What a morning.

Life in Mumbai has taught me some lessons in humility. Just as you think you can do it, something new comes your way.

We normally take a rikshaw to the train station and from there on use public transportation. So, this morning we went down to our usual busy intersection and were met with an unusual sight: no rikshaws! I jokingly said that maybe they were on strike. We saw about 4 with customers in it and several with none who didn’t even pull over to tell us no, instead just kept driving by. Kind of odd, but we figured that we maybe were just there at a different time than usual and they would be here any moment. So, we waited.

As time went on, we started looking for a cab, but with same results. We then started asking people which bus goes to the train station, but we kept getting inconsistent information, so we quickly abandoned that idea. Besides, people were literally hanging from the sides of the busses, not something we felt we needed to attempt. Finally, after an hour in the sweltering heat, someone who was also waiting for a rikshaw was told that the rikshaws and cabs were indeed striking!

We went back to the apartment and sent our workplace an email, looked on Google map for directions to the train station and decided to try to walk. We knew it would be quite a walk, especially in the incredible heat that had returned since yesterday, but we had to try to get to the producer today. So, we walked and everything went well until we had to ask for directions. I have so far not found one street in Mumbai with a street sign, so we needed to know where we were at. We chose a large furniture showroom and asked the person there. He spoke English and was very clear in his directions, but we ended up in a neighborhood we really did not need to be in and we bee-lined as quickly and discretely (that nearly funny to write) out of there. All we could think of was to get to an area we felt better about and after taking some unusual walkways and jumping over a deep sewer trench, we ended up close to a mall. We had by now walked over 1.5 hour and really needed to contact our workplace, so we went to the mall in the hope there was a pay phone. After a little of the usual confusion (the phone is there, no there, no down stairs, no here) we made a call to work just to find out they hadn’t made it in either. Then the rain started pouring down. At this point, we were pretty beat and had no idea how to get to the producer. Going to the office instead was not an option either, so we walked all the way back to the apartment.

We decided to use the afternoon to make sure we knew how to get around tomorrow, but it sounds like the rikshaws should be back tomorrow. We were also warned not to even attempt to venture out on busses and trains today because they would be packed. Unlike the other times? Can't even imagine.