Today, all of a sudden, while walking home from dinner, I was enveloped by a longingness for my life in Kunming. There’s a lot to be said for living in a city as beautiful as that, and Bombay, with its noise, dust and crowds, leaves me feeling glum and nostalgic.
今天我很想昆明. 有时候我觉得孟买的生活我受不了.
小心溺水 — xiaoxin nishui — means to be careful from or against drowning, but these sign makers couldn’t be too bothered by the nuances of english. I think this sign is hilarious!
You bet I will!
Some links to the story:
Mint (a WSJ newspaper): http://www.livemint.com/2007/04/18005730/Online-ad-company-Komli-Inc-re.html
AlooTechie: http://www.alootechie.com/News/2291.asp
ContentSutra: http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-ad-network-komli-raises-funding-from-draper-fischer-jurvetson-helion-ve/
Komli: http://www.komli.com/news/
Bombay (Mumbai) means a lot of different things to different people in India. For some, it’s the glamour capital of India, for others, the business capital, and for some others still, the slum capital of India.
None of these three choices encapsulates what Bombay means to me. So how do I view Bombay? Take a look at this bill and then I’ll tell you –
This is a bill from a bar I went to some time ago. I didn’t look at it too closely then, but a couple of days back, when emptying out my wallet, it really, I mean really, caught my eye.
This bar, Spice Tree, is located in Fernandez Villa, a name that hints at Bombay’s Portugese heritage, and on Hill Rd, a name as English as their can be. Hill Rd is in Bandra, a northern suburb of Bombay with strong Catholic roots. Bombay has now been renamed Mumbai, in respect of Mumba Devi, the godess that the original Koli fisherfolk inhabiting the area now called Bombay, used to worship.
Does that make your head spin? Hold on, we’re not done yet. The cashier is Bhola Nath, a name very typical of rural Hindu India (the name literally means ‘honest man’), while the waiter is Melwyn Pinto. Pinto is as Portugese a name as you can get, anywhere in the world.
So what is Bombay to me? It is India’s most multi-cultural city, a true melting pot of people from all corners of India. Coming from Delhi, it hits me very often that the people I get to meet in Bombay are from just about every part of India. In Delhi or anywhere else, that’s not so.
Not now of course. I’ve read somewhere that back in the days of the British concession in Shanghai, the Brits shipped a bunch of Indian Sikhs to police the roads of Shanghai.
我以前听过英国控制上海的时候, 英国政府带一些印度sike教的人到上海当警察.
Today, I found a picture:
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