Which is exactly what happened today.
I was walking home from St. Xavier's College when a man with a very good English accent appeared out of no where and apologized for disturbing me. He explained that he was working for a bollywood production filming outside of Victoria Terminus this week and they needed more white people (basically. He said something far more agreeable than, we need white people, but I cant remember exactly how he phrased it) to be extras in the film. I probably looked at him with a skeptical look that said something along the lines of, dude I SO DONT TRUST YOU, because he then explained that they would give me breakfast, the hours, how I could get there, could I bring some of my other white friends... etc. Then he gave me his phone number and promised to leave a card for me with information for everything in the place that he was guessing I am staying (I didnt tell him where I was staying, but he assumed I was walking home and was actually right...). If a card appears tomorrow or the next day, looks like I might end up in the background of a movie! Cool! The conversation actually went on for about 15 minutes, which is when another student appeared and I barked, DO.NOT.LEAVE. at him (I was getting a little worried that this was an elaborate plot to steal my cell phone or something, because I am naturally paranoid like that. Clearly a good Northeasterner no, huh.)
I spent the afternoon reading about India's growth slow down. They blame Greece (kind of like everyone else at this point...), but they also look at the political elite and their decisions, including the hand offs between families for seats of power, as another part of the slowdown. It's kinda crazy to sit there are read about the economic issues this country is facing because all you hear in the US is INDIA! CHINA! BRAZIL! RUSSIA! CRAZY NOT STOP GROWTH ALL THE TIME COMING TO CRUSH YOU TAKE YOUR JOBS INDUSTRY MONEY AND THEN SOME SO WATCH THEM GO!
And then I was sitting here in a cafe and thinking about the way that the city deals with its soaring real estate prices and the informal settlements everywhere including around the airport. The falling growth rates. The magazine article in India Today complaining about a growth rate that had fallen under 6%. How my cup of coffee cost me slightly less than it would have in the US but was still WAY WAY overpriced by Indian standards.
And here folks is another episode of MIND GAME LIMBO!
I'm going through a crisis of measurement, I've come to realize. It's like that moment when you are shopping from street vendors, and you pat yourself on the back for a bargaining job well done (after cutting the price down to a third of the initial offer), but the cheshire cat smile of the street vendor once you've completed your purchase let's you know that you still suck at this. Or at least, I still suck at this. And over paid for something... that is still unimaginably cheap compared to US prices with the price I got for it.
Media. You inform me of so many things that are not accurate or entirely true.
Well, another day, another street I managed to cross without being hit by a car :)
I was walking home from St. Xavier's College when a man with a very good English accent appeared out of no where and apologized for disturbing me. He explained that he was working for a bollywood production filming outside of Victoria Terminus this week and they needed more white people (basically. He said something far more agreeable than, we need white people, but I cant remember exactly how he phrased it) to be extras in the film. I probably looked at him with a skeptical look that said something along the lines of, dude I SO DONT TRUST YOU, because he then explained that they would give me breakfast, the hours, how I could get there, could I bring some of my other white friends... etc. Then he gave me his phone number and promised to leave a card for me with information for everything in the place that he was guessing I am staying (I didnt tell him where I was staying, but he assumed I was walking home and was actually right...). If a card appears tomorrow or the next day, looks like I might end up in the background of a movie! Cool! The conversation actually went on for about 15 minutes, which is when another student appeared and I barked, DO.NOT.LEAVE. at him (I was getting a little worried that this was an elaborate plot to steal my cell phone or something, because I am naturally paranoid like that. Clearly a good Northeasterner no, huh.)
I spent the afternoon reading about India's growth slow down. They blame Greece (kind of like everyone else at this point...), but they also look at the political elite and their decisions, including the hand offs between families for seats of power, as another part of the slowdown. It's kinda crazy to sit there are read about the economic issues this country is facing because all you hear in the US is INDIA! CHINA! BRAZIL! RUSSIA! CRAZY NOT STOP GROWTH ALL THE TIME COMING TO CRUSH YOU TAKE YOUR JOBS INDUSTRY MONEY AND THEN SOME SO WATCH THEM GO!
And then I was sitting here in a cafe and thinking about the way that the city deals with its soaring real estate prices and the informal settlements everywhere including around the airport. The falling growth rates. The magazine article in India Today complaining about a growth rate that had fallen under 6%. How my cup of coffee cost me slightly less than it would have in the US but was still WAY WAY overpriced by Indian standards.
And here folks is another episode of MIND GAME LIMBO!
I'm going through a crisis of measurement, I've come to realize. It's like that moment when you are shopping from street vendors, and you pat yourself on the back for a bargaining job well done (after cutting the price down to a third of the initial offer), but the cheshire cat smile of the street vendor once you've completed your purchase let's you know that you still suck at this. Or at least, I still suck at this. And over paid for something... that is still unimaginably cheap compared to US prices with the price I got for it.
Media. You inform me of so many things that are not accurate or entirely true.
Well, another day, another street I managed to cross without being hit by a car :)
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