” and she says, “You can’t be sick. You have to act.” Okay, jeez, fine. So I go to the transfer desk. Where (as my nonexistent fever breaks) a really kind, efficient KLM rep and his trainee gave me the address of the Indian embassy, which is not in Amsterdam, but in the Hague. Okay. So I call the phone number. Automated message in Dutch tells me the phone number has changed. So I call the other number. Etc. Etc. Finally, I figure out that they will only be open from 3pm to 5pm (right now it’s something like 10am in Holland, and my plane is getting ready to take off) to issue visas. Okay. So I eat, buy a train ticket, get to The Hague, buy a tram ticket, figure out where to get off, and finally find the embassy. At last, some hope. They are super nice, and some admin guy comes down to talk to me. We will call him Rahul ji. He hears me out and then makes me promise to buy a jacket and keep my passport in my pocket, and offers to have his son show me around The Hague. (It turns out his wife was suspicious of ‘some strange foreign girl’ and refused. Alas.) After a few hours of this and that, they tell me that they’ll try to expedite my application but that it could take up to three days.

The hotel they send me to turns out to be booked solid, but the concierge finds me a hostel on the other side of the city. Almost in tears (having not slept in about 30 hours, being sick, and having already walked several miles that day) I hop back on the tram and check into the hostel. I head back into the center to buy some underwear, an umbrella, and a coat, and then call my mum (for the thousandth time) and the airline and go to bed. The next day, I pick up my visa for the embassy and wait two hours to thank Rahul ji. Who hugs and kisses me like I'm his own daughter and gives me his phone number as well as that of his daughter in Dehli.

Then I head back to Schipol and find out that there is no way I can leave Amsterdam that day. Apparently there are no associated flights leaving and if I go on another airline, I will lose the rest of my ticket (my trip back home). So I spend the next few hours figuring out where I am going to stay. On a whim, I get in touch with Caleb, whose mom’s friend of old is in Amsterdam. I finally reach her, and she is more than welcoming. I buy a map and some tram tickets and I'm off. Roam around for a bit, then I call her to meet her. Somehow I figure out how to get there (thanks to my trusty bus skills from living in Florence) and find her. Spend a few hours hanging around by myself, then go to her home where she sets up a very comfy bed on the floor and tells me how to get to the airport from her house.

Wake up the next morning and quietly let myself out. At the airport, I meet the trainee fellow from earlier who asks, “You’re still here?” I guess his boss had inquired about me, curious to know what came of the mess. All I have to give is a juice box (apple), so I ask him to leave it for the guy as a thank you gift. The KLM ticket people tell me I am on stand-by because the flight is overbooked. I’m thinking, no way. I WILL reach India TODAY. They also have to locate my suitcase, which has been floating around the Schipol baggage system for two days. I take my boarding pass (with the big S for stand-by scrawled on it) and go to my gate. Thank heavens…they give me a seat. I am seated in the same row as another Indian-American college student who got on the plane from stand-by; it turns out she’s also interning in Mumbai this summer, and we actually went out together this past weekend. Go figure.

What I learned:

1. Screw up in a country where everyone speaks perfect English.
2. The cosmos takes care of everything.

++++

I spent my first few days in India relaxing, going round, buying a few essentials, and just generally spending time with my family (my mom also has a brother in Mumbai). Oh, yes, and eating LOTS of mangoes. I have to take advantage while I’m here. I’ve been rudely reminded that my Hindi sucks. But I use what I know as much as possible, so I’m learning. I’m really good at saying “I can speak very little Hindi” and “I don’t speak Hindi,” which is probably quite misleading. In fact, that tends to happen to me in every language. I get really good at small talk..only to have to cut every conversation short after we’ve learned each other’s names and talked about the weather. I have found, though, that if you say an English word with an Indian accent or spell it out using Hindi script, it counts as Hindi. Which means my Hindi vocabulary is enormous…the plus side of a world long-dominated by the British Empire. Actually, though, plenty of people don't know I'm American. Anyway, I seem to be doing just fine...the banana wala outside the house refused to take any money from me the first time I went to buy bananas. So I came back in and sent the watchman out to give him the money.

So, the internship…The office is kind of a temporary set-up while Unilever puts up a new building. It’s not far from home, and there are the most adorablest puppies that live in the complex. It’s sad, they don’t get much to eat. And the littlest one has scratches on its head.. but I gave them a few biscuits on my way out the other day. Ever since then they run to me when they see me and I just want to pick them up and hug them..but I don’t touch them (no worries, Ma). I “started” “work” on Monday. (I spent the majority of the day reading at my desk and wandering around. I’m reading Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, which is quite lovely.) I’ll be working on revising the visuals for a brand before it gets launched nationally (have I said too much? I’ve vowed confidentiality..), which is a really cool project, but I have had a lot of down time this week as there’s a lot of inertia to overcome.. And also they haven’t given me internet, so I can’t even pass the time that way. Last week I had two meetings which involved briefing me about the brand and whatnot… Actually, I’m really excited at the prospect of being able to travel. For me to get a better idea of the market, they’re going to send me to the states where this brand is sold so I can see the shops and visit consumer homes, etc. Basically, people are really nice here. They just weren’t actually prepared to get me working right off the bat. However, this week, I’ve finally started generating some work on my project. Also, there’s this strange smell in my corner of the office sometimes. It seems like it’s coming from a cupboard. I don’t know.

Okay. Well that was something like two posts in one. Next time I will tell you about my friends. As soon as I make them.