Some things you can't put in words...

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40.3°C

No, it's not the weather here in Mumbai, although we had up to 39°C last week. Yesterday in the afternoon I got very high fever, in plus I again had some diarrhoea. I'm on antibiotics now to fight the bacteria! Sadly another weekend has gone without exploring the city...

IPL - Vol II

Today the second edition of the Indian Premier League will start with the opener between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings! Newspapers are full of specials and India will go crazy over the next month cheering to the eight teams.
Unfortunately, for security reasons all games will be played in South Africa.

Mumbai local trains

Yesterday I came back from work by train. Happily I had a colleague with me. We were for the 9.14pm train from Churchgate Station. As the train was approaching the platform, people started jumping into the train. We could somehow manage to have a seat, it was quite a fight though. 30sec later the train was packed with people, and it was not even rush hour. To take a 7pm train you have to fight to enter the train, not for seats :-). Two stations before Goregoan we had to start moving our way towards the exits. As the train stops for a very short time only you have to get the 'Goregoan queue'. As soon as the train arrives at the platform, this queue gets pushed out of the train.

How much is Rs 18,76,84,768?

It's Rupees 18 crores 76 lakhs and 84'768.
1 crore = 10'000'000
1 lakh = 100'000
187'684'768

as-salamu alaikum

Several times a day I can hear the adhan from the two nearby mosques. The muezzins ask the muslims for their five daily praiers. In fact nearly 20% of the population of Mumbai are muslims. I was exploring the neighboring muslim area on my Sunday's walk. I didn't feel like beeing in India. Interesting...

Horn OK Please

It's on the back of EVERY truck here in Mumbai (and probably throughout India). It took me a few days to get what it stands for.

What do you think it stands for? Post your answers...

Cricket

While the national team plays New Zealand the locals in my neighborhood have their own game going.

My desk at the office

Handshake

Shaking hands is not very common in India. However, it seems to be a cool thing to do with the Swiss guy. The IT guy shakes your hand after he fixed your problems, one of my co-workers shakes hand after every conversation. Weired :-)

Rush hour

Commuting is the main issue in Bombay.
I had a 75min ride to the office in a non a/c taxi, I arrived completely drenched. If you leave before 8am, it takes only 35min. The problem is, at 8.30 you are the first one in the office, office hours start at 9.30am. We managed to get a driver with an a/c car driving us to and back from the office. In the evening rush hours are between 6.00pm and 8.00pm, it takes about 80min to get back to the apartment.

I will probably spend most of my spare time in the car :-)