Hustle & Bustle
After the shock of landing in Mumbai only a few hours earlier, the alarm clock woke me up at 7 am. I had a shower while going over what I had seen so far. It was hard to believe that when I had reached the hotel at about 2am there had still been hundreds of people on the street walking, chatting, and eating.
A real air conditioned taxi (not one of those in which the level of air you get is “conditioned” to the speed the taxi is driven), took (2) me to the office which, despite only being 4km from the hotel, took 45 minutes to reach. There were now three times more people on the RICARD ROVIRA MUMBAI INDIA street than yesterday. There were more cars, more bikes, more people walking, animals (cows and dogs) and there were even some small markets on the side of the road. We drove past a train station and it is difficult to describe the amount of people that got (3) off the train when it arrived. It was incredible to see just how many people fit into each of the carriages.
When I got to the office, my new colleagues welcomed me in perfect English and offered to take me on a tour of the office. Two hours later we had lunch in the canteen. I only had a small sandwich as most of the dishes were too spicy for my stomach at that time of day. After lunch we went to another building to take part in a workshop. On the way to the other office, I was once again faced with more of the contrasts of India: my Indian colleague, dressed in a suit and carrying her laptop, walked past a naked child that was having a bath in a big bucket. At the same time, on the other side of the street there was a man pushing an old cart full of vegetables while a Mercedes tried to push its way through the crowd.
The day reached its end and as I got into bed I went over my first day of work in India. My first feelings were really positive: the work culture felt very different but amazing at the same time. I was eager to find out more about the contrasts of this amazing country.