I'd had an epic welcoming to Mumbai Friday night with a thorough sightseeing at the city's bars and clubs with good friends as guides and were pretty zonked. Therefore, Laila had taken off hours earlier and when I finally got up and out, I had a couple of hours of strolling by myself in the area Colaba with several food and coffee pitstops.
I had lunch at Leopold's - a famous restaurant, not least due to it's central part in the best-seller Shantaram. Very recommendable novel by the way, not due to it's literary qualities that are few, but because of the incredible (true) story.
Due to the fame, Leopold's is an extremely busy place, so if you get there as a single visitor, you're asked whether you mind sharing the table with other singles (not necessarily for match making). I didn't and where shown to the spot opposite of Laurence from Durban in South Africa. Laurence owns a take away hub at home, which his wife is looking after while he's on holiday. Laurence were in Bombay (yup the name shifts all the time just as for the locals - officially renamed Mumbai in 1996, but Bombay is still alive) for a week, stayed at a hotel around the corner, had eaten all his meals so far in the same restaurant, found Bombay extremely hectic and hence, didn't really move much around. He'd ordered chili chicken, because he'd seen someone else getting it, when he entered the restaurant and thought it looked delicious (it is, but also pretty much the most spicy you'll get in India). He has 2 kids and to grandkids and therefore believed it was safe for me to talk to him. I thought so too - grand kids or not. We had a nice conversation for an hour and I got a picture.
I weren't really ready for activities, so fairly shortly after Leopold's, I moved on to Starbucks. Again, I only took up one of the two chairs at a table, so when Rana (of course I didn't know his name at that point) asked if he could use the other chair, of course it was yes.
I were busy writing a blog post, so it wasn't till I'd finished the coffee, we started talking. He had the coolest camera and since my old, but big SLR was lying on the table, it didn't take long to find our common interest. It turned out he was a photo journalist at Times of India and has made some interesting features about pollution scandals in India. I had to go as I were meeting Laila, but I got his email address and a promise of him sending me the articles.
And now, Im in the airport in Mumbai on my way back up to the mountains for a few days - and hence no web access. This will be a week of many farewells and see yous - Im not particular good at that...
Location:Empty tables, Colaba, Mumbai
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