People

It is the afternoon of my second full day here in Mumbai and I have already met a range of interesting characters. A few of which I told you about in the last post; some from my hotel, a properly happy smiling bunch all; and then there was today - another cab driver and then a city guide.

Although I am not going to be making any roaming calls here, I have felt secure in the ability to stay in touch through text messaging - although trying to keep them at a minimum. When I was packing I purposely overlooked my compact phone charger because I was certain it wouldn't be able to work here. Wrong. Today I purposed to get a charger in order to get that secure feeling back (it faded with my phone's power late last evening). During what had become my customary daily stroll around the GPO, through the food vendors and myriad street hawkers, I came across a cab whose driver was, for once, not all that interested in giving me a ride. So I asked him if the cab was his (he was standing beside it in a crowd) and he said yes and opened the door. I told him I needed coffee and a phone charger, of which the phone charger became the unstated goal.

For the next 30 minutes he took me to several places, parked, walked me in and together we asked for the holy grail. The trail eventually led to a small storefront (that descriptor really does nothing to narrow the field) in which computers seemed to be their forte. My driver asked for a charger and, finally, we got an answer in the affirmative. 175 rupees (about $4.50) and I have an Indian phone charger. Woohoo.

The sockets in my room all went out about 10 minutes into the charge. Sigh. Okay so they were going to 'send up the boy' when I took off for the Internet cafe (here) so maybe it's all better now.

After the driver had completed his mission, he dropped me (by request) at one of the popular tourist spots here in the city, 'The Gateway to India' a stone structure built by the British on the edge of the water which sees thousands of tourists everyday. That's when I met Raj. But you will have to wait until next time for his story...